Two exhibitions celebrating diversity in Brent!

 Guest post by Philip Grant in a personal capacity.

   

The “Celebrating Brent’s Somali community” display at Kingsbury Library.

 

One of the best things about living in Brent is the rich diversity across the borough. This is reflected in the way we may look, dress, speak and worship differently, yet can all live side by side as ordinary human beings, and enjoy a great variety of shops, eating places and cultural activities.

 

Brent Museum and Archives, working with volunteers from the community, currently has two small exhibitions in local libraries which celebrate parts of this rich mix. As you may not know about them, I am writing a short piece to share this information, so that you can go and enjoy these displays if you wish to (and I hope you will).

 

There have been Somali people in Brent for more than forty years. The colourful “Celebrating Brent’s Somali community” has been on display at Kingsbury Library since January, and is likely to be there until at least after the school Easter holidays (something to do with your children?). It features a variety of objects from the parts of East Africa where Somali peoples originate from, and shares the stories of some Somali community figures in Brent, including a local councillor. Well worth a visit if you are in the area, or perhaps attending one of the other events which Brent Libraries put on at Kingsbury Library.

Part of the “Portraits of Brent” exhibition at the Willesden Gallery.

 

“Portraits of Brent” is a new exhibition at the Willesden Gallery, on the ground floor of Willesden Green Library. It shares stories of Brent residents whose backgrounds are from South West Asia and North Africa, including portraits of them and objects they have contributed which reflect the cultures their families have brought to our area. Alongside these exhibits is a beautiful modern painting depicting the House of Wisdom, a medieval public library and centre of learning in Baghdad, which was destroyed in a Middle Eastern war (not recently, but more than 750 years ago!).

 

The exhibition’s welcome board.

 

The “Portraits of Brent” exhibition will be available to visit until late April. It is part of a range of exhibitions reflecting various communities which make up Brent’s rich tapestry (I can remember earlier ones featuring Brazil, the Caribbean and Romania, and there have been others as well). These are helping to ensure that the Brent Museum and Archives collections represent everyone in our borough (not just the White British like myself!).

 

I hope you will take the chance to visit these exhibitions, which help us to enjoy the diversity we share in Brent. I believe that diversity is a strength for our community, and that we can and do live and work well together in a multi-cultural society, unlike the former Conservative Home Secretary – twice removed! – who grew up in Brent, and has now transferred her ambition for power to Reform UK! Her political prejudice has no place in our borough.

Philip Grant.