In this lunchtime seminar from the Centre on the Dynamics of Ethnicity (CoDE), Professor Stephen Small (University of California, Berkeley) shares his research.
ABSTRACT
This talk is based on Stephen Small's new book of the same title, published by Liverpool University Press. The book describes the Black community in Liverpool and the arrival, embrace and transformation of waves of transnational Black culture from Africa, the West Indies and the United States in the final three decades of the twentieth century. Transnational cultural influences were spread via the media, brought first-hand by visitors to Liverpool, and through Liverpool residents who travelled internationally.
Liverpool’s Black community was fundamentally different from Black communities in other cities in the 1970s because of the city's unique history. There were far more Africans than West Indians, more long-term citizens than recent immigrants, the highest proportion of inter-racial marriages and people of mixed race in the nation, and a far more vivid collective memory of imperialism in West Africa than in any other city. One important difference is the far greater salience of African cultural patterns, revealed in African family names, the largest concentration of African clubs in the nation, and the emergence of African-inspired organizations like Delado African Drum and Dance company, the Steve Biko Housing Association, and Amadudu women’s refuge.
Black Liverpool draws on over 70 interviews with Black residents, workers, activists and celebrities, as well as private and public documents and newspapers, to closely examine the role of gender ideologies, institutional practices and the experiences of Black women, alongside music and nightlife, social and political ideologies, Black Studies courses, language and dialect, and personal fashion, dress and hairstyles. The religious and secular aspects of Rastafarian beliefs and practices are also foregrounded.
RECORDING
This seminar will be recorded.
HOW TO JOIN US
You can attend this seminar in person at the University of Manchester or online via Teams Webinar. Please register for the joining link and to be notified of any changes/cancellations.
FINDING US AND ACCESSIBILITY
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