Hackney School Visit
On the 16th and 23rd of May 2022, the Black Books Matter UK team facilitated our Literary Leaders Programme at Sir Thomas Abney Primary School in Hackney with their two Year 6 classes. The workshop sessions are designed to combine a book club environment, with opportunities for open discussion, with a range of creative writing and drama exercises centred around the themes of anti-racism, allyship and identity.
The young people were introduced to the terminology of racism, anti-racism, allyship and activism and expressed shock by facts such as ‘In 2019, just under 9% of children’s authors and illustrators were people of colour, creating 7% of titles’.
Our Book Detectives exercise further encouraged the young people’s awareness of the diversity of published children’s books on their classroom bookshelf. The titles were sorted into categories based on the skin colour of the characters on the front cover and type of literature. The young people detected that there were slightly more books with white characters on the front than majority world characters, many of the students openly expressed that they thought this was unfair .
“Today I learned the meaning of allyship and the lack of representation of minorities in books”
The young people also took part in a range of drama and creative writing exercises. The Freeze Frame drama exercise gave them the opportunity to work together in small groups to create a still and moving image after being given an inanimate object to replicate using only their bodies. The creativity is the room was amazing with groups even considering the small details of making sound effects of a clock and a washing machine to try and help their classmates guess their given brief.
The young people were asked to individually design their own identity maps, noting down elements of their identity and unique personality in preparation for writing their very own ‘I am…’ poems using line prompts to give them inspiration. The pieces of writing that were voluntarily shared at the end of the session were incredibly moving, thoughtful and poetic.
“I am eleven
I hear people who are so benevolent
I see life
I want to strive
I am alive
I pretend to be floating in nothingness
I feel happiness
I worry about the human race
I believe when you are in heaven you get God’s grace
I am happy
I hope to thrive
I understand to survive
I dream to be amazing
I try to be amazing
I am surrounded by love
I am me”
