never-ending story

Before I tell you all about our visit to the 60untold exhibition at Goldsmiths University - the most important thing after reading this is that you go and witness it if you can, if you can't listen to the stories of the people in profile on the website.

The 60untold exhibition shares the memoirs of 60 black men and women who were the first generation of Caribbean children to experience the British education system on British shores. This event leapt out from twitter trails as I immediately thought of my Dad and his peers, who are part of that generation. I was raised on the stories of 1960's Shepherd's Bush and how my Dad found himself ripped from his home in Grenada to be submerged and survive in the 'mother country'. Often when hearing the anecdotes or reading novels set at this time we can become accustomed to the weary tales of brutal, daily racism in the education system and the workplace. But what we don't hear is what else happened next? When children and grandchildren have been raised, when careers have been chosen, when (most) struggles have passed this generation still have their stories to share.

Surrounded by monochrome images of sixty people who have positively contributed to our society in a plethora of ways, we walked the small basement of Professor Stuart Hall, Goldsmiths University reading names and discussing the range of employment amongst the names. Luckily for us, curator and teacher Beverley Campbell was on hand to embellish the photographs with some back in the day tales and also to share her views about education then and now. 

I fully believe that if you want to know where you are going you have to know where you come from, and this exhibition opens us the discussion about what came before the generations who were born here in the 1970s onward. It is very easy to gripe and theorize about our situation in society today but it's imperative that younger generations hear and learn from their predecessors. In my attempts to piece together my Grenadian family tree whilst researching for a novel I am constantly getting stuck, struggling to find the documentation or evidence that will reveal the paths my ancestors took. It would be a travesty if this trait continues - if future generations don't have the opportunity to understand where their families have been before them.

The exhibition elevated Dad's past tales to the fore which is always precious time and  I was pleasantly surprised to see names that were authors I had come across during  my Caribbean Studies course. I was eager to hear more from the people we had 'met' on canvas and since visiting I have listened to the documentary of some of the noted faces in the exhibition: women who were incredibly successful in the education sector; Tulse Hill Boys School alumni; and the creators of the TWJ soundsystem. Alongside this there are short soundscapes of each person who relive their journey through the education system and into their professions. I often get frustrated with students who have complained to me about how there is nothing for them to do; to achieve because school or society is against them - and whilst I will not renounce their anxieties I wish they would hear the tales I have heard from this project. I trust that it will give them perspective and drive on what has been accomplished before them in order to grasp the mantle of Black British achievement.

A poignant comment from Trevor Russell (of TWJ) regarding the question of legacy which for me, sums up the importance of this exhibition:

"A legacy has to be recorded and passed on... (it is) only beneficial to those who are coming up... (to) use it as a guidance"

Researching for the novel I'm writing set in the Caribbean I find I am struggling at times to find the historical references that I need because as Russell also noted, there is so little recorded out there. I am thankful to Beverley for this wonderful archive which will exist for our childrens' children's generation.

This post first appeared on post40bloggers.com : Education

R-E-S-P-E-C-T

Tweets at the start of Black History Month October call for people to write about their inspirational black figure. I always struggle with this question as firstly it's hard to pinpoint just one person but also what constitutes inspirational? As a youngster I probably would have picked Daley Thompson or John Barnes as sport was my thing, then at uni, whilst reading English, I guess I would have chosen Maya Angelou or Alice Walker. Contemplating who to write about today I really considered Michelle Obama because I love what's she doing for girls' education - she's really worked hard to raise the expectations of young girls and highlighted the importance of grassroots work. 

But now in my 40s the famous names seem to mean a bit less to me now and I tend to search for black British female figures; you see that's the thing with inspirational people - they are just there, in your life everyday without you realising it. It's as though you take them for granted. And that's when I decided on Malorie Blackman. Writer and Children's Laureate 2013-2015. When I first started teaching there was always a set of old books lurking in the store cupboard - amongst them was "Pig-heart boy" by Malorie Blackman: never on the curriculum list or the staff choice so I just ignored it. But a few years later I discovered The Noughts and Crosses stories : a set of books about a dystopian world where people are not black or white but the darker-skinned Noughts are more affluent and successful than the lighter Crosses. I was hooked. Not just on this set of five novels as I was now ploughing my way through her back catalogue. 

My discovery led to finding a collection of tween novels with boy and girl characters who are strong, clever, silly, naughty, forced to grow up quickly or learn from their mistakes. Then a set of stories about adventurous little girls called Betsey Bigelow and Girl Wonder, which are full of wonderful tales for the younger reader. Once I got to the young adult novel "Noble Conflict~ I was absolutely hooked.

What Malorie Blackman offers is this: novels and stories that are full of intrigue, conflict, threat, complex plots and compelling characters. But the added bonus for me is that her characters just happen to be brown - they are not necessarily suffering from racism or stuck in slavery times (don't get me wrong, these themes are also imperative in our reading - check out my beigebooks page to see) - these are characters that just are who they are. The protagonists have brown faces and black mums and Caribbean dads - just like me and they experience all the days and lives that the white characters I grew up reading experience.  Just as in films or on TV youngsters often need to identify with the fictional characters they come across, as a child these characters were often black children just arriving in England from the Caribbean so as an adult I am finally finding characters that share my own Black British identity. 

During her time as children's laureate she actively campaigned for reading and creative writing for pleasure and bringing YA literature to the fore - both of which I actively supported whilst working as Head of English in a London comp. Here was a high profile author creating powerful and engaging stories with characters of colour that deserve to be read by everyone - we are in a society with all shades of people in our streets and our screens so they need to be there in our books.

I think I love her books because I wish had they had been around when I was a kid. As a mother and teacher I find that her stories captivate and create discussion and enjoyment. The bonus is now my own three girls get to read a range of her stories and will continue to do so as they get older - if they can prise them out of their mother's hands that is. 

So my Black History Month inspirational person, Malorie Blackman, has inspired me to write. That dream has always been there - since school - but confidence, not really thinking this was something that black girls did, got in the way - until now. Her website is awash with titles of so many different books for all ages that I finally thought it's time to stop 'what if' -ing and just do. Oh and having finally got round to reading 'Pigheart boy' I'm kicking myself for not teaching it earlier and hopefully await TV and film adaptations of a bunch of her stories. Someone is seriously missing a trick out there.

beige books update

For Black History Month I'll be updating my BEIGE BOOKS page a little more frequently to share the wonderful books I've read that feature protagonists of colour. There are (and always have been) some amazing writers of colour but their work is not always easy to find. 

I have loved teaching novels with a range of characters in a plethora of nations dealing with a mulititude of predicaments. Whilst I believe it's incredibly important for writers to share experiences and issues through characters of colour, it's also imperative that youngsters read about different peoples in everyday situations too. This is why I love Malorie Blackman (more about her another time) because her lead characters (in the books that I have read) are usually black and that's just it. They fight wars, have arguments with their parents, fall out with friends, need organ transplants, use computers - you know just everyday stuff. 

This week I'm featuring BUFFALO SOLDIER by Tanya Landman which I finished reading last week. I guarantee you won't be able to put this book down.

BUFFALO SOLDIER - Tanya Landman

This novel had me gripped from beginning to end. I have a penchant for browsing the YA sections in bookstores and I'm glad I found this because I discovered the strongest, inspirational female character I have read in a long time.  Set in America at the end (?) of slavery, slave girl Charlotte finds herself living a new life she could not have predicted and certainly would not have wished for. Forced to make life-saving decisions at every turn Charlotte - now Charley - faces the horrors and evil left in the wake of a civil war but is strengthened by the loyalty and love of other freed slaves and Native American Indians striving to survive day to day. As mentioned this is a story for older readers and as the story develops the language and situations are often gruesome to create realism. As Charley wises up to her predicaments the reader feels her ageing so expects the tone of the novel to change. In light of recent tales about characters of colour being erased from book covers I was especially heartened to see the protagonist honestly represented on the front but felt that the blurb did this story a dis-service. Although she does not start off as a child in this novel I would consider it a bildungsroman novel as she is removed from the relative safety of a plantation to the unknown plans of a fractured North America (not yet United). Hidden amongst the depiction of Charley's army life is a question that I was totally unprepared for. This is one of those books that I want everyone I know to read so we can talk about it and will certainly be one to keep for my girls when they're a bit older. Browsing in an independent bookstore in Rye, East Sussex I was captured by the title but on reading the blurb realised it had nothing to do with Bob Marley but was also intrigued by the cover.