| Slate World is a new transnational partnership that will promote the visibility and mobility of Black* artists and professionals across Europe, opening up new potentials in programming, audience development, digitisation and cultural exchange.
This month I have had the pleasure of meeting an amazing team of artists and creatives on the UK residency in the North of England: one of whom: Chérie Taylor Battiste released her new book ‘Lioness’ today on amazon. We visited Home in Manchester, Metal in Liverpool, East Street Arts in Leeds and many more spots.
One of the many highlights of the residency was a visit to Harewood House in Leeds, where the Geraldine Connor Foundation performed Carnival Messiah in 2007.
At the house, Mez Galaria delivered a talk about the experience of being in the production. It felt so powerful to hear her speak up about the slavery that meant this and many other stately homes in the UK exist. With us was also the amazing Emily Zobel Marshall (for whom I will perform on the 11th July for the launch of her new book American Trickster: Trauma, Tradition and Brer Rabbit and who also wrote this poem inspired by a true story explained below:
A Good Day Out
by Emily Zobel Marshall
Harewood House is a grand house and estate in Yorkshire. This poem was inspired by a meeting of Harewood House curators during which a curator insisted that if any reference to slavery was made in the great house exhibition it ‘mustn’t spoil a good day out’. The wealth of Harewood House comes directly from plantation slavery and the slave trade. (Recently, there have been greater efforts made by the owners of the estate to address and acknowledge the connections between the estate and slavery but still nothing written in the house).
Nowadays, at Harewood House
you can visit penguins
— 2pm is feeding time —
you can watch the silvery fish
disappear down feathered gullets
take a boat on the shimmering lake
munch on scones and drink fine tea
it’s such a good day out
Below deck
in the cavernous kitchen
a sign celebrates old culinary treasures;
sugar, cloves, nutmeg, cinnamon
once filled these cool dark larders
spilling their scent into Yorkshire stone
In times past
Cook had them at her fingertips
she knew their journey well
her hands spiced and sweetened cakes and puddings
for lords and ladies reclined upstairs
see; here are her dented baking tins and trays
authentic and robust
this history, take it in
it’s such a good day out
But Cook knew the other story
of every hessian bag of sugar
warmed by island heat
each grain distilled
from macheted canes
felled by sun-whipped hands
she understands
there is no sweetness here
the story of the sugar
and the slaves that made
her masters rich
falls silent on her lips
for it would only spoil
a very good day out
Here are links to buy Lioness, to attend Emily Zobel Marshall’s book launch on the 11th July and to find out more about Slate World:
https://eclipsetheatre.org.uk/slate-world
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/the-leeds-library-salon-tickets-64172774496?aff=ebdssbdestsearch
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/1912436140/ref=cm_sw_em_r_mt_dp_U_l6ogDb5V25F81 |
