This month we encourage you to visit Malorie Blackman: The Power of Stories, a free exhibition at the British Library in London on until 25 February.
As an organisation that commissions art for public places we fervently believe that it is vital that our public places and spaces reflect the diversity of the communities that they serve. This exhibition of acclaimed author, Malorie Blackman’s life and work clearly demonstrated to us the important role artists (working across all artforms) can play in championing underrepresented voices and depicting strong role models that (in the case of Blackman) young people from the Global Majority can identify with and look up to. As a team we were not only inspired by Malorie Blackman’s own life story and her work but also her persistent and continued fight for an anti-racist society.
Malorie Blackman: The Power of Stories is a poignant free exhibition at the British Library that delves into the literary journey of one of the UK’s most beloved and pioneering authors. The exhibition design, created by POoR Collective, has been informed through engagement with students from Regent High School exploring their relationship with books, reading and stories.
The exhibition features archival insights and information on Blackman’s inspirations and the impact her literary work has had on her readers. It highlights the lack of representation of Black characters, authors and illustrators during Blackman's upbringing. Furthermore, it celebrates Black main characters and figures who claim their voices and legacies through the power of storytelling.
Blackman noticed the absence of Black children in her childhood reading and sought out books featuring these characters:
"By the time I started secondary school in 1973, I must have read several hundred books. I remember wondering why none of the books I read featured Black children in them. Not one of them featured a Black child like me. There were no children of colour whatsoever." - Malorie Blackman
Her most notable book, Noughts & Crosses (now a major TV series) was motivated by the police handling of Stephen Lawrence’s murder and the treatment of his family in 1993. Enraged at the case, Blackman channelled her anger into writing the book with its premise of a race-switched version of today’s world.
“Until racism itself is eliminated, the story will always be relevant. I long for a time when we can say racism is truly a thing of the past”. - Malorie Blackman
“I knew I was writing a book that would make some adults very uncomfortable (and it did!) because I was dealing with racism, terrorism, the class system and the artificial divides we always seem to put between ourselves and others. But it was a risk I was willing to take. I wanted to look at race and class dynamics through a non-traditional lens. Noughts & Crosses was quite simply a book I had to write, a story I had to tell.” - Malorie Blackman