Black History Month 2020
What is Black History Month?
Black History Month is a yearly observance and celebration, which commemorates and gives recognition to the history, achievements and contributions of people of African, Caribbean and Jamaican backgrounds.
Black History Month, which originated from the US in the early 20th Century, takes place in the UK every October. Carter Godwin Woodson, a historian and co-founder of the “Association for the Study of Negro Life and History” is credited with giving rise to this important month.
Woodson believed that education about black history was vital in the study of race within society, stating:
"If a race has no history, it has no worthwhile tradition, it becomes a negligible factor in the thought of the world,
and it stands in danger of being exterminated."
Black History Month is crucial to the education of children, by providing an educated understanding of the history of, not only slavery, civil rights and the injustices of today, but the rich history and culture that is not consistently represented. More importantly, this celebration of Black History and Culture should be integrated full time into the National Curriculum, and every year this dedicated month creates awareness and helps work towards this.
What we did/doing for
Black History Month 2020?
Because the inclusion of Black History and Culture is, and should be, of such importance in todays society,
we ran many diversified lessons and discussions. These sessions - free online and safe in-person workshops - helped to create a vaster knowledge of the history, heritage and culture of Black Communities, t alongside Black History Month classes at school, by highlighting and giving recognition to topics and histories that may not be equally represented in main educational settings.
We aimed for these sessions to assist students in learning; to be able to create a deeper and richer knowledge of the history and culture of Black communities.
We hoped that by providing more personable and specific sessions, on a range of topics, will alongside the national curriculum that schools provide, help to give students a broader education and perception of Black communities, their history and culture. In-turn we hope that these sessions can contribute to strengthening awareness and inclusivity of our community; to help start a much needed conversation on the importance of change to create a more diverse, equal and united community, society and human race.
Online Sessions
Our Black History Month Sessions will consist of lectures and talks on various aspects of culture and history. They will provide an important understanding, and a richer, more specific knowledge of culture, that is often overlooked and under-represented.
Sessions are on our events page, ready to sign up to! Sessions are added in advance, for as broad of ages as possible. Once registered for the Black History Month event on our events webpage, you can then sign up for sessions and receive updates and info on new sessions that are added!
We will have sessions such as:
Black Photographers of Today
Unrepresented Figures in Early History
Black Figures in the Fashion Industry
History of Music Origins and Contributions
Unrepresented Figures in Recent History
History of Notting Hill Carnival
A
Story of
Art
in Africa
History of Slavery and Civil Rights
African Slave Rebellion During British Colonialism
Contemporary Black Photographers
Racial
Oppression
in the
Criminal Justice System
Youth Charter Black HISTORYwise Packs
Sport, Racial Injustice and Activism
Creative Competition
We also had an exciting competition, in partnership with Young Ealing Foundation! Following the enthusiasm and creativity of students for the Poster Competition during the 'Free Online Summer School Project', we decided to do another competition. We felt that the students' creative outlet needed more freedom to flourish; and what better time than Black History Month. We have tried to give the students a vast range of options for their piece of creative work, so their expression and artistic skills can thrive, whilst having fun and enjoying creating a piece of work of their choice! Below are the suggestions/options for students to choose from.
- Short Story
- Poem
- Creative Writing
- Personal Essay
- Short Script/Play
- Painting
- Drawing
- Collage
- A Song
- Spoken Word
- A Dance
- Or any other creative piece of work, outlet or activity that you would like to do as a tribute in celebration of BHM.
The Winners!
The submissions that we had for the creative competition have been incredible. The talented student's and children who submitted work have really shown their understanding, creativity, work and solidarity, so we had a wide range of incredible, powerful creative work to decide from! Together with Young Ealing Foundation, we awarded the winning student's below prizes!
1st
Daniel Lai Age 17
"My creative piece of work is a collage of sneakers designed by famous black men. Taken by myself in a streetwear setting of the diverse city London capturing it's both aspects of style and appreciation of black culture".
2nd
Anastasia
Hume
Age 15
&
Vlad
Vasiura
Age 16
3rd
Farouh,
Zakaliya
& Masy -
Arabic School Newham
Marta Shlosberg Sibley
Age 12
Natalie Kolyan Age 10
David
Grinik
Age 7
Simonas Stankus Age 9
Bilal -
Arabic School, Newham
Micah Francis Age 5
Tamara
Age 16,
Gabrielis
Age 15 &
Sophia
Age 16
Masha Aleksandrova
Age 9
Nikita Congdon Age 8
Imran Sharipov Age 8
Sofia Sidorova Age 6
Amina Rudakova Age 6
We wanted to say an enormous thank you to the students that have participated and submitted their beautiful work into the Creative Competition! Thank you for your incredible talent and your initiative to learn and celebrate Black History and Culture!
In-Person Workshops
We know how important it is for children to have a social, in-person, outlet for their creativity, and with Covid-19 there have not been many chances for this outside of school time. Now Covid-19 restrictions have softened, we are able to (with socially distanced restrictions and safety precautions) provide 2 workshop's this month for the children of the Ealing and Newham Communities.
Both of these FREE, Black History Month, in-person workshop's will be run by us at Znaniye Foundation. Both workshops will be split into 2 age groups; 5 -7 years and 8-12 years; lasting 2 hours for each age group. These workshops will be bringing creative, fun and educational activities related to Notting Hill Carnival. We will also have Black History Month Wise Education Workshop Resource packs, covering topics such as civil rights, slavery and activism brought by Youth Charter who have partnered with us for this project! We also welcome children to create/begin creating their piece of work for the Creative Competition.
The first workshop was held on the 24th of October 2020 in Newham, and we were delighted to be joined by over 100 children aged from 4 upwards! The children were incredibly excited to hear Geoff Thompson MBE, 5-time world karate champion and founder of the Youth Charter, speak with them to begin the session. Geoff spoke to the students about their heroes, their life ambitions and goals, and how many of these wouldn't be possible without the inventions and barriers broken by black males and females in the past.
The students learnt about Geoff's journey to success, how sporting can push us both physically and mentally in life - and importantly about how they as young people need to work towards becoming informed and active members of society, to create a better future for all.
Following this, the students were introduced to the Black HistoryWISE packs from the Youth Charter, that were created to be embedded in students curriculums, with the ultimate goal of reaching every student in the UK and further afield.
We are pleased to be able to offer these packs as well, for anyone to use. Please download here
Students were then provided materials to create their own posters based on what they had learnt, individually or as teams, along with materials to make Notting Hill Carnival Costumes and Headbands.
We are so proud that through our funding from YEF, with our partnership with Youth Charter, and with the commitment from our communities we are able to bring this vital education to more students.
Volunteer/Get Involved
We are always looking for more volunteers and people to get involved and help out for their community! If you would like to partner, teach sessions, do outreach work or help with any events, please feel free to contact us.
Contacts to inquire about getting involved:
Znaniye Foundation Info Email: contact@znaniyefoundation.co.uk
Logistics Coordinator: serena@znaniyefoundation.co.uk