BHM Newcastle and the North

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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 On the fun side there will also be African arts and craft for sale on the day. Come along and enjoy the evening. 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 http://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 7pmnd 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 http://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 http://www.interculturalarts.co.uk/ or email [email protected]

27 October - 25 November Mining Institute, Neville Hall, Westgate Road, Newcastle, NE1 1SE 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.

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.

Friday 28 October 7pm 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 http://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  

Until 6 November 2011 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