Oxford Windrush Festival 2022

25/06/2022

Working alongside other members of the Oxford Windrush Group, Fusion Arts helped support the delivery of the Oxford Windrush Festival (22nd - 25th June) around Windrush Day 2022 on the 22nd June. The festival took the form of a week of exciting events including theatrical performances, talks, and exhibitions that were all about celebrating Oxford's Windrush community, recognising their contribution and paying respects to their hardships.

A week of events

For Oxford Windrush Festival 2022 the events were developed around the theme of Reparations.

  • 21st,22nd, and 23rd June - Caribbean Living Room exhibition. Drop-in exhibition at 58 Between Towns Road, Oxford.
  • 22nd June - Memorial lecture 'Reimagining Reparations', with criminologist Dr Martin Gynn at the Pitt Rivers Museum.
  • 23rd, 24th and 25th June - SOLD, performance event at arts of the Old Fire Stations - a forgotten true story told through theatre, song, live drumming and dance.

Read more about the events

At Templars Square in Cowley is a pop-up exhibition with a difference! In 2018, ACKHI and BK.LUWO created a reconstruction of a typical West Indian front living room from the 1960s at the Museum of Oxford to mark the 70th anniversary of the docking of the SS Empire Windrush. This exhibition has proved extremely popular and is now in its third year of running, having moved locations to our temporary space at 58 Between Towns Road, Cowley! After reopening its doors following lockdown, the living room was open throughout the festival week. People could drop in to in to learn about the experiences of the Oxford Windrush Generation, find out what people wore on their journey to England and explore a 1960s Afrikan Caribbean living room.

Reimagining Reparations: a criminological perspective

Dr Martin Glynn's talk will cover the idea of reparations from a criminal justice perspective.

Dr Martin Glynn is a criminologist and Winston Churchill Fellow with over 35 years’ experience of working in criminal justice, public health, and educational settings. As a writer Dr Martin Glynn has written for theatre, television, radio drama, children’s writing, and data storytelling. Dr Glynn is currently a lecturer in criminology at Birmingham City University and is the creative director of Algorhythm Creative Lab.

This lecture is organised by the Oxford Windrush Group, as part of the Oxford Windrush Festival 2022, at Pitt Rivers Museum- lecture theatre.

Windrush Day was introduced in June 2018 on the 70th anniversary of the Windrush migration. The purpose of Windrush Day is to encourage communities across the country to celebrate the contribution of the Windrush Generation and their descendants.

Fresh from winning two OFFIES Awards, opening the Bermuda Festival and by popular demand, SOLD has returned to Oxford as part of its finale.

SOLD is the story of Mary Prince and her journey to overcome the brutality of enslavement through the power of her indomitable spirit. She was born in enslavement in the British Caribbean colony of Bermuda but went on to become an abolitionist and autobiographer. Her book was the first account of the life of a Black woman to be published in the UK, and her first-hand description of the brutalities of enslavement had a galvanising effect on the anti-slavery movement.

Told through theatre, song, drumming and dance, SOLD is a masterpiece of Black British theatre relying on a form that relives the storytelling traditions of the West African griot. Presented in partnership with the Oxford Windrush Group, an evening of performance, debates and conversations.

Amantha Edmead from Kuumba Nia Arts - interview on BBC South news (Oxford).

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Supporters of Fusion Arts

Oxford City Council Arts Council England National Lottery Funded Project Grant National Lottery Community Fund Oxfordshire Community Foundation Here for Culture Doris Field Charitable Trust BBC Children in Need Levelling Up South Oxfordshire District Council Christ Church College Jesus College