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Feb
03
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This illustrated talk and interview will explore the five decades of multi-media Black history productions of Arthur Torrington CBE
Mr Torrington is co-founder of the Equiano society and the Windrush Foundation. Both organisations have produced numerous events, documents and films to record and promote at least 200 years of African and Caribbean people in Britain. We will cover:
How and when the term 'Windrush' became a household nameRe-naming streets and buildings, how to do itThe history of the Black church and economic empowermentGetting Olaudah Equiano on the National curriculumFilming Caribbean World War 2 veterans for posterity, lessons learned and archivingPublishing Black stories and getting them read Black activism in the 1970s compared to the 2020sBehind the scenes of the struggleThis is an online event delivered via Zoom. The link will be sent to your email address one hour before the start. Please check your JUNK mail
Other coming online events from www.blackhistorywalks.co.uk :
African Women Resistance Leaders: Political and Spiritual course Part African Odysseys Black Films and White PowerBlack Presence in the National GalleryAfrican Graphic Novels; the rise of Black superheroesThe economic impact of African hair, local and globalThe Black history of video gamesHip hop to Opera via Negro SpiritualsBlack history bus tourBlack history river cruiseDarcus Howe dayAfrican Animations dayAbout the Speaker
Arthur Torrington.
Born in Guyana, Torrington attended St Ambrose Primary School and Tutorial High School, and went in Britain as a teenager in the 1960s.
Torrington joined forces with Sam King to establish the Windrush Foundation, in 1996, to ensure that the 50th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush would be appropriately marked and celebrated; as reported in the Guyana Chronicle: "Using their own resources, Arthur and Sam went around the country, gathering together as many people as possible, with stories of the Empire Windrush and what would come to be known as the 'Windrush Generation'. ... Their goal was to turn the 'Empire Windrush' into an iconic symbol, representing early Caribbean migrants and their contribution to the rebuilding of Britain after WWII. It worked and the 50th anniversary turned out to be a huge success, spawning books and TV and radio documentaries. Sam, who had sailed on the 'Empire Windrush', was among those who met Prince Charles at St James's Palace for an official ceremony to mark the occasion." In 2018 the Windrush Foundation led the project "Windrush70" to mark the 70th anniversary of the arrival of the Empire Windrush.
Torrington also co-founded in London in 1996 a community organisation named the Equiano Society, to publicise the achievements of Olaudah Equiano and his 18th-century African contemporaries, including such figures as Ignatius Sancho and Ottobah Cugoano, who made outstanding contributions to African and European literature.
In 2014, Torrington curated the touring exhibition Making Freedom, which opened at the Black Cultural Archives, marking full Emancipation in the Caribbean that took place on 1 August 1868.[7][8]