James Baldwin Centenary

Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 26 September 2024 > Celebrate

2024 marks the centennial of the birth of James Baldwin, novelist, poet, playwright, essayist, civil-rights campaigner and social critic, as well as self-proclaimed American “Native Son”. Born in 1924 in Harlem, New York, Baldwin grew up in poverty, the eldest of nine children. Harlem was home to many black families who had moved from the … Continue reading “James Baldwin Centenary”

Great Short Videos on African American History

Posted by Speakeasy News > Saturday 04 February 2023 > Shine Bright Collège Shine Bright Lycée Webpicks

Blackhistoryintwominutes.com is a site devoted to producing two-minute videos on just about any topic you could think of in African American history.  For Black History Month, we’ve selected a few that fit well with topics Speakeasy and Shine Bright have covered. The site is financed by African American billionaire philanthropist Robert F. Smith and the … Continue reading “Great Short Videos on African American History”

African American History on the Web

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 15 January 2021 > Webpicks

This selection of sites and videos is useful for classes on African American history and culture, particularly the civil-rights movement and the Harlem Renaissance America’s Library is a minisite from the Library of Congress written for native-speaking children. It’s very simple and clear. It has sections about WEB Dubois (see our article on the Color … Continue reading “African American History on the Web”

Your Students Have Talent: United Colours of Harlem

Posted by Speakeasy News > Sunday 24 November 2019 >

We always love to read students’ work. Here are some poems pupils wrote as their final task in a sequence from Shine Bright 2e: File 1 United Colours of Harlem. In this sequence,  in Axe 3  Le village, le quartier, la ville, students discovered Harlem and considered what makes it such an inspiring neighbourhood. As … Continue reading “Your Students Have Talent: United Colours of Harlem”

Dancing Nina Simone

Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 11 April 2019 > What's On

Britain’s celebrated modern dance company, Rambert, is celebrating singer Nina Simone with a dance-theatre piece featuring musicians live on stage. Simone, who died in 2003, was one of the great, and unclassifiable, popular singers of the 20th century, and a strong proponent of Civil Rights. Simone was born in North Carolina in 1933. She had … Continue reading “Dancing Nina Simone”

Love in Harlem

Posted by Speakeasy News > Thursday 07 February 2019 > What's On

If Beale Street Could Talk,  one of this year’s Oscar-nominated films has impeccable credentials: the first English-language film adapted from one of James Baldwin’s novels, it was both adapted and directed by Barry Jenkins, who won the 2017 Best Picture Oscar for Moonlight. Like Moonlight, and Baldwin’s work, it is centered on a working-class African-American … Continue reading “Love in Harlem”

African-American Artists and Segregation

Posted by Speakeasy News > Friday 25 November 2016 > What's On

“The Color Line” exhibition at Quai de Branly in Paris reviews the history of discrimination in the U.S.A. through the eyes of African-American artists. The show is an exploration of 150 years of American history from the end of the Civil War with the abolition of slavery, to segregation, the civil rights movement and the … Continue reading “African-American Artists and Segregation”