Tag: Blog

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Reflections on the workshops, by David Kwao Fianko-Williams

[In this post, David Kwao Fianko-Williams, one of our project participants, shares some personal reflections on the workshop series of the Decolonising Memory: Digital Bodies in Movement Project which ran from November 2021 to May 2022]

6th November 2021 

Memory and Transatlantic Enslavement

The session today, has made me ponder about memory and its intrinsic fluidity.  As Dr Jessica Moody quoted from Toni Morrison’s, The site of memory. Memory is like “water”, and “emotional memory [is like] ‘flooding’”. These words really resonated with me as memory should be free and ever flowing like “water”, not controlled, distorted, or sanitised. Which is why it is important that we collectively work together to decolonise our thought processes regarding this history. So that our memories of this history are in truth, un-sanitised, reflecting the historical realities of the histories of transatlantic enslavement.

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Bristol Harbour Festival Performance: Video

On Sunday 17th July 2022, Cleo, Kabbo, Latisha, Penny and Precious delivered the first public performance of the memorial folk dance developed through our workshop series. This was especially poignant as this year was the 50th Bristol Harbour Festival. The dance was performed on the Trinity Centre takeover dance stage, Millennium Square and featured an introduction to the project and forthcoming augmented reality app from Kwesi Johnson, and Cleo Lake also led an explanation of some of the key dance moves and their meaning and a tutorial for the crowd. Thank you so much everyone who came and supported us, and especially everyone who joined in! Watch this space for further tutorials so you can learn the dance for a mass participation event in August…

Video of the performance at Bristol Harbour Festival July 17th 2022
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NEWS: Bristol Harbour Festival performance!

Join us at this year’s Bristol Harbour Festival to see the memorial dance created as part of the Decolonising Memory project performed live! We’ll be at the Dance Stage at Millennium Square on Sunday 17th July @ 12.35pm

This will be the first live public performance of the dance which has been developed from research and movement material developed through our 7 workshops held monthly since November. On the day (Sunday 17th July) you will also be able to get a preview of the project app development by going to our Instagram page on your smartphone – @decolonisingmemory_bristol – opening the filter and pointing your camera at the Edward Colston statue plaque where you will be able to see something new!

Rehearsals for the dance at the Victoria Rooms, University of Bristol

Performance listing: https://www.bristolharbourfestival.co.uk/artists/2022/7/16/decolonising-memory-digital-bodies

Full Programme for the Bristol Harbour Festival can be found here: https://www.bristolharbourfestival.co.uk/

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BLOG: Dance, history and movement as co-produced research

Reflections on the workshop series. By Jessica Moody (Senior Lecturer in Public History, University of Bristol)

Alas, we have come to the end of our workshop series for the Decolonising Memory: Digital Bodies in Movement project! As this marks the end of the first phase of our project, I thought I’d share some personal reflections on the workshops we held over the last 7 months. We first advertised for participants in October 2021 through this website, social media, press releases, local publications, local radio and word of mouth and held an online information event. Our first workshop was November 6th 2021 and these ran every first Saturday of the month thereafter until May 7th. We held these workshops hybrid (both online and offline) – at the Malcolm X Centre in St Paul’s, and online via zoom for those who couldn’t join in person (with all participants being able to hear and see each other). We also held monthly online ‘mid-point’ meetings on zoom where we carried on the conversations from the workshops and undertook other exercises and activities to develop ideas.

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Information Event: Monday 25th October 7:30pm online

Want to find out more about the project and ask the team questions in an informal setting? Join us on Zoom at 7:30pm Monday 25th October for a chat. Register using the link below!

Register in advance for this meeting:
https://bristol-ac-uk.zoom.us/meeting/register/tJ0pdO6gpjsoG9auvKpu_OsonKmkuesTPWvT

After registering, you will receive a confirmation email containing information about joining the meeting.

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Join the Project!

Get involved and be part of the Decolonising Memory project, researching and countering Bristol’s memory of enslavement through historical research, creative methods and dance. Join us in creating new dance-based memorials for the city.