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Drawing Black Lives in the East End

During July 2015 The Equiano Centre in collaboration with Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archive ran a history and art summer school entitled Drawing Black Lives in the East End as part of the AHRC funded Spaces of Black Modernism project.  

Young people from ages 14-21 took part in a workshop where they:

* Learnt about the black presence in East London's history 
* Explored black history exhibitions and archives 
* Created their own black history comic 

Over four days the group explored different stories and experiences of black people who lived in the East End of London during the 1920s to 1950s. In addition to relevant material from the archival collections at Tower Hamlets Local History Library & Archives, the group also had a guided tour of the display Spaces of Black Modernism at Tate Britain with its co-curator Dr Gemma Romain. 

Visual artist Rudy Loewe led a creative workshop in which each participant designed and produced a comic about one of the people, events or themes they came across in this historical research. All of the comics were published together in a booklet, and presented at a special launch event at Idea Store Whitechapel during the Writeidea Festival in November 2015.