OCTOBER is BLACK HISTORY MONTH 

and I am giving some Spoken Word talks in and around London

Do come along where and when you can, to celebrate with us!

Upcoming Events:

TELL YOUR STORY!

Reclaiming Narrratives, “taking control of our stories and honouring our heroes” (following the title of BHM 2024 Theme). 

8 October 7.30 pm – 8.30 pm.

St James’s Church, 197 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL. See Eventbrite

10 October 6pm-7pm

Hammersmith & Fulham Hammersmith Library W6 7AT See Website Facebook

15 October 6pm – 8pm

Kensington Central Lecture Theatre W8 7RX  (See Eventbrite )

17 October 6pm

Blackheath Library, (DETAILS TO FOLLOW)

26 October 2 – 2.30 pm

St Luke’s Community Centre, 90 Central Street, London EC1V 8AJ JUST TURN UP!

(British Library event has been cancelled.

Apologies for inconvenience caused)

About the Events:

By way of an interactive Spoken Word presentation, I have taken control of the sad story of my historical ancestor Saartjie Baartman, who was trafficked in 1810 and put on display at Piccadilly Circus in London, then sold to a French animal keeper who had her standing in a cage in Paris, where she died in 1815. Why? Just because she had a big bum, and the exhibition fed the erotic fantasies of the Georgian public.

What was it like for Saartjie standing there - discussed as if she were not present, poked at and insulted in words which they thought she could not understand (but which she could as she spoke English)? Her experiences have, for more than two hundred years, been dissected and written about by mostly third-party white, leisure-classed male, academic observers, whose contorted and stereotypical opinions History has accepted as fact.  For the first time Saartjie herself gets an opportunity to say her suffering in her own words. The presentation is based on my book Hottentot Venus – the Story of Saartjie Baartman (2023, Austin Macauley),  written in the first person.

Past Events:

Maureen and Monica are giving an interactive 

Author Workshop (free)

We will tell the story of Apartheid and Me and the children will draw 

their ideas of what it feels like to be excluded.
Islington Central Library, London

8 OCTOBER 2022 - 10am

Tickets still available. Click here