Community Publishing

Item set

Title: Community Publishing
Description: During the 1970s, numerous community publishers emerged across the UK, from Commonword in Manchester to Centerprise in London. They developed from adult education or writing workshops, bookshops and community arts spaces. The publishers had a local focus but a common aim towards accessibility. Poetry, autobiography and prose gave voice to working-class, Black, elderly, young and women writers.

One woman, a prolific poet, reflects on her East London locale from the factory where she works. Black teenagers describe their lives in verse while elderly residents remember housing in the 1930s and 1940s. Caribbean food is explored via recipes and information, and a woman outlines the disintegration of her marriage through a calendar of poems and illustrations.

In 1976, many of the groups united as the Federation of Worker Writers and Community Publishers.

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'A Street Door of Our Own': A Short History of Life on an LCC Estate
Organised by community worker Jim Cowan, this pamphlet describes life on the Honor Oak Estate in South London. Alongside photographs, twelve elderly residents reflect on estate life in the 1930s via transcribed interviews. The residents used press interest about the publication to ensure the council upheld their promise to build a community centre on the estate.
Captain Blackbeard's Beef Creole: And Other Caribbean Recipes
In 1977, and as part of the work of local community bookshop The Bookplace, the Peckham Publishing Project began with the aim to publish local writing. This pamphlet originated in the Bookplace’s English classes. The contributors discussed together ingredients and terminology and produced a Caribbean (mostly Jamaican) recipe book interspersed with related food information. The illustrations were provided by students from the local Collingwood Girls’ School.
Diary of a Divorce
Manchester’s Commonword stemmed from an oral history project, beginning in 1977 as the Commonword Workshop. The groups developed to include one focussing on women’s writing. This pamphlet was written and illustrated by Wendy Whitfield, who also worked at Commonword. Designed to reflect a calendar, the pamphlet depicts the disintegration of a marriage from the woman’s point of view, against a backdrop of left-wing political activism.
Talking Blues
Centerprise was founded in Hackney in 1971 by Glenn Thompson and Margaret Gosley. It was a bookshop and publishing project, but also included a coffee bar, adult education, and various youth groups. This pamphlet is a poetry anthology written by young people who met weekly at Centerprise, supported by youth worker Oliver Flavin, with illustrations by Doffy Weir. The young poets, including Hugh Boatswain and Sandra Agard, describe their lives in verse, focussing on education, racism and unemployment, but also the power of music.
Window on Brick Lane
Named for their location in the basement of St George’s Town Hall in Cable Street, The Basement Writers was formed in 1973 by teacher Chris Searle. Sally Flood, who was then nearly 50, was one of a few older writers who joined the group. A factory embroidery machinist and prolific poet, Sally described her verse as being like a diary. This is exemplified by this pamphlet, in which it is noted that most of her work was written “at the factory, from her seat with its window facing Brick Lane”. The illustrations in this pamphlet are by Patricia Flood.