Introduction to Brockley Festival of Ideas 2017
Clare Cowen – Chair of the Brockley Society (starts at 0m 0s)
Laurelle Henry – Lewisham Young Mayor (starts at 05m 02s)
Full audio recording: 1h 18m
See below for start times of individual speakers.
Session 1: Battle of Lewisham: 40 years later
Chaired by Lorna Jackson
Dr William ‘Lez’ Henry – Associate Professor, Criminology & Sociology, University of West London
Dr John Price – Senior Lecturer and Head of History at Goldsmiths
Mark ‘Mr T’ Thompson – Performance Poet
Nacheal Catnott – Filmmaker and Goldsmiths Alumnus
Esther Stanford-Xosei – Reparations Scholar-Activist
The 5 panelists for Session 1: “Battle of Lewisham: 40 years later”
Introduction to the Session
Lorna Jackson – Brockley Society
Starts at 07m 01s
Victimisation and Persecution
Dr William ‘Lez’ Henry
Starts at 08m 06s
Dr William ‘Lez’ Henry is an activist, writer and public speaker who is of Jamaican parentage and was born in Lewisham Hospital, Southeast London. AKA Lezlee Lyrix, he is one of the pioneering British Reggae Dancehall Deejays and has performed both nationally and internationally. He is an Associate Professor of Criminology & Sociology, University of West London, and has written and spoken nationally and internationally, on many of the concerns faced by people of African Ancestry; as well as addressing wider issues around social injustice. He is a Hung Kuen, 5 Animals, Shaolin Kung Fu Instructor and is a 1st Dan in Kyokushinkai, Full Contact, Karate.
Marking 40 Years of the Battle of Lewisham
Dr John Price
Starts at 19m 41s
Dr John Price is a social and cultural historian at Goldsmiths, University of London, specialising in 19th and 20th century British history, the history of London, and people’s history. August 13, 2017, marked the 40th anniversary of protests and disturbances in New Cross and Lewisham which have become known as the ‘Battle of Lewisham’. John organised an impressive series of events for Goldsmiths to remember, commemorate and evaluate the 1977 events and to try and situate them into the contemporary context of 21st century London.
Brockley Born and Bred; Tale Into Verse
Mark ‘Mr T’ Thompson
Starts at 31m 17s
Mark Thompson is a poet, teacher and workshop facilitator. Brockley born and Bred, both his mother and step dad were on the demonstration in ’77, so when he heard about the events to mark the 40th anniversary, he decided turn the tale into verse.
Our Unheard History
Nacheal Catnott
Starts at 42m 02s
Nacheal is a filmmaker, originally from Lewisham South London. She recently completed an MA in Documentary Filmmaking at Goldsmiths University, and is interested in creating diverse content that addresses race migration and cross cultural diversity in the U.K.
The Aftermath
Esther Stanford-Xosei
Starts at 47m 15s
Esther Stanford-Xosei is a jurisconsult and community advocate specialising in the critical legal praxis of ‘law as resistance’, an internationally acclaimed Reparationist and PhD candidate researcher in history. Esther serves as the Co-Vice Chair of the Pan-Afrikan Reparations Coalition in Europe (PARCOE), the official spokesperson for the Afrikan Emancipation Day Reparations March Committee (AEDRMC) which organises the annual 1st August Reparations March in London, and co-initiator of the ‘Stop the Maangamizi: We Charge Genocide/ Ecocide’ Petition and its campaign (SMWeCGEC).
Audience Questions and Discussion
Starts at 58m 50s
Links to other pages:
Session 2: Housing, Homelessness and Inequality
Session 3: Debt, Money and Exploitation
Session 4: Food and the Environment
Session 5: From Ideas to Action
Film and Video
Picture Gallery
2017 Festival homepage