LIVERPOOL.- The International Slavery Museum is continuing its celebrations of International Women’s Day with the unveiling of three new plaques on the Black Achievers Wall on Wednesday 10 March 2010.
The plaques will be unveiled during "Celebrating Women", a special evening of guest speakers, dance performance and discussion at the museum.
The three new faces, who have earned their places through creativity, bravery and talent are:
Aretha Franklin - the multi-award winning American singer, songwriter and pianist commonly referred to as "The Queen of Soul". Since 1961, Franklin has achieved a total of 45 "Top 40" hits on the Billboard Hot 100 chart, which includes her anthemic version of the song "Respect". Franklin also sang at the 2009 presidential inauguration ceremony for Barack Obama.
Andrea Levy - an award winning British author. Levy's book "Small Island" won the Orange Prize for Fiction, the Whitbread Novel Award, the Orange Best of the Best, and the Commonwealth Writer's Prize. In 2007, the bicentenary of the abolition of the British slave trade, "Small Island" formed the centre of the biggest mass-reading initiative that has ever taken place in Britain. An interview with Andrea Levy is included in the museum's Freedom Wall.
Diane Nash - a key figure in the birth and development of America’s Civil Rights Movement. During the 1960s she joined various political groups and dedicated herself to fighting against racial prejudice. President John F. Kennedy appointed her to the national committee that led to the passage of the Civil Rights Act in 1964, and she also worked for the Southern Christian Leadership Conference (SCLC) with Martin Luther King Jr. from 1961 to 1965. In 2009 Nash launched Liverpool's Slavery Remembrance Day with a memorial lecture at the town hall.
Claire Benjamin, head of communities says: “We feel privileged to be in a position to celebrate and recognise the achievements of Black women, nationally and internationally, through our involvement in International Women's Day 2010. The Black Achievers Wall is perfectly placed to raise public consciousness of Black people and their achievements, known and otherwise. The women we have chosen to unveil represent achievement in many diverse ways, from political activism in its most extreme sense, through to literature and popular music”
The Black Achievers Wall in the Legacy gallery of the International Slavery Museum is a celebration of Black Achievers past and present. These people represent a real mix of backgrounds, eras and disciplines, from civil rights campaigners and politicians to rock stars and poets. Some are household names like Bob Marley. Others, such as the enslaved Gaspar Yanga, are virtually unknown to the general public, but all are inspirational.
The Wall changes continuously and the museum welcomes suggestions for new inclusions.
