'Our Histories Revealed': Exhibition & Events Roundup

Saturday was sadly the last day of our exhibition 'Our Histories Revealed' at the Hull History Centre. The last four weeks have been extremely rewarding as they have enabled us to engage with local people as well as visitors who have travelled from far and wide to see our findings showcased through the medium of video, audio clips, art instillations, photographs and text.

To compliment the exhibition we have hosted several events which have been very well attended and have successfully captured the interest of diverse groups of people including notable dignitaries, children, members of various history societies, those with a keen interest in local, regional or Black British History and academics. Below is a more detailed account of our exhibition activities.

Opening Night and Visitors Comments.
A blog about our opening event can be found here and some of the fabulous comments we have received from visitors about the exhibition can be found here. If you visited our exhibition and didn’t leave a comment but on reflection would like to, please submit your thoughts to us here. 

​In the Media
The project has featured in the media several times over the past month. We have appeared on the television and radio stations promoting the exhibition and speaking more generally about the project.
Here is one of our latest media clips. You can view and listen to more in our media section here.

​Newspaper coverage of our project exhibition from the Yorkshire Post 25 September 2017

Schools Study Day
On 6 October, we held a study day for school and college students to tie in with our exhibition and Black History Month. Although, we reached out to every school in the area, unfortunately only two took the opportunity to attend this free event. Nonetheless, a total of approximately 60 students from Boulevard and Hull College came to our schools’ study day. We began by giving an overview of British Black history before moving on to discuss some of the people of African descent who had visited, lived or worked in Hull and East Yorkshire between 1750 and 2007. This discussion was followed by a live oral history interview with brothers Bax and Lans (pictured below) from the band Bud Sugar. They spoke about their family, growing up in Hull and their connections to Africa. The students also visited our exhibition and filled in our Adinkra worksheets.

We had an amazing morning with the students and hope they all learned something new about Black history and African culture. The reports from their teachers were very positive.

Study Day at WISE
On 7 October, the project team held a conference at the Wilberforce Institute for the study of Slavery and Emancipation (WISE). In total 70 people attended this event where they heard from various speaks about the interesting stories of Black service personnel, African lion tamers and the Brandesburton Pygmies.

Dr Lauren Dawin, our Lead Researcher, gave an overview of the project findings, the themes that were used to shape the exhibition and our plans for the future. Dr Carolyn Conroy, our Website Manager, explored Black Lion Tamers and Boxers in nineteenth-century Hull and East Yorkshire. Mark Johnson, a historian who has published the pioneering book Caribbean Volunteers at War, talked about the West Indian pilots who fought for the mother country in the Second World War. Jeffery Green, a specialist in Black history, delivered the story of the Brandesburton Pygmies. Jeff described their journey to the region, experience in Britain and their arrival back in Africa. John Ellis, an experienced history teacher, retraced the Black presence in the British army from the late eighteenth to the mid-nineteenth century. In particular, he highlighted soldiers of African descent who fought at the Battle of Waterloo, including John Lewis Friday. Below is a slideshow of some images from the event. 

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A Big ​Thank you!
Finally, we would like to say a huge thank you to all of the wonderful City of Culture volunteers who have helped throughout our exhibition and associated events and we hope that those of you who have missed the exhibiton in Hull this time around, will join us in Beverley in 2018! Watch this space for more details.