Refugee Charity to Celebrate Paul Robeson
Article published: Monday, November 8th 2010
Local human rights charity RAPAR and writers group Commonword Press will be hosting an evening in celebration of American singer and civil rights activist Paul Robeson on Wednesday 10 November.
Combining song, poetry and extracts from playwright Tayo Aloku’s award winning drama ‘Call Mr Robeson’, the event will run from seven until late at the International Anthony Burgess Centre on Cambridge Street in the city centre.
Manchester’s critically acclaimed Beating Wing Orchestra will be headlining and the night will also include readings from Small Rocks, a series of testimonies written by refugees and asylum seekers expressing their experiences of life in the UK. It will begin with a discussion of contemporary human rights concerns in Britain led by RAPAR founder Zeinab Mohammed and University of Central Lancaster academic Dr Alan Rice.
Best known for singing what many consider to be the definitive version of the spiritual Old Man River, one legendary 1949 gig held in support for the Manchester anti-racist organisation New Internationalist Society attracted 20,000 people to the streets of Moss Side to hear him perform. Not wishing to disappoint his fans, most of whom could not cram into the small New International Club, Robeson walked outside and sang for the vast crowd.
In a letter to the New International Society Robeson thanked the people of Manchester, saying “I can never forget that it was the people of Manchester and of the other industrial areas of Britain who gave me the understanding of the oneness of people – a concept upon which I have based my career as an artist and citizen.”
Robeson also gained fame, and some notoriety, for his outspoken political activism. He was himself the son of an escaped slave and became a committed fighter against racism, colonialism and exploitation. In recognition of this he was one of only three people to be awarded honorary membership of the Abraham Lincoln Brigade of Americans who volunteered to fight fascism in the Spanish Civil War.
Robeson’s socialist convictions brought him enemies and his passport was revoked under McCarthyism in 1950 due to his support for independence movements in the colonised world. His sympathies for the Soviet Union as what he saw as a deterrent to Western imperialism brought him controversy and his role in the wider civil rights movement in the US was quietly ignored in later years.
RAPAR and Commonword will honour Robeson’s achievements and ask what we can learn from his life today. Kath Grant from RAPAR said, “We hope to uncover the pressures on displaced people and express the urgent need to keep working for equality, the cause in which Paul Robeson so passionately believed.”
Tickets will be from £13 concessionary to £15 standard and can be booked by calling 0161 834 8221 or online at http://voicesandrivers.eventbrite.com with drinks and refreshments provided. All proceeds will go to RAPAR.
Ian Davenport
More: Culture, Manchester, Music, Stage
Comments
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Great review of his life, I hope your celebration was a success!
Paul Robeson is currently featured as hero of the week over at http://www.moralheroes.org.
Please check it out and share it with your friends and fans!
Comment by Moral Heroes on November 15, 2010 at 10:32 pm
http://moralheroes.org/paul-robeson
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