Ian Macdonald QC 1939-2019

It is with great sadness that we heard of Ian Macdonald’s passing in November 2019. The ‘Father of Immigration Law’ was an anti-racist defence lawyer who worked his whole life to promote justice and equality in the UK.

Article from The Guardian, 1990, held in our archive in the Legacy of Ahmed collection.

Ian first published the textbook Immigration Law & Practice in 1983. Now in its ninth edition, it remains the leading work on this subject. Many of the anti-immigration campaigns he supported are represented in our archive, including that of Cynthia Gordon, Nasira Begum, Jaswinder Kaur, and Nasreen Akhtar.

For those unfamiliar with Ian Macdonald’s life and work, the causes he championed and the ideas he promoted are now mainstream in society. For example, Ian’s work with the Campaign Against Racial Discrimination (CARD) was instrumental in the enactment of the 1968 Race Relations Act and the establishment of the Race Relations Board, which laid the foundations for the Equality and Human Rights Commission we have today.

Ian Macdonald’s monumental book, Immigration Law and Practice, now in its 9th edition.

Ian Macdonald was also counsel in many high profile cases relating to prejudice within the criminal justice system. These include the trial of the Mangrove Nine (a group of British black activists tried for inciting a riot at a protest, in 1970) and the Stephen Lawrence Inquiry (representing Stephen’s friend Duwayne Brooks).

This year marks 30 years since the publication of Murder in the Playground. Ian Macdonald was commissioned by Manchester City Council to conduct a public inquiry into racism in the city’s schools, following the murder of schoolboy Ahmed Iqbal Ullah in 1986. The report identified patterns of institutional racism that contributed to the circumstances surrounding Ahmed’s death. The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre is named in Ahmed’s memory. The legacy of his death and the investigation that followed will always hold an important place in the work that the Centre does.

This book can be found in the Manchester Local History section of the AIU Centre library.

Ian Macdonald was also a trustee of the George Padmore Institute (GPI) in North London, which was founded in 1991 by political and cultural activists. The GPI is an archive, library, educational resource and research centre which, much like the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre, houses material relating to Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) experiences in the UK.  Ian was actively committed to the development of this Institute until the last.

We send our condolences to Ian’s family and friends. He was an inspiration to us all and will not be forgotten.

The Future is Ours: Afrofuturism in the AIU Centre

By Hattie

As part of Black History Month 2019, we hosted an event with writer, poet, and director Elmi Ali called ‘The Afrofuturist Toolkit’. During the workshop the participants explored the theories behind Afrofuturism and created some of their own work envisioning the future of society. Ali’s overarching message was that Afrofuturism can take any form and is all around us, demanding a space in the future for Black people defined by themselves. “It looks to the past to define and make sense of the future.” According to Ali, ‘ism’ can be understood to mean “how something could be”.

Exhibition Reflection: ‘Journeys to Manchester’

By Hattie

On the 18th June 2019 we launched ‘Journeys to Manchester’, an exhibition exploring the lives of people displaced by conflict, persecution or natural disaster who have settled in Manchester. The main purpose of the exhibition is to highlight experiences and realities of migrating to a new country, using quotes from oral histories of individuals involved in our projects. It was important to us that we included cherished memories of people’s countries of origin and the discovery of cultural differences once in the UK, rather than only portraying the traumatic experiences that have become synonymous with being a refugee in mainstream media.

Marika Sherwood, Kwame Nkrumah and the Pan-African Congress Archive

By Hattie

Upon the launch of her latest book, Kwame Nkrumah and the Dawn of the Cold War, Marika Sherwood spoke yesterday on the topics of colonialism, communism and the importance of researching black history and activism at an event hosted by the AIU Centre. The talk was followed by an engaging Q&A and insightful discussion with members of the audience who shared Marika’s passion for research and black history.

Marika Sherwood speaking at Central Library 30/4/19

The 1945 Pan-African Congress: Manchester and the Fight for Equality

Holly Randhawa

What was the Pan-African Congress?

Held in Manchester in 1945, the 5^th Pan-African Congress was part of a series of seven meetings, intended to address the decolonisation of Africa from Western imperial powers. Set within a new world order of international cooperation during the 1940s, the Congress demanded an end to colonial rule and racial discrimination, as well as the recognition of human rights and equality of economic opportunity for all peoples of African descent.

Photograph of Congress attendees, 1945 Pan-African Congress. Among the people to attend were George Padmore, W. E. B. Du Bois, Jomo Kenyatta and Kwame Nkrumah. Source: Pan-African Congress 1945 and 1995 Archive, GB3228.34

The Power of Film: Protest and its Documentation in ‘Generation Revolution’

By Hattie

To kick off our final week of Black History Month events, we screened Generation Revolution, a documentary directed by Cassie Quarless and Usayd Younis in 2016. The event took place in connection with UoM History Department and the Race, Roots and Resistance Collective, and was followed by a Q&A with the directors and historian Dr Kerry Pimblott. Watching the film and listening to the audience’s responses was an incredible insight into race relations in Britain, but also reinforced the necessity and value of our collections here at the AIU Centre.

“All children should see themselves represented in the books they read”

And so the day finally arrived – on 3rd August our Director and long-standing Education Co-ordinator Jackie Ould logged off for the last time and headed into retirement.

Jackie has been involved in our organisation since its inception. She originally met our founder Lou Kushnick when she was one of his American Studies students here at the University of Manchester.

In 1998 Lou was establishing the Resource Centre – an open access library of books about race and race relations, amassed during his academic and activist career. He asked Jackie, who by this point was a Black achievement and EAL (English as additional language) teacher for Manchester City Council, if she could help. She was, in her own words  ‘pretty sceptical really about how it was going to succeed’, but agreed to be involved and immediately started to think about the educational potential of the library:

I wanted to know how all of these academic books were at all relevant to that strand of my other life, if you like – and how we could make them relevant and applicable and useable in schools

She started to look at developing the collection for teaching purposes, but quickly realised the task would be bigger than that:

…we could buy books about Martin Luther King and Rosa Parks and any number of other African American heroes. But it was extremely hard to find any about Black British heroes, other than the occasional one like Mary Seacole. Very hard indeed to get those. So I wanted to know how does this connect with that other part of my life which is the teaching role? And how do we use this as an opportunity to start generating those materials… First of all buy them in if they exist, but if it doesn’t exist then logically, start making them.

This was the start of our outreach programme, which has always been much more than a just an outreach programme and is based on co-creating educational materials on BAME histories and experiences with the communities those histories and experiences come from.

Introducing our community archive

What is an archive? How does community heritage material end up in our archive? What do we do with it? Who uses it?

To encourage more BAME community groups to consider donating their heritage project outputs to our (or another relevant) archive, we’ve produced a short film to demystify the archive.

 

Many thanks to our dedicated Institute for Cultural Practices placement students Naomi Weaver and Yang Li for producing this. You can read more about how and why the film was made over on our Coming in from the Cold blog.

‘Honour’-Based Violence: Why Have a Day of Memory?

This Saturday, 14^th July 2018, marks the fourth annual Day of Memory for victims of ‘honour’-based violence (HBV). In this short post, Becki explains how the day came to be, why we need it, and what is being done to ensure that those who have lost their lives to so-called honour are never forgotten.

This coming Saturday, Shafilea Ahmed would turn 32. If her aspirations at school were anything to go by, she would now be enjoying life as an established barrister. However, Shafilea never made it this far; in fact, she never made it past 17. In 2003, she was brutally murdered by her parents at home in Warrington, Cheshire. Concerned that Shafilea was becoming too ‘westernised’ and bringing shame on the family, her mother and father suffocated her in front of her four younger siblings by forcing a plastic bag down her throat.

Manchester Movement Histories

A couple of weeks ago I (Hannah) wheeled a precariously-laden trolley of archive boxes over the road to the Friend’s Meeting House, to be the source material for a day-long research workshop for undergraduate History students. Reblogged from History@manchester, here are Dr Kerry Pimblott’s reflections on what was a hugely inspiring day for all of us.

History@Manchester

By Dr Kerry Pimblott

The key to a more just future lies in a real reckoning with our collective pasts.

At least that was the thinking of the eminent scholar-activist, W. E. B. Du Bois. Writing in February 1905 – at the height of what many consider ‘the nadir’, or lowest point, in American race relations – Du Bois stated,

We can only understand the present by continually referring to and studying the past: when any one of our intricate daily phenomena puzzles us; when there arises religious problems, political problems, race problems, we must always remember that while their solution lies here in the present, their cause and their explanation lie in the past.

Du Bois’s call to ‘look-back-to-move-forward’ rings no less true today than it did over a century ago. Last week it was this dictum – in a new nadir typified by the twin tragedies of Grenfell…

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Working in the Field of ‘Honour’-Based Violence? Share Your Story With Us!

It’s been a few weeks since Research Associate, Becki Kaur, joined the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre to develop resources on ‘honour’-based violence and forced marriage. In her introductory post, Becki promised that she would update the blog with details of how the collection was progressing. Today, Becki talks about an exciting development in the project, as she sets out to collect oral histories from professionals working in the field. She discusses how this decision came about, why it’s important, and the benefits that oral histories will bring to the collection. If you’re a professional working in this field and you’d like to be involved in this important part of the project, then please read on…

what is an archive?

Coming in from the Cold

We currently have two postgraduate students from the Institute for Cultural Practices (ICP) at the University of Manchester on a placement with us.  They have been investigating the value of historic documents and how to encourage further deposits from local BAME communities as part of the CIFTC project. Today Naomi Weaver and Yang Li were busy interviewing our long-time friend and trustee, Nigel de Noronha in various locations around Central Library as part of a project to demystify the archive. Nigel was once a member of the Asian Youth Movement (AYM) and also contributed to the Macdonald Inquiry, so features prominently in a number of records we hold. He is now a Teaching Fellow in Sociology at the University of Warwick.

During his interview, Nigel reflected on both the experience of encountering representations of himself as a young activist and on the value of being able to examine such collections as…

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Coming in from the Cold project – we’re up and running!

As you may have heard, over the next three years we will be delivering our major Heritage Lottery-funded Coming in from the Cold project. The project will support the development and delivery of BAME-focused heritage projects across Greater Manchester, with the aim of building a more comprehensive and representative archive collection.

Now we have a recruited a fantastic new team we’re officially up and running. We have a dedicated blog for the project, which you can (and should!) follow here,
and you can download the official press release here.

We’ll be re-blogging lots of posts from Coming in from the Cold here on Reading Race Collecting Cultures too.  I’m going to do that right away as it happens, watch this space…

The Legacy of Ahmed and Courage and Inspiration of his Mother

By Hannah

For International Women’s Day this year we’re sharing the story of Fatima Nehar Begum, the mother of Ahmed Iqbal Ullah, who in the 30 years since Ahmed’s tragic death has led a number of extraordinary and positive developments, including building the Ahmed Iqbal Memorial School in Bangladesh.

We explored and documented her story, among others, in our HLF supported Legacy of Ahmed project 2015-17. The resulting archive contains an extensive collection of oral history interviews with those who remember Ahmed, those who experienced the aftermath of his death and those involved in the many projects and initiatives that make up his legacy.

Read about Ahmed, Fatima and the archive that tells their story in our feature article on Archives Hub: https://blog.archiveshub.jisc.ac.uk/2018/03/01/the-legacy-of-ahmed-archive-and-the-courage-and-inspiration-of-his-mother/

Narrowing the gap between community engagement & collection development

What happens to the outputs of community-led heritage projects? Why are they so rarely accessioned into registered collections? Can we create a model for projects that benefits both communities and collecting institutions?

These are the questions that Jennie and myself (Hannah) explored back in November at the National Archives’ annual  ‘Discovering Collections, Discovering Communities’ conference (DCDC).  We shared the findings of the first phase of our HLF-supported project Coming in from the Cold, and also our experience as a heritage organisation with a more holistic approach to community engagement and collection development.

Watch the conference video below, and you can download the Coming in from the Cold audit report from the project blog.

Sister Rosetta at Chorltonville

By Hannah

Did you know Sister Rosetta Tharpe, the ‘godmother of rock’n’roll’ performed at Chorlton railway station in 1964? She was one of a number of legendary blues musicians who played as part of the ‘Gospel and Blues Train’ – a one-off performance contrived by Granada Television, which included turning the station (which was roughly on the site of what is now Chorlton Metrolink stop) into a scene from the wild west, with crates, chickens, wanted posters, and a large sign temporarily renaming the station ‘Chorltonville’.

It’s a piece of history that was at risk of being forgotten, until the footage recently appeared on YouTube, including this film of Sister Rosetta Tharpe’s performance (in the rain, just in case she was in doubt she was in the North of England…).

You can now read about this story in a beautiful new book we have produced and published in partnership with Chorlton High School.

Join us!

Fancy working with us??

Coming in from the Cold

We recently received confirmation of a £357,000 grant from the HLF to deliver phase two of our ‘Coming In From the Cold’ project. Everyone at the Trust is delighted!As a result we are now recruiting for the three following posts:

1. Archivist (0.8) Grade 5
2. Digital Officer (0.6) Grade 4
3. Trainee Archivist (0.6) Grade 2

Job descriptions and application forms are available to download from http://www.racearchive.org.uk/work-with-us/

The deadline for applications is 05/02/2018. We expect interviews to take place during the week beginning 26th February 2018. For further information please telephone Jennifer Vickers or Jacqueline Ould on 0161 275 2920

Applications are particularly welcome from black and ethnic minority ethnic candidates, who are under-represented in work in this sector.

 

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Sketching for Black History Month

By Hannah

This post is a bit overdue, but back in October we teamed up with the BAME Staff Network at the University of Manchester to run a speaker and discussion event titled ’30 Years of Black History Month: Where are we now?’ You can read a report of the event from Berrisford Edwards, of the BAME Staff Network, below.

We commissioned artist Paul Gent to document the discussion. Looking through his sketches this afternoon has reminded me of just how intense and wide-ranging the discussion was that day, intensified by the noise of protesters outside the window, picketing the Conservative Party conference that was happening just over the road at the time.

Click on the images for a closer look…

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Event report by Berrisford Edwards (originally published on the University of Manchester Library’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion blog)

I had the pleasure of attending the (now) annual Black History Month Event hosted by the University of Manchester Black Asian and Minority Ethnic (BAME) Staff Network.  This year saw a collaboration between the BAME Staff Network and the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre (AIURRRC); and the event was held at the home of the AIURRRC – Manchester Central Library.

The event – titled “30 Years of Black History Month: Where are we now” started with registration, buffet lunch and networking from 12:30-13:00 and was very well attended notably by non-University affiliated individuals and organisations.  Georgina Lewis – Co-chair of the University BAME Staff network alongside Dr Claire Fox – Academic Director for the AIURRRC gave a brief introduction.  The welcome was then given by Prof James Thompson – Vice President for Social Responsibility at the University of Manchester.  Dr Kehinde Andrews – Associate Professor of Sociology at Birmingham City University was the keynote speaker.  He gave a thought-provoking view and analysis of Black History and Black History Month from the perspective of both the University and the “Mother State”.  This was followed by an engaging question and answer session.

After a short break, a panel discussion, chaired by Dr Hema Radhakrishnan – Associate Dean for Social Responsibility at the University of Manchester was had.  Panellists were:  Elizabeth Cameron – North West Region’s Black Members Committee Unison Chair, Atiha Chaudry – Greater Manchester BME Network Chair, Deej Malik-Johnson – University of Manchester Students’ Union, Patrick Johnson – Head of Equality, Diversity and Inclusion at the University of Manchester and Wilf Sullivan – TUC Race Equality Officer.  A riveting and engaging session of question and answers ensued, which had to be abruptly terminated in the interest of time.  Prof. Claire Alexander – Director of Social Responsibility for the School of Social Sciences at the University of Manchester gave the closing remarks.

There were exhibitions from the AIURRRC, the Centre on Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE), the LGBT foundation, as well as promotional material from other bodies; and representatives from across Higher Education Institutions, the public and private sector.  The event was live tweeted using the hashtag: #UoMBHM30, photographed and curated by well-known documentary artist – Paul Gent.

 

Lewis Toumazou kindly photographed the event for us, read his reflections and see the photos here .

Reflecting on a busy year

By Hannah

As we wind up for our Christmas break (until Wednesday 3rd January) we’re reflecting on what an action-packed year 2017 has been for us. We’re not very good at shouting about our successes, but our colleagues and stakeholders at the University, in the city council and in the community often comment on how much we achieve for such a small team.

So, in the spirit of giving ourselves a well-deserved pat on the back, here are our 2017 highlights:

‘Redefinition lies at the heart of creativity’ – Young Identity, Unity Radio and Reflections on a Decade of Grime

Libby Turner, a recent English and American Studies graduate from the University of Manchester, reflects on our recent Hip Hop, Spoken Word and the Library event.
(We’ll be posting more about the Hip Hop Collection project next week…) 

‘Hip Hop, Spoken Word and the Library – Transcending Borders? Reflections on a Decade of Grime and Young Identity’, brought together Hip Hop and Grime scholars, poets, radio professionals and talented young people for an evening of discussion and performance.

The event marks the launch of a brand new resource at the Central library Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre – one that focuses on the themes of hip hop, grime, spoken word, education and social justice.

Project-Based Collecting: Telling the whole story at the ARA conference

By Hannah

Last week Jennie (our Projects Manager) and myself presented at the Archives and Records Association (ARA) conference, here in Manchester. Our paper was called:

Telling the Whole Story: Community partnerships and collection development in the Legacy of Ahmed project

We’ve been thinking a lot recently about the way we work, as an organisation that undertakes both outreach projects and heritage collection work*. Not only do we give equal weight to these areas of our work, the two have a symbiotic relationship: The outputs of community and schools-based projects (such as oral history interviews, teaching resources, donated ephemera, creative works and publications) are accessioned into the library and archive collections**, ensuring that community voices are preserved for the long-term, but also building a bank of resources to support ongoing outreach work – both our own and other people’s.

It’s the reason we call ourselves a ‘resource centre’ rather than an archive or library; our collections have always been intended to have contemporary, active and practical purposes.

Kotha and Kantha

“The names for the project have specific meaning in Bengali. We used Kotha & Kantha to imply ‘stitches and lines’, referring to embroidery and writing.”

The embroidery from our Kotha and Kantha project is coming to the end of it’s exhibition tour around Manchester, and is currently on display in Manchester Metropolitan University’s All Saints Library. Re-blogged from MMU Special Collections blog, here is Jo’s summary of the project:

Special Collections Museum

Currently on display in our ground floor Spotlight Gallery is a small exhibition of traditional Bangladeshi embroidery. It was produced last year by a group of ten women who participated in the project Kotha & Kantha: Bangladeshi Women’s Memoir held at Manchester Central Library and run by the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Education Trust and Centre (AIUC). Project Administrator Jo Manby explains more about the project and what it set out to achieve.

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What is the City but the People? Manchester, Children’s Literature, and the World

“The Archives+ project, like the folktale project, promotes the idea that everyone’s story matters, and that stories of the city are for everyone.”

A very thoughtful/thought-provoking piece on theracetoread blog, following a visit to the Resource Centre and Central Library last week from a group of summer school students studying ‘Race, Literature and the Archive’. Makes a lovely connection between our children’s book projects and our wider role as part of the Archives+ partnership.

theracetoread

Last week I took my MA students to Manchester.  Officially, they are on a course I designed called Race, Literature and the Archive—but students don’t come on Summer Abroad Courses just for extra library time (shock horror).  Many of them were particularly interested in Manchester because of the recent terrorist attack on the Manchester Arena during the Ariana Grande concert in which 22 (mostly young) people were killed.  We had discussed the diversity in Manchester prior to coming to England, and they wanted to know how the city was handling the attack.  I have, of course, been to Manchester several times, and knew exactly how Manchester would be handling it—but I was pleased to see signs all over the city advertising the Manchester International Festival (currently in progress).  They said, simply, What is the City but the People?

This sign was everywhere in the city–and sometimes it even mentioned the…

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Daniella Carrington: My placement at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre & Education Trust

Here are Daniella’s final reflections on her museum studies work placement with us. We’re pleased she gained so much from the experience, and she has been a real asset to us over the past five months. Student placements are a great way for us to bring in new ideas and fresh insights, especially when, like Daniella, students have professional as well as academic knowledge and experience to contribute.

Thankfully we’re not saying goodbye to Daniella just yet – she’ll be staying with us on a voluntary basis throughout the summer to continue her work documenting and promoting the Coming in from the Cold project.

Institute for Cultural Practices

I chose the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre and Education Trust for my placement, before even starting the MA Art Gallery and Museum Studies (AGMS) programme. In the first couple of weeks of September 2016, I met the Director, Jacqueline Ould, and a few staff members at a talk they hosted alongside the Black Cultural Archives. I immediately liked their work, which reminded me of what I do home in Trinidad and Tobago, at the Culture Division. Right there, I knew the Centre and Trust was the place for me!

A photograph of me taken by my supervisor Hannah Niblett

The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre and Education Trust are two organisations with a common goal; to capture the life stories of Black and Minority Ethnic (BME) communities in Manchester. They are named after Ahmed Iqbal Ullah, a Bangladeshi boy who lost his life defending a…

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Voices of Kosovo in Manchester… and in Kosovo

The welcome was magnificent, unexplainable. Not just our first steps off the plane at Manchester Airport, but also the processing of all the refugees. And yes, it’s true, the English removed the rags of oppression and truly brought smiles for the first time to our kids’ faces – our kids, who had seen nothing but violence, burnings and killing.

– Bedri Hyseni, Voices of Kosovo in Manchester archive

Oral histories are a significant feature of our collection. We currently have in the region of 400 interviews covering a range of experiences, from the life stories of Windrush immigrants to recollections of the 1945 Pan-African Congress.

Image courtesy Manchester Aid to Kosovo

Celebrating Polish Heritage Day

We celebrated Polish Heritage Day on Saturday. Julie Devonald (our Project Manager) reflects on the experience.

I was delighted to support Eva Szegidewicz and the Kresy Family Polish WWII History Group, hosting celebrations for the UK’s first ever Polish Heritage Day here at Manchester Central Library. This annual celebration has been established by the Polish ambassador to the UK, as a way for the 980,000 Poles living the Britain to celebrate and share their rich heritage with the rest of the country.

Digging Deep and Unexpected Finds

For the first phase of our HLF-supported Coming in from the Cold project (#ComingIn) the project team are visiting Greater Manchester archives and collections to map out BME-related material held in the region. Here Jennie highlights an interesting find at Wigan and Leigh Archives.

Check out the project blog for more about the project and subscribe for updates!

Coming in from the Cold

Photo of Jennifer viewing publication, taken by Daniella Carrington

In order to gather research for Coming in from the Cold, Marzuqa and I have been contacting representatives from cultural and heritage organisations across Greater Manchester. Some have responded to a questionnaire by post or by email, providing background information on lists of projects we have already identified. Others have met us in person, to tell us about further initiatives we have missed, or to discuss issues with their service which may have impacted on delivery. We’ve also been trying to assess the scope of BME-related material in historic collections, in the hope that some items may inspire further project work.

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Family Ties – The Adamah Project exhibition

We’re excited to be hosting a new exhibition here in Manchester Central Library: Family Ties – The Adamah Papers Project. Last Thursday was the exhibition launch; a large audience, delicious African cuisine, thought-provoking speakers and lively conversation.

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Go Home? Book launch

Last week, along with our colleagues at the Manchester University Press, we hosted a large audience for the launch of the newly published book Go Home? The politics of immigration controversies.

Photograph by Daniella Carrington

Photograph by Daniella Carrington

Exploring archives and ‘Coming in from the Cold’

By Daniella Carrington

For the month of March, my placement duties have shifted focus, from collections to project work. I am assisting with the documentation of ‘Coming in from the Cold‘, the latest project of the Centre’s sister organisation, the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust. I get to do photography, which I always enjoy, and practise blogging, my current interest.

The project team had the idea of using a blog to provide updates and insights into the ‘Coming in from the Cold’ project. I was given creative liberties to revitalise an existing blog for the project. In coming up with a concept, I explored the archives at the Centre for visual content and inspiration. The Senior Library Assistant, Ruth Tait, at one point became an impromptu model while I photographed the Ann Adeyemi collection (more on the blog about Ann Adeyemi here). Listening to Ruth talk about the people and history within the collection, showed her knowledge but also her working relationship with the archives.

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Finding my place at the Centre

We’re delighted to have Daniella Carrington, a postgraduate Museum Studies student, working with us over the next few months as Collections and Projects Assistant. She comes to us through the Institute for Cultural Practices placement scheme, University of Manchester, and we’re already making full use of her skills and knowledge. Here she reflects on her first month in post…

It has been (technically) one month since I began a work placement at the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre. How time flies! Learning about this rather special place, how they were founded, and the kind of needful work they do, has been an enriching experience so far. I got to know the staff both personally and professionally, peruse the library, and even get an up close look at the archive to understand the scope of work at the Centre and its sister organisation the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust.

In the library. Photo taken by Hannah Niblett of the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre

Christmas Extravaganza with the Green Screen!

We love what the good folk at Archives+ did with our Christmas Cards from Around the World collection at their Christmas Extravaganza at the weekend! Take a look below….

On Saturday, Central Library hosted their annual Christmas Extravaganza. This event is the start of the festive season for many local residents as one comment from the day suggests, ‘Choirs in the library and meeting Father Christmas has become part of our annual Christmas experience for the whole family, lovely.’

This year we included the magic of a Green Screen, with our National Archives Trainee Jane on the activity. Using colourful Christmas cards from around the world, provided by the Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Race Relations Resource Centre, Victorian Christmas cards from the archives and film footage from the North West Film Archives; we were able to take some wonderful pictures and record Christmas messages. All of the photographs and messages were tweeted on the @archivesplus Twitter account on the day.

For a photograph, each family chose which image they would like to use and then posed in front of…

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Kotha & Kantha: Bangladeshi Women’s Memoir Project

By Jo Manby, Project Administrator

Kotha & Kantha: Bangladeshi Women’s Memoir Project (BWMP) funded by the National Lottery through Arts Council England – Grants for the Arts Award, and the Education Trust, and supported by the Longsight-based Manchester Bangladeshi Women’s Organisation Ananna, and Archives+, began in April this year. Right now, we are tying up the evaluation and the final details of the project as the summer progresses, giving us time to reflect on the impact it has had already.

“I have learned to sew and write stories and poems and enjoyed photography.”

The Ahmed Iqbal Ullah Education Trust. Kotha and Kantha: Bangladeshi Women’s Memoir Project
Picture: Jason Lock
Full credit always required as stated in T&C’s. Specified release use only, no further reproduction without prior permission.
Picture © Jason Lock Photography
+44 (0) 7889 152747
+44 (0) 161 431 4012
info@jasonlock.co.uk
http://www.jasonlock.co.uk

We decided to work with the Bangladeshi community because 2016 marks the 30th anniversary of the death of Ahmed Iqbal Ullah, the Bangladeshi boy murdered in the playground of a local Manchester school, and in whose memory our Trust and Centre are named. We are also carrying out an HLF project ‘The Legacy of Ahmed’, collecting oral histories. The Kotha & Kantha project has complemented and enhanced the HLF project and the artistic outputs of the women’s work will be showcased at a larger celebration event for this project, and be included in an exhibition in the Community Exhibition space in Central Library.