Sheffield, comparing cultures, and a teapot

Not doing so well with updating my blog as you can see.

Anyway, just a post about another Postgrad day I went on today!

I finished my second year exams on Saturday so I'm back home in Sheffield for a few days. I looked round Sheffield University, at the American History course I might apply for. It wasn't an open day specifically but they do 'visit days' that they don't advertise, but if you search on their website they offer a day every month for people to look round and meet faculty and students.

I'd organised a meeting with Catherine Fletcher from the History department when I booked a place on the visit day months ago. But fortunately Susan-Mary, my scholarship supervisor at Newcastle, had requested library access for me for this summer while I do my research, at Sheffield University, and did so through contacting Dr Andrew Heath, an American History lecturer there. So I emailed him and said I was going to look round the University and he invited me to his office for a chat before the tour started, so that was brilliant.

He was a very lovely guy and really helpful giving me information about the MA course, and was interested in my project this summer in Charleston. I then went on a campus tour of the University, and had a general MA/finance talk, and lastly met with Catherine who was also extremely helpful. We actually ended up discussing career options, and how beneficial further study would be for my aspiration to work in museums.
She suggested looking into summer internships (most of them paid) in the US in museums, which got me really excited. Or even doing a PhD in the US, as again, it's standard for Doctorates to be paid; rather than you paying to study like in the UK. Very tempting, and certainly something to think about!
Part of what also sells the course to me is that there are modules I could take on public history, or do a work placement, that are obviously more vocational based and could give me an edge in a museum career without doing a museum studies MA directly.
Catherine warned me that to get a good job in the sector it is becoming increasingly advantageous to have a PhD.

On a sidenote, while I was sat eating my lunch two girls came up to me and asked if they minded if I sat with them, so of course I was pleased to chat to them. It turns out they are from the US on an exchange program; Lauren is from Atlanta and Torrin from Minneapolis! They have been in the UK only about a week. So obviously I was really interested in them. We sat chatting nonstop for so long I was actually late for my tour, which I didn't really care about because I made some lovely new friends! We were all interested in eachothers cultures, and how the UK/US are perceived by eachother. They asked me so many interesting questions! Anyway, they wanted to know things to do in Sheffield, and I recommended Meadowhall as they said they love shopping, and I told them about the museums and that I volunteered there. And as I was saying bye they asked me if I would take them on a tour of the Sheffield museums! I was surprised haha but it was so nice of them to want to meet up! So we have eachother's numbers and are facebook friends and hopefully I can give them a satisfactory tour!

Overall, I was extremely impressed with the University. I was born in Sheffield and it will always be home to me. Coming back to study an MA in the thing I am most passionate about is a pretty good option for me right now. Depending on finances of course! And I am still thinking of doing it over two years.
Manchester and the museum studies course was wonderful, but I think my heart wants to carry on studying US History, regardless of whether it is the safer option for job prospects.

And to round off my great day, I bought a gorgeous teapot for £1.50 from a charity shop. I have a bit of a thing for sunflowers, and anything brightly coloured.
I know it might not be everyone's cup of tea...

Journey to Justice has well and truly kicked off

(I really should have written this blog post earlier when everything was fresher in my mind, but still, better late than never.)

On the 4th April 2015 I attended the launch event of Journey to Justice in Newcastle's Discovery Museum. It was a really wonderful and inspiring event. There were many incredible speakers, notably Marcia Saunders and Archie Sibeko who spoke emotively of their experiences fighting injustice and standing up for their beliefs, in the freedom summer in Tennessee and South Africa respectively. Both were wonderful speakers who had the audience enthralled at every word.

There was also music performed from NESS, Kingsmeadow Community Choir, Crossings, and legendary folk musicians Johnny Handle and Benny Graham. These singers and musicians sung about freedom and hope, and made every member of the audience believe that they too could transform someone's life for the better through the power of music and words.

Carrie, the director of JtoJ, had worked incredibly hard to get this dream off the ground, and she was spoken highly of throughout the event. Bethany also did a brilliant job as compere, introducing acts and leading the choirs. Clearly the whole team has done so much work to realize a very important idea.

Last night I attended the 'Pits and Protest' event with Joseph and a family friend Brian; an evening of folk music with Johnny Handle and Benny Graham at the Mining Institute. This was another of Journey to Justice's events. I had not been inside the the building before; it is beautiful and really something special. The concert itself was both funny and very poignant. Johnny and Benny sang, read poems, and recited stories of mining disasters and hardships, and it was a very enjoyable evening. Journey to Justice is about the wider world's fight for freedom, but they are also telling the stories of local injustices, such as the lost of the mining communities round Newcastle.

I am only a volunteer, but I have made an effort to be involved at every stage I could and give my support and feedback, and Carrie herself emailed me this morning saying 'You are one of our greatest supporters and that is wonderful to see/hear!' which really made my day! 
I cannot stress enough that what Journey to Justice is doing is incredibly vital in today's world. There is still injustice and exploitation, and we do still needs projects and messages such as this to let people know that it is not ok, and we will not continue to stand by and let it happen.

I'm not an expert at reviewing events and this is only brief, but this blog is about things that I think are important. And the launch event of Journey to Justice was just the beginning of a long and very special journey that is doing a lot of good for so many people. 

[photos to come soon]

The Big Easy

I'm missing the wonderful city of New Orleans today. I've only been to the US once, in February 2013, and we flew from Manchester to Atlanta, and then from there to  New Orleans. We stayed there only a week. But it has left a deep impression on me.

I actually went as part of an A level music trip, through my cousin's school in London. He was a music teacher there and he organized this trip, and me and my friend went along too, with the other students from his school who were all lovely.

I've always looked up my cousin, he's been one of my biggest inspirations ever since I can remember. He did his undergraduate in Music Royal Holloway University, and spent his second year studying in New Orleans. He was there when Hurricane Katrina hit, and he lost the entire years worth of work in the flood because he was evacuated. When I was younger I wanted to have my career in music and to follow in his footsteps. But even as I've got older and realised music isn't for me as a job, I've never stopped looking up to him.

It was an amazing opportunity to be allowed by the school to join this trip. Me and my friend Sarah had an amazing week I'll never forget. We ate out every night as part of the trip, heard live music on every street, had a guided tour of the city's Jazz history, and a general guided tour, we rode on the steamboat Natchez down the Mississippi to the Chalmette battlefield, we went on a night-time ghost walk, we visited Mardi Gras world, and because we were over 18 we were allowed to go out to a Jazz club one evening on Bourbon Street with the teachers when most of the other students were in bed.

If you've ever been, you will know what an incredible place New Orleans is. I was told numerous times how going there is like stepping out of the states. The city is influenced more by the Spanish, French and Caribbean cultures than America itself. It has a very special feel to it. It is so alive; brimming with music and energy unlike anything I'd ever experienced. Yet at the same time, it is such a laid back city. You feel so free there. Everyone is welcome and free to be whoever they choose. 'The Big Easy' is aptly named.

One thing that did strike me is how poor the city looks down on the ground when walking around at night; there are so many beggars and people living on the street that approached us. I was sat next to a lady on the plane there who was travelling to a business conference in New Orleans. She told me to take care because it is not one of America's safest cities. When on our way to a restaurant one evening, my cousin was approached by two men who when he wouldn't give them money, grabbed hold of him. Me and the other students were told by another teacher to walk off and leave him, and he did manage to shake them off after a minute. It was a heart-stopping moment though.

Anyway, what I'm getting down to is that though I will not be visiting New Orleans this summer, I am going back to the States. Back to the country that has my favourite history in the world, and has captured my imagination and my heart since I studied the American West back in 2008.

I was catching up on TV programmes I've missed today on iPlayer, and I watched Reginald D Hunter's 'Songs of the South'; the third episode which is on Mississippi and Louisiana. I have only spent one week of my life there, but seeing New Orleans on the TV; hearing its music, seeing its people and its beautiful buildings, it just felt wonderful to imagine myself back there, breathing in the life of the city.

There are two plans for our trip to America this summer at the moment, and it could go one of two paths. But a definite is that me and Joseph are going to Washington DC and staying with a family friend, visiting Gettysburg and New York City, and very hopefully travelling into Virginia. Perhaps even further south, we shall see.

Music is not for me as a career, but America's music is absolutely wonderful. Its Jazz, the blues, the rhythms and dances all born there and their impact on race relations and the Jim Crow south fascinate me, and is something I am pursuing in my dissertation from September. The deep South is a culturally, politically, socially and economically fascinating place that I will always be drawn to.

I am unbelievably excited for the summer and for what it is going to bring for my personal journey, as well as academically; for the opportunities I will have to do some early research for my dissertation.

Involvement with Journey to Justice

It appears to have been a while, blogspot...

Just a quick update about an exciting opportunity I'm getting involved with!

I'm volunteering in April with Journey to Justice (http://journeytojustice.org.uk/) an organisation promoting human rights movements of the past to inspire people to stand up for injustice today.
They're bringing an exhibition to Newcastle in April on the American Civil Rights movement, and linking it with Newcastle's own radical history. Throughout the month there will be incredible talks, films, music and events promoting human rights of all kinds, and showing the important impact of music on the movement in America in the 1960s. So I'll be present when I can at the exhibition and evening events, answering questions and handing out information.

I met up with the lovely director, Carrie, last week because I could not make the volunteers meeting which had happened the previous day. We had a very interesting chat, introducing me to the project and its aims. Later as I was finishing my cup of tea, Carrie had arranged a meeting with producer and BBC reporter, Murphy Cobbin, who worked on the short film 'A Kings Speech in Tyneside'. This documents Martin Luther King's time there when he received an honorary degree from Newcastle University in 1967, 5 months before he was assassinated. I got chatting to Murphy myself and ended up staying for about 45 minutes of their meeting (oops).

It was a fantastic opportunity to meet with both of these amazing women and hear their experiences of fighting injustice, and their views on civil rights, inspiring me greatly. On doing research in America on the recently discovered footage of MLK's speech in Newcastle, Murphy has recently interviewed many of MLK's friends and fellow activists, including Andrew Young, as well as King's surviving children. She gave us many fascinating insider stories about his life and legacy from her interviews: she literally had me and Carrie hanging on to her every word.

It was a truly remarkable experience I feel really privileged to have had. Perhaps I stayed too long on their meeting (!), but I could not have asked for a better spent, or more thrilling, Thursday afternoon. I am very much looking forward to being involved in the exhibition in Newcastle and following Journey to Justice in its fantastic promotion of human rights.