Entries from July 2007 ↓

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WordPress is probably the best and most versatile blogging system available this side of anywhere.

For those of you who don’t already know, WordPress is a web publishing platform (also known as a content management system) written in PHP and backed by a MySQL database. It is used to manage frequently-updated Web content, especially Weblogs. Wordpress is distributed under the GNU General Public License and is available free of charge.

Now “free” is always good to hear, but the best thing about WordPress is not necessarily the price tag or the platform itself. The best thing about WordPress is the way in which legions of bloggers everywhere have taken to the brand, creating their own add-on programs to plug the software’s limitations and inadequacies, which could be described as many and varied. Continue reading →

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Popularity: 47% [?]

Black Oxford: Untold Stories is competing against nine other projects in the Best Heritage category for the chance to win The National Lottery Awards 2007.

Black Oxford: Untold Stories was set up to highlight the presence and contribution of Oxford University’s black scholars. It was noted that there were no black tour guides registered at the Guild of Guides in Oxford and that the current city tours neglected to point out the significant black presence at the University and in Oxford.

Black Oxford: Untold Stories has addressed this issue by creating the first black heritage guided walking tour. The heritage tour is a two hour history lesson featuring contextual information on the early black British presence, the contribution of black people in the First and Second World War, the Windrush generation, and the presence and contribution of Oxford black community and the University’s black scholars.

Black Oxford: Untold Stories is pioneering in that it is the first and only black heritage project to train members of the community to a recognised and competent level with in-depth knowledge of black British, African American and Caribbean history, tour guiding techniques, marketing and promotion.

Black Oxford: Untold Stories is a unique and innovative project that is slowly helping to change the perception that Oxford is a purely white middle-class city. The project has made tour guiding accessible to the community. The tours have made Oxford’s black heritage accessible to a range of people who had no previous knowledge of Oxford’s black scholars or of the city’s black history. The tours are educating the local community, school children and tourists on the impact that the black community has had on the city.

The National Lottery Awards are an annual search to find the UK’s favourite Lottery-funded projects. The Awards aim to celebrate and recognise the difference that those projects have made to people, places and communities all across the UK.

Pamela Roberts, Founder of Black Oxford: Untold Stories said, ‘we’re delighted that Black Oxford: Untold Stories has reached this far in the National Lottery Awards. It is recognition of our hard work, from the initial concept to a project that is really starting to change the perception of Oxford and recognise the presence and contribution of Black people’.

To vote for Black Oxford: Untold Stories visit www.lotterygoodcauses.org.uk/awards
and click through to The National Lottery Awards page. From there click on the heritage category and then vote for Black Oxford: Untold Stories!

Alternatively you can call 0845 386 8114 to register your phone vote (calls cost no more than 1.5p). Every vote counts so if you do have time to vote it is appreciated!

Voting closes on 3rd August.

For further information please contact

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Popularity: 16% [?]

Boy with Beer is a love story that tells of the relationship between two black men. Though certain of that, however, some theatre-goers have been inclined to assume the obvious: that the theme is the conflicts/contradictions involved in being both black and gay.

Confronted by racism in society, and heterosexism in their own communities, black gay men do face formidable challenges, but in fact the theme is much broader than that, and concerns itself with issues of black self love and the power dynamics at the heart of human relationships.

As a play about power, prejudice and the pressures of machismo, about an odd love affair and an extraordinary ‘rite of passage’, the struggle of strength in Boy with Beer is not just a conflict of men, or of male same-sex relationships, but is a conflict at the centre of any black love. Particularly in the Diaspora where black men and women have had to be strong, black love is almost automatically a competitive dance of strength between strong individuals who must find some level on which to communicate and operate as equals. So often what we find in our heterosexual community, for example, is the black man who needs a weaker partner, who is not going to confront him on the level of an equal, going for a spouse of another race, where perhaps the women have been taught to be meeker, more subservient, through their history.

As a story about two black men from different backgrounds, Boy with Beer also throws into relief some aspects of the love-hate relationship between Africans and Afro-Caribbeans, and between the working class and the upwardly mobile professional class living in Britain today. It investigates some of the social, emotional, political and historical baggage that black people carry as individuals and collectively. Because Karl is more emotionally and mentally developed than Donovan, we follow his attempts to raise Donovan’s consciousness, and how he has to resolve himself in order to share love and understanding with the younger man.

Bar the threat of HIV infection, the ending is ostensibly upbeat- `and they lived happily ever after’ - yet we know in our heart of hearts that there is still more work to be done; for `Mr Right’, our ideal mental construct, does not exist except in our own mind’s eye, and we must open our hearts to allow him to emerge in the best approximation that destiny has to offer. In this instance, history has conspired to make black men hate themselves. Yet despite this, black gay men love each other, can protect, comfort and care for each other in a society that despises `blackness’, and a black community that condemns their love. If there is purity in a love that is as essential as the loving of oneself, then when black men love each other in an environment that negates them, it is not a sign of sickness - it is a sign of health.

Then, on the other hand, and these are crucial questions for the reader and audience, can Donovan really love Karl and put him at risk of HIV infection? Does Karl really love himself when he foregoes the use of condoms? Is this simply a slice of real life? Or is there some deeper spiritual significance, a reunion of souls after ‘two thousand seasons past’, and a quest for unconditional love that transcends the physical here and now? Is it better for a brother to be prepared to die for a brother or to shoot him in the back with a gun?

Perhaps these musings are purely subjective and find no common ground at all with your own thoughts on the subject. Yet if Boy with Beer is nothing more than a simple tale of ‘black gay love’ and a call for respect, understanding and dialogue, then I believe it benefits every black man or woman who sees or reads it, some of whom I hope may see themselves reflected in the characters.

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The Saint Lucian government had been pushing for increased tourism on the island, and so as editor of Drum, I went to have a look.

I met up with the Right Honourable Phillip J. Pierre - Minister for Tourism, Commerce, Investment and Consumer Affairs - to discover his philosophy on sustainable tourism and economic development in the region.

I wanted an opportunity to sit with the Minister and talk about some of the things that were of interest to our Drum readers. They wanted to know about sustainable development. I wanted to find out how Drum could help to encourage more travel to the Caribbean and have a presence in the area. One of the obvious benefits would be in helping to develop a stronger skill base (and economic potential) to counteract the usual Caribbean brain drain. Continue reading →

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UK Film Council calls on the industry to broaden the diversity of screenwriting talent.

A new report on how screenwriters of British films are recruited shows that there are opportunities for the UK film industry to encourage a wider range of screenwriting talent, including women as screenwriters in particular.

The first study of its kind, Writing British Films – Who writes British films and how they are recruited, was commissioned by the UK Film Council and conducted by Royal Holloway, University of London. It identifies, for the first time, who writes British films, how they are hired, quashes myths and identifies the critical factors common in the experiences of the women and men who have been successfully commissioned to write British films.

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