Black History Month: Token Gesture, or Essential Telling?
Fri 3 Oct 17:00
Waterside 4 Events Space, Watershed
This is a free event, but you still need to book tickets.
This event will be a discussion of the origins of Black History Month and its shifting meaning over time. Our speakers will share their different perspectives on the value of the month – in homes, in schools, in cultural organisations and in society more widely.
Is Black History Month a vital framework for improving cohesion and understanding in our communities? Or does it encourage tokenism and the commodification of experience? How do we manifest a future when it is no longer needed? We will also invite the audience to share their perspectives on these questions, and to ask their own.
Speakers:
Euella Jackson
Euella Jackson is an award-winning presenter, film-maker and creative producer based in Bristol who works across a range of mediums and spaces to push for more diverse stories and better representation across the cultural and creative sector. She balances this with her day job as Co-Director at Rising Arts Agency, a dynamic, radical, youth-led social enterprise that advocates for underrepresented young creative leaders aged 18 - 30 and pushes care-centred workplace practices across multiple industries.
Edson Burton
Dr Edson Burton is a poet, drama writer, curator and historian. His radio credits include the supernatural trilogy Deacon starring Don Warrington now available on audible. His theatre writing spans a range of theatre based, promenade and site specific work including the, Ithaca Axis (2013) poetry/theatre show ‘Curry Goat & Fish Fingers, Frederick Douglass dramatization an Abolitionist Returns (2018) the game show themed The Edge 2018, & the ribald Anansi & the Grand Prize (2019).
His on screen history specialist appearances include Hairy Bikers series Pubs that Made Britain (2015) Books that Made Britain Bristol Sin City (2016), Lost Civilizations Series 1: The Remains of Slavery(2017) the Antiques Road Show, (2018) Britain’s Most Historic Towns: Georgian Bristol (2019) in addition to regularly appearing on local news and radio in response to the Black Lives Matter movement. He is the author of poetry collection (Seasoned) co-author of What’s Your Trinity Story, Vice and Virtue (2018) and various online and print articles.
Edson is a member of Bristol’s History Commission, the film programming, Collective Come the Revolution and Queer People of Colour Collective Kiki Bristol.
Hosted by Emmanuella Blake-Morsi
With over a decade in the creative industry, Emma Blake Morsi is an award-winning Multi-Disciplinary Arts Producer, Non-Executive Director of Rising Arts Agency and former Bristol City Council’s Culture Board member. A prolific visual storyteller, she predominantly works across photography, words, illustration, design, film, events and sound. Morsi challenges approaches to inclusion and innovation in the spaces she works, producing work that can be experienced by all but most importantly gives visibility to and engages those from marginalised groups.