TwitterBlack History Month
This October the North East will once again mark Black History Month as venues across the region
celebrate African, Asian and
Darlington Arts Centre
Gazebo Theatre Company presents Rivers to Cross
A powerful new play in the form of a 174 year roller-coaster of a multi-media journey through imperialism, segregation,
the civil rights movement, the ‘Windrush’ era and the black consciousness movement, telling the true stories of great accomplishments in the face of adversity. Gazebo works with community groups, local authorities and regional and
national organisations to develop a diverse range of arts and issue based activities. They employ a large number of
artists including actors, dancers, musicians, writers, and workshop facilitators to deliver a wealth of projects, working
with over 15,000 young people each year. www.darlingtonarts.co.uk / 01325 486555
Sunday 2 October
The Cluny, Byker
Misty In Roots + Support - £12.00
Boss Sounds Fest Launch - The UK's number 1 reggae band, live and direct from Southall, they played alongside the
Clash at Rock Against Racism shows in the 70s and scored with "Own them Control Them" on their People Unite label.
Monday 3 October, 7.30pm
The Sage Gateshead
Soweto Gospel Choir – African Grace
Heralded as the most exciting group to emerge in world music in recent years, two-time GRAMMY award-winning
Soweto Gospel Choir returns with a brand new show, African Grace. Through vibrant rhythm, movement and its
renowned vocal harmonies, Soweto Gospel Choir's inimitable performance style has become a worldwide phenomenon.
Since its foundation in 2002, the Choir has performed to sell-out crowds at the greatest concert halls across the globe
and alongside superstars including Bono, Queen, Celine Dion, John Legend, Peter Gabriel, Josh Groban, Aretha
Franklin and Stevie Wonder. The Choir's 24 singers, dancers and musicians deliver a flawless performance of traditional
and contemporary songs infused with irrepressible spirit.
'Meticulous and unstoppable…spirited and spectacular' The New York Times.
Tickets: A: £27 B/C/D/E: £23
Tuesday 4, 11,18 & 25 October, 11.30am – 2pm
Café Refresh, Sunderland Civic Centre
Sample delicious dishes from the West Indies, South America and the Caribbean.
Thursday 6 October, 10am – 12pm
Fulwell Library
Batik comes from Indonesia and is a way of decorating cloth using wax and dye. Come along to this free adult
craft session and learn how to make batik. This session is for adults only owing to the use of hot wax during the activity.
For further information, contact the library on (0191) 561 2560.
Thursday 6 October
Newcastle University
INSIGHTS Public Lectures to mark Black History Month
Lecture in association with the Pakistan Cultural Society
The struggle for black British literature
Professor Prabhu Guptara, William Carey University, India
This lecture looks at black British literature – that literature written in English by African, Asian, Caribbean and
other writers originating from the former British Empire. Professor Guptara considers the role this literature
occupies in British culture and society in the twenty-first century.
All lectures begin at 5.30pm (lasting about an hour) and are held in the Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building at
Newcastle University. For further details please visit: www.ncl.ac.uk/events/public-lectures
Sunday 9 October, 4-10pm
Cumberland Arms, Byker
Funky Butt Club - £3
Dancing music for discerning adults, the Funky Butt is all about enjoying the best in vintage rhythm and blues,
latin jazz, soul, ska, bluebeat and funk. FBC is eclectic but create a mix of uptempo, upbeat, positive sounds.
The music is loud enough to dance to, but not so loud that you can't make yourself heard.
Friday 14 October, 11.30am – 12.30pm
Café Refresh, Sunderland Civic Centre
Sample delicious dishes from the West Indies, South America and the Caribbean.
Saturday 15 October 10am - 12.30pm
Hatton Gallery
Viewing of Uhlman Collection of African Art
Come behind the scenes to the Hatton Gallery Archive Space and view 15 amazing artefacts from the Fred and
Diana Uhlman Collection of West African art. Includes masks and sculptures from Mali, Ghana and the Ivory Coast.
15 October, 1-5pm
Teesside University, the Hub
STAGESTAR NE Talent Competition
A series of performances showcasing the talents of the youths within the Tees Valley region and the North East.
Performances will include singing, rapping, dancing, stand up comedy, breakdancing, gospel, ballet, circus acts
and live acoustic performances. The event will promote and also provide exposure for the local young talents within
the region to the public and also give the last three finalists a chance to perform and showcase their talent in front
of a much bigger audience at the evening showcase.
1st prize: Laptop
2nd prize: iPOD shuffle
3rd Prize: Mobile
If you would like to register for this event please contact Wendy on info@culturescic.co.uk or tel: (01642) 611443
Thursday 20 October
Newcastle University
INSIGHTS Public Lectures to mark Black History Month
The History of White People
The history of white people
Nell Painter, Emeritus Professor, Stanford University, California
This lecture, marking Black History Month, suggests that ‘race’ is a human invention, with a meaning and reality
that have changed over time. It traces the invention of the concept of race, as well as the historical focus on and
frequent worship of ‘whiteness’ for economic, social, scientific and political ends.
All lectures begin at 5.30pm (lasting about an hour) and are held in the Curtis Auditorium, Herschel Building at
Newcastle University. For further details please visit www.ncl.ac.uk/events/public-lectures
Friday 21 October, 4-7pm
Middlesbrough Town Hall
Choices Fair - Career, Jobs, Health & Craft Fair
A fair providing opportunity for job seekers to meet organisations offering training and employment, also opportunity
to have basic health checks and learn more about healthy life styles and where to get support.
Friday 21 October, 6-10pm
Middlesbrough Town Hall
A Taste of Africa Evening Showcase
Enjoy an evening of exciting performances featuring nationally renowned Black LION, with their vibrant and lively
mixture of traditional African music, dance and song. Local talent being proudly presented during the evening includes
spoken word performances, a superb collection of African influenced fashion, music and song, youth performances
and delicious African food, all for free! The evening also brings the Grand Final of the Stage Star Talent competition
during which three contestants, chosen from keen and talented local performers, will battle it out to win the coveted
Stage Star Award. The winner is selected according to audience reaction so make sure you are there to support
your friends! More info at www.culturescic.co.uk
Saturday 22 October
Customs House, South Shields
Diwali (Hindu Festival of Light)
To celebrate Black History Month and Diwali, this multi-cultural event will start at 7pm and 9pm. Celebrate Diwali with
an Indian meal after an enchanting show to celebrate light. Tickets are £6 per person (and includes meal), children
under 5 go free and there are concessions for block booking. Tickets available from the 10 October from Customs
House Box Office: 01914541234.
Saturday 22 October, 10am – 12pm
Washington Millennium Centre Library
Rangoli craft session
Rangoli is a traditional decorative folk art of India, usually made on the floor near the entrance to a house to welcome
guests. Come along to this free children’s craft session and make Rangoli.
Suitable for children of school age and their parents, grandparents and carers. For further information, contact the
library on (0191) 219 3878.
Saturday 22 October, 11am – 3pm (drop in)
Sunderland Museum & Winter Gardens
Fairtrade Festival
Celebrate Sunderland’s 4th birthday as a Fairtrade city with a festival of art, crafts and food. Sample and buy Fairtrade
products including foods, crafts, fashion, pottery, jewellery and accessories. Take part in a fair-trade fairy t-shirt decorating activity, and try the Plants of Africa Trail in the Winter Gardens to find out more about amazing plant products. www.twmuseums.org.uk/sunderland
Monday 24 October 10.30am – 12pm (drop in)
Hatton Gallery
African Mask Making Workshop for Children
Create a mask based on the African Collection at the Hatton Gallery. www.twmuseums.org.uk/hatton
Wednesday 26 October, 7.30pm
Northern Stage
The Crick Crack Club presents Performance Storytelling
Caribbean Spook Tales: stories of vampires, jumbies and shapeshifters by Jan Blake and TUUP
A thunderous storytelling exploration of sorcery and shape-shifting. Disturbing, comedic and poignant tales of ghosts,
duppies, jumbies and conjure folk that haunt the Caribbean and the Americas.
The Unorthodox, Unprecedented Preacher, TUUP, and the Queen of Afro-Caribbean storytellers, Jan Blake, take to the
stage with unsurpassed style and alarming charisma, for a thunderous storytelling exploration of sorcery and shape-shifting. Working with the magic of contraries, these are disturbing, comedic and poignant tales of the ghosts, duppies,
jombies and conjure folk that haunt the Caribbean and the Americas. Tickets: £9 / £7. Box office: 0191 230 5151
Book online at www.northernstage.co.uk
Jan Blake
Powerful, bold and downright genius – Jan Blake is the Queen of Afro-Caribbean Storytelling. Jan was born in
Manchester to Jamaican parents. Inspired by recordings of 'Miss Lou' (Louise Bennett) she came to telling stories
in 1986, and rapidly gained an international reputation for witty and exhilarating performances. Her repertoire is full
of tales of powerful women and her versions of Ananse’s exploits are definitive.
TUUP
Born in Guyana and raised in Acton, West London, Godfrey Duncan - TUUP (The Unorthodox, Unprecedented
Preacher) - has been a professional storyteller since 1981, when he joined Ben Haggarty and Daisy Keable to
form the West London Storytelling Unit. His style of total improvisation, fabulous capacity for mimicry and ear for
a wild story is outstanding.
Thursday 27 October
Newcastle University
INSIGHTS Public Lectures to mark Black History Month
Slavery, evil deeds and rethinking the past
James Walvin, Emeritus Professor of History, University of York
Recent acts of genocide have reopened the debate about evil as a historical force. In this context, can we rethink
the history of Atlantic slavery? Marking Black History Month, this talk examines the British slave ship, the Zong,
and the legal issues of an insurance claim for its ‘cargo’ of slaves. Many slaves had died in the crossing but 132
were thrown overboard. Complex arguments arose as to whether the slaves were ‘things’ and the subsequent outcry
ignited the anti-slavery campaign.
Thursday 27 October, 10.30am – 4pm
Brunswick Methodist Church, Brunswick Pl (Off Northumberland Street)
Intercultural Arts Market Place
Intercultural Arts present a lively market place of exhibitions, displays, music and poetry performances to celebrate
the region’s Black History Month by showcasing a section of some of the North East’s diverse arts talent.
Stalls and exhibitions run from 10:30am – 4pm. Lunchtime performance by Crossings Group, poet Wajid Hussain
and dance by Apple Yang: 1 – 1.45pm. For more info visit www.interculturalarts.co.uk or email office@interculturalarts.co.uk
27 October – 25 November
CIRCA Screen, The Place, Athenaeum Street, Sunderland SR1 1QX
Doug Fishbone – The Parallax View
Preview: Wednesday 26 October, 6 - 9pm
This exhibition brings together two major recent works by London-based conceptual artist Doug Fishbone that
extend his examination of consumer culture, mass media and the relativity of perception. Elmina and Untitled
(Hypno Project) both question the way information is processed and presented in the contemporary visual landscape,
and undermine the relationship between audience and content in different ways.
Elmina, a new feature-length melodrama, was shot in Ghana with a cast of Ghanaian celebrities, and offers an unlikely
fusion of the contemporary art world and the West African popular film industry. What allows it to cross over is the
presence of Fishbone, a white man from New York, in the lead of an otherwise completely African film – a part that
would normally be played by a black West African actor. No reference is made to this oddity of casting, which
quietly overturns conventions of race and representation in film, and offers a new perspective on globalization, celebrity,
and the possibility of a shared visual language. Elmina is set for mass-market release in Africa and African immigrant communities later in the year.
(Image: Elmina by Doug Fishbone)
In Untitled (Hypno Project), twelve protagonists are filmed as they watch a short video under the influence of
hypnosis, each having been given specific suggestions instructing them to respond in certain ways at different
visual and aural cues. The project opens a window onto an alternate zone of consciousness and, as with Elmina,
presents the possibility that a given work can operate on a number of different levels simultaneously – depending on
who views it and in what context.
Elmina was launched in a solo exhibition at Tate Britain 2010/2011 and will be shown concurrently as part of Dublin Contemporary.
Recently, Fishbone’s work was included in Rude Britannia: British Comic Art, Tate Britain 2010; Busan Biennial 2008;
Laughing in a Foreign Language, Hayward Gallery 2008 and the British Art Show 6, 2006.
Live Performance Lecture
On 23 November, artist Doug Fishbone will deliver a live performance lecture at The Mining Institute, Newcastle upon
Tyne. The event is free and will begin at 7pm.
Limited Edition Print
CIRCA Projects have produced a new limited edition print with Doug Fishbone.
For more details visit www.circaprojects.org
The Sage Gateshead
Mongrel UK presents: ‘A Thousand Tales’ as part of Juice festival
Tickets: £7 (Concessions available), Ticket office: 0191 443 4661
JUICE: Mongrel UK present 'A Thousand Tales' - What stories do we need to tell to keep us alive?
Sheherazade can see a different future, but can the power of her stories release her from the patterns of the past?
With an international cast, Mongrel UK explore themes of courage, hope, freedom, responsibility and choice,
presenting a new take on an ancient tale through myth, music, storytelling and songs. Presented as part of Juice - NewcastleGateshead's award winning festival for children and young people.
Saturday 29 October
University of Northumbria
The Boss Sounds Ska & Reggae Festival - £17.50 adv
The Lee Thompson Ska Orchestra features both LeeThompson, Madness's sax player and their bass player Mark
Bedford as its core. This 12 piece have been likened to a latter day Skatalites! Dawn Penn is famous for her top 3
UK hit, "No, No, No". Dennis Alcapone is one of the living legends of reggae music, one of the first artists to talk
or "rap" over songs. Owen Gray is the original ska singer, the first artist Chris Blackwell of Island Records recorded.
Winston Francis recorded Mr Fix it which was covered by UB40 and Winston Reedy is the lead singer with the
Cimerons, what a line up!
Boss Sounds Festival Tickets are available on 0191 2274757 or from RPM or online at www.seetickets.com
Thursday 29 October
Star & Shadow Cinema, Stepney Bank, Byker, Newcastle
Hannabiell & Midnight Blue present a BIG African-American & Caribbean themed Halloween Costume Party
The night will feature a live performance by the superb Hannabiell & Midnight Blue, various DJs spinning the best
dance music including Latin, House, Reggaeton, Afrobeat, Hip-Hop, Reggae, and Jungle. Hand-made masks from
Dominican artist Yilis Suriel will be displayed and available for purchase. Come dressed up and enter our costume
contest, prizes will be given for different categories. Check out Hannabiell and Midnight Blue: www.reverbnation.com/hannabiellmidnightblue
Throughout October
Sunderland City Library & Art Centre and Washington Library & Customer Service Centre
Browse through our display of books available for loan by Black and Asian authors.
Tuesdays throughout October
Sunderland City Library Arts Centre's Sound and Vision section
Washington Library and Customer Service Centre
Visit the library and listen to a range of music including soul, R&B, Motown, hip hop
Shipley Art Gallery, Gateshead
Cloud Nylon: The Jewellery of Nora Fok
This is the first ever solo exhibition by the extraordinary jeweller, textile artist and 3D designer Nora Fok. The
artist has established herself as a pioneering maker, transforming organic forms into wearable, ethereal sculpture.
Her delicate, intricate forms are woven from nylon microfilament. Born in Hong Kong, Nora’s work synthesises
European and Asian influences and attitudes. A Harley Gallery exhibition. www.twmuseums.org.uk/shipley
Listings gathered in partnership with Intercultural Arts - www.interculturalarts.co.uk
