Crossbones Graveyard: Walking Tour and archival workshop Saturday, July 4th, 1-4pm, Crossbones Graveyard to MayDay Rooms

Join us at Crossbones Graveyard to discuss the reclamation of land as a living archive.

This is a FREE onsite talk starting at the Crossbones Graveyard with Dr Lucy Coleman Talbot, who will share both her experience of researching those buried at the ground in traditional archive, and working with the material site to understand the power of an expanding, ever evolving community archive.

Since its closure in 1853, Crossbones has defied commerical development. Together, we will reflect on how acts of ritual and remembrance have transformed this burial ground into a place of creativity, healing and resistance. Crossbones has become an expression of the sacred through the profane, a place where broken and abandoned material culture is reimagined and retained. At Crossbones participation does not require membership, wealth or status, where the very act of creating a memorial on a commercially owned site highlights the hypocrisy of institutions and society's disregard for its dead.

Following the talk we will head back to the MayDay Rooms to look at relevant items from our own collection, including campaign documents on unwaged and reproductive labour, queer reclaimations of space, gentrification resistance in Southwark, and the radical working-class history of Kennington Park. While at MayDay rooms there will be an chance to experiment with our new badge maker to respond to the histories from the graveyard and the archive.