The Finding Our Way team collaborated with All Souls College to use the contested space of the former Codrington library to explore how we can make meaningful, lasting change. On 18 April, they organised a workshop with community members, researchers and creative practitioners to discuss initiatives for change and reparations in Oxford and beyond. On 20 April, they invited members of both universities, as well as community organisations to a performance of an extract from the production of Still Breathing by Euton Daley’s Unlock the Chains Collective. A scroll of honour was revealed and covered the Codrington statue in the library, commemorating those who were enslaved on the Codrington plantations, Caribbean scholars who studied at Oxford University, members of the local African Caribbean community who passed on and the ones who continue making a difference in the city – some of them present at the event. The scroll of honour was fabricated by students and graduates of the Foundation Art programme at Brookes supported by Rachel Barbaresi and Ruth Millar. Director Euton Daley opened the discussion on change and attendees shared their thoughts and feelings about the performance as well as the space and its significance in the reclamation of the African Caribbean experience in Oxford.
Hanna Klien-Thomas and Rachel Barbaresi: Finding our Way – Workshop and performance at All Souls Library
May 14, 2023
