BCB: Becoming an anti-racist organisation update

BCB is continuing its work to become an actively anti-racist organisation. This work started following the murder of George Floyd in the US and the Black Lives Matter Movement actively seeking equality for black people globally. In order to ensure that BCB is accessible to all groups we have been continuing our weekly staff meetings discussing issues raised from the movement and holding regular meetings with some of our black volunteers.

At the volunteer meetings we have discussed what we feel could be done towards the aims and ambitions for BCB, and how we all as an organisation can work confidently towards that goal. Our next BCB BLM volunteer Zoom meeting will be 6pm on Wednesday 7^th July. Please email us at hello@bcbradio.co.uk if you would to contribute to discussions – you can also send us an email with your views if you cannot attend the meetings.

Youth Music Mentors

In previous newsletters we have told you about various aspects of our Youth Music project –  a project to help musical young people under the age of 25 in the Bradford district express themselves. Currently we have a team of Youth Music mentors working directly with some of the young people involved with the project. BCB’s Kath Canoville has been mentoring two young people, Asher Titre and Levi Diani who are both musicians and poets.

Their progression has been applaudable with both creating new tracks and aiming for CD and streaming services. They are now looking into ways of collaborating with other musicians in order to produce further tracks. If you might be interested in being involved, with this project, please email our Youth Music Project Manager at david.carpenter@bcbradio.co.uk.

South Asian Heritage Month 2021

South Asian Heritage Month is back very soon! In Bradford it will run from July 17th to August 22nd with a stimulating programme of digital and real-life events. Last year BCB partnered with SAHM and produced a series of radio programmes reflecting and celebrating South Asian culture, heritage and identity in Bradford. We’d love more BCB people to be part of this. We’ve just started planning what we might do so if you’d like to present a programme, be a contributor, take part in a discussion –  or contribute in any other way  – please do get in touch asap! Contact Shamim   – shamim.akhtar@bcbradio.co.uk

MILES

Last week, BCB attended the first 2-day zoom meeting of the MILES project. MILES is a new EU Media literacy and information project that BCB is a partner to. It’s a small project with 7 partners across Europe and funded by the Erasmus programme. It will be looking at the role of community media in providing opportunities for media literacy and information and exploring best practice across the different countries. BCB will be hosting a project meeting here in Bradford in Spring 2022 so just enough time to get practising your Swedish, German, Spanish, Hungarian…….!!

Featured Programme of the Month

If, like us, you love classical music then this programme is for you.
On Monday 3-4pm Di Ives playes wide selection of music, from Beethoven to Wagner. The show also includes modern composers like Karl Jenkins and Einaudi and also promote women composers.

Di likes to feature particular talents, including Lang Lang, Benjamin Grosvenor, Nigel Kennedy and Nicola Benedetti, together with new young musicians such as Isata and Sheku Kanneh Mason. So, if you want a relaxing hour to enjoy some of the most beautiful music in the world then this is the programme for you.

Refugee Walk 2021

BCB was really proud to attend the Refugee Walk organised by BEACON on 16 June. It’s an annual event as part of Bradford Refugee week and aims to raise awareness of the amount of walking refugees and asylum seekers in Bradford have to do to get to the places they are asked to attend. BCB has been on the walk every year since it started in 2012 and see it as an important part of our coverage of Refugee Week on BCB. People met up in City Park and walked all the way to Kirkstall – luckily the weather was fantastic! The theme of the walk was Walking Together, fitting in with the overall Refugee Week theme of ‘You Cannot Walk Alone’. Listen out for the radio programme recorded on the walk!