Events

Crystal Palace FC

27 March 2007

SRTRC again worked in partnership with London Borough of Croydon to organise an event at Crystal Palace for young people from the Borough's schools. An audience of around 100 people were in attendance to see a screening of the DVD and take part in a Question and Answer session with players from the club and the panel.

By way of introduction Councillor Taylor of London Borough of Croydon spoke about the Council’s involvement with and support of the campaign. Then Ged Grebby, project coordinator, introduced the DVD which was well received by the audience. After the screening of the DVD, and at the suggestion of Mary Lawmann of London Borough of Croydon who was also on the panel and instrumental to organising the day, a music performance took place to link in to the anniversary of the abolition of slavery. Ian Solomon and Ade introduced this topic and performance between them and then Ade performed a traditional Ghanian song with drumming. Ian was to also engage the audience at the end of the event with a participatory free style rap.

After the performance came the opportunity to ask the panel questions on racism. The panel consisted of former Chelsea player Paul Canoville, Crystal Palace player Leon Cort, Crystal Palace Assistant Manager Kit Symons, England Womens’ Team Manager Hope Powell, Ged Grebby, Mary Lawmann and Councillor Taylor. The Question and Answer session was very good and according to Ged, featured some of the most difficult questions to answer that had featured at one of SRTRC’s events! The panel coped well though and the club had been very generous in donating prizes for the Q&A session, giving three pairs of tickets for CPFC’s game against Sheffield Wednesday on Saturday 31st. The winners of these prizes also got to have their photographs taken by local press next to the pitch with the players. There were several local newspapers in attendance and in addition to some pre-event interviews with various press, the event was featured on the club’s website the following day.

SRTRC would like to thank London Borough of Croydon, especially Mary Lawmann, for their help in organising the event, Ian Solomon and Ade for their performances, Paul Canoville, Kit Symons, Leon Cort, Hope Powell and Councillor Taylor for taking part in the event and dealing with the great questions. Also big thanks to Crystal Palace FC for hosting the event and in particular Sarah Vernon and Terry Byfield for this and their help on the day.