Interwoven Freedom: Abolitionist Women in Birmingham

Textile bag by Gwenneth Jones Textile bag by Gwenneth Jones. Hand cut textile image represents the triangular route of the slave trade. The first scene is representative of an African Village, the second depicts the Middle Passage and the final scene is the Caribbean.

In 2007 English Heritage worked with the Sparkbrook African and Caribbean Women’s Development Initiative (SCAWDI) on an arts and research project to commemorate the 2007 Bicentennial of the Abolition of the Transatlantic Slave Trade Act.

Interwoven Freedom enabled a group of women to explore slavery and abolition in Birmingham. They visited archives, exhibitions and historic sites with links to slavery and worked with creative writer Ava Ming and textile artist Karina Thompson. Taking inspiration from Birmingham’s abolitionist women and Black enslaved women who campaigned for the end of slavery – they have interwoven their own personal response with the story of freedom. 
 
Research visit to Kenwood House in London Drawing on the tradition of abolitionist women who created and distributed workbags filled with anti-slavery manifestos, the participants have written their own manifestos which mix historical facts with vivid fictional stories and powerful poems. They have made workbags from fair trade cotton and African cloth. Woven into their bags are integrated references from their past and personal histories, images of slave ships, photographs and Jamaican and Ghanaian flags.

Interwoven Freedom The exhibition of their work is accompanied by interpretive panels, a book and audio commentaries and toured throughout 2008 to ten West Midlands venues including The Drum, BBC Mailbox, Wednesbury Museum & Art Gallery and Balsall Heath Library. The exhibition featured as part of Black History Month at the Drum (Oct 2007) and Paddington Library, London (2008).

Renaissance in the Region Best of the West Awards judging panel thought that the project was a particularly excellent example of an exhibition in the West Midlands and shortlisted it in the Exhibition -Small Budget category. The winner will be announced at the end of March 2009.