National Museums Liverpool Blog - black history month

Here's a report from Eilish Clarke from the Unity Youth Theatre, on a project she has been involved in connected to the current Toxteth 1981 exhibition, which is building towards a new perfomance on 28 October, as part of the Black History Month events.

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"For the past few months the International Slavery Museum has been working with the Unity Youth Theatre and Clapperboard film project, to help give us a better understanding of the 1981 Toxteth Uprising. As a member of the Unity Youth Theatre, I think it is fair to say we all had very little knowledge of the topic when we first started. However, as the project has progressed we have all become very interested in learning about how the Uprising came about and how it affected the people of Toxteth and Liverpool.

During this project we have been given the opportunity to meet a wide range of fascinating people who have told us their real life stories from the events that took place in July 1981. The first person we met with was Leroy Cooper who used music, dance and photography to show us his interpretation from the Toxteth Uprising. It was brilliant to hear what Leroy Cooper had to say as he was present when the Uprisings started. The next person we met with was John, who was a fire fighter from Toxteth in 1981. He told us what it felt like to be there at the time, especially as he could understand why people were so angry, yet it was important that he was doing his job correctly. This was a really interesting account to listen to.

As well as meeting people who were involved in the Toxteth Uprising, the group also visited the area of Liverpool 8 affected and the Toxteth 1981 exhibition in the museum. Historian Laurence Westgaph took us around Toxteth and told us about the buildings that used to be there before the Uprisings. Laurence also told us accounts he had heard from people he has spoken with through his research. Everyone in the Unity Youth Theatre agreed this was a brilliant session as we were able to put images in our head from the place we have been studying. It was also interesting to learn the history of an area we have all travelled through so many times. Visiting the International Slavery Museum to see the exhibition was also a good session as we were able to read more accounts from people who were involved in the Uprising as well as seeing pictures and newspaper clippings.

Over the next few months we will use the information we have collected to create a performance, which we will show at the International Slavery Museum on 28 October, 7pm. This will hopefully be used to give more people an insight into what happened in Toxteth in July 1981, and also why it happened."

This year we've got our busiest ever programme for Black History Month, with lots of free events taking place across several venues. Here's some information about the subject of one of the first talks, activist Olive Morris, from education manager Vikky Evans-Hubbard:

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"Do you remember Olive Morris? was a community art project seeking to bring to wider public attention the history of Brixton-based activist Olive Morris (1952-1979).

In her short life, Olive Morris co-founded the Brixton Black Women’s Group and the Organisation of Women of Asian and African Descent (OWAAD) and was part of the British Black Panther Movement. She campaigned for access to education, decent living conditions for Black communities and fought against state and police repression. Despite dying at a young age, she empowered the people who lived and worked around her.
 
At the project’s inception, there were no public records about Olive Morris, and no information about her was available on the internet.
 
This long term project was started in 2006 by Brixton-based artist Ana Laura Lopez de la Torre, when she encountered a photograph of Olive Morris taken by British Black Panthers’ photographer Neil Kenlock. The photo shows Olive Morris standing at a Black Panther Movement demonstration in Coldharbour Lane in 1969, and holding a placard reading: “BLACK SUFFERER FIGHT PIG POLICE BRUTALITY”. Research into this particular moment in local history led to a meeting with community activist Liz Obi, a friend and colleague of Olive Morris, who then become a key collaborator in the project.  
 
On Monday 3 October the International Slavery Museum is pleased to welcome Nadja Middleton, from the Remembering Olive Collective, who will tell us more about this inspirational young woman's life and the project that has preserved her memory.
 
During October, Olive Morris will be added to the Black achievers wall in the Legacy gallery.
 
To reserve a place for this free event, please call 0151 478 4432."