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Performing Arts Billie Holiday Billie Holliday ​ Eleanora Fagan (April 7, 1915 – July 17, 1959), known professionally as Billie Holiday, was an American jazz and swing music singer with a career spanning 26 years. She was born in Philadelphia to teenagers. Because her mother had no support, Eleanora was left with an older sister in Baltimore. In 1925, Eleanora was sent to a Catholic reform school for nine months before she moved back with her mother. After an attempted rape, Eleanora was placed in protective custody for some months. Influenced by the music of Louis Armstrong and Bessie Smith, Eleanora began singing in Harlem nightclubs as a teenager. Nicknamed "Lady Day" by her friend and music partner Lester Young, Holiday had an innovative influence on jazz music and pop singing. Her vocal style, strongly inspired by jazz instrumentalists, pioneered a new way of manipulating phrasing and tempo. She was known for her vocal delivery and improvisational skills.Holiday had mainstream success on labels such as Columbia and Decca. She won four Grammy Awards, all of them posthumously, for Best Historical Album. She was inducted into the Grammy Hall of Fame in 1973. Lady Sings the Blues, a film about her life, starring Diana Ross, was released in 1972. In 2017, Holiday was inducted into the National Rhythm & Blues Hall of Fame. External Website

Films/Videos Intimate Relations ​ 1996 Intimate Relations is a (1996) Canadian-British film, starring Rupert Graves as Harold Guppey, Julie Walters as Marjorie Beaslie and Laura Sadler (1980-2003) as 14-year-old Joyce Beaslie. When Harold first appears in the film after leaving the Merchant Navy, he tells his brother Morris, who hasn’t seen him since he was a child that he was in Australia for a bit and had been travelling ever since he left the 'home'. Morris’ wife tells Harold that he’s not welcome in their lives - he’s just not the sort of person they want around their child. The viewer discovers Harold's father died when he was 10 years old and he was 'sent away' - about 1933 (presumably to Australia, which would make him one of the migrant children) as his mum couldn't cope with his 'unruly behaviour'. The film is a black comedy about a young man who has an affair with the middle-aged housewife he is lodging with. The film takes place in the 1950s in the suburbs of London and is based on the true story of Albert Goozee who killed his landlady and her daughter, and either was or became a paedophile. He was sentenced to death but had a reprieve days before on grounds that he had been "provoked beyond reason", and the sentence commuted to life imprisonment. He was diagnosed with Paranoid Schizophrenia and detained at Broadmoor. After he was released, he went on to commit more crimes including at aged 73, the indecent assault of two girls aged 12 and 13. This brings into question why this disturbing film was made into a black comedy. External Website

Films/Videos Luce ​ 2019 Luce Edgar was adopted from war-torn Eritrea and at the end of his high schooling is a star pupil. He develops animosity towards his history teacher, a woman he believes treats students unfairly depending on whether they fit stereotypes or not. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles How Two Jewish Kids in 1930s Cleveland Altered the Course of American Pop Culture Literary Hub 2023 This is an article about the development of Superman. Superman was the creation of 21 year old Jerry Siegel (1914-1996) and his friend Joe Shuster (1914-1992), young men whose parents had escaped the European pogroms before Hitler and who incorporated some key ideas from Judaism into the Superman script. For example, Superman’s original name was Kal-El which means Voice of God in Hebrew. Kal-El was an abandoned baby raised by a non-Jewish woman, as was Moses. And in the version which became a hit, Superman was “doing good in the world for goodness’ sake, not for rewards or recognition”. External Website

Films/Videos Somers Town ​ 2008 A black-and-white study of a social environment in London, concentrating on a pair of unlikely new friends and the girl they both fancy. Two teenagers, both newcomers to London, forge an unlikely friendship over the course of a hot summer. Tomo (Thomas Turgoose) was in care in Nottingham. Aged 16, he arrives in London, is mugged and all his belongings and money stolen. He finds himself homeless. Marek (Piotr Jagiello) lives in the district of Somers Town, between King's Cross and Euston stations, where his dad is working on a new rail link. The boys are both infatuated with the same girl, and pass their days bickering over which of them loves her the most. Finding himself homeless, Tomo surreptitiously moves into Marek's bedroom - but it's only a matter of time before Marek's dad discovers what's going on... External Website

Films/Videos The Reality of Foster Care ​ 2020 "It's the Hard Knock Life" is a song in the film Annie (1982) sung by the character Annie and some of her friends in an orphanage. For American Courtney Price-Dukes, Annie is not only a fictional character in a favourite film from childhood, but the “reality for thousands of children” who are living “The Hard Knock Life” in the foster care system. “Being pulled from your home, having to live with strangers, pushed through the judicial system as if you’re just a number, and just simply trying to hold yourself together – that is the Hard Knock Life.” Courtney—who was in foster care and is now studying at Wichita State University—has a message in her 2020 TedTalk: that more people are needed in the foster care system and not necessarily as foster carers, but as advocates and mentors for children, to provide support for parents too, and to donate toys, suitcases, etc. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles BBC Teach - History KS3 / GCSE: Small Axe - Alex Wheatle and the Brixton Uprising Alex Wheatle 2020 Resource for History KS3 / GCSE: Small Axe - Alex Wheatle and the Brixton Uprising. In his own words, this is story of Alex Wheatle MBE, who grew up in a children's home and later became an award-winning writer of books for children and young adults. Alex never knew his family, who were part of the Windrush generation who migrated to Britain after World War Two. They were promised a better life, but for Alex’s family, like many others, it didn’t work out that way. It wasn't until he left the children's home and moved to Brixton in South London that he realised how different he was. Having had little contact with other black people in the children’s home, at first he struggled to fit in and find his identity. Brixton was a hotbed of racial violence in the 1980s, and mistrust towards the police was made worse after the death by fire of 13 young black people in January 1981. The incident, known as the New Cross fire, was treated as a minor fire incident by the police. No arrests were made, despite many in the black community believing the fire to have been started deliberately in a racist attack. Tensions rose further after the police launched an operation called Swamp 81, which involved stopping and searching any young, black man within the central Brixton area. Plain-clothes officers stopped and searched 950 people in just five days, often without any reason. On 10 April 1981, Brixton turned into a war zone. The rioting that followed over the next two days became known as the Brixton uprising. Alex was arrested and ended up serving time in prison. He started reading books by the likes of Chester Himes, Richard Wright, C.L.R. James and John Steinbeck, and found his passion for writing. External Website

Performing Arts Jimi Hendrix Jimi Henrix ​ James Marshall "Jimi" Hendrix (1942 – 1970) was an American musician, singer, and songwriter. He was born in Seattle to 17-year-old Lucille and James “Al” Hendrix. On her own, Lucille struggled with caring for her baby so her mother, Clarice Jeter, moved in to help. Both women worked low paid jobs which often meant baby Jimi wasn’t cared for. Eventually, Jimi was given to a Mrs. Champ—one of Clarice’s friends—and was moved to Berkeley, California. Al retrieved his son from Mrs. Champ in 1945 and returned to live with Lucille in Seattle. In 1946, Al and Lucille changed their son's name to James Marshall Hendrix to honour both Al and Al's brother Leon Marshall. After the couple divorced in 1951, Al was given custody of Jimi and his younger brother, Leon. After Lucille died in 1958, Al bought Jimi a ukulele and music became a way for the boy to express his feelings. As music began to dominate in Jimi’s life, he lost interest in school. He left high school early and worked as a landscape gardener with his father for a while, but didn’t enjoy the work. Jimi Hendrix was in the military for less than 12 months before he was discharged. From 1962 he was on the road for 7 years with a “motley succession of club bands”, making his recording debut with Lonnie Youngblood (b. 1941) at the end of 1963. In 1966, Hendrix joined with bassist Noel Redding (1945-2003) and drummer John Mitchell (1946-2008) to form the Jimi Hendrix Experience. Hendrix quickly shot to fame in London and then in America at the Monterey Pop Festival in June 1967. External Website

Performing Arts Harold Blair Harold Blair ​ Harold Blair (1923 – 1976) was an Australian tenor and Aboriginal activist. He was born in Queensland and separated from his mother at the age of two when she was sent out to work as a domestic servant. The boy was then cared for by Salvation Army staff who moved him into the girls' dormitory where he stayed until he was five years old. Harold was then transferred to the boys' dormitory and began his limited formal education. Harold was almost 16 before he left Purga. In 1942 he was sent to work in the canefields of Childers in the Bundaberg Region of Queensland during WWII. Harold had been singing and entertaining at Purga and he continued this while working in the canefields. In 1945 he married and left for the United States where he studied singing. Back in Australia, Blair studied part-time and worked in a Melbourne department store until in 1956 he was teaching part-time at the Albert Street conservatorium. He travelled to Europe 3 years later, and did a range of jobs in Australia to support his family while continuing to sing. In 1967 Blair became a music teacher in the Victorian Department of Education. He performed in the first opera put on at the new Sydney Opera House in 1973 and was appointed a Member of the Order of Australia in 1976. Harold Blair took on projects to improve the situation for Aboriginal Australians. One of these was the Aboriginal Children’s Holiday Project, which provided holidays in Melbourne for 3000 children living on Queensland missions. External Website

Films/Videos The Strays ​ 2023 The Strays (2023, Netflix), is a British thriller starring Ashley Madekwe as an upper class woman, Neve, whose life looks ‘perfect’. Neve works as the deputy head of a privileged private school where the majority of students are white. Although everyone knows Neve is Black, Neve’s family and the wider community are all surprised when 2 Black teenagers (Jorden Myrie and Bukky Bakray) arrive to claim Neve as their mother. Understandably distressed that their mother abandoned them in the past and is in the process of rejecting them again, the teenagers become disruptive, and unfortunately – because it perpetuates stereotypes – violent. External Website

Films/Videos Lloyd Kelly shares his foster story ​ 2021 Lloyd Kelly shares his foster care story. Loyd Kelly (b. 1998) Lloyd Casius Kelly is an English professional footballer who plays as a defender for and is captain of EFL Championship club AFC Bournemouth. Kelly went into Foster Care when he was 7 years old with his brother and sister. He has said they were lucky as they managed to stay together. External Website

Films/Videos The Department ​ 2021 This documentary aired in Australia on Sunday 10 October. It was billed as "a look inside the never-before-seen New South Wales child protection system, following careworkers across the state." The documentary explores the experiences of parents who have lost their children to the state as well as Dept workers charged with protecting children. The Department acknowledges Australia's history of removing First Nations children on racist grounds, but does not acknowledge other problems resulting in state and federal inquiries since the 1990s. External Website

Films/Videos Dear Daughter ​ 1996 In this drama documentary by Louis Lentin, Christine Buckley tells about the atrocities she experienced as a child in Dublin’s Goldenbridge orphanage. Born in Dublin, Buckley was the daughter of a married Irish woman and a Nigerian medical student. At the age of three time at the orphanage and her determination to find her parents. External Website

Films/Videos The Cider House Rules (1999) ​ 1999 The Cider House Rules (1999) is an adaptation of the eponymous book by American writer John Irving. Homer Wells (Toby McGuire) grows up in an orphanage in Maine, run by Dr. Wilbur Larch (Michael Caine). Children are treated well at the orphanage. Dr Larch trains young Homer to become an obstetrician. After Larch’s death, Homer Wells returns to the orphanage to become the new director. External Website

Films/Videos The Christmas Note ​ 2015 The Christmas Note is a Christmas film originally broadcast on the Hallmark Movies & Mysteries Channel in 2015. The film is based on the book of the same name by Donna VanLiere. Gretchen Daniels moves back to hometown Wilsonville with her son Ethan. Neighbour & workaholic Melissa, discovers an unfinished note from her mother, who gave up a child for adoption. Gretchen (also adopted) convinces Melissa to search for her sibling. External Website

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Non Fiction Ripped at the Root: An Adoption Story Mary Cardaras 2021 Mary Cardaras wrote Ripped from the Root (2021) after listening to the story of Dena Polites Poulias who had been adopted from Greece by an American couple in the 1950s. Just as Mary had been. Mary had given up her 10 year search for her biological Greek mother by then, but, inspired by the shared experienced with Dena, began talking with the journalist Gabrielle Glaser who had written American Baby, and with the scholar Gonda Van Steen, who had been exploring the context of Greek adoptions since 2013. In Ripped from the Root, Mary recounts how Dena went back to the village where she was born many years later. How the adoption - and reclamation - affected others such as extended family is covered, and has relevance for other transnational adoptees. External Website

News - broadcast, print, internet, magazine articles Care Leavers Facing ‘Vile’ Assessments in Postcode Lottery when Becoming Mothers Sophia Alexandra Hall 2021 The question being asked in this article is: Why are formerly looked-after children having to undergo ‘pre-birth assessments’ when becoming parents themselves? External Website

Non Fiction Conversations that Make a Difference for Children and Young People: Relationship-Focused Practice from the Frontline Lisa Cherry 2021 Conversations that Make a Difference is a "call to action", an opportunity for those professionals working with children and young people to reflect on their practice and consider how they can "bring about social change, one interaction at a time." External Website

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