Our Creative Education Producer, Amy, on her new project ‘Lit Legacies’
Recently, our Creative Education Producer, Amy Saleh launched her new project Lit. Legacies. Below she discusses the conception of Lit.Legacies and the reasons for its necessary existence.
January 31st at Fairfield High School in Bristol was the night of the Lit. Legacies launch event, and it was incredible. Before I tell you why, let me rewind and fill you in on the project’s background, rationale and trajectory.
Lit. Legacies is the name of a project conceived in April 2023. The name is a play on words, with ‘Lit.’ standing for three things: an abbreviation for Literature; ‘Lit’ as in cool/exciting, and ‘Lit’ as in alight/a flame. The ‘Legacies’ is about paying homage to the shoulders that we stand upon, the struggles and joys that came before us that we can learn and draw from. That’s also why we have a flame in our logo - to signify the passing on of a torch.
The project’s aim is to remove some of the barriers secondary school teachers face when it comes to the prospect of teaching Black British literature (time, resources, knowledge, and confidence) by curating schemes of work and training. One reason these barriers exist is because the UK’s GCSE English Literature syllabus has been gathering dust for quite some time, with the same texts being taught year after year. If you studied ‘Lord of the Flies’ by William Golding, ‘An Inspector Calls’ by J.B. Priestley, or ‘Animal Farm’ by George Orwell, it’s likely that one of your parents/guardians, aunts or uncles did too! The lack or absence of Black writers on English literature syllabuses has also been apparent within universities. Therefore, many English teachers in state schools (of which 85.1% are White British) don’t feel prepared to teach Black British literature, especially texts that deal with issues of race and racism.
So, from the range of Black British literature that has recently been added to GCSE English Literature set text lists, I decided to start with Chinonyerem Odimba’s play ‘Princess & The Hustler’, for three reasons:
It is set in Bristol during the time of the Bus Boycott (which celebrated its 60th anniversary last year) - a defining moment in British history.
The central character is a dark-skinned Black girl (nuff said!)
It is a beautiful play that overturns dominant narratives, speaks to the resilience of Black communities, and illustrates Black joy through its presentation of family, language and culture.
Next came the team formation. I was clear from the beginning that I wanted to work with other Black English teachers so that we could centre our knowledge and lived experiences, while authoring our own narratives and creations. The project team includes: Cashan Campbell (Assistant Vice Principal at Fairfield High School), Tanisha Hicks-Beresford (Cathedral Schools Trust Equalities Lead at Bristol Cathedral Choir School), Demarco Ryans (Key Stage Four Coordinator at St John the Baptist School), and myself (Senior Lecturer in Education at UWE).
With the vision in mind and a team waiting in the wings, being awarded a small pot of funding from the Arts and Humanities Research Council (AHRC) set the wheels in motion. Months and months of work, interspersed with some joyful team meals, went into the curation of the curriculum materials. A key part of the process was the school workshops we held, where GCSE students had the chance to get to know and discuss the play, before offering their evaluations of the scheme of work and considerations for its implementation. This was skilfully filmed and illustrated by Olumedia in our promotional video which premiered at the launch event.
On the night of the launch, the project team opened with a synopsis of the play, the project rationale, and a description of the school workshops. Then, we took time to honour Bristol’s Black community elders who were involved in the Bristol Bus Boycott in some way. To have them attend the launch and share some of their personal experiences was deeply moving. This was followed by a powerful spoken word performance by local poet, Muneera Pilgrim, whose themes align beautifully with the play and tell an authentic story of Bristol and Black girlhood. Attendees had the chance to win free copies of the play text and were encouraged to engage with Bristol Bus Boycott 360, an initiative led by Julian Davis of Curiosity UnLtd. The night ended with a delicious Caribbean buffet from The Jamaican Hideaway.
We were overwhelmed with positive feedback at the end of the night. People described the project as ‘empowering’, ‘inspiring’, and ‘needed’. It felt kind of surreal seeing almost a year’s worth of work culminate in such a beautiful event. It doesn’t end there, though! Lit. Legacies’ journey has only just begun. If you want to keep updated with our work, and/or check out our resources, visit our Twitter page (@litlegacies2023).
