Lynk Reach - Commemorating 1807

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COMMEMORATING 1807

2007 marks the bicentennial of the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade. Continuing from the first phase FREEDOM Project are four primary schools (St. Francis, St. Anthony’s, Carpenters and Portway). Each school focused on one of the many figures of the abolition movement and are participating in two full days of workshops involving drama, dance and fine arts in order to explore these individuals’ identities and emotions:

Olaudah Equiano, whose autobiography, ‘The Interesting Narrative of the Life of Olaudah Equiano’, emphasized the horrors of slavery, which catalyzed the anti-slavery movement in England.
Nanny Maroon, also known as Queen Nanny, who alongside her five brothers started a revolution and created her own town for escaped slaves.
Philis Wheatley, the first Female African American to publish a book, following an education by her slave owners and encouragement from their daughter .
Thomas Clarkson, an abolitionist and leading campaigner against the slave trade in the British Empire, who went around England with a box of goods from Africa, trying to persuade people that rather than selling Africans, we should be buying their good.


l - r; Olaudah Equiano, Nanny Maroon, Philis Wheatley and Thomas Clarkson.

Artifact boxes are being used in each school to enrich the project. Items in the boxes include a variety of West African sculptures, to help celebrate the valuable cultural diversity of Africa, large copies of poems by Phillis Wheatley, sugar cane and cocoa pods.

Filmmakers are going into the schools so that students can tell the stories they created with their own voices. These stories will be shared at a film launch in the spring at Stratford Picture House, to which all the schools will be invited.

Links:
http://www.antislavery.org/
Phillis Wheatley, ‘On Messrs Hussey and Coffin’:
http://oldpoetry.com/opoem/43998-Phillis-Wheatley-On-Messrs-Hussey-and-Coffin
Sojourner Truth’s famous Ain't I A Woman? speech:
http://www.fordham.edu/halsall/mod/sojtruth-woman.html

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Heritage Lottery Funded Projects

Now We Are Talking! Stories My Elders Told Me (2005) | Our Sporting Lives - Oylmpic Heritage Project (2006) | Musical Story of East London (2007) | Commemorating 1807 (2007) | A Lifetime on Tiptoes (2008)

Company Registration Number: 4678217. Registered Charity Number: 1104188.