The Beatfreeks Collective is a group of companies using creativity for good, based in the heart of Birmingham. Their arts initiative, Free Radical, has just won an award as part of the Heritage Lottery £10m 'Kick the Dust' fund. This will fund a 3 year Radical History project: "a landmark opportunity for young people in Birmingham and The Black Country to decolonize the history of the region by connecting them to the stories of the areas they live in. RHP will also support young people in taking their seat at the table and having a say in how heritage organisations work."

Birmingham's history is one of huge growth during the Industrial Revolution, but as happens so often the telling has been selective. "The sad truth is that [Birmingham's] canals were used to carry guns from the Gun Quarter and chains from the Black Country to the UK’s ports, and then to African and American colonies to subjugate slaves and oppress peoples. We need the city’s heritage organisations to tell all of these stories to make sure that the history they are presenting, represents everyone who lives here." This will be an important project educating people about their hidden history and legacy. Read more here...

A forgotten part of the history of black people in Britain is to be revisited with an exhibition revealing how some of the most celebrated black fighters in the early struggle against slavery were once held in a British prison. During the wars against revolutionary and Napoleonic France of the late 18th and early 19th Centuries, when Britain’s black population numbered no more than 10,000, some 2,000 African-Caribbean people were held as prisoners of war in Portchester Castle in Portsmouth Harbour. Read more here.

The exhibition, 'Black Prisoners of War at Portchester Castle', opens on July 20. More details here.

'Cotton Panic!' tells the story of the cotton workers of the North of England and their inspiring solidarity with the slaves of the American South during the US Civil War. When the supply of cotton to English mills was blockaded, the mills stopped and, with no welfare, the workers suffered horribly. But at an historic public meeting at Manchester's Free Trade Hall they identified with the slaves and their fight for freedom, sending a letter of support to Abraham Lincoln. Using a mixture of industrial music, folk-songs, imagery, dance, poetry and spoken word –including contemporary accounts and documents – Cotton Panic! is more of a gig than a piece of theatre. But, despite some of the words not always being clear, and with a mesmerising central performance by Jane Horrocks, the story is well-told and the links between the workers and slaves are clear. A final song is accompanied by a fast-moving collage of contemporary images of politicians, protesters, Black Lives Matter and significant events, which brings the issues bang up to date. Very effective.

In a post-show Q&A, the creators spoke about how the production came to be written. Jane Horrocks on 'Who Do You Think You Are?' discovered she was descended from mill-workers from this time and realised this was a largely untold story. The lack of education about the human aspects of slavery and the Industrial Revolution, and the lack of knowledge by Manchester people about their own history and culture became a theme of the Q&A. There is a job to be done!

​Paul Keeble