Black History Month 2023 - Upcoming Events on Campus (Week 3)
Black History Month 2023
Black History Month events are continuing across campus over the next week, including the second week of our Book Club, featuring ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ by Bernardine Evaristo.
We hope that staff who visited our events so far have found them enjoyable and useful; if you have any feedback, please direct this to the EDI team.
Events coming up this week:
Women's Activism in Colonial Southern Nigeria & Historical Silences: Wednesday 18th, 1:00pm-2:00pm
History PhD researcher Folusho Oladipo discusses her work on what gets excluded by hero narratives in activist histories... Folusho's research explores the processes of history-making that exclude rather than include, using a case study of the women’s movement in Colonial Nigeria to analyze how, in excluding the contribution of the non-elite the scope of activism is reduced, mirroring the processes in wider society that reinforce hero-making through a system of class hierarchy.
Join us at Holocaust Centre North to find out more about this current research and how it challenges the historical silencing of underprivileged voices. Sign up for free via Eventbrite.
Black History Month Book Club, Thursday 19th, 12:15pm-12:55pm – open to staff and students
SB3/01a - Library Seminar Room or join virtually via Teams
This week, we will be discussing the chapter ‘Yazz’ from ‘Girl, Woman, Other’ by Bernardine Evaristo, facilitated by Kate McGuinn (Subject Librarian, Behavioural & Social Sciences) and Maria Sibanda (BAME Network Assistant, Students' Union). Digitised copies of the chapter are available to read in advance on HudReads - Black History Month 2023 (hud.ac.uk).
Black History Month Book Club and Poetry Competition
Copies of our Black History Month book recommendations are also now available through the University library! You can view these weekly recommendations on the Staff Hub - Week One and Week Two are published so far.
As a reminder, Black History Month UK are also hosting a national poetry competition open to primary, secondary, college and university students across the UK, where there will be separate categories for each level. The competition will be judged by a panel of experts in literature and poetry, with winners announced on world poetry day is celebrated on 21 March 2024. For full details, visit the Black History Month UK website.
If you work with students at the University, or know anyone who is eligible and would be interested in entering, please pass these details along!
Week Three Books
Happiness – Aminatta Forna
In this delicate yet powerful novel of loves lost and new, of past griefs and of the hidden side of a multicultural metropolis, Aminatta Forna asks us to consider the values of the society we live in, our co-existence with one another and all living creatures—and the true nature of happiness (Aminatta Forna)
A critically acclaimed novel by Scottish and Sierra Leonean writer Aminatta Forna, set in a visitor’s view of Waterloo, London, exploring themes of love, loss, chance, conflict and the coexistence of man and nature - click here to read a full review from The Guardian.
Butterfly Fish – Irenosen Okojie
A debut novel from British-Nigerian writer Irenosen Okojie, which won the 2016 Betty Trask Award and was shortlisted for an Edinburgh International First Book Award.
A fragile outsider living in London, Joy struggles to pull the threads of her life back together after her mother's sudden death. Emptiness consumes her and, needing to fill the gaps of her loss, she finds she is drawn to a unique artefact inherited from her mother - a warrior's head cast in brass that belonged to a king in eighteenth century Benin, Nigeria.
Joy is haunted by a beautiful young woman who appears in her photographs, familiar yet beguilingly distinct, the woman trails her wherever she goes. Joy begins to dream of a different time, a different place. She feels an inexplicable pull towards this mysterious female, and a past revealing itself through clues is scattered in her path. As family secrets come to light, she unearths the ties between her mother, grandfather, the wife of the king, a fearsome warrior, and the brass head's pivotal connection to them all.
Haunting and compelling, Butterfly Fish is a richly told story of love and hope; of family secrets, power, political upheaval, loss and coming undone. (Jacaranda Books)
White Teeth – Zadie Smith
Zadie Smith’s 2000 debut novel ‘White Teeth’ was an immediate best-seller, coined as ‘one of the most talked about debut novels of all time’ and winning numerous awards, among them the Betty Trask Award and the James Tait Black Memorial Prize. The novel is focused upon Britain’s relationships with immigrants from the British Commonwealth, exploring family, culture, friendships, and love, all set in 1970s London. You can read a New York Times review from 2000 for a fuller picture of the novel and a glimpse into some of its critical acclaim at the time.
Wahala – Nikki May
‘Wahala’ is a fun, popular fiction debut novel exploring female friendship, set to soon become a BBC series, from Anglo-Nigerian author Nikki May.
Reader reviews from Penguin
'This book is absolute fire. I could not put it down. Fantastically written, the story is so engaging and tense. Sexy, dark, addictive. What an incredible novel' *****
'Dark and addictive with a surprising twist (that i won't give away!) and Nikki's writing is completely flawless' *****
'I couldn't believe it was a debut. I couldn't put it down. Nikki May has written a fantastic story of friendship, revenge and jealousy' *****
'Wonderful characters with plenty of rich and vibrant detail of their shared culture from hair to food' *****