Irish-American museum in Albany celebrates ties between Irish and black communities
The Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany will be hosting an exhibit and two online lectures throughout February to celebrate racial diversity in Ireland.Â
Feb 16, 2021
The museum will explore abolitionist Frederick Douglass s journey to Ireland in 1845 as part of Black History Month. Public Domain
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An Irish-American museum in Albany will examine the historical and modern ties between the Irish and black communities as part of Black History Month.Â
The Irish American Heritage Museum in Albany will be hosting an exhibit and two online lectures throughout February to celebrate racial diversity in Ireland.Â
When George Floyd was killed by police in May, the world was convulsed by footage which showed the 46-year-old black man pinned down by three Minnesota police officers. “I can’t breathe,” Floyd told police over and over, using the same dark phrase that has evolved from last words to a rallying cry following the deaths of an ever-growing list of black people at the hands of US police.
The unambiguous footage of Floyd, another black man being killed in police custody, galvanised and resurged the Black Lives Matter movement. Up until then, the modern civil rights movement had largely been US based but this time, it went global. This time, it reached Ireland.
John Mangru With his hyper-feminine designs, which bring silhouette and form to the fore, stylist John Mangru National College of Art and Design’s graduate class of 2020 is determined to rewrite the codes of modern dressing. Just take a look at the emerging designer’s Instagram account, where you’ll find a smorgasbord of visual goodies most notable are Mangru’s recognisable handmade corsets in a fizzy colour palette of fire-engine red, zingy neon green and candyfloss pink.
“I have always been obsessed with undergarments being worn on the outside,” the young designer says of his passion for classic silhouettes. “I love the way they’re tight to the body and I love creating shapes that may not be there normally. On a deeper level, I also love the idea that the corset was always seen as a symbol of oppression and I wanted to take it out of its original context by mixing new techniques and fabrics.”
Leon Diop on finding his identity as a mixed race man in Ireland
Updated / Thursday, 24 Dec 2020
10:30
Lifestyle There was a gap in where black and mixed-race people could go in order to learn about the experiences of others, to find out they re not alone , Leon Diop says. And that’s certainly how I would have felt, like I’m the only person going through this right now!
Growing up as a mixed-race man in Tallaght, with an Irish mum and a Senegalese dad, Diop says he experienced everything from overt racism to covert racism and struggled to fit in with either community for a time. This struggle for identity is one he recognises in many members of the black and Irish community.