26-year-old Aldwyn Roberts from Trinidad was onboard and listed his occupation as ‘Artist’. He was a calypso singer and is better known by his stage name, ‘Lord Kitchener’. During the journey, he wrote the song ‘London is the Place for Me’, which he performed on the ship’s arrival to Tilbury.
Mona Baptiste was similarly from Trinidad and was 21 when she travelled on the ship. Although her occupation was listed as ‘Clerk’ in the passenger list, she was a blues singer and went on to have a successful career in the music and broadcasting industries.
This was really sad news to come across this morning, just after I'd been teaching using one of Benjamin's books with my Year 7 group. Taken so young...
Poet and author Benjamin Zephaniah has died aged 65 and family say he leaves a "joyful and fantastic legacy"https://t.co/ndriColfRe
His energy and distinctive delivery were powerful and memorable. There are also many clips about his refusal to accept an OBE, with its links to Empire, and other elements of his work, from dub poetry to music to educational work to activism, as well as his academic work.
Finally, we have been using his book 'Windrush Child' for three years with our Year 7 groups. We have an Audible version of it now to aid the teaching. The resources have been shared previously, over on my Geography teaching blog.
Twitter has been full of memories of Benjamin ever since the news came out:
What a huge loss, humanist, humorist and radical poet & writer Benjamin Zephaniah is but his words are cut in steel in Sheffield. "We can say that they are all romantics and intellectuals. These streets are full of heroes." pic.twitter.com/hNgQKOYgI5
Another excellent contribution was Benjamin's talk at Hay Festival Digital in 2021, where he talked about his book 'Windrush Child'.This was full of insight and interest. Some posts on my teaching jobs are here.
I posted on Twitter recently about a new unit which I am developing based on the Benjamin Zephaniah book 'Windrush Child'.
This has been going quite well, and there are likely to be a number of posts as I work through it for the first time. I've already started to add a few more elements to it and notice some clarifications that are needed for the original booklet that I created, for the 2nd edition in the next academic year.
As always, as soon as a new unit is started, stories begin to emerge which are related to it. It's amazing how often that happens.
Several weeks ago, the continued issues of the Windrush Generation to get proper compensation for their plight was on the front page of one national newspaper.
"From the darkest days of our past, and the appalling atrocity of slavery, which forever stains our histories, the people of this island forged their path with extraordinary fortitude.
"Emancipation, self-government and independence were your way-points. Freedom, justice and self-determination have been your guides."
We also explored the importance of the lion to students, as the main character is told by his grandma that "lions always roar".
We referenced the imagery of the lion.
Rastfarianism is a religion which developed in Jamaica, and there is a character in the book called Brother Book who has the characteristic dreadlocks, which are also sported by Benjamin himself. Here's Bob Marley.
Over the next few months, Year 9s will be exploring a range of biomes which face threats.
A biome is an environmental area which has a characteristic climate, and therefore vegetation and wildlife. They include tundra (in the Arctic), desert and tropical rainforest.
We will also be exploring the Oceans as an area of the planet which is facing increasing threats, particularly from plastics, which concentrate in certain areas of the ocean, but are also found as microbeads which can come from lots of everyday products.
Today, KEJ will be having an extended assembly to celebrate the centenary of Benjamin Britten.
He is one of the most celebrated of English composers and is associated with East Anglia, in particularly the Suffolk coastal town of Aldeburgh.
This is the scallop on the beach near Aldeburgh, created by Maggi Hambling. There's a geography element to this: the sculpture is very site specific, but not everyone likes it, and it has been vandalised several times. It does, however attract visitors, who are likely to spend money to support local shops and services. The words are taken from one of Britten's works which, like a lot of his output, was connected with the sea...
Sharing some of the music that I'll be using as the background for Powerpoints and other lesson elements.... Will be making some use of Spotify to bring music that is relevant to the projects into the classroom... There's plenty of geographical note to be found...
This piece lasts just a few seconds over two minutes, and will be used as thinking-time music....
Here's another example of what you can find on Spotify....
