Really lookong forward to this chat with @lanre-bakare.bsky.social tonight on his book about Black communities during the Thatcher era putside of London. Important, insightful, a glorious love letter.
festivalofdebate.com/2025/lanre-b...
A graphic showing the logo for the Festival of Debate on a purple background, with text in yellow saying "Most of our events are absolutely free!" next to a small icon of two cartoon mushrooms
Did you know that most of the events at this year's Festival of Debate are absolutely free? 🤔
Here are a few highlights from the programme that you can enjoy without paying a penny 👇🧵
festivalofdebate.com
#FofD #Sheffield #SouthYorkshire
Lanre Bakare, a Black man with short hair and glasses, looks directly at the camera. The text reads: 1 May, Lanre Bakare: We Were There.
Your second headliner!🎉
@lanre-bakare.bsky.social's work focuses on the intersection of art, race & culture. His book, We Were There, is about a Black Britain that for too long has been unknown and unexplored – the one that exists beyond London
Info & tickets ➡️ festivalofdebate.com/2025/lanre-b...
Being a community archivist, the search for women’s voices in the archive is a struggle but we keep digging.
#internationalwomensday
Really hoping this comes to #Sheffield on its tour @desireereynolds.bsky.social #CommunitiesofLiberation #exhibition
www.theguardian.com/uk-news/2025...
@britishlibrary.bsky.social @survivingsociety.bsky.social
‘Why can’t I have another chance? What happened to not repaying evil with evil?
https://buff.ly/41kyS4M #parchmanprison
‘Who tells the story determines the story that gets told.’
In 2017 Common People, an anthology of working class memoir was our attempt to offer alternative narratives.
So much yet to be done.
See the work of @drdaveobrien.bsky.social
You can get 25% off a pre-order at Waterstones! Enter PREORDER25 at checkout.
With apologies for naked self-promotion :)
I'm an ambassador for @filmtvcharity.bsky.social and our latest report shows mental health overall is declining in the industry:
35% of workers with poor or very poor mental health
64% are contemplating leaving due to poor mental health, 32% already taking steps
Things need to change!
The chaotic ass emails we are getting at work! Universities are not okayyyyyy.
“we need to feel that there’s a kind of human society around us that cares about each other … unfortunately, the government seems very distant from that.” #blackbritish #blackbritain
Trailer for my short drama ‘A Viable Candidate’. Currently in development with BB1 as a six part political thriller. Starring and written by Steve Toussaint (star of HBOs House of the Dragon) and produced by Stella Nwimo (Top Boy, Gangs of London, Three Little Birds). vimeo.com/200649822
It’s been out for a while but thought I would reshare my film Decolonising the Curatorial Process as it still seems relevant vimeo.com/464558806
Hey. Thank you. Good to know you’re here too. Could not take the other place any longer. Hope all is well. 🧡
Applications for 2025 Illustrator in Residence now open at The RSL for twelve months to explore the relationship between literature and illustration. This is a paid residency of £5,000 from springtime 2025 until springtime 2026.
Please share!
Artist, Tahira Tofa seeks to discomfit our ready presumptions about ethnicity and phenotype through her portraits. She explains the why and the how
https://buff.ly/4a3hnbK
#BlackArt #Afropean #Portraits
Canadian MP Charlie Angus responded to Trump's proposal to make Canada the 51st U.S. state by noting that existing laws prevent "sexual abusers" from leading his nation.
The intentional censorship at the US national archives is not just happening there.
Replacing MLK jr with Nixon and Elvis. Head archivist asked about an exhibition about the US West imperial expansion
“Why is it so much about Indians?”
White supremacy doing a lot
www.wsj.com/politics/pol...
"Gods always behave like the people who make them."
-- Zora Neale Hurston, born #OTD 1891
If you are silent about your pain they’ll kill you and say you enjoyed it.- Zora Neale Hurston
Writing West Midlands has some great affordable writing courses including From Pitch to Publication live zoom sessions starting in January.
Details of all courses at
writingwestmidlands.org
At the launch of @afropean.bsky.social photobook with Home is Not a Place collaborator Roger Robinson! 💎✨🪽
Police watchdog finds:
Forces were underprepared for summer riots.
Underestimated the seriousness of far right organising outside asylum accommodation centres & failed to recognise the level of threat from nationalist extremists.
Blow me down. How surprising. Shocked. #r4today
“We can disagree and still love each other unless your disagreement is rooted in my oppression and denial of my humanity and right to exist”
James Baldwin
I killed a spider Not a murderous brown recluse Nor even a black widow And if the truth were told this Was only a small spider Sort of papery spider Who should have run When I picked up the book But she didn't And she scared me And I smashed her I don't think I'm allowed To kill something Because I am Frightened.
"I don't think I'm allowed to kill something because I am frightened."
—Nikki Giovanni 💔
#poem #poems #poetry
‘The garden is actually an archive, every plant bringing with it a narrative of past injustice, upheaval, shifts in wealth and taste.’
Olivia Laing and Jamaica Kincaid discuss the political significance of the garden.
granta.com/in-conversat...
Rest in power Nikki Giovanni
Here she is giving James Baldwin a run for his money
#nikkigiovanni
www.youtube.com/watch?v=AFGk...
