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Race, Games and Play: Black Representation in Childhood
Explore early childhood learning and the black British experience through the hidden messages sometimes found within children's stories, nursery rhymes and toys.
+44 (0)20 7942 2000
Past Event
Share your memories of childhood learning, creativity and development, through our talks and debates with comic and nursery rhyme collectors, book publishers, writers and illustrators, children's television presenters, champions for education and the Black child, and a tribute to a designer and collector of action heroes. View items of material culture within the V&A, partner organisations and independent collectors, and hear a newly commissioned poem that embraces childhood, schooling, migration and identity. Bring a photo of you as a child or young person for our pop-up ‘rogues gallery’.
• Diane Louise Jordan, TV and Radio Presenter will talk about her time as the first black presenter on BBC’s Blue Peter, and her new project ‘Legacy Daughters’ to celebrate the 70th Anniversary of Windrush.
• Verna Wilkins founder of Tamarind Books and author of over 30 picture books for children and young people will talk about her life and experiences in publishing.
• Ian Rakoff, screenwriter, editor and comic book collector will talk about growing up in apartheid South Africa, and the social history and artistic merits that informs his collecting.
• Dr Sheine Peart, NASENCO Course Leader at Nottingham Institute of Education will examine why the lack of black dolls (& action figures) could be detrimental to the emotional development of the black child.
• Jennifer Lewis, Director of CEN (Communities Empowerment Network) explores black UK childhood and what often attributes to the dumbing down of creative expression, aptitude and dreams of a successful future.
• Dan Jones, Artist and Human Rights Campaigner shares his work as a collector of multicultural nursery rhymes centred around 'The Singing Playground'.
• Kunle Olulode, Director, Voice4Change England, will pay tribute to the independent creative director and collector Jon Daniel whose childhood narrative was captured within the Afro Supa Hero exhibition at Museum of Childhood.
• Raoul Dero, the Poet polymath will endeavour to capture the essence of black UK childhood based on the material culture and presentations of the day.
Celebrating the UNESCO Decade for People of African Decent 2015 – 2024
