Now Available | Do You Remember Olive Morris, vol. 1

Now available for download, Do You Remember Olive Morris is an anthology of personal and archival writings about Morris’ intellectual and activist engagements in London, Manchester and internationally. Chapters are downloadable at the bottom of the page.

The publication was one of the outcomes of the project Do you remember Olive Morris?, alongside with this blog and a public collection comprising documents, photographs and over 30 oral history interviews (available at Lambeth Archives.

DYROM_Frontmatter_and_PrefaceDownload

Obi_Remembering_OliveDownload

Springer_Steeping_into_the_StruggleDownload

Carolyn_Squatting_In_Brixton_in_the_1970sDownload

Morris_and_Colgan_Anti_Nazi_LeagueDownload

Kenlock_and_Morandeira_A Visual Chronicle of Olive’s TimeDownload

Ibrahim_Afro_and_Fro_Wearing_Brothas_and_SistahsDownload

Ford_Soul_Power_in_BritainDownload

Keleman_Olive_in_ManchesterDownload

Watt_Interview_with_Sheila_RuizDownload

Ajani_Weeping_WillowDownload

Springer_Black_Radical_Women_and_JoyDownload

Dadzie_Ancient_RootsDownload

Morris_A_Sisters_Visit_to_ChinaDownload

Lopez_de_la_Torre_Finding_OliveDownload

Newman_The_Mythical_ArchiveDownload

Roelant_ROC_Research_DiaryDownload

DYROM_Project_Timeline_and_ImagesDownload

Whitfield_On_Strategies_of_LearningDownload

Withers_Blogging_OliveDownload

Kewada_Reflection_on_Remembering_OliveDownload

Dadzie_Do_You_RememberDownload

Ruiz_Being_Part_of_ROCDownload

Alturi_Olive_Would_Have_Told_MeDownload

Johnson_Jamaican_LullabyDownload

DYROM_AppendicesDownload

DYROM_Endmatter_ContributorsDownload

(c) All rights reserved apply to authors of the contents.

Announcing the formation of R.O.C. 2.0

 

The Remembering Olive Collective has reformed as an adhoc, international group dedicated to preserving and sharing the memory of Olive Morris.

R.O.C. 2.0’s current campaigns include:
– installing a memorial cornerstone on the site of Olive Morris House (1986 – present),
– a 10th anniversary re-issue of the book Do You Remember Olive Morris?, and
– administering the Olive Morris Memorial Award for young activists.

To keep up with our campaigns, follow us on @rememberolive on Twitter.

You can also check in with our new website.

This blog will remain as a testament and archive of R.O.C.s’ foresight and tireless efforts to honor Olive.

About the Remembering Olive Collective

In 2009 ROC launched the Olive Morris Collection at Lambeth Archives.

The collection comprises 30 oral history interviews with those who knew Olive and were involved in the political struggles of the 1960s and 1970s. All the interviews were recorded and transcribed by ROC members. The collection also holds Olive Morris personal papers and photographs, donated by Liz Obi. . ROC members trained as oral historians, learned  basics of archiving and cataloged the collection at Lambeth Archives, where the Olive Morris Collection is now housed.

If you would like to know more about the collection and how to access it, please contact Lambeth Archives directly.

The Do You Remember Olive Morris? blog and its contents (unless otherwise stated) is published and licensed by ROC for public use under a Creative Commons Attribution-Noncommercial-Sharealike 3.0 UK. This means you can share and remix the material, as long as it is for non-commercial purposes and you credit ROC and any other identified author of content as the source.

Olive’s biography in Face2Face Africa

https://face2faceafrica.com/article/she-was-a-pioneer-black-female-activist-who-fought-for-womens-rights-in-britain-but-died-at-27

Claudette Johnson poster of Olive Morris

Taking the Women’s Suffrage movement as a point of departure, Camden VOX has commissioned four women artists to produce a series of posters that explore ideas of Equality, Place, Power and Identity. The first project, by Claudette Johnson, features a series of posters she created in homage to leading black women activists, including Olive Morris. The posters are exhibited in the atrium at Swiss Cottage Library from June to 8 August at Swiss Cottage Library, free entrance, 10am-8pm.

Claudette Johnson first heard of Olive Morris (1952 – 1979) on a visit to the Abasindi Co-Op during a residency at Manchester Art Gallery in 1986. When walking into the centre, Johnson was told “You look like Olive.” Morris was a vibrant and fearless activist on all kinds of fronts: for women, for black people, for the poor and for the dispossessed. The experience of attending the OWAAD (Organisation of Women of Asian and African Descent) conference, which Morris co-founded, had a profound effect on Johnson’s thinking as a first year Fine Art student in Manchester. Johnson describes Morris as an inspirational figure who illustrated what courage, intelligence and compassion can achieve in even a short period of time.

http://www.lovecamden.org/camden-vox-presents-claudette-johnson

Squatters’ homage

A nice tribute to Olive painted in the wall of the London Queer Social Centre on 432 Coldharbour Lane (ex-Joy). Photo: Alex Molano

Olive’s picture in Disobedient Objects

 

A copy of the Squatter’s Handbook, where Olive appears climbing up the side of Railton Road’s squat, is included in Disobedient Objects at the Victoria and Albert Museum: “an exhibition about the art and design produced by grassroots social movements. It will show exhibits loaned from activist groups from all over the world, bringing together for the first time many objects rarely before seen in a museum”.

The exhibition runs from 26 July 2014 – 1 February 2015. There you can read short articles from the organisers and those who lent objects for the exhibition: http://www.vam.ac.uk/blog/section/disobedient-objects

Lambeth’s plans for Olive Morris House

This blog has been dormant for some time but I feel the need to re-start it due to Lambeth Council’s proposals to develop Olive Morris House  under its new SDP plans.  Many of you won’t be aware of Lambeth’s plans as they appear to have been rushed through with the minimum of community consultation.   Please see http://futurebrixton.org/your-new-town-hall/your-new-town-hall-get-involved/ and also http://www.brixtonblog.com/lambeth-council-accused-of-secrecy-over-town-hall-campus-plans/16929

I want to ensure that any future plans retain the memory of Olive’s contribution and that she continues to be suitably honoured and I will therefore be keeping a close eye on the plans for Olive Morris House

I will be posting updates on how we can influence the planned proposals.  Please watch this space.

The Olive Morris Memorial Awards Ceremony- 2 December! RSVP today

The Olive Morris Memorial Awards have been organised by the Remembering Olive Collective (ROC) to celebrate the legacy of black woman activist Olive Morris. The Awards were created as an opportunity to celebrate the spirit of Olive Morris as it lives on in the work of a new generation of young women activists.

Women aged between 16 and 27 years of age, of African or Asian descent and involved in grassroots political work of any nature were nominated for the awards by their friends, colleagues or mentors.  Of the nominees chosen to receive an award ROC will be honouring the work of:

Brenda May Goodchild—an artist creating powerful art for the current campaigns against the criminalisation of squatting in England and Wales;

Ria Hylton—involved in the Movement for Justice campaign against the deportation of Edson Comas;

Mirella—working with So We Stand, a UK-wide popular education collective focusing on struggles for environmental and social justice;

Nim Ralph—a founding member of So We Stand, working with communities across the UK to highlight the social and racial injustice of environmental issues. Also works with MOSAIC,  an anti-racist group in Brighton;

Rukayah Sarumi—has organised lectures on black feminism and the history of the women’s movement in Britain and is now active in Streatham Labour Party; and

Iman Hussein—for her work in the Guides Movement challenging its lack of diversity and with Roots a self-education Black History collective of 6th form college pupils.

Event details:

The awards event will take place at 7 – 9.30 on Friday 2 December 2011 at The Karibu Education Centre, 7 Gresham Road, London, SW9 7PH
Tickets £3 Inclusive of food
There will be a live DJ set by Carlos Martinez (Agent of Change)
Spaces are limited so booking is essential

PLEASE RSVP to: olivemorrishq@gmail.com

Award Press Release.doc

Remembering Anne Ward

Anne Ward – Photograph courtesy of Lambeth Archives.

Testimonial by ROC read at Anne’s Ward Memorial Service, 4 April 2011, St George’s Church. Anne Ward was Archivist at Lambeth Archives and a member of ROC from its inception.

On behalf of all the women who made up the Remembering Olive Collective (ROC), we’d like to express our deep sadness at the passing away of Anne Ward and share a few words in her honour.

As some of you may know, Anne was instrumental in putting together the Olive Morris Collection now deposited at Lambeth Archives.

All of us at ROC have fond and vivid memories of Anne. She was an incredibly generous, encouraging, and positive woman. Always ready to help and humbly share her time and knowledge, Anne trained us all in archiving and cataloguing.

Anne expressed genuine kindness, compassion, and great humour at all times. And she was a very supportive member of the group.

Her dedication to the Do you Remember Olive Morris oral history Project was unwavering, and she was a great source of advice for all aspects of ROC’s archiving work.

Apart from sharing her fabulous wealth of archiving knowledge, Anne also shared with us her own research tracing and recording the oral histories of Irish women – another courageous and important project that she worked on tirelessly.

A feminist by example, Anne was a true inspiration to many of us younger women and we will miss her terribly. It won’t be the same to go to Lambeth Archives without her being there. But her memory lives on and, like we remember Olive Morris, we will always remember her – the ever so cheerful Anne Ward.