A look back at the workshops and other group visits to the GPI archive, as well as the outreach work undertaken over the past year.

‍Workshops and visits

13 March A group visit from members of Butetown Carnival from Cardiff, Wales, who were looking to platform Welsh Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic heritages in English, Welsh and other languages.

5 July An archive workshop with Hibiscus Initiatives, a local charity in London which enables marginalised migrant women to rebuild their lives after experiencing the immigration and criminal justice systems. Led by their Heritage Project Officer, Andrea Dodd, this workshop focused on the value of keeping archives, especially activist archives, but we also introduced the subject of processing archives and tips for research.

7 September A visit to the archives from the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah RACE Centre in Manchester. Maya Sharma (Collections Engagement Officer), Safina Islam (Head of Service) and Lianne Smith (Archivist) attended the meeting where both organisations shared information about our work and archive collections.

15 September A visit to the archives by Jack Lovekin (Digital Preservation Assistant, Archives) and Erin Lee (Archivist) from the National Theatre, London. Material from the GPI appears in the Black Plays Archive developed and run by the National Theatre.

27 September A visit to the GPI by five senior staff members from Preston Manor School  in Wembley to discuss the Joan Goody archive collection. This included the Executive Headteacher, Russell Denial, who is a relative of Joan’s daughter, Joanna. Both attended the meeting. Joan’s pioneering teaching and research into Caribbean schools was of particular interest. The visit may lead to further research visits and potential workshops with students from the school.

7 November An archive workshop with London-based students from Lawrence University (Wisconsin, USA) on the Negro Theatre Workshop. This included the chance to study original documents from the archive collection.

‍

Outreach

16 March - 4 June The GPI was invited to become a partner in the Black Cultural Archives (Brixton, London) exhibition Shifting the Centre: Grenada as Reference. This exhibition displayed archival materials relating to the Grenadian Revolution (1979-1983) and was curated by International Curators Forum (ICF) curator Orsod Malik. Substantial research was carried out in our archives plus selected items were scanned for use in the exhibition.

30 May Isaac Pye (Outreach and Communications Officer) and Sarah Garrod (Archivist) attended a meeting of Arts Council England National Portfolio Organisations (NPOs) in Haringey at Jacksons Lane. This was a useful networking event where we were introduced to important contacts from the Council and other NPOs in the area.

2023 The GPI’s collaboration with The Open University progressed throughout last year. Sue Ledger (research fellow with The Open University) and Paul Christian (actor with the learning disability theatre company Access All Areas) are members of the Social History of Learning Disabilities Research Group at The Open University. Both Sue and Paul have discovered how much information essential to understanding race and racism remains inaccessible to people with learning disabilities. The launch of Paul’s three easy read documents about the GPI archive collections was slightly delayed, however, the documents are now finished and will be launched on the GPI website in early 2024. They will also be available via The Open University Social History of Learning Disability website. The second of two articles about the project was published in Community Living (6 April 2023).‍

‍

SUPPORT THE GPI

The GPI is an independent charity (1003001), it is not associated with any other organisation. We rely on grants and individual donations to continue to preserve and make available the stories of many black and Asian communities. See details below for ways to make a donation.

‍PayPal

Pay via PayPal to the account info@georgepadmoreinstitute.org

Bank transfer

CAF Bank Account:

Sort Code: 40 52 40

Account No: 00035060

Email info@georgepadmoreinstitute.org to confirm bank transfer.

Cheques

Make out a cheque to George Padmore Institute and post to: 76 Stroud Green Road, London N4 3EN.