(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]
Showing posts with label Newcastle. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Newcastle. Show all posts
Sunday, 12 April 2015
Monday, 23 February 2015
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.
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.
Tuesday, 3 February 2015
Lecture from John Dobai
I am a student at Newcastle University, and I attended a public lecture here yesterday from John Dobai, a holocaust survivor.
He was born in Budapest and lost family members in the gas chambers, and has had many horrifying experiences, including a very narrow escape from being sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He spoke of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish man who saved many lives, and personally saved John's and his parents lives by acquiring for them a visa, giving them protection under the Swedish government, and a safe house to live in.
I found his lecture extremely powerful and emotional, and am very honored to have heard him speak. He is a truly inspirational man, and notably optimistic about human nature. I found his comment on German people today inspiring: he said he does not have any hard feelings towards them, despite the fact that members of his family were killed by their ancestors. In my opinion he is right in saying that people cannot be blamed for atrocities that happened before they were born. We are all individuals, with a right to be known and remembered for our own actions.
He answered questions on his early life and experiences after giving his lecture, going into his thoughts and feelings on events, and very understandably saying that he still finds his past painful. It was intensely moving to hear him speak so articulately of the horrors he has witnessed. John Dobai came across to me as remarkably brave man, doing something very important.
His work in lecturing on his life and remembering the Holocaust, his family and the other victims, is crucial in today's world. People often prefer to brush painful subjects over, and while being aware of them, they would rather pretend they were not. But it is a week and 70 years since the largest concentration camp, Auschwitz, was liberated, and we cannot brush this over.
John requested that we do not act indifferent to discrimination, of any type. This legacy of the Holocaust is extremely essential to remember. We cannot forget, and we cannot always put blame on others. The things we do not do make us into the people we are, as much as the actions we actually carry out. He spoke of how Hungary still does not today freely admit that they committed war crimes themselves, and continue to blame Germany. But it is widely known that the German people of today have come a long way in accepting their past and moving forward.
To sum up my thoughts, I came away from the lecture with two significant messages. One is that we should not brush over and forget events such as the Holocaust, because forgetting makes it harder to move on and face the future, which will hopefully a better one. And secondly, we are what we make of ourselves. Humans have committed dreadful acts in the past, but we have the right to be judged by our own actions, and on our own initiatives. We have been given the task of standing up to injustice in today's world, and to not be bystanders. I sincerely hope there is never again such an act of genocide as during the second world war, but that does not lessen crimes of the modern day and give them any more legitimacy.
John Dobai is an incredibly example of making something good out of something terrible, through his work in promoting the remembrance of the Holocaust and its victims. His lecture was emotive and inspiring, and I am very glad to have heard his thoughts first hand.
I intend to visit Budapest myself in July 2015 and I feel I will now go with a more open mind, and an more open heart to the injustice suffered, and what can be done to help make our tomorrow better as a human race.
He was born in Budapest and lost family members in the gas chambers, and has had many horrifying experiences, including a very narrow escape from being sent to Auschwitz-Birkenau. He spoke of Raoul Wallenberg, a Swedish man who saved many lives, and personally saved John's and his parents lives by acquiring for them a visa, giving them protection under the Swedish government, and a safe house to live in.
I found his lecture extremely powerful and emotional, and am very honored to have heard him speak. He is a truly inspirational man, and notably optimistic about human nature. I found his comment on German people today inspiring: he said he does not have any hard feelings towards them, despite the fact that members of his family were killed by their ancestors. In my opinion he is right in saying that people cannot be blamed for atrocities that happened before they were born. We are all individuals, with a right to be known and remembered for our own actions.
He answered questions on his early life and experiences after giving his lecture, going into his thoughts and feelings on events, and very understandably saying that he still finds his past painful. It was intensely moving to hear him speak so articulately of the horrors he has witnessed. John Dobai came across to me as remarkably brave man, doing something very important.
His work in lecturing on his life and remembering the Holocaust, his family and the other victims, is crucial in today's world. People often prefer to brush painful subjects over, and while being aware of them, they would rather pretend they were not. But it is a week and 70 years since the largest concentration camp, Auschwitz, was liberated, and we cannot brush this over.
John requested that we do not act indifferent to discrimination, of any type. This legacy of the Holocaust is extremely essential to remember. We cannot forget, and we cannot always put blame on others. The things we do not do make us into the people we are, as much as the actions we actually carry out. He spoke of how Hungary still does not today freely admit that they committed war crimes themselves, and continue to blame Germany. But it is widely known that the German people of today have come a long way in accepting their past and moving forward.
To sum up my thoughts, I came away from the lecture with two significant messages. One is that we should not brush over and forget events such as the Holocaust, because forgetting makes it harder to move on and face the future, which will hopefully a better one. And secondly, we are what we make of ourselves. Humans have committed dreadful acts in the past, but we have the right to be judged by our own actions, and on our own initiatives. We have been given the task of standing up to injustice in today's world, and to not be bystanders. I sincerely hope there is never again such an act of genocide as during the second world war, but that does not lessen crimes of the modern day and give them any more legitimacy.
John Dobai is an incredibly example of making something good out of something terrible, through his work in promoting the remembrance of the Holocaust and its victims. His lecture was emotive and inspiring, and I am very glad to have heard his thoughts first hand.
I intend to visit Budapest myself in July 2015 and I feel I will now go with a more open mind, and an more open heart to the injustice suffered, and what can be done to help make our tomorrow better as a human race.
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