Planning ahead!

The project team (L-R: Jen, Meena, Andy) get to grips with the vast quantity of interesting material from the oral history workshops. 

Although the blog has been quiet for the past few weeks, this reflects the fact that the main oral history workshops have now been completed. However, much is going on in the background as the project team progress the development of the publication and exhibition which will launch at Impressions Gallery in Bradford from 28 Sept. As 21 oral history interviews were recorded and multiple photographs taken of the interviewees, there is a lot of excellent material to choose from. Next week's workshop with young people from Manningham Youth Project and Impressions' New Focus group will have to make some tough decisions!

Oldest Asian restaurant in Bradford? The Karachi!

Another heartfelt story is that of the reknowned “Karachi” restaurant.

Mr. M. Rafaqat (pictured here) remembers how his grandfather originally brought his culinary skills to the UK as a military chef in 1945. Establishing the Karachi in 1962, the Karachi may be the oldest existing Asian restaurant in Bradford - and one of the earliest in the UK. To quote the award winning chef Rick Stein, who is a passionate advocate of Asian cuisine and a great fan of the Karachi, “The food here is uncompromising; it doesn't tailor itself to western tastes.” Long may it continue!!!

Bombay Stores - An enterprising family

The Changing Bradford project has unearthed some fabulous stories. Here is one of the heartwarming from Bradford's most well established Asian businesses.

Sabra is the proud daughter of Abdul and Mariam Kader, founders of Bradford's famous Bombay Stores - "Spreading shopping delights since 1967" is the slogan above the doors. Sabra tells how her dad started life selling sweets in the street as a little boy in Bombay, India, "but he had a dream". Able to read and write, he later made a living helping people fill in visa application, then one day filled in one himself! Arriving by plane in London he was told that Bradford was a good place to go, so he did! Starting by sweeping up in Lister Mills, then working as a bus driver, he and his wife - who had previously been a seamstress, selling fabric from home - combined their skills and energies to set up a small fabric shop in a former fish and chip shop on Great Horton Road. From such small beginnings the Bombay Stores grew until it is now reputed to be the UK's largest Asian department store, attracting customers from far and wide. It is still a family business, with Sabra's brother Saleem playing a key role.

Sikh Elders of Bradford!

Last week saw a fantastic workshop at the United Sikh Association Day Centre on Leeds Road with young New Focus members, Kaito and Rameez, interviewing 3 Sikh elders from the Bradford community. These interviews continue to reveal the fascinating diversity of people’s personal experiences and histories. 

Like many Bradfordians from ethnic minorities,  Mr Bhadur Javanda talked about his experience of coming to Bradford when he was very young. He spoke of his family's military background, a unique and intriguing part of his personal history.

Mr Harbhajan Desai, our second interviewee, gave us a fascinating insight into working in the mills in Bradford, recalling the experience of a typical working day. Harbhajan spoke particularly emotionally when reflecting upon the discrimination he witnessed in Bradford in the early days. During the interview, he spoke of how he was proud of his children's achievements in Bradford.

Another Bradfordian businessman, our final interviewee, Mr Lachman Singh talked in depth about his successful pub businesses in Bradford in the 1970's and reflected on them fondly. Lachman spoke of the contrasts between life in India and life in Bradford, explaining how he loved and appreciated both!

It was a delight to take a tour around the centre, and a privilege to meeting the members of the United Sikh Association Day Centre who are all very excited about seeing the final results of the project!

Bradford's women mean business!

At the latest workshop participants from Manningham Youth Project successfully interviewed and photographed three of Bradford’s most successful women  – Usha Parmer, Anita Rani and Naveeda Ikram.

Usha Parmer, Chief Executive of the award winning Sunrise Radio, provided an in-depth interview about her experience as a South-Asian woman. Her involvement in Bradford began when she was given the opportunity to run Sunrise Radio for six months but for Usha six months turned into a year which turned into twenty four years and she has “thoroughly enjoyed it”. Although it was challenging job for Usha, some of her earliest memories of Bradford are about how the South Asian community provided her with a close-knit community making her feel “like you were part of a family”. Usha also went on to say the South Asian community “have contributed a lot, not just to Bradford, but to the country itself”.

Next to be interviewed was Anita Rani (from BBC’s The One Show). Unfortunately, Anita was unable to come to Bradford in person so the interview was conducted online via Skype! Although Anita now lives in London she emphasised how she is “a Bradfordian through and through”. She told the group a lot about what Bradford meant to her when she was younger and how there was a strong sense of community in Bradford. In her view the South Asian community “are the backbone of Bradford”. Anita took the group on a mini ‘virtual tour’ of her house where she showed them a 1940s poster of the route from London to Yorkshire revealing that, not only does she have roots in Bradford, but she also has a poster of the route to Bradford! Anita ended her interview expressing her passion for Bradford saying “Bradford gave me everything, the most inspiring and creative city…I am proud, PROUD to be from Bradford.”

The workshop finally ended with Naveeda Ikram, the first female Muslim Lady Mayoress, provided us with an insightful view on her connections to Bradford. Although she wasn’t born in Bradford, her father’s work brought her and her family to the city. Naveeda brought along a medal which is important, not only to her, but to British history as it celebrates her role as the first Muslim Lady Mayoress. This position allowed her to change public perceptions of Muslim women and show what South Asian women can cheive in public life. Naveeda remains a social activist and is now the first Muslim female director on the Council of Mosques in Bradford.

Celebrating South Asian arts

Many fascinating stories have emerged from the oral history interviews. Dr Geetha Upadhyaya, Chief Executive Officer of Kala Sangam, is one of the leading figures in Bradford's arts scene. She told the story of how the company was started from her own living room, moving to offices in Carlisle Business Centre in Mannigham. The company eventually secured £1.5million in Arts Council funding, which enabled them to acquire St Peter's House on Forster Square, one of Bradford's finest Victorian buildings. Originally serving at the city's general post office, it is now a centre of excellence for South Asian and collaborative arts.

Inspired by Dr Geetha's account of the transformation of the building the Changing Bradford group extended the workshop to make a special visit to document St Peter's House and to see the arts in action!

Dr Geetha is an internationally respected dance teacher and choreographer. Through Kala Sangam's Academy, South Asian traditions of classical dance, music and language are being preserved and shared with the wider world

Mumtaz memories

The Changing Bradford group were delighted to interview one of Bradford's most famous business owners, Mumtaz Khan who thoughtfully brought along an old photographs and an original Mumtaz menu. 

Today Mumtaz is a global brand, and one of the reasons why Bradford is known as the curry capital of the world.

The workshop, which took place at Impressions Gallery on 6th June, offered plenty of opportunities to for participants to learn new photography skills and experiment with different portrait styles. 

Photographer Bip Mistry shares his expertise with group members.

Interviews and photography at the Impressions Gallery

Two very different Bradfordians were interviewed and photographed at the session on Friday 23rd May. One was Mr Tarafdar, an elderly Bengali gentleman who is a retired teacher and Mrs Andleeb Hanif, the Co-owner and Managing Editor of ‘The Asian Express’ newspaper. Both were fascinating and insightful interviews. Hayley Sargent, a young New Focus member from the Impressions Gallery took photographs for the blog and commented, “he spoke beautifully of the different ethnicities in Bradford, describing how the world is like a garden, and that there should be many different kinds of flowers in it for it to grow. It was inspirational to hear him speak about his life in Bangladesh and coming to Bradford to work as a teacher”. 

 The young people from the Manningham Youth Project, Atheeb and Sameer enjoyed this challenging session. Atheeb was an excellent interviewer, asking probing and thoughtful questions and listening intently whilst keeping the interviewee comfortable and engaged in the interview (a difficult thing to do, but he did it well!). He mentioned that interviewing Andleeb was a good experience as he could see and understand how passionate she was about her work and Bradford, which was inspiring. Sameer got into the swing of taking portrait pictures guided by a professional photographer and got very creative! Everyone is looking forward to seeing the final portrait pictures for the the publication.

Interviews and portrait photography

The first interviewees were held at the Grange Interlink with the help of Shakila Hanif who works at the venue. Our first two ladies, Mrs Banu Mistry and Mrs Amba Patel were a little nervous about the interviews but Halima Hussain and Mariam Islam (the young interviewers) soon put them at ease and the interview went smoothly. They talked about their experiences of coming to Bradford and working in Bradford. The young people found the stories fascinating, especially when Amba talked about her early years in Bradford. She talked about running to catch a bus for work, in the snow, in a saree!

The young people also interviewed two elderly gentlemen (Mr Shah Mohammed Akbar and Mr Fateh Muhammed Malik) who provided insightful stories about what it was like to live in Bradford in the 1960's, what people were like and how they adapted to their new lives. The interviewees brought in old documentation such as work permits, clocking in cards, old photographs and pictures of places they worked at, such as the mills and the local school. The young people particularly liked looking at and talking about the old photographs.

Getting started!

Our first workshop took place at the BEAP Centre in Manningham on Friday, 10th May 2013 and attracted 10 young people from the Manningham Youth Project and the Impression’s Gallery New Focus group. The event provided an important introduction to the project for the young members, who are going to be undertaking oral history interviews with a range of South Asian people from Bradford.

As well as learning about oral history interviewing techniques from workshop leader, Meena Jeewa, they debated the positive and negatives characteristics of Bradford, and came up with the names of really interesting South Asian people to interview. Celebrity names came high up the list – watch this space!!

Guest speaker was Ameena Mughal, from project partners, West Yorkshire Archive Service, Bradford. Ameena gave a fascinating presentation about the history of South Asian immigration in Bradford, based on her own academic studies.

Changing Bradford gets a New Focus!

The project got off to a great start at yesterday's introductory workshop with the New Focus group at Impressions Gallery. Thanks to the organiser, Gallery Assistant, Jen Sobol, the event was really well publicised and the turnout was fantastic. 14 young people came along to hear more about the Changing Bradford project. One even travelled all the way from Blackpool to make sure they didn't miss out!  It was really rewarding to see so many people interested in getting involved in exploring and documenting South Asian heritage in Bradford.

The New Focus group is Impressions Gallery's youth advisory panel and they have skills in photography, film and events management which will be a great asset to the project.They quickly demonstrated their confidence and skills with a portrait photo session!

Planning ahead

Dr Mohammed Salam, Chief Executive COEMO (left) and Sam Keighley, Board Member of COEMO and CEO of Action for Business Limited (right), celebrate receipt of the Heritage Lottery Fund grant. (Photo: Bip Mistry)

Every successful project begins with some intensive project planning and 'Changing Bradford' is no different. Over the past few weeks we have been busy appointing the project team, planning project publicity and making contact with our project partners - West Yorkshire Archive Service, Impressions Gallery, Manningham Youth Project and Grange Interlink Community Centre. Follow this blog to track the project as it progresses!