Hello, my name is Flora Emily, thank you for your interest in our project!
I grew up just outside Cirencester and have loved calling the Cotswolds my home. I now split my time between Gloucestershire, London, and Glasgow, working as a professional theatremaker and youth theatre facilitator. The importance of community and creative expression is at the heart of everything I do, and this project is no exception. I am drawn to using historical/heritage stories to bring people together, especially when they physically connect us to the elemental environment around us.
I started developing the Rural Black History Project back in 2019, as part of my degree in History & Politics at Goldsmiths, University of London. The project was developed as a Public History Proposal, motivated by historical arguments providing "proofs of presence" across rural spaces, that defy a mainstream image of rural England as ahistorical, and purely populated by white demographic. It was developed under the supervision of Dr. Christienna Fryar, convener of the UK's first MA in Black British History, and this project significantly contributed to me leaving with the highest 1st Class Honours in my department that year. I have been lucky enough to have Dr. Fryar advise me, as myself and some other incredible creatives have been working to turn this proposal into a reality.
As a collective we're working on developing this project so it can take place in various regions that we're connected to, but for me it's always felt really important to start the project with my home community in the Cotswolds, partly as it was across the West Country that many of the proofs of presence have been unearthed, but also because of hunger to connect to a more inclusive understanding of our area's heritage.
As a theatremaker and facilitator, using a visual and more emotive form of expression to communicate this historical knowlege is what comes most natural to me. But I also believe that by telling these stories in this way, by focusing on one person/family's story, we can illuminate a more visceral and nuanced portrayal of this shared history that has been neglected.
