The Trailblazers unit is located at Westgate Oxford, Ground level, between & Other Stories and Seasalt.
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Archives in the community
A series of free drop-in sessions delivered by the Bodleian Libraries' archival specialists
Thursday 12th October 2023
During the drop-in sessions, come and find out about the various collections held at the Bodleian Libraries pertaining to history from the African and Caribbean Diaspora. 11.00 am - 4.00 pm
Find out how a series of caricatures were used to portray Christian Frederick Cole, the University of Oxford’s first black scholar, 1873 - 1885, at our lunch and learn session.
1.00 pm - 2.00 pm
Find out how colonialism was illustrated through Edward Clarke’s chart of the world. 12th 2.30 pm - 3.30 pm
Kitchen Table Talk
Friday 13th and Friday 20th October
The kitchen table is the heartbeat of a family home. It’s a place to gather, to talk, laugh, share memories, and to connect. We invite you to our kitchen table talks to come and reminisce and share reflections about a different topic relating to Caribbean and African heritage. An excellent opportunity for fun, informal and relaxed intergenerational learning.
Have you ever been told that "Every clap hand is not an invite" or "Every skin teeth is not a smile"?
Our cultural sayings can be confusing and mysterious. Perhaps you've heard of "Sorry is not going to bring back soldier Larry", but who was Solider Larry?
Join us on Friday 13th, from 3:00 p.m. to 4:00 p.m. to share your memories of the past and present expressions at our kitchen table.
Just Saying
The refrain to the stall holder from West Indian women buying yams. The saying referred to the women asking stallholders to cut out the bad pieces. Come and share your memories about buying Caribbean food, from trying to source products, and reflect on how purchasing Caribbean food has changed today on Friday 20th 4.00 pm – 5.00 pm at our kitchen table.
Cut man, Cut
The Adventures of a Black Edwardian Intellectual
Book Talk and signing
Saturday 14th October,
2.00 pm
James Arthur Harley was a polymath who served as a politician, reverend, and scholar. With the foundation of an esteemed education gained at Howard, Yale, Harvard, and Oxford Universities, he made no apologies for being an outspoken, articulate black man challenging and provoking any white man: a dangerous undertaking at the turn of the 20th century.
Join Pamela Roberts as she tells the hitherto unknown story of James Arthur Harley, a young boy from the village of All Saints, Antigua. From humble Antiguan childhood through elite education in Jim Crow America to the turbulent England of World War I and the General Strike. Based on Harley's letters, sermons, writings, contemporary accounts, and later oral testimony. The Adventures of a Black Edwardian Intellectual is an account of an individual's trajectory through seven decades of dramatic social change.
In conversation with Revd Canon Dr Chigor Chike, Chaplain to King Charles III
Friday 20th October 6.00pm - 7.00pm
Revd Dr Canon Chike will discuss his time as a Black Oxford scholar at Mansfield College in the early 2000s and his role today as the chaplain to King Charles III.
Exhibitions
Black Oxford Untold Stories
A thirteen-panel exhibition highlighting the University of Oxford's Black Scholars from the turn of the 20th century.
Breaking the Illusions
A History of African-American and Black British Cinema from the 1800s.
SCREENINGS
Daily screenings of the short film, Christian Frederick Cole, Britain's first Black barrister from Thursday 19th October.
