Sound and vision blog

Following the integration of the Key Stage Two (KS2; ages 7 - 11) Windrush Voices workshop into the British Library’s core schools programme, members of the Learning Team have been developing a workshop for Key Stage 3 (KS3; ages 11 - 14) learners. This uses a similar framework to the KS2 workshop, using the process of interactive listening to help engage learners with oral testimonies. The three extracts selected for the KS3 workshop are of Vanley Burke, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Andrea Levy, all discussing their experiences of school.

Vanley Burke on going to school in Britain as a child (BL reference C459/217) 

Download Vanley Burke on going to school in Britain as a child transcript

Linton Kwesi Johnson 'aspirations above my station' (BL reference C1276/60)

Download Linton Kwesi Johnson 'aspirations above my station' transcript

Andrea Levy on experiences at school (BL reference C1276/59)

Download Andrea Levy on experiences at school transcript

The rationale for this selection is that the theme is immediately relevant to the listeners, providing a point of connection and resonance with learners who are a similar age to the recollections in the clips. Before listening, learners are told some contextual information about the interviewees and for each one, asked to consider what they are expecting to hear. Following each clip, learners have a chance to reflect, thinking about what they heard, whether it was in line with their expectations, and whether there were any surprises, both in what was said and what was omitted. They are then encouraged to consider what follow-up questions they would like to have asked, further contributing to the interactive dynamic.

An additional aspect introduced for this workshop is to draw out similarities and differences between the extracts. This is a useful technique as it helps create an analytical framework and focused way of listening to and thinking about the extracts. On the surface, there are more obvious similarities between the experiences of Vanley Burke and Linton Kwesi Johnson, both encountering a system that had low expectations of Caribbean working-class Black boys. Vanley reflects that ‘it was like the wild west’ whilst Linton recalls being told by a careers advisor that he had ‘aspirations above his station.’

Vanley Burke. Image Courtesy of Birmingham Post & Mail, 2014

On first listen, Andrea Levy’s account provides clear differences, with her experiences sounding much more positive. At one point, she laughs as she recalls doing well in tests:

‘I’d come top and I just couldn’t believe it you know I just because you know I just couldn’t believe that I could I mean what were they doing you know I was not working hard…I I don’t I still don’t know quite you know, I thought, what’s happening?’

Andrea Levy © Sueddeutsche Zeitung Photo/ Alamy Stock Photo

Andrea speaks with a British accent (she was born in England in 1956), whilst Linton and Vanley both have Jamaican accents (arriving from Jamaica in 1963 and 1965 respectively), potentially further contributing to their outsider status and feelings of estrangement within the British education system. Hearing accents also speaks to the importance of playing the clips, as this would go undetected if the recordings were being read in class from a transcript rather than directly listened to. For some learners and teachers, hearing Jamaican accents might be simultaneously familiar to their own lives and unexpected in a classroom setting. Thus, oral history has the potential to help bring connections and meanings to learners’ lives, legitimising voices and experiences that, until relatively recently, haven’t always been visible in the historical record.

There are also some areas of similarity that might not be immediately obvious. Despite Andrea’s cheerful exterior, there are hints that she was also made to feel like she didn’t belong; for example, when she says ‘there were no other Black kids in my class’ and ‘I just didn’t mention Jamaica or anything.’  These examples suggest a connection to Vanley and Linton in that she also felt like an outsider but was more able to assimilate to fit in. Another similarity between Linton and Andrea can also be drawn in their deep appreciation of learning. Both discuss the subjects they enjoy, with Linton reflecting: ‘I always loved learning you know I had a very inquisitive mind I wanted to know. I had a thirst for knowledge.’  

Linton Kwesi Johnson. Image credit: Maria Nunes Photography

This is important as it suggests that whilst their external treatment and experiences were different, there is a clear connection in their internal attitude to and relationship with learning. This is underpinned in the first part of Linton’s extract when he says: ‘We all wanted to make something of our lives.’ A further similarity is that all three of the interviewees went on to have successful careers in the arts, with experiences of Caribbean migration playing a key role in Linton Kwesi Johnson’s poetry, Andrea Levy’s novels and Vanley Burke’s photography. 

Drawing out similarities and differences between extracts offers the chance to think more deeply about the recordings and find connections that might otherwise go unnoticed. The sheer number of items available at the British Library means there is sometimes a danger of trying to cover as much ground as possible through listening to as a wide range of recordings as possible. I would argue that less is more, and that there is deep educational value in listening to a small well-selected range of clips.  

It is important to note that the clips used are selected from a much longer interview. Andrea, Vanley and Linton recorded multi-session in-depth life story interviews for the British Library. This means that the clip doesn’t necessarily represent the entirety of their descriptions of their school and childhood experiences and it is entirely feasible that other parts of the interview could potentially contradict what is being said in these extracts.

Similarly, different people, including potentially Linton, Andrea and Vanley themselves, might well interpret the clip in different ways, especially if they have heard more expanded sections of the interview. This is not to diminish the experience of listening to a shorter edited clip. Rather, being mindful of the nature of the life story approach, with its focus on a full story as opposed to a single historical event, can make for richer conversations with learners, leading to a deeper understanding of different types of oral history.

Beyond the workshop, there are multiple opportunities to engage learners with the Library's Sound Archive, suggesting the applicability of oral history in the classroom for cross-curricular use. For example, in addition to English and History students studying aspects of migration and Empire through literature and sources, Photography students might want to explore Vanley Burke’s work and consider the extent to which his school experiences influenced his photography, or Politics and Citizenship students might want to consider the connection between art and activism.

Similarly, Sociology students might want to use the oral testimonies to examine ethnicity and achievement in relation to education, also drawing on other items in the British Library’s collection such as the work of Beryl Gilroy. Students studying for an Extended Project Qualification or Higher Project Qualification (student-driven research projects) might want to incorporate oral testimonies to help drive their enquiry question, strengthening their research skills and gaining confidence in handling sources within an archive.

Ultimately, this workshop and the selected recordings provide an excellent opportunity to engage learners with aspects of the collection and encourage wider engagement with audio testimony and sounds from the British Library to the classroom.

Thank you to all those involved in developing this work: members of the Learning Team at the British Library, Mary Stewart (Lead Curator, Oral History), and, crucially, to the interviewees themselves: Andrea Levy and Linton Kwesi Johnson (interviewed by Sarah O’Reilly for Authors’ Lives, 2014 – 15) and Vanley Burke (interviewed by Shirley Read for An Oral History of British Photography, 2014)

Blog by Debbie Bogard, Learning Facilitator in the British Library's Learning team.

Further Reading and Listening

Read 'Linton Kwesi Johnson awarded PEN Pinter Prize 2020' on the Sound and Vision Blog

Read 'Remembering Andrea Levy' on the English and Drama Blog

Read '"We’re not just passing through": how photographer Vanley Burke immortalised black Britain' on The Guardian

For more details on how the interactive listening approach can be used in the classroom, read Debbie's blog Authentic Encounters: Oral History in the Classroom Part 2 on the Oral History Society website.

Blog by Rosa Kurowska Kyffin, interviewer for National Life Stories.

Today, 7th March, would mark the 71st birthday of Rory Young: sculptor, stone carver, letterer, and building conservator, who sadly died in 2023. In the autumn of 2022, I had the opportunity to interview Rory for the National Life Stories collection Artists’ Lives. We arranged this interview following Rory’s terminal diagnosis earlier in the year and a concerted effort by his friends and family as well as the team at National Life Stories to ensure his memories were recorded for the archive.

Portrait of Rory Young at interview, by Rosa Kurowska Kyffin, October 2022.

The number of different professions that Rory Young mastered and the difficulty of finding one simple word for his work are evident in his many titles above. Indeed, Rory found it difficult to limit his focus to one career while having such a myriad of interests in the arts and built environment; he viewed himself, in his own words, as ‘an artificer’. His magical home – an early nineteenth-century stone town house, carefully restored over four decades and brimful with diverse works of art, objects and gifts from a wide network of beloved friends – speaks to this glowing interest he had in life and the world.

It was a difficult interview in some ways. His deteriorating health was an obvious factor, but also was the sheer scope of his view: it is hard to contain – even in many hours of recording – the variety of a life so richly lived. Rory burst with energy and ideas that sparked from one another, leading us forward or backwards decades at times; or leaping from debates on the nature of art/craft and the growth of conceptualism to anecdotes from his deep knowledge of architectural history; to lyrical descriptions of his work designing, limewashing, painting, carving. Sometimes recordings would be interrupted as he leapt up to dash off around the house to bring back an object or image for us to examine; thankfully, most times I managed to catch the microphone before he took our kit with him!

Rory was born and brought up close to Cirencester, his interview revealing a deep connection to the locale. His interest in both art and historic buildings was encouraged in childhood by his artist mother, Jill Young, who had trained at Wimbledon Art School in 1940s and who was inspired by Gerald Cooper, the Principal during her time there. She encouraged Rory and his sister Katrina by covering the walls of their home with paper for them to adorn and decorate. Jill Young hated the normal female pursuit of shopping in the town; instead, she spent time in the many historic buildings of Gloucestershire, educating her small children about the design and meaning of the architecture. This interest went to such an extent that Rory remembers, when just a small boy, his looking up at the ceiling in a local church and exclaiming ‘Look Mummy, fan vaulting!’, to the surprise of passers-by.

Later, during his study at Camberwell College of Arts in the 1970s, he became the youngest member of the Camberwell Preservation Society. This early interest developed into a passion for vernacular architecture. He saw the greenest way of building as restoring the old – thus lamenting the waste he saw as different fashions swept through architecture during his lifetime. This interest grew from his early days at Camberwell, when he would cycle around the desolate docks of East London, often at night, to sketch and paint the buildings being pulled down there.

Rory Young describing the London docks

Download London Docks transcript

Rory Young, Sketch for Thames-side Warehouse Demolition, 1976

As soon has he finished his studies, he pursued this fascination on a greater scale, embarking in 1976 on a two-year tour of the north of England, partly inspired by visiting the ‘Destruction of the Country House’ exhibition at the V&A. Living out of a van and recording meticulous notes and sketches, Rory travelled the length and breadth of England to visit the historic buildings and observe the industrial landscapes that were disappearing from England at that time. His descriptions of England at that intersection of the decline of heavy industry with the beginnings of a new market for heritage in the 1970s are a striking record of the time.

Rory’s fascination with buildings continued throughout his career. Creating works like the ‘Genesis Cycle’ at the west door of York Minster and the ‘Seven Martyrs’ for St Albans Cathedral, he saw himself adding layers of beauty in a century-spanning continuum of artists and craftspeople. His effort was to honour those buildings that formed the ‘biggest material evidence of our ancestors, of our past civilizations.’ He was, perhaps unsurprisingly, often frustrated with the contemporary art world’s conception of what constituted art: the move to conceptualism and resulting debates on the boundaries of art and craft did not align with his deeply held understanding of art that was not a snapshot of a moment, but of a record of long-lived history.

Rory Young on the nature of art

Download Nature of art transcript

Rory’s commitment to creating works of art that constituted ‘the huge broad sphere of the built environment’ did require huge effort, often over many years to achieve large commissions. We discussed the sheer physical toll of his output: working with stone or in clay; lifting and moving pieces or spending many hours deep in concentration carving a piece; the realities of stretching himself to finish jobs; and struggling when commissions went over time and budget. Despite these difficulties, it was clear that Rory found great joy in his work, a realisation he had from a young age when a chaplain had tried to help him understand the concept of heaven by pointing to the state of timeless concentration Rory would fall into when working on his artworks during school. This passion for work, friends, and beauty animated our time recording. I was inspired by such a vision: his lyrical, vivid way of speaking that meant he could explain history, as well as his own story, in his own words.

Rory Young on finding heaven in work

Download Heaven in work transcript

National Life Stories would like to extend our gratitude to all Rory’s friends and family for their dedication and support in raising the funds to record this interview.

Rory’s life history recording can be listened to on-site at the British Library (collection reference C466/425). Please contact the Listening and Viewing Service for more information.

A key figure of British jazz, Coleridge Goode worked with the likes of Stéphane Grappelli, Django Reinhardt and Ray Ellington. He performed frequently and his double bass playing graced countless London jazz clubs. He kept diaries in which he noted his bookings, at venues like the Marquee and Ronnie Scott’s – names redolent of incandescent evenings and brilliant sounds.

Music permeated Goode’s early life in Jamaica, where he was born in 1914. His father had a studious interest in classical music, was a choirmaster and played the organ, whilst his mother was a chorister; he was named after the composer Samuel Coleridge-Taylor. Perhaps unsurprisingly, Goode became an accomplished violinist. When he moved to Glasgow to study engineering, he led the university orchestra’s second violins.

As a student, he also came across a new kind of music – music with a rhythmic swing. He heard it on the radio, visited the city’s dance halls and collected records by Count Basie and Duke Ellington. He started to contemplate a career in jazz but, being classically trained, found that he couldn’t switch styles on the violin. He duly took up the double bass which, to the vexation of his landlady, he practised for eight hours a day. ‘Other studies eventually got left far behind’, he wrote. ‘But I felt I had to make sure I was capable of mastering this instrument.’

He began working as a musician in Glasgow, then moved to London in 1942, and quickly got to know the city’s clubs. One of these was the Panama, a venue he played at with Johnny Claes and his band. When the Panama closed for the evening, he would go on to another job, at the Slip In near Regent Street. Goode recalled the Panama’s clientele of ‘well-heeled people who lived around Knightsbridge’. In contrast, the Slip In was ‘a haunt of gangster types’, its name fittingly hinting at the clandestine. He fondly remembered the Caribbean Club in Piccadilly, where he started working in 1944. This was ‘small and compact’ and ‘a genuinely mixed club in terms of race and class.’

These quotations are from Goode’s autobiography Bass Lines: A Life in Jazz. Its illuminating details of people, places and events help to contextualise the appointments jotted down in his diaries. His diary from 1958 is on display at the British Library in the exhibition Beyond the Bassline. Its pages, open on the week commencing Sunday the sixth of July, show the names of venues along with other particulars, like time of performance and time of rehearsal. The Star Club, the Marquee and the Flamingo are amongst the bookings entered that week.

Coleridge Goode’s diary for 1958, open to show the days for 6-12 July © British Library Board. Used with kind permission from Coleridge Goode’s family.

One of Goode’s major affiliations was with saxophonist Joe Harriott. It was at the Star Club on Soho’s Wardour Street where the two first met; this was probably in March 1958. ‘Sitting in’ on performances was commonplace at the club, and one evening Harriott dropped in and played alongside Goode, pianist Alan Clare and drummer Bobby Orr. That evening, Harriott asked Goode to join the band he was forming. They would go on to collaborate for years in the Joe Harriott Quintet, first playing bebop, and later exploring Harriott’s pioneering concept of ‘free form’ music.

The Marquee was originally located below a cinema on Oxford Street. The space was a ballroom before it was a jazz club, and its interior incorporated a striped, canopy-like design. In 1958, Harry Pendleton, who headed up the National Jazz Federation, started programming events at the Marquee. The Joe Harriott Quintet would rehearse at the venue and performed there regularly on Saturdays. Goode recalled that Harriott secured this slot for his group ‘even before the band had been unveiled… or the personnel had been fixed’ – such was his standing. The Marquee Club – as it became under the auspices of Pendleton – moved to Wardour Street in 1964.

The Flamingo opened in 1952 below a restaurant on Coventry Street. An upmarket venue with plush surroundings, it hosted the big names of British jazz, and counted Billie Holiday and Sarah Vaughan amongst its star American guests. The Flamingo moved to Wardour Street in 1957. The Don Rendell Jazz Six and the Tony Kinsey Quintet were two of the many bands who played at the Wardour Street venue; the Joe Harriott Quintet were regulars there on Sunday afternoons.

Whilst Coleridge Goode’s diaries are illuminated by these histories, they are intrinsically informative, too. They chronicle the engagements of their keeper and, as compendia, record venues which shaped the history of British jazz. They also possess an evocative and an emotive quality, written in Goode’s hand, intertwined with his life on the scene.

Quotations in this article are taken from ‘Bass Lines: A Life in Jazz’ by Coleridge Goode and Roger Cotterrell. The British Library Sound Archive holds a collection of Coleridge Goode’s diaries and a significant collection of his recordings.

Coleridge Goode’s diary for 1958 is on display in the British Library exhibition Beyond the Bassline: 500 Years of Black British Music, which runs to 26 August 2024.

Blog written by Jonathan Benaim, researcher for the exhibition Beyond the Bassline.

public domain

With Halloween creeping up on us, I asked our wildlife curator to share with me her favourite spooky sounds. I’ve heard screeching barn owls. Hissing rattlesnakes. My favourite though: the chorus of howling wolves, recorded in Ontario, Canada in 2000.  

Listen to howls of the Gray Wolf

There’s something both serene and terrifying about the howl of a wolf. The wail floats on the edge of liminality: being both from the human world, yet also otherworldly. The calls mesmerise you – drawing you in, whilst making you want to retreat at the same time. They’re the epitome of the sublime.  

On this recording, I particularly liked how bird song is seamlessly dispersed among the howling at the beginning. You can almost picture dusk falling over the forest with the last birds of the day fleeing, before the creatures of the night ascend their sylvan thrones.  It conjures up that cinematic image of a majestic wolf pack in silhouette against a full moon. Contrary to popular imagination though, our wildlife expert informs me that it’s pure myth that wolves howl at the moon!  

As foreboding as the howls may be to the human ear, for the wolves, they’re a chorus of unity as they call out to their fellow pack-mates to prepare for their nocturnal hunt. Even the pups can be heard with their squeaky howls joining in with their parents.  

You can listen to a longer version of this recording on our sounds website. 

This week’s recording of the week was chosen by Elliot Sinclair, Web Editor.  

Blog written by Neli Demireva and Paul Thompson.

The Pioneering Social Research project and the 2022 book Pioneering Social Research: Life stories of a Generation (Policy press), highlight the experiences and practices of a generation of academics active from the 1950s to the 1980s in British academia and wider research scene. Based on 58 life story interviews, available through the UK Data Service and archived as the oral history collection C1416 ‘Pioneers of Social Research’ at the British Library, the book captures some of the most magical moments of research realization. Those moments may be career defining but we also do not shy away from discussions of strife, of conflict, of struggle and acceptance. There is no satisfactory way in which a conventional sample of ‘pioneer’ social researchers could be created. To be recorded among our pioneers implies in itself some kind of success story in research: first and foremost in terms of intellectual discovery and influence, however also linked to taking a key position in the academic world and achieving, in Colin Bell’s (C1416/34) words, ‘a degree of celebrity’. The oldest interviewee, Raymond Firth (C1416/25), was born in 1901 and is exceptional in already being an active researcher in the interwar years. The youngest interviewee was born in 1949, Sara Arber (C1416/58), and all had begun their research careers by the 1970s. They had mainly made their key contributions by the 1980s, but several continued publishing into the 2000s. Altogether, 33 are with sociologists –most of whom first trained in other disciplines, especially anthropology –and 14 with lifelong anthropologists. There are also three interviewees from politics, two each from geography and economics, another two from statistics, and one from cultural studies. These are essentially British pioneers, although they worked worldwide.

On the practical side, the book and the oral history interviews can be seen as an example of ‘owning up’ – a set of illustrious researchers and academics take the reader or listener through their experiences of the research process. The book illustrates how empirical social research was conducted and given shape in mid-twentieth century Britain. Our Pioneers carried out much major work in terms of class, gender and ethnicity and the book captures something of the social and cultural contexts in which they worked and the dilemmas they faced. Thus, one should be able to open the book and read both about how David Butler (C1416/44) ‘finds his voice’ on TV, of the time Peter Townsend (C1416/23) spends working in a retirement institution while at the same time to get a feel, of the difficult time Ann Oakley (C1416/01) has in embarking on her PhD studies. 

Peter Townsend on Bath Attendant (C1416-23)

Download Peter Townsend on Bath Attendant (C1416-23) Transcript

Ann Oakley on The Parental Ethos (C1416-01)

Download Ann Oakley on The Parental Ethos (C1416-01) Transcript

The book and the oral history collection do have weaknesses with which we have explicitly engaged. Our 58 interviewees cannot be taken as ‘representative’ of a wider scholarly pool. They are unique cases, and there are many other researchers who if alive and willing could easily have been included, and some who may have made even greater contributions and told very different stories. Inevitably, some key researchers had already died before we could record them. We miss especially the stories which we might have had from Richard Titmuss (d. 1973), Max Gluckman (d. 1975), John Rex (d. 2011), Edward Shils (d. 1995) and Cathie Marsh (d. 1993). We cannot be sure of the memories of our tellers; like almost all historical sources, whether created in the past or subsequently, what they say sometimes may be factually incorrect. Regardless, they represent important historical sources of how the interviewees remember and retell their life stories. The Pioneers of Social Research collection is very much a living thing, and we are indeed adding to the pool of interviewees this year.

Crucially, however, the book and collection demonstrate how the Pioneers responded to challenges – personal and academic. These are very intimate stories, one that we hope the reader or listener will not rush through but will cherish and savour. The Pioneers were resilient, but above all, they proved to have the creative ability to turn the problems upside down and use them to develop their own thinking. In this, future generations can really find a rich source of inspiration – one that will continue to inform beyond the lifetime of the interviewees in this project. Our dear friend and co-author Ken Plummer (C1416/48) passed away last year and we cherish the ability to hear his warm and lively voice speaking his own life story of discovering his own sexuality, and developing a new field and establishing the journal Sexualities as well as struggling to cope with the pain of HIV research. All these recordings are available at the British library reading rooms in London and Boston Spa, as well as at the UK Data Service in Essex. We hope that many readers of ‘this lovely book’, as Mike Savage calls it, will similarly enjoy learning more about the Pioneers and will engage with their work, both the written publication and the full life story interviews.

Pioneers of Social Research can be found by searching C1416 at http://sami.bl.uk and can be listened to at the British Library reading rooms in St Pancras, London and Boston Spa, Yorkshire. For more information on similar collections please consult the collection guide 'Oral histories of social policy'.

Neli Demireva is Senior Lecturer in Sociology at the University of Essex. Her research interests include migration, inter-ethnic ties, social cohesion, ethnic penalties and multiculturalism. She uses a variety of methods in her research, both quantitative and qualitative, and believes strongly in mixing methods to uncover the ‘deep stories’ of sociology.

Paul Thompson is Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex. He is Founder-Editor of Oral History and Founder of National Life Stories at the British Library. He is a pioneer of oral history in Europe and author of the international classic The Voice of the Past (4th edition 2017). His other books include The Edwardians and Living the Fishing. He is co-author of Growing Up in Stepfamilies, of The Myths We Live By (with Raphael Samuel), and (with Daniel Bertaux) Pathways to Social Class.

Ken Plummer (1946-2022) was Emeritus Professor of Sociology at the University of Essex. He researched and wrote widely on sexuality, especially lesbian, gay and queer studies. His methodological concerns were with the development of narrative, life story, symbolic interactionism and the post-modern turn.

Guest blog by Rosa Kurowska Kyffin, interviewer for National Life Stories.

Akyaaba Addai-Sebo standing in front of the King's Library at the British Library, St Pancras.

Earlier this summer the British Library recorded a life story interview with Akyaaba Addai-Sebo for the National Life Stories oral history collection Leaders of National Life. This in-depth interview covers his influential work as a campaigner and activist across three continents. From trade union organising in newly independent Ghana to his years in the US in the 1970s, where he studied peace-building in Washington and became close with many civil rights activists of the time, including Kwame Ture, Jewell Mazique and CLR James, who became a lifelong friend and mentor. The interview also covers his later peace-building work in Liberia and Sierra-Leone and environmental campaigning. In the UK Akyaaba has had a fundamental impact on politics and culture as one of the founders of the UK’s Black History Month. These clips explore the origins of this month, which today is as vital a part of autumn as the cooler days and bright colours of the turning leaves.

As a young child Akyaaba quickly developed a deep understanding of the impact of politics. In 1957 when Akyaaba was just seven years old, Kwame Nkrumah led Ghana to independence from British colonial rule and established one of the first post-colonial governments in Africa. Caught up in the ‘dynamism of the times’, Akyaaba spent his childhood observing the rallies and activism of his community: a close-knit, multi-lingual, multi-ethnic compound in Asawase, one of many new projects built by the socialist Nkrumah government. His early political memories are of excitement and promise, but these hopes were soon dashed as the backlash of the European powers began. One of Akyaaba’s early memories was the assassination of Patrice Lumumba which he describes here.

Akyaaba Addai-Sebo recalls his earliest memory of political consciousness [BL REF C408/37]

Download Transcript – Akyaaba Addai-Sebo recalls an early memory of political consciousness

This incident and the betrayals that followed as later coups in Ghana took Nkrumah from power forged a powerful activist in Akyaaba, who has led a life dedicated to confronting injustice. As a child he was also frustrated by his experiences of education in the British colonial system, where he studied European classics, religion, geography and literature rather than his own region’s culture and history. He recognised the importance of the few teachers who went against this system. Later as a teenager he saw the importance of finding ‘cultural synergy’ though learning about Ghanaian and African culture and history in Nkrumah’s Young Pioneers and the Pan-African Youth Movement. In the US he also saw the impact of what was then called Negro History Week for African Americans, and the beginnings of the campaign to rename the period as Black History Month which is still celebrated there in February. In the US he became involved in delivering workshops in Washington libraries and museums and spoke at celebrations of African Liberation Day in Malcolm X Park.

His activism eventually took him back to Ghana and later to London, where he found safety having narrowly escaped persecution under the Jerry Rawlings regime in 1984. Through CLR James he became involved with a powerful group of activists based in Railton Road, Brixton, including Leila Hassan Howe, Darcus Howe and the Race Today collective. At the same time Akyaaba had started working at the Greater London Council (GLC). At the time the GLC was a place of pioneering social policy under the leadership of Ken Livingstone, as was the Inner London Education Authority (ILEA), whose deputy leader Bernard Wiltshire Akyaaba worked closely with. The stewardship of Linda Bellos, Chair of the London Strategic Policy Committee (LSPC) and leader of Lambeth Council, and John McDonnell, Chief Executive of the Association of London Authorities (ALA), became crucial after the abolition of the GLC by the Margaret Thatcher government on 1 April 1986. It was an exciting time to be working in local government. With his boss and friend Ansel Wong, Akyaaba worked in the Ethnic Minorities Unit and it was there in the office that a chance encounter with a colleague set in motion the inspiration for Black History Month in the UK.

Akyaaba Addai-Sebo on the inspiration for UK Black History Month [BL REF C408/37]

Download Transcript – Akyaaba Addai-Sebo on the inspiration for UK Black History Month

In both the US and the UK Akyaaba had seen the impact that this lack of ‘cultural synergy’ was having on Black children and their families. He was shocked that here in the UK – the ‘mother of imperialism’ – that there was so little understanding of African history and civilisation. To rectify the damage done to children like Marcus and to eliminate the odious racism that plagued the UK Akyaaba worked hard to establish Black History Month. Here he recalls some of the conversations that fed into the founding of Black History Month, and why the choice of October is so significant.

Akyaaba Addai-Sebo explains why October was chosen as Black History Month [BL REF C408/37]

Download Transcript – Akyaaba Addai-Sebo explains why October was chosen as Black History Month

Akyaaba built support from all political parties, a process which his time in the US civil rights movement had prepared him well for. The UK’s first Black History Month events began with a series of historical talks and events in London in 1986 to which people ‘came in droves.’ Those events have now grown to become an integral part of the year with countless events happening across October and beyond across the whole country.

Rosa Kurowska Kyffin with Akyaaba Addai-Sebo at the British Library, St Pancras.

Akyaaba Addai-Sebo was interviewed by Rosa Kurowska Kyffin in 2023 for Leaders of National Life. The interview will be available to listen to at the British Library in early 2024, collection reference number C408/37.

Experience a new sound installation, 'Breathe in, Breathe out', in the Sir John Ritblat Treasures Gallery at the British Library. The project looks at the positive effects of sound on well-being and relaxation. It is the first in a series of new initiatives in the Treasures Gallery, exploring innovative ways of working and engaging with diverse audiences. It runs until Sunday, 26 November 2023. The gallery is free to enter.

We have installed an open-walled structure with dimmed lighting and comfy seating, which provides a cosy space for visitors to relax and unwind. A calming, dreamlike soundscape plays on an endless loop. The mix blends spoken word, music, wildlife, and environmental sounds. All the sounds are drawn from the Library's collection.

A visitor looks at the 'Breathe in, Breathe out' tracklist—photo by Simon Leach Design. 

Relaxation starts with conscious breathing. The title 'Breathe in, Breathe out' encourages listeners to take a deep breath and focus on the present moment. Nature sounds transport us to peaceful places, offering tranquillity amidst daily distractions. Dreams and dreamscapes also feature, highlighting the importance of rest and recovery. Research shows that we activate different parts of the brain when we listen to music. The impact of sound on our bodies is significant, particularly when it comes to our emotions, memories, and movement. It influences our breathing, heart rate, and mood.

The soundscape is mixed for 8-channel playback, creating an immersive surround-sound experience. The mix juxtaposes calming sounds with hints of suspense. Key elements include 'Jetsun Mila' by Éliane Radigue, inspired by the 11th-century Tibetan yogi and poet Milarepa. There are poems by Langston Hughes, W. S. Graham, and Caroline Bergvall. The music covers a broad spectrum of gentle tones, including the delicate notes of water bowls performed by Tomoko Sauvage and the eerie sounds of 'Iká' by Skull Mask, played by Gosha Shtasel, who created the mix and is one of the British Library's sound engineers. You can explore the entire tracklist on one of the display walls.

Two women fill out feedback forms—photo by Eva del Rey.

Curating this mix has been an enjoyable experience, as sound and well-being are topics of particular interest to me. We wanted to provide a serene space for visitors to pause and recharge. We also sought to improve how sound is showcased in the Treasures Gallery, pushing the limits of our traditional displays. Surround sound offers an immersive sensory journey that has transformed the gallery space. Listening together cultivates a sense of relaxation, and connection, enhancing our general well-being. Each listener brings their unique perspective and emotions, yet we find common ground in the soothing embrace of sound.

Feedback is encouraged. Responses so far tell us that listeners feel captivated, as if they were part of a movie, with most finding it soothing and some even finding it stirring. It is an effortless and refreshing experience. The display highlights the power of sound to create a peaceful escape and a transformative experience for all who engage with it.

The British Library holds over 6.5 million recordings, ranging from spoken word to music, wildlife and environmental sounds. You can learn more about our sound collections on our Sounds subject web page and at British Library Sounds online. 

This post was written by Eva del Rey, Curator of Drama and Literature Recordings.

Animals: Art, Science and Sound is the first major exhibition to explore the many different ways in which animals have been written about, visualised and recorded over time. Focusing on the British Library’s extensive natural history collections, the exhibition brings together chronologically and geographically diverse material produced over the past 2000 years, from some of the earliest encyclopaedic works on zoology to stunning high-resolution photographs of insects produced using the latest technologies.

The exhibition features over 100 objects selected from the Library's diverse collections and is divided into four main zones that cover darkness, water, land and air. As the name suggests, sound features heavily in the exhibition, both in terms of physical objects and sound recordings themselves. There are soundscapes playing in the gallery space that help create atmosphere and listening points where visitors can explore some of the more weird and wonderful recordings held by the Library. Published discs, field tapes, recording equipment and personal notebooks sit alongside historical manuscripts, paintings and printed works, and many of these items are on display for the very first time. There are objects of celebration, such as the first commercial record of an animal, but also objects of sadness, the most poignant of which is a reel of tape containing the song of a now extinct songbird.

Below are just a few highlights from this textually, visually and sonically rich exhibition.

The Holgate Mark VI bat detector which was one of the earliest portable models produced (British Library, WA 2009/018)

Greater Horseshoe Bat echolocation recorded using the Holgate MK VI by John Hooper in Devon, England, 1968 (WS7360 C10)

Illustration of the defects of a horse from Kitab al-baytarah (Book on Veterinary Medicine) by Abu Muhammad Ahmad ibn Atiq al-Azdi, 13th century (British Library, Or 1523, ff. 62v-63r)

Musical notation used to represent the songs and calls of birds, from Athanasius Kircher's Musurgia Universalis (Universal Music), Rome, 1650 (British Library, 59.e.19.) 

Second edition of Julian Huxley and Ludwig Koch's Animal Language sound book, USA, 1964 (British Library, 1SS0001840)

Bactrian Camel calls taken from disc 1 of Animal Language (1CS0070755)

An image of a 'monkfish' from Pierre Belon's De aquatilibus (Of aquatic species), Paris, 1553 (British Library, 446.a.6.)

An illustration of a fruit bat, painted at Barrackpore, India. 1804-7 (British Library, NHD3/517)

The Hip-po-pot-a-mus children's educational record published by the Talking Book Corporation, USA, 1919 (British Library, 9CS0029512)

A section in the Land zone displaying textual and visual accounts of animals appearing in countries beyond their usual geographic range.

A section in the Air zone exploring the history of recording bird voices including the first commercially released record of an animal from 1910.

Actual Bird Record Made by a Captive Nightingale (No.1), Gramophone Company, 1910

Animals: Art, Science and Sound runs until 28 August 2023. Please visit https://www.bl.uk/events/animals to book tickets and to find out more about the exhibition's accompanying events programme. Thanks go to the Getty Foundation, Ponant, the American Trust for the British Library and the B.H. Breslauer Fund of the American Trust for the British Library. Audio soundscapes were created by Greg Green with support from the Unlocking our Sound Heritage project, made possible by the National Lottery Heritage Fund, and scientific advice provided by ZSL (the Zoological Society of London).