Some Great Library Events – but where can you find them online?

 Guest post by local historian Philip Grant

Brent Libraries What’s On leaflet for Spring 2024

 

I know that Brent Libraries have a good programme of free events, and I wanted to let you know about some of them, so I went to my usual online source, the Brent Culture Service Eventbrite site. As you can see, this ‘home of events from Brent Libraries’ has lots of followers, and has previously given access to nearly 500 events for local residents:

 

But when I scrolled down to find out what was on offer for the next few months, this is what I saw:

 

I knew that could not be right, because I am “booked” to give a free library talk myself in March! I contacted the Library Development Officers, who organise these events, to find out why there was nothing on Brent’s Eventbrite website, and was told that they have a new one. Instead of Brent Culture Service, it is now called Brent Libraries, Arts and Heritage, which I think is a much better description. But how many people know about it?

 

I tried “googling” that name, but did not get any “hits” for this new Eventbrite website! I got the address from my Brent Libraries contacts, so before I go any further, let me pass it on to you:

 https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/o/brent-libraries-arts-and-heritage-73407690863

 

You can now pick up a leaflet in your local Brent Library, setting out all the events on offer this Spring. However, it says it the orange sun at the top of the cover picture: ‘Advanced bookings required for most events.’ Those bookings have to be made on Eventbrite, and the leaflet does not give the website address that I’ve just given you above. It does provide a QR code, but if, like me, you are not yet able to use such things, that is little help.

 

It is a “What’s On” booklet, with the brent.gov.uk/whatson website address printed on the front cover, so surely you can get details of all the Brent Libraries events from that online source, can’t you? That site currently lists 212 events, but:

 

 

The events in the Brent Libraries, Arts and Heritage booklet are not on the Council’s main What’s On listings, but they must be in the Events section of the “Libraries” pages on the website, mustn’t they? After all, this is headed: 

 

‘Library Events - We have lots happening across all our libraries, from regular kids events to family learning. Find out what is happening near you.’ 

 

I’m afraid you would be disappointed, because all that appear there are the current (“Exploring grief and loss through art”) and next two exhibitions at The Gallery at Willesden Green.

 

Brent Libraries, Arts and Heritage management and Brent Communications really must sort out this lack of effective online publicity for the programme of free events at Brent Libraries! I know that a lot of effort, by Library Development Officers and others, has gone into providing this programme. It is unfair on the local community, as well as on those Libraries, Arts and Heritage staff members, if hundreds of people who could benefit from these events miss out on them because of the current lack of online information.

 

As well as giving the Eventbrite website address (see link above) I will mention a few events coming up soon which may be of interest to “Wembley Matters” readers.

 

Five Little Ducks story and craft workshop at Wembley Library

 

There are regular weekly Booktrust Story and Rhyme Time sessions for under 5s at all six Brent Libraries, but this coming Saturday and Sunday there is also a number of special events for National Storytelling Week at Wembley and Willesden Green Libraries.

 

Veganuary event at Kingsbury Library on 30 January

 

Next week’s coffee morning event at Kingsbury Library (Tuesday 30 January, 11.15am) is “Veganuary: Trust your gut!”, making healthy snacks with chef Nishma, of the award-winning vegan food business, Shambhu's.

 

Ealing Road Library hosts a regular STEM CLUB, providing science, technology, engineering and mathematics workshops for children aged 8-11. The same venue also provides Family Film Club events during half-term and school holidays – the next one is on 15 February, when “The Little Mermaid” is featured.

 

An author talk at Ealing Road Library on 12 March

 

Ealing Road Library also has a coffee morning event on Tuesday 12 March at 11am, where you can meet Brent-based author, Manoj Kerai, and find out what inspired him to write his novel, “The Burning Bride”. Kilburn Library has regular coffee morning events as well, the next one is on Wednesday 7 February, as does Harlesden Library, with its next coffee morning on Tuesday 20 February.

 

I hope this has inspired you to find out, from the Brent Libraries, Arts and Heritage Eventbrite site, what free events YOU can enjoy at Brent Libraries over the next few months. 

 

Philip Grant

 

P.S. I did mention my next free local history talk, at a Kingsbury Library coffee morning on Tuesday 26 March at 11am, didn’t I?

Can you help with a fascinating Brent local history project to uncover mixed-race family histories?

 Guest post by Philip Grant

 

One of the projects as part of the Brent Museum and Archives “Being Brent” programme is gathering information on the long-neglected subject the mixed-race families in our diverse community. Although it was once widely regarded as a taboo, what is more natural than two human beings who love each other wanting to spend their lives together and have children? The fact that they may have different skin colours, or come from different cultural or religious backgrounds, should not be a barrier to that love.

 

The “By the Cut of Their Cloth” (BTCOCT) project has been engaging with local people and carrying out archival research for several months, and has uncovered some amazing leads that it needs to follow up. That is why it is asking for help now, and you might be the person who can give it! This is what they are saying:

 

Family history researchers! We would love to hear from anyone interested in volunteering their time to help us uncover Brent's mixed race family histories.

 

We have a few fascinating leads from newspapers and archives that we’re keen to learn more about in time for our exhibition in March. If you have experience of and access to online genealogical sites and would be able to spare a few hours, we would be very grateful if you could track down any additional information on some of the accounts we’ve uncovered.

 

·      A Chinese acrobat in Edwardian Britain charged with deserting his Willesden-based Welsh wife, who he said had become ‘too stout’ to perform one of his stage acts.

·      A white waitress who met her wealthy Indian Muslim husband at the 1924 Wembley exhibition and moved to Bhopal with him after their three-month engagement.

 

One of the earliest examples they’ve found comes from a photograph in the Brent Archives collection, taken in the grounds of Neasden Stud Farm in the 1890s. This is an extract from it:

 

From census records, the man in the bowler hat is thought to be John Lambert, born around 1850 in Suffolk, with his wife Emily (originally from Edgware) standing beside him, and a girl thought to be their daughter. John was the farm bailiff, or manager of the farm. BTCOTC would love to know more about his story, and his family!

 

If you would like to learn more about the project, or you think you might be able to help, please go to this website, and scroll down to the "Volunteers" section:
https://mixedmuseum.org.uk/btcotcproject/ . Thank you.

 

Letter: More great local history opportunities from “Being Brent”

 Dear Editor,

 

In a letter last month I wrote about “Flying from Brent”, and some of the other Heritage and Wellbeing projects being facilitated by Brent Museum and Archives as part of their “Being Brent” programme. There are now more “gems” from this project that your readers might like to know about, and take part in, so I’m writing to share the details with them. 

 

Brent Heritage Tours – Willesden logo

 

After a number of popular guided walks during the autumn, Brent Heritage Tours are going “online” for January 2022, with three free illustrated talks on Friday evenings. Tickets can be booked via their Eventbrite pages here:

 

"Queen's Park - Past and Present":  Friday 14 January at 7pm (to 8.30pm):
https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/queens-park-past-and-present-tickets-180818451857?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

 

 

"Willesden - Past and Present":  Friday 21 January at 7pm:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/willesden-past-and-present-tickets-180847889907?aff=ebdsoporgprofile 

 

 

 

Postcard of the High Road, Willesden Green, c.1900.

 

 

"Welsh Harp - Past and Present":  Friday 28 January at 7pm:

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/welsh-harp-past-and-present-tickets-180984247757?aff=ebdsoporgprofile

They will be back with free “live” guided walks from February (numbers on each walk are limited so book early if you are interested), and also have self-guided trails that you can download to explore in your own time. More details on their website at: https://brent-heritage.co.uk/

 

I hope that readers enjoyed my series of articles last month about Ram Singh Nehra and his family. The story of Brent’s multiracial and mixed-race community is one area of our social history which has not received much attention, but another “Being Brent” project is hoping to shine more light on it, with a digital exhibition planned for March 2022. 

 

 

The curators of “By the Cut of Their Cloth”, local artist Warren Reilly and director of The Mixed Museum, Chamion Caballero, need your help to collect as wide a range of memories and photos as possible, to make a permanent record celebrating our community’s rich history of migration and mixing. They are holding two online “open days”, on Saturday 15 January (10am to 4pm) and Sunday 16 January (12noon to 4pm). If you have stories you would like to share, you can find more information, and “book" a private zoom meeting with them, at:

 

https://mixedmuseum.org.uk/news/btcotc-open-days-booking-now-live/   and,

 

https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/by-the-cut-of-their-cloth-open-day-tickets-231641404677

 

I hope you will take, and enjoy, these opportunities. For more about “Being Brent”, and links to the videos already produced from a variety of projects, you can find details on their website. Best wishes,

Philip Grant.

Free online events from Brent Libraries – including an Amy Johnson talk

 Guest post from Philip Grant

 

Although lockdown restrictions because of the Covid-19 pandemic are beginning to ease, normal services at facilities like our local libraries are still something for the future. In the meantime, a small team from Brent Libraries is still working hard to provide free online events for residents of all ages. You can find the details and sign up for free tickets, by “clicking” here.

 

Events in the programme include “Storytime & Rhyme” sessions every Tuesday morning for under 5s and their parents, “coffee morning" sessions for adults at home and a number of evening talks. Within the next fortnight there are three 6.30pm evening sessions on books and authors (including an “adults only” story presentation, “Death and the Warrior Maiden”, for World Book Night on 23 April!).

 

  

The next “coffee morning” event, on Tuesday 20 April at 11am, is a session hosted by Brent Museum and Archives, “Talking Brent’s Heritage”, where residents are welcome to share pictures and stories from our borough’s past. And while I am still not able to give local history talks, planned for 2020, at Kingsbury, Wembley and Willesden Green Libraries, I have been able to offer an online one. 

 

Originally given at a Kingsbury Library “coffee morning” in 2016, I hope that this updated version of “Amy Johnson – From Kingsbury to Australia” will appeal to a wider audience. It concentrates on a year in her life, aged just 26, which saw an unknown secretary from Hull transformed into a world-famous aviator. And most of that year was spent living and working in Kingsbury!

 

It’s the story of a young woman who decided that she wanted to fly, and how she overcame prejudice to fulfil her dream, through hard work and determination. The rules said that women were not allowed in the London Aeroplane Club’s maintenance hangers at Stag Lane Aerodrome, in case they distracted the aircraft mechanics. How did you get round that, if you were a woman who wanted to become one?

 

Amy Johnson, working at Stag Lane Aerodrome.

 

Going solo to Australia was not what she originally had in mind, when she began her flying lessons. But that is what she set off to do on 5 May 1930, and what a journey it was! 

 

My online “coffee morning” talk, on Wednesday 5 May 2021, from 11am to 12noon, is (by pure chance) on the 91^st anniversary of the day she took off for Australia from Croydon Aerodrome. The details, and free tickets for the talk, can be found here.

 

On her way to Australia, Croydon Aerodrome, 5 May 1930.

 

Like all of my library talks, and articles, this one has plenty of illustrations. If you think it may be of interest to you, please check out the details, and sign up for this free Brent Libraries online event. I look forward to sharing my talk with you on Wednesday 5 May!

 

Philip Grant.

Meet tomorrow to help plan Grunwick commemoration 40 years on

Painting by Dan Jones

Plans are forging ahead to commemorate the 40th anniversary of the Grunwick strike, one of the most significant events for trade unionists and anti-racists in the last century.

Plans include a mural, a major exhibition in conjunction with Brent Heritage,  a conference and other events initiated by Brent Trades Council and the Willesden Town Team. LINK

There is a meeting tomorrow (Thursday) at 7pm at Brent Trades Hall to further the plans. Everyone welcome - you don't have to be someone who remembers the strike to take part!

Brent Trades Hall (London Apollo Club) 375 High Rd, Willesden, NW10 2JR Dollis Hill tube / Near Willesden Bus Garage