Author Event: Black History Month At Battersea Library, 2021

Tales from the Library.
Battersea Library, on Lavender Hill. The only Brown kid on the block in the 1950s, where I read tales of golliwogs in Enid Blyton; and crammed for my A-levels in the ‘60s to fail them several times, a stone’s throw from the hairdresser where I got my first Afro. Tooting Library, in the 1990s, where I took my kids on Saturday mornings for Read Aloud, and still books featuring Black and Brown faces by Black and Brown writers telling positive Black and Brown tales were in short supply. Maya Angelou says, if there’s a book you want to read, but it hasn’t been written yet, then you must write it. I did. These days the world is clamouring for Black and Brown Stories for our diverse generation. Libraries are back to the future, homed in the most iconic buildings in Wandsworth, telling universal tales; a beacon for the principle of sharing, re-using, pre-loving, re-cycling, community spaces, free at the point of delivery. The kind of world we want our kids to grow up in.

Wandsworth Libraries Library week 2021

October is Black History Month, an annual commemoration of the history, achievements and contributions of black people in the UK. Wandsworth Libraries have a full programme of events celebrating African and Caribbean cultures and histories.