Free learning resources from arts, cultural and heritage organisations.

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Contribution to Literature: Case Studies

Contribution to Culture: Food & Music

Watch this film where first, second and third generation Windrush Leeds residents talk about the role of food in their culture and about growing up away from home and the importance of culinary traditions in their lives. The film is 4:00 minutes long and includes more information on sorrel and black cake.

 

Sorrel and Black Cake

Sorrel punch is a traditional Christmas beverage in the Caribbean.  Dried hibiscus flowers - known as sorrel in Jamaica and other parts of the Caribbean - is steeped in boiling water along with ginger and other whole spices such as allspice, cinnamon sticks, and cloves.  It is traditionally sweetened with sugar, and rum can also be added.

Black Cake is a dense, richly spiced fruit cake popular across the Caribbean. Dried fruit is soaked in rum before being mixed into a dark, sweet fruit cake batter. As with all Caribbean cooking, everyone has a slightly different recipe for this cake!

Download the sorrel and black cake recipes and give them a try (perhaps without the rum!)

 

Music

Watch this film where first and second generation Windrush migrants talk about the importance of music in their lives, on a personal, social and cultural level.  The interviewees talk about Saturday night parties, masquerade, carnival, musical culture in school, and who their influences were.

Access a curated playlist of music from the production Sorrel & Black Cake,  featuring Bob Marley,  Delroy Wilson, The Heptones, Jimmy Cliff and Miss Lou, among others.