Some of the guests who attended DIVERSECrawley's Black History Month Museum Exhibition Launch on 2nd October 2021Some of the guests who attended DIVERSECrawley's Black History Month Museum Exhibition Launch on 2nd October 2021
Some of the guests who attended DIVERSECrawley's Black History Month Museum Exhibition Launch on 2nd October 2021

DIVERSECrawley's Black History Month Museum Exhibition Launch 2021 - picture special

DIVERSECrawley's Black History Month Museum Exhibition Launch 2021 started with month long diverse authors books displays at Crawley Library, Broadfield Library, Waterstones and W.H.Smiths.

On October 2 from 10am, we started promoting Black History Month from our local Turtle Bay Restaurant by drumming, dancing, singing and giving out Promotional Goody bags to passing community members.

50 goody bags were given out in the one and a half hours that we were at Turtle Bay Restaurant, despite the rainy weather.

At 11:30am we all moved across the road to Crawley Museum and continued our vibrant celebrations while we were welcoming our guests, especially our guests of Honour namely:

West Sussex County Council High Sheriff Neil Hart, Crawley Deputy Mayor Councillor Morgan Flack, Councillor Michael Jones and Youth Mayor Leon Mukazi.

We received apologies from our MP Henry Smith as he was not feeling well.

Paula Naughton, curator from a New York Museum, arrived from USA on Friday to also be one of our special guests, describing her support of the Chagossian Islanders plight since 2006 and especially Artist Clement Siatous' documentary paintings.

Our Themes for 2021 are:

1). "From Slavery to Royalty" by Carolyne Chikukwa and Halimah Yusuf-Hassan

2). Black Lives Matter Update (since George Floyd's murder by Police Officer Derek Chauvin in 2020), by Marilyn Le Feuvre

3). Windrush Scandal Update by Irma Stuart-tei

4). Chagossian Islands History by Sabrina Jean and Clement Siatous (and Paula Naughton)

Clement Siatous decided to donate one of his paintings to Crawley Museum thus ensuring that the Chagossian Islanders history becomes a permanent one in the Museum.

Crawley Campaign Against Racism’s Exhibition:

DIVERSECrawley shares the temporary (October and November) exhibition space with Crawley Campaign Against Racism and their theme is

"The Changing Face of Crawley".

Bhavna and Robbie Sharma gave brief tributes about the late Raj Sharma, who was a twice elected Crawley Mayor and who belonged to several committees, especially Crawley Campaign Against Racism.

Raj Sharma sadly died of Covid-19 at the beginning of 2021.

Throughout the day, we had about 50 community members who attended our exhibition launch and enjoyed not only the thought provoking stories relating to the above named themes, while joining together singing John Legend's song "GLORY", and eating Caribbean food from Turtle Bay Restaurant.

WSCC High Sheriff Neil Hart said: "We met such interesting people but most important of all we heard about several stories which we all must hear and understand.

"It was a moving experience and I applaud the imagination and effort which went into the Exhibition."

Crawley Campaign Against Racism and Diverse Crawley – Museum Exhibition

Crawley Campaign Against Racism’s section of the Museum Exhibition is titled ‘The Changing Face of Crawley.’

We display personal stories written for the Museum’s ‘Crawley Memories’ collection, with photographs. Our stories differ, of course, but comments are often echoed, like ‘Crawley has so many trees and Parks’ and ‘It’s friendly here’.

We also look at Change, seeing, celebrating or urging it.

Photos of Public Art celebrate skills, lives and changed views round the town, and a diorama shows Tilgate Park , a popular, changing place.

Tributes to our previous Mayor, Raj Sharma, who always wore his CCAR badge, and our Presidents , Queenie and John Hopcroft, recognise the positive changes their lives made in Crawley.

Children’s Art of living in Crawley reminds visitors of Changes they’ll see, and urges Action on Climate Change.

"A display of Religious Icons of World Faiths brings a wider view from our town to a World picture” by Jill Hathaway from CCAR

The Museum Exhibition is open to all for free throughout October and November.

Special Thanks to all our sponsors, volunteers, committee members and ALL the community members for their continued support.

Related topics: