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#BRHFestival2024 - Full Programme Now Online!The Bristol Radical History Festival 2024 will take place over two days, entry is FREE and ALL are welcome - no booking needed:
- Saturday 20th April, 10am-4.30pm at M Shed, Princes Wharf, Wapping Rd, Bristol BS1 4RN
- Sunday 21st April, 2-8.30pm at Cube Cinema, Dove Street South [off top-left of King Square], Bristol BS2 8JD
The Full Programme is here now - https://www.brh.org.uk/site/event-series/bristol-radical-history-festival-2024/
On Saturday 13th April, 11am-2pm, as a Festival warm-up, we'll be 'Opening the Archives' as Bristol Central Reference Library makes available documents for the Bristol Radical History Festival. Details - https://www.brh.org.uk/site/events/opening-the-archives-3/
Bristol Radical History Festival 2024 #BRHF2024
At M Shed – Saturday 20 April:
Theme 1 - War Zones: Bristolians who went to struggle for a better world
From the Haitian revolution to present day struggles in Myanmar and Syria, by way of the International Brigades in the Spanish civil war, the struggle against apartheid in South Africa and the Zapatista rebellion, these talks will reveal the stories and motivations of those courageous souls who have undertaken international solidarity, put their lives in danger and even taken up arms in the cause of social justice worldwide.
Theme 2 - Workhouses and Madhouses: Histories of mental health and social care in Bristol
Investigating Bristol’s response to the poor and the mentally ill over the centuries, we show how the treatment of mental health and social care in the city changed in response to community pressure. From Mason’s Madhouse, an 18th century lunatic asylum in Fishponds, and scandals over the treatment of the sick and mentally ill in the Eastville and Bedminster workhouses during the Victorian period to hidden histories of the Muller Road orphanage, we find out how the vulnerable were often trapped in intertwining exploitation. The more enlightened approach of the Victorian Glenside hospital, now the site of a fascinating museum of mental health, and the story of how some of Bristol’s most marginalised women defied psychiatric orthodoxy to create the user-led Bristol Crisis Service for Women in the 1980s, show us how much has changed and yet how much there is still to do.
Theme 3 - Doing Radical History: a DIY guide
What is radical history? How can you do it? Find out in a series of talks, panels and multimedia presentations showing how anyone can chose a subject close to home and start their own research project. Find out how to ‘dig where you stand’ by uncovering treasures in your local archive, set up your own publishing press, create a community oral history project, celebrate overlooked heroes with commemorative plaques, make TV history from below and create educational resources that teach about the power of everyday folk. Citizen historians from the Bristol Radical History Group and beyond will share their knowledge, enthusiasm and experience to set you on your way to becoming the most radical historian you know!
It’s not just history talks…
History walks…leaving from M Shed
- The real story of the Countering Colston campaign: find out what really happened
- The 1831 Bristol reform riots: a soundscape experience at the sites of riot
- Bristolians vs the Blackshirts: militant anti-fascists in the 1930s
Exhibitions…in M Shed
- Riot 1831! – The launch of an expanded exhibition in the protest gallery examining the Bristol riot
- TTEACH – a display of the Transatlantic Trafficked Enslaved African Corrective Historical plaques
- Mike Baker the ‘plaque maker’ – a celebration of the Bristolian artist, craftsman and historian
- The 1831 reform riots in the southwest – a touring display unmasking disturbances in Somerset, Dorset, Bath, Newport and Worcester.
There will also be STALLS with history books and merchandise from local and national groups.
At the Cube Microplex – Sunday 21 April:
Theme - Republicans and Revolutionaries
Further talks reveal a hidden history of the Irish revolution with a Bristol connection; the development of autonomous working-class education; and two new radical histories of the Spanish Civil War, the first investigating the role of Irish Republicans in the international brigades and the second based on oral histories of women who fought in the conflict.
Final Cube event at 6pm: We are also delighted to offer in the early evening a rare screening of 'Walter Rodney: What They Don’t Want You to Know', followed by a discussion about the life and death of the revolutionary Guyanese academic and Black Power activist, by Luke Daniel.
Plus: Our friends from the Bristol Squatted project will be leading a guided walk leaving from the Cube and taking us through the hidden history of squatting in St Pauls, Montpelier and Stokes Croft.
Directions to M Shed - https://www.bristolmuseums.org.uk/m-shed/plan-your-visit/getting-here/
Directions to the Cube Cinema - https://cubecinema.com/pages/about/directions/
Follow us on X/Twitter - https://twitter.com/BrisRadHis
Join us on FB here https://www.facebook.com/bristolradicalhistorygroup/ and here https://www.facebook.com/groups/126960655805/
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Event Venue & Nearby Stays
M Shed, Bristol Industrial Museum, Wapping Road, Bristol, BS1 4, United Kingdom,Bristol, United Kingdom