The Strike at Imperial Typewriters - Recap
This year B3 Media co-produced and co-curated ‘The Strike at Imperial Typewriters’ with Divya Ghelani (writer/ researcher).
The inspiration for our latest project was the story of how, in May 1974, migrant workers at Leicester’s Imperial Typewriter factory discovered their workmates earned more than them simply because they were white. Some put up with this discrimination. But a group of 39 staff, mostly South Asian women, decided to act. They went on strike and were soon joined by hundreds of others who also demanded equality.
The project concept for the exhibition was initially developed through B3‘s TalentLab. The exhibition, co-curated by Divya and produced by Marc Boothe, successfully opened last month to a capacity audience at Newarke Houses Museum, Leicester.
In Jan 2019, the team started to plan and prepare for the exhibition by reaching out, location scouting and finding creative collaborators, as well as researching and developing.
Upon deciding we wanted to capture oral histories of what it was like to live through that time, we began to catalogue interviews with academics from the 70s for the exhibition.
The exhibition launched 14 June to a great turn out by the community. The opening hosted an extended programme of talks, seminars and workshops around the exhibition, giving visitors a chance to immerse themselves in 70s Britain, the political tensions, community spirit and the emergence of the Women’s Rights galvanising local support for the original Strikers.
‘The Strike at Imperial Typewriters’ was open for five months for free to the general public. During our time at Newarke Houses Museum, we held events, seminars and workshops to give visitors a chance to engage with the exhibition. Our sessions included guided walks, talks, installations and workshops.
We aimed to capture a crucial moment in history and commemorate the struggle of those brave Asian pioneers of 1974. The exhibition has had a wonderful response from the local community and those interested in learning about the history of civil protest.
Testimonials include:
Thank you to everyone for visiting the exhibition! We’ll be working on maintaining the legacy of this project - if you want to stay up to date, please keep an eye on B3 Media’s website or social media, or on The Strike at Imperial’s website.
We wish to acknowledge support from:
The University of Leicester
De Montfort University
Film and Media School
Stephen Lawrence Research Centre
Project funded by:
HLF logo, Arts Council England, Leicester City Council
With support from:
Horizon/ MRL
We would also like to thank our contributors, the volunteers, museum staff and the community of Leicester for their support and inspiration.
A project by - B3Media
B3 Media is funded by - Arts Council England