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Munroe, Tara
Dr. @ Arts & Entertainment and African Caribbean Centre, Leicester.
Bio
Arts & Entertainment and African Caribbean Centre, Leicester.
Geographical location : Leicester, UK
Research Area and Interest :
Social Media
Panel(s)
- Summary: This panel brings together community archivists, heritage professionals and academic researchers to explore the practice of curating community-engaged archives that provide insights into the histories of African Caribbean communities in Leicester. In his 2000 edited collection, Barnor Hesse insisted that histories and cultures of the diasporic populations that constitute Black Britain are “profoundly and disparately regionalized” and “lived primarily in terms of locality” (Hesse, 2000). In recent years there has been more attention towards de-centring London and a turn towards understanding the various regional and local valences of Black life in Britain, particularly over the course of the twentieth century. This panel extends those discussions in two important ways. First, it considers heritage and preservation practices within local Black communities with a focus on the development of the Carry Come Bring archive project based at Leicester’s African Caribbean Centre. Reflecting decades African Caribbean history in Leicester and the East Midlands, the Carry Come Bring archive offers an instructive case study to understand methods and politics of archive-making that are rooted in the memories, relationships, cultural traditions and ideas about the purpose and function of history derived from Black communities. In addition to providing insights about community-engaged archiving, this panel will also highlight some of the under-examined stories about African Caribbean communities in Leicester which are made possible through the existence of the archive as it relates to the history of Black Power and carnival in Britain. In particular, my paper will focus on the establishment of Raddles bookstore as a radical space of community education.
Presentation(s)
- Summary: This panel brings together community archivists, heritage professionals and academic researchers to explore the practice of curating community-engaged archives that provide insights into the histories of African Caribbean communities in Leicester. In his 2000 edited collection, Barnor Hesse insisted that histories and cultures of the diasporic populations that constitute Black Britain are “profoundly and disparately regionalized” and “lived primarily in terms of locality” (Hesse, 2000). In recent years there has been more attention towards de-centring London and a turn towards understanding the various regional and local valences of Black life in Britain, particularly over the course of the twentieth century. This panel extends those discussions in two important ways. First, it considers heritage and preservation practices within local Black communities with a focus on the development of the Carry Come Bring archive project based at Leicester’s African Caribbean Centre. Reflecting decades African Caribbean history in Leicester and the East Midlands, the Carry Come Bring archive offers an instructive case study to understand methods and politics of archive-making that are rooted in the memories, relationships, cultural traditions and ideas about the purpose and function of history derived from Black communities. In addition to providing insights about community-engaged archiving, this panel will also highlight some of the under-examined stories about African Caribbean communities in Leicester which are made possible through the existence of the archive as it relates to the history of Black Power and carnival in Britain. In particular, my paper will focus on the establishment of Raddles bookstore as a radical space of community education.