October Dialogues 2016 a Big Success

C3R Conference kicks off a series of events on the legacies of slavery

From 12 to 13 October, the Centre for Research in Race and Rights presented the second October Dialogues ‘Unspeakable Things Unspoken’: Transatlantic Slavery a Public Conversation. The event was a partnership with the Nottingham Contemporary, Renaissance One, Midlands3Cities and the Galleries of Justices and was funded by the British Academy. The two day event was designed to bring together scholars, activists, public history professionals, educators, artists, community, local and family historians, writers and the public to debate and discuss the ways in which slavery and its legacies have figured in public discourse and within our public institutions.

On the first day speakers included representatives from the New Art Exchange, Creative Collective, Hackney Museum, the International Slavery Museum, the Nottingham Contemporary, Ligali, Black Lives Matter Nottingham, Bright Ideas and PARCOE. From the academic world major initiatives including the Legacies of British Slave-ownership project, the Antislavery Usable Past project, the Wilberforce Institute for the Study of Slavery and Emancipation, the Institute for Black Atlantic Research and the Institute for Education were represented as well as a number of leading slavery scholars. The evening event included an outstanding performance from Jamaican poet Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze who was supported by talented local spoken word artists Panja Banjoko and Michael Broome aka SureShot, accompanied by jazz saxophonist Marcus Joseph.

The event tackled questions of institutional inequalities and the legacy of racism, the representation of slavery within public spaces, the ownership and authorship of history, the meaning and application of reparations, strategies for education, literary and artistic interventions. The emphasis was on conversation and dialogue between attendees – much of the positive feedback from the event focused on the importance of brokering new partnerships and listening to different perspectives. In the audience were representatives from Antislavery International, the National Portrait Gallery, What’s Happening in Black British History, Slave Trade Legacies Nottingham, Nottingham Black Archives and the Slavery and Public History Early Career Researchers network. One of the highlights of the day was the participation of Hackney B-Six College students who attended with their teacher Lucy Capes.

The second day focused on local history activism and was designed to showcase some of the rich and varied projects taking place in Nottingham. It featured presentations from the Journey to Justice exhibition team, the Colour of Money project, Syncopate Media and the Nottingham Contemporary. Exhibitions were provided by the Pathways Mural project, SKN Museum and the Slavery, Colonialism and Rural Connections project (Geography Department, University of Nottingham).

This was the first in a series of four events taking place between October 2016 – March 2017. The next events will focus on specific areas – art, public history, education – and are designed to facilitate the emergence of new projects and partnerships that will deepen and challenge our understanding of slavery’s past and its meanings for today.