OCTOBER is BLACK HISTORY MONTH
and I am giving some Spoken Word talks in and around London
Do come along where and when you can, to celebrate with us!
OCTOBER is BLACK HISTORY MONTH
and I am giving some Spoken Word talks in and around London
Do come along where and when you can, to celebrate with us!
Upcoming Events:
12 September 2025 6pm
Spoken Word Event
City Lit Adult Education College
1-10 Keeley Street, Covent Garden, London, WC2B 4BA
About the Events:
By way of an interactive Spoken Word presentation, I have taken control of the sad story of my historical ancestor Saartjie Baartman, who was trafficked in 1810 and put on display at Piccadilly Circus in London, then sold to a French animal keeper who had her standing in a cage in Paris, where she died in 1815. Why? Just because she had a big bum, and the exhibition fed the erotic fantasies of the Georgian public.
What was it like for Saartjie standing there - discussed as if she were not present, poked at and insulted in words which they thought she could not understand (but which she could as she spoke English)? Her experiences have, for more than two hundred years, been dissected and written about by mostly third-party white, leisure-classed male, academic observers, whose contorted and stereotypical opinions History has accepted as fact. For the first time Saartjie herself gets an opportunity to say her suffering in her own words. The presentation is based on my book Hottentot Venus – the Story of Saartjie Baartman (2023, Austin Macauley), written in the first person.
Past Events:
TELL YOUR STORY!
Reclaiming Narrratives, “taking control of our stories and honouring our heroes” (following the title of BHM 2024 Theme).
8 October 2025 7.30 pm – 8.30 pm.
St James’s Church, 197 Piccadilly, London W1J 9LL. See Eventbrite
10 October 2025 6pm-7pm
Hammersmith & Fulham Hammersmith Library W6 7AT See Website Facebook
15 October 2025 6pm – 8pm
Kensington Central Lecture Theatre W8 7RX (See Eventbrite )
17 October 2025 6pm
Blackheath Library,
26 October 2025 2 – 2.30 pm
St Luke’s Community Centre, 90 Central Street, London EC1V 8AJ JUST TURN UP!
(British Library event has been cancelled.
Apologies for inconvenience caused)
8 OCTOBER 2025 - 10am
Maureen and Monica are giving an interactive
Author Workshop (free)
We will tell the story of Apartheid and Me and the children will draw
their ideas of what it feels like to be excluded.
Islington Central Library, London
Tickets still available. Click here