Two Sides To Her Story: Anne Frank and You at Z-Arts, Manchester

Neil Harrison delves into the world of Anne Frank and discovers why her story is still relevant today

WHEN, IN 1942, OTTO AND EDITH FRANK gave their daughter Anne a diary for her 13^th birthday, they could not have realised that they were also giving a gift of immeasurable value to the entire world. Now a Manchester exhibition is passing on that gift to the public and to a new generation of school children from the region. 

Anne Frank and You,at Z-Arts in Hulme, is both a moving account of Anne Frank’s tragically short life and a powerful lesson in the strength of hope and innocence in the face of hatred and discrimination.

The exhibition begins with Anne Frank’s birth in Frankfurt, 1929, and charts her family’s move to the Netherlands in 1933 in order to escape what her Father Otto described as, ‘hordes of nationalistic, cruel, anti-Semitic criminals’.

The Frank’s fears were realised in May 1940, when the German army invaded the Netherlands. Rather than risk them being deported, Otto, with the selfless aid of his employees, who risked their own safety to help, took the decision to hide his children in his business premises in Amsterdam. It was here, in a concealed room in the attic, where Anne Frank would spend the next two years.

A full-size replica of Anne Frank’s hidden bedroom

Amid the historiographical section of the exhibition sits a life-size replica of Anne’s bedroom. This room in the secret annexe where she wrote the diary that ‘became a real friend for her, and a way of expressing her innermost thoughts’, would serve as her sanctuary, but also her prison.

Today, however, the room and the whole exhibition are filled with the smiles and exuberant chatter of children from Moss Park Junior School in Stretford. There can be no better measure of the worth of Anne Frank’s enduring message than new generations eagerly learning about, and interacting with, the lessons of it through the activities provided for them here – there is a blank diary in which the children are invited to ‘denounce an injustice, condemn an act of discrimination or speak up against abuse’ and, like Anne, share their ‘own dreams, ideals and hopes for the future’.

Leading the children through the displays and orchestrating the activities is Marian McQueen of The Anne Frank Trust, assisted by volunteer ambassadors from St. James C of E High School in Bolton. Marian is clearly passionate about her work and she explains why the continued telling of Anne Frank’s story is so important.

The Anne Frank Trust’s Marian McQueen
helps to get the exhibition’s message across. 

“All the key themes of Anne’s story are still in evidence today. The purpose of the exhibition, of bringing children to learn about it, is to make them aware that prejudice and discrimination are still around but they have the opportunity to stand up to it".

In fact, the second part of Anne Frank and You does exactly that. Whilst still immersed in the context of the hidden annexe (the fear of the Gestapo and the holocaust), the exhibition takes an inspiring turn. Suddenly we are right up-to-date: contemporary issues are observed through the lens of history. These issues bear an important relevance to the children in attendance. They range from the story of footballer Mario Balotelli, who has often suffered racist abuse from the terraces, to Malala Yousafzai, the 15 year old Pakistani schoolgirl shot in the head and neck by the Taliban last year, after daring to speak out about equal rights to education for women. Malala herself has been described as, ‘the Pakistani Anne Frank.’

Children from Moss Park Junior School, 

Stretford, examine the displays.

There are stories here of the evils of prejudice: the racist murder of Stephen Lawrence and the horrors of the Bosnian Conflict. There are also inspiring stories of courage and of those people who take a stand against violence and injustice: Liberian peace activist and Nobel Peace Prize winner, Leymah Gbowee,and Alexander Rose, founder of the STOP campaign against youth violence. All of these examples - and more - are used to bring Anne Frank’s voice into the 21st Century. As Marian emphasises: “Anne’s story did not die with her. It continues to challenge preconceived notions of the nature of prejudice.”

This dynamic and intelligent exhibition succeeds in its mission to bring Anne Frank’s message into the modern world. Extracts from her diary are dotted around the room. In spite of the (sometimes difficult) nature of the subject matter presented, her words remain a constant reminder of the endurance of human spirit and of the power of innocence over prejudice, discrimination and intolerance.

‘How wonderful it is that no-one need wait, but can start right now to gradually change the world. How wonderful it is that everyone, great and small, can immediately help bring about justice by giving of themselves’. -Anne Frank

Anne Frank and Youis on at Z-Arts until Saturday 23^rd March. For more information visit www.annefrank.org.uk/manchester

Neil Harrison is studying Social History at Manchester Metropolitan University. He is an aspiring journalist and a terrible guitar player. Read his blog LooseRiver and follow him on Twitter @looseriver

Who’s Got the Best Buns? MMU Bake Sale Goes Down a Treat!

Manchester Metropolitan University Bake Off, Tuesday 12th March, Geoffrey Manton Building

Words by Kate Butler

It’s that time of year again! With Red Nose Day upon us, avid bakers across the UK have been donning their aprons and beating their batters into an array of mouth-watering delights! The Great Comic Relief Bake Off may be over, but that didn’t stop MMU from jumping on the bandwagon and holding a bake sale of their own.

MMU Comic Relief Bake Sale- 12/03/2013 from Jason Cooke on Vimeo.

Staff and students alike made an overwhelming effort for the battle, which commenced on Tuesday in the Geoffrey Manton atrium. The tables were piled high with delicious cakes, biscuits, muffins, cookies, flapjacks, tarts and brownies and it was not long before the majority of treats had been gobbled up by sweet-toothed passers-by. 

Each entry was judged on scorecards by each person who bought a treat and today the votes were counted. The results are extremely close. First prize, which is 2 tickets to the Manchester Cake and Bake Show, went to HLSS Programme Administrator Kath Daly, for her outstanding banana and apricot muffins, receiving an impressive 95/100. These were closely followed by team effort, ‘The Kate’s’, aka MA Multimedia Journalism student Kate Butler and History of Art third year student, Kate Vandor, for their pistachio macaroons, which received a score of 94/100. Third place went to Appeals and Complaints student administrator, Katherine Thornton, for her quirky raspberry flavoured Red Nose Day cake lollipops, which scored 93.75/100.  

Exactly £457 was raised on the day, a staggering amount of money considering that the goal was to raise just £250, making this event... a piece of cake!

Organisers Jason Cooke and Sophie Chivers would like to thank everyone who got involved, be it bakers or donators, and due to its remarkable success, there may very well be another event like it in the pipeline, so watch this space! 

Once a country girl, now a city dweller - Kate Butler is an avid adventurer, aspiring food and travel writer, equestrian enthusiast, coffee lover and pudding fiend. Kate currently studies a Masters in Multimedia Journalism at MMU

Language and the Internet

Professor David Crystal, Language and the Internet, Monday, 11th March, 6pm, Geoffrey Manton Building, MMU

Words by Megan Lucie Adams

Photo from lidahibu.com

Language is something we can all take for granted and it is often something many of us believe we can use, shape and mould as we wish. In a world where Twitter and Facebook ask us, ‘What’s happening?’ or ‘What’s on your mind?’ on a daily basis, it is clear that the internet has some grip over what we say and how we say it, more than we care to believe. “Are you addicted to the internet?”, asked Professor David Crystal to a bursting and honoured lecture theatre at Manchester Metropolitan University this Monday evening.

Dr Sharon Handley, Dean of Humanities and Social Sciences, had the esteemed pleasure of welcoming Professor David Crystal to the university. As a renowned scholar and prolific author of over one hundred and twenty books, Patron of the Internal Association of Teachers of English as a Foreign Language (IATEFL), a Fellow of the British Academy, and decorated with an OBE, Professor Crystal was met with nothing but admiration and applause when delivering his lecture. Presenting itself in the Digital Humanities strand in the Institute of Humanities and Social Science Research Program at MMU, Professor Crystal began his engaging and inspiring lecture by ‘tweeting’ on his Blackberry and speaking passionately about the language of the internet and what is next in an ever-changing digital age. Instead of accusing today’s young demographic for our lack of attention to detail whilst surfing and engaging with the World Wide Web, he brought our awareness to the rapid changes in both technology and language.

Beginning in the 1990s, internet linguistics gave birth to computer mediated communication (CMC) or, how it is now known in America, electronically mediated communication (EMC) and in Europe, Digitally mediated communication (DMC). It has since produced technology that many of us did not imagine we would see. Take our GPS systems for example, iPhones and even voice activated washing machines, technology is evolving faster and becoming more innovative than ever before. However, next time someone tells you that txt speak is more popular than standard English, that we abbreviate more and that people who txt will in fact be poor spellers, tell them that David Crystal disagrees. Humouring John Humphreys in the Daily Mail, he quoted, “People who send txt messages are like the Vandals and Goths of ancient times raping and pillaging the English language”, yet it was this very argument the Professor aimed to counter with his engaging and informed set of facts and statistics.

Most of us will remember the way we began txting. I for one am guilty of dropping my vowels and substituting words for numbers, yet now, as an English undergraduate, this irritates me and, if I’m honest, it was the very moment I saw my mum doing the same thing that I knew it was time to stop. This particular point was brought to my attention during the lecture and as quickly as language develops, so did the final part of this informative ninety minutes. Professor Crystal concluded his lecture by offering examples by which EMC, speech and writing differ. He asked his audience to consider imagining a conversation without simultaneous feedback, without which we would not engage into any verbal conversations. He also brought the idea of publishing online to our attention, suggesting that blogs offer a new medium due to the editorial changes that the writer can themselves control.

In a world where the internet has become revolutionary, Professor David Crystal was himself an activist of the language being used today. Suggesting that although our vocabulary has expanded, our grammar evolved and morphology and orthography become more flexible, the internet has not radically changed our language, it has simply introduced more styles and more diversity. Speaking at the end of his lecture, Professor Crystal said, “The whole language of the internet is interesting [...] as a linguist, what upsets me more than anything else is to find that people are very ready to talk about the social side of the internet and not quite so ready to talk about the language side. That’s why a talk of this kind, I hope, will fill out for you a perspective which unfortunately has been too often missed.”

In a very entertaining, useful and engaging lecture, Professor David Crystal delivered his interesting research around the language of a medium close to us all. He reminded me of my love for the English language, its quirks, its adaptability and its sheer defiance to be generalised. It can foster new relationships online, become a medium to which we can be our own editors and offer a variety of new styles of which we can explore. However, despite this interest in the social aspect, we must, as Professor Crystal suggests, remember and pay homage to a language that is simply so fascinating in its own intellectual form.

To be, or not to be... impolite?

The Institute of Humanities and Social Science Research, Wednesday, 27^th February, 6pm, Geoffrey Manton Building, MMU

Professor Jonathan Culpeper’s lecture, ‘Impoliteness: using language to cause offence,’ succeeded in three regards; it was interesting, informative, and crammed with laugh-out-loud humour.

Held on Wednesday, 27^thFebruary, in MMU’s Geoffrey Manton building, Lecture Theatre 4 was filled with a whole spectrum of people. And early into the lecture it becomes obvious why this is such a popular, engaging subject. Jonathan makes it clear that impoliteness litters our lives entirely; sometimes we allow it, even welcome it, in the form of ‘banter’ and sarcasm, and other times it is completely unwanted and inappropriate. The first point that Jonathan makes is that we expect reciprocity when we engage in polite conversation and that anybody who does not meet this expectation creates an impoliteness of a more extreme form. To emphasise this point, he tells us about an experiment in which he wrote a good luck message on university tables, and was answered by a massively contrasting, impolite message (complete with swear words) that was shocking enough to make the audience laugh with surprise.

Many of Jonathan’s points were backed up by witty or engaging examples. One such example shows how politeness and impoliteness are subverted through a letter which sarcastically ‘thanked’ the anonymous person who crashed into their car and did not own up to it. Similarly, a close family are shown calling each other insulting names, but in a genuinely caring way, which Jonathan suggests is a way of actually distancing themselves from the nastiness associated with typical impoliteness.

To help us understand impoliteness better, Jonathan outlines a study he completed with British undergraduates. Part of this study highlights the most prominent emotions that people feel about any impoliteness they have encountered, of which the shortlist includes patronising, rudeness and disrespect. There is also, importantly, the question of whether impoliteness is always intentional. Jonathan shows through his study that, although we would expect impoliteness to be only through intentionality, we will become offended by something that was not meant impolitely. He explains this anomaly by suggesting that we expect people to foresee the consequences of their comment, and their failure to do so allows their comment to be considered impolite.

Jonathan is brilliant at capturing the audience’s attention. He has plenty of ideas about society’s use of impoliteness and uses witty examples to entertain, as well as evidence his points. A shocking voicemail message from Alec Baldwin to his 11-year-old daughter, and an amusingly insulting complaint to NTL are both used to show how impoliteness can serve different purposes, be it self-assurance or an attempt to emphasise a point of concern.

The lecture was, interestingly, a thought-provoking subject for me. Since it was held, I have found myself picking out impoliteness in both its original form and as a subverted form in my everyday life, then analysing its impact. As Jonathan has showed us, there is more to impoliteness than forgetting your Ps and Qs; it is such a vast, in-depth topic. Though the lecture manages to capture only a small amount of Jonathan’s work, it has created an awareness of the many different forms that impoliteness can take. By showing his audience some of these, Jonathan has raised a whole new concept of what it is to be impolite—it’s a lecture that will be difficult to forget due to its usefulness in typical day-to-day situations.

Sophie Bannister is Co-chair of Manchester Metropolitan University's English Society, where she is currently in her second year studying English Literature. She hopes to complete a Master's degree after her time at MMU. You can view Sophie's blog here. 

How limited is Western knowledge concerning poverty in Africa?

Words by Siobhán O'Toole

Dr Michael Kwame Dzeamesi posed this question to his audience this Wednesday afternoon through his informative and thought-provoking seminars and discussions on, ‘How Africans Define Poverty’, and ‘Political culture and Democratic Governance in Africa’. Dr Dzeamesi aimed and succeeded to highlight the realities of poverty in Africa, and the difficulties concerning our definition of this ambiguous term.

Despite the vast amounts of advertising and charitable fundraising by organisations such as UNICEF and Oxfam, and biennial British telethons such as, Comic Relief and Sport Relief, much of the western world remains ignorant regarding poverty in Africa, including the causes and subsequent effects of this upon real people. Professor Peter Barberis, a Departmental MA Co-ordinator in the Politics and Philosophy department, noted that it was a great ‘pity’ that we had not experienced a thorough talk on Africa over the past year, and that he was ‘very grateful’ for Dr Dzeamesi ‘repairing that definciency’. This feeling seemed shared by the event’s nodding and smiling audience, which included Dr Janet Mather, a Principal Lecturer and Programme Leader of the same department, who attended along with her third-year Politics students.

The initial seminar on the difficulties of defining poverty was part of a three-hour event, an ‘African Afternoon’ held in the Geoffrey Manton building, and was followed by a fascinating discussion spearheaded by third year Politics students, who focused upon their in-depth research on differing African states and their individual relation to poverty.  The event dedicated its last segment to Dr Dzeamesi’s own research in the form of an academic staff and student research seminar, which delved into the controversial topic of ‘Political Culture and Democratic Governance in Africa’.

Dr Dzeamesi, who has a PhD in Foreign Policy and Conflict in Africa from the University of Lancaster, jolted his educative discussion with an invigorating exploration of poverty as an extremely ‘complicated and elusive concept’; Dr Dzeamesi noted that it is regarded ‘much too simply’, not only here in the West, but also among Africans themselves. The definition of poverty shifts depending on the area and a family’s individual circumstances and cultural beliefs. In rural areas of Africa the cost of living is much less compared to the urban, however, 70% of Africans live rurally and they constitute the people who are the most impoverished; therefore, it is extremely difficult to understand poverty on a large scale without looking at individuals and their experiences. In addition, it is important to consider differing perceptions of poverty, as Dr Dzeamesi pointed out, whilst we in the west equate wealth to the possession of material things, many if not most Africans do so through the possession of cattle; in the north, or bands of maize (corn) in the south, for example.

In order to convey individual experiences of poverty, Dr Dzeamesi introduced us to a 2003 case study of which he was involved, in southeast Ghana (his home country), which focused on ‘village-level research on poverty and hunger alleviation’. The research identified, through close work with the local people, three categories of poverty. The three categories included people ranging from those who could afford to eat twice a day, to those who were not guaranteed a meal and whose survival was reliant on the kindness of others (most people included in the study struggled to send their children to school). Despite some individuals viewing others in the village as rich because they could manage one meal a day, all participants, when asked what they thought of poverty, answered that it was a lack of satisfaction from basic human needs, such as: water, food, sanitation, housing and medical care, including people who were dependent on others for survival. 

Following this discussion on the significance of a lack of basic human needs—and relative poverty—in regards to the causes of  insufficiency,  third year Politics students divulged their  fascinating, independent research on African countries such as: Sudan, Democratic Republic of Congo, Côte d'Ivoire, Uganda, Ethiopia, Mozambique, South Africa and Mali. Their work revealed differing causes of poverty in Africa, with one student noting that ‘corruption massively affects poverty’, while another disclosed that, ‘too much reliance on one commodity’, such as cocoa, can significantly affect impoverished communities.

The event was indeed captivating and inspiring, Wasim Ahmed, a second year student of Geography and International Politics found the event ‘stimulating and extremely helpful’ in regards to his current studies and interests, as did I. Dr Dzeamesi, Dr Janet Mather and her Politics students certainly challenged us and asked the probing question, how much do we know, or want to know, about poverty in Africa?  

Who has the best buns?

It’s almost that time of year again! With Red Nose day fast approaching, avid bakers across the UK have been donning their aprons and beating their batters into an array of mouth-watering delights!

The Great Comic Relief Bake Off may be over, but that hasn’t stopped Manchester Metropolitan University from jumping on the bandwagon and holding a bake sale of their own. Anyone can enter, so students and tutors alike will take to their kitchens in a bid to determine who has the best buns.

The battle will commence in the Geoffrey Manton atrium at 11am on Tuesday 12^th March. So bring your cakes, pies, cookies, and any other goodies you can rustle up, and help to raise £250 for a good cause!

Entries will be judged on scorecards by each person who buys a treat and once the goods are gone and the votes are counted, one lucky baker will receive 2 tickets to the Manchester Cake and Bake Show 2013, which takes place between the 5^th-7^th April.

For more information and to see the terms and conditions please email j.a.cooke@mmu.ac.uk.

It’s a piece of cake!