Highlights from March 2023
March saw good progress with the Celebrate Respect History Project. We’ve met up with Sue Stratton (former co-director of Plymouth and Devon Racial Equality Council with Ann Wilkinson) and her husband, Jeff Stratton who is a well-known artist based in Cornwall. Jeff has agreed to create the new WonderZoo logo, which we’re really excited about. To be revealed soon! Slain has done a series of interviews with
Jeff and Sue about the Respect Festival and about Jeff’s time as an artist for the Respect Festival whenhe created the posters and logos in the early years.
Plymouth Community History Festival
Slain McGough Davey from WonderZoo has been asked to help produce the Plymouth Community History Festival this year (formerly known as Plymouth History Festival). He is working alongsidehistorian Laura Quigley to make the festival much more community focused and inclusive of other cultures. The festival will be held from 30th September to 6th October 2023. In March Chi and Slain went to Bodmin Keep Museum to listen to a talk by Dr Chamion Caballero and Dr Lucy Bland who created the Brown Babies Exhibition.
This project showcased the lives of mixed-race people who were born to white
mothers and black GI American fathers during the Second World War. Dr Bland is the author of ‘Brown Babies’, published in 2019, and Dr Cabellero is founder of a digital museum looking at the history of mixed race people - www.mixedmuseum.org.uk.
They have agreed to give a talk at the Plymouth Community History Festival this year about mixed-race people in Devon.
Monthly History Group
We ran our monthly history group at Oasis Project, with interesting talks from Gloria Dixon about the historical Pleasure Gardens of Stonehouse, and Dan Paolantonio talked about the 10 year anniversary of his group, Imperfect Cinema, and the cinemas of Stonehouse.
Coming up in April ...
Friday 7th April – Storytelling Collective Gig at Union Corner in Collaboration with Marbles Lost and Found, Omnium Radio, Mindful Art Club and WonderZoo. There will be 9 artists ranging from spoken word, live music and comedy, with a brief talk from Slain about the new POP funded collaborative
Project.
Link to event page: https://fb.me/e/LzDOs6Ne
Thursday 13th April – Vinyl Lounge, 7:30-10pm @Union Corner, 96 Union Street.
Monday 10th April – Zine Making Workshop with artist Wallis Eates, 3-5pm @Omnium Radio, 26 Manor Street, Stonehouse.
Thursday 20th April – Film Night, 7-10pm @Union Corner. We will be showing ‘Empire of The Sun’ directed by Steven Spielberg, telling the story of J.G Ballard, science fiction writer, as a young boy in an internment camp during the second world war.
Thursday 27th April – Vinyl Lounge, 7:30-10pm @Union Corner, 96 Union Street.
Saturday 29th April – Memory Exchange History Group, 10am-12pm @Oasis Project, 28 Manor Street. This month’s speakers will be Jonathan Blyth talking about the decolonisation of archives, and Karen Moore will be talking about the history of Plymouth’s wild swimming.
All these events are free to attend.
Sector News
Awakening at The Millennium Building
We are excited to perform at Awakening this month - a series of events taking place at The Millennium Building. You can see WinderZoo perform on Thursday 13th April, the opening evening and Chi will also be comparing the All Woman Night on Friday 14th April. We join in with local acts, bands, comedians, and film makers who are going to be part of these amazing nights. You can come along and show your support for local talent here
