Bristol-born politician and intuitive creative artist Cleo Lake is driven by the idea of utilising creativity, dance and expanded performance to aid civic engagement and to reframe storytelling as a resilience tool to embed cultural knowledge, empathy, understanding and cohesion. Cleo is currently working on the collaborative ‘Citizens Researching Together’ programme on the strand: Decolonising Memory – Digital Bodies in Movement. Book tickets here.
For the last 25 years David Parker has been collecting and showcasing home movies in his documentary films for television. Using clips from his series ‘Mud Sweat and Tractors’, ‘Sea Fever’ and ‘Shooting the War’, as well as his latest series for TV ‘Britain on Film’, David will illustrate ways that he weaves home movies into his programme and show just how valuable this sadly neglected media can be in telling stories about how we lived in the last Century. Book tickets here.
A series of talks given by filmmakers and artists on their craft, with film illustrations, at the Cube cinema. Featuring some of most experienced filmmakers in the city along with emerging talent, a must for documentary lovers and students of film alike. The four events are organised and supported by the Cube and Bristol Radical History Group. Tickets £5. Each event is at 8.00pm on a Monday in March at the Cube cinema, Dove Street South (off top left of King Square) Kingsdown, Bristol BS2 8JD. […]
Downs row – Merchants hit back over criticism
In a report in the Bristol Post of Wednesday 26 January 2022, the Society of Merchant Venturers [SMVs] hit back at critics who want them to give up their half of the Downs and their role in managing the public common. The article, Downs row – Merchants hit back over criticism, was based upon the outcome of a meeting of the Downs Committee that was held on Monday 24th Jan, where campaigners in the ‘Downs for People’ [DfP] pressure group, backed by a Green councillor, demanded that the ancient […]
Trees will grow and a wildflower meadow bloom at Bath’s Union Workhouse Burial Ground. A place of memory and reflection is emerging thanks to the work of local residents, artists and descendants of those buried there, unmemorialised, in unmarked graves. As the official memorial to a slave trader was toppled in Bristol, people in Bath sought to memorialise those officially forgotten. Bath Workhouse burial grounds do not exist on any modern map, there is no signage or plaque. Following a long […]
An often overlooked but essential element of a slave ship, such as the Hannibal, was the requirement for a large crew in comparison to the number of sailors usually required to man ordinary merchant shipping. Sailors who were to work on slavers would be recruited by any means possible. For example, some men were offered the option by a magistrate or judge of going to prison, transportation, or work as crew on a slave ship. John Newton, author of The Journal of a Slave Trader, described his crew […]
This ‘supremely singable’ collection of 120 songs with musical settings should ‘enlighten and enliven our discussions and our singing in equal measure’ (Oskar Cox Jensen, Historian, UEA) At the heart of ‘Again with One Voice’ are the words and melodies of a remarkable collection of one hundred and twenty British songs from the turbulent hundred years that culminated with the Second Reform Act of 1868. The collection charts a century of working-class struggle for democracy and political reform […]
TEAR THEM ALL DOWN. Everywhere. Lewis Hamilton (seven time F1 World Drivers Champion) Black Lives Matter X heart X heart. Jemima (age 12) This is the third in a series of articles written in the wake of the fall of Edward Colston's statue in June 2020. The previous articles consisted of two fully referenced timelines, the first covering more than a century dissent and protest concerning Colston's leading role in transatlantic slavery and the second considering the local, national and […]
…the fences that divide England are not just symbols of the partition of people but the very cause of it. Bristol Radical History Group subscribers will find inspiration in Nick Hayes’s book. He sets out to trespass on a range of properties and rivers throughout England, defiantly ignoring the fact that he – and we - are excluded from 92% of the land in England and 97% of its waterways. In the course of his walk descriptions, Nick Hayes reveals some surprising historical heroes – […]
