1. Paths to Restitution is a piece about the Africa Museum in Brussels by Jeremy Harding for the London Review of Books https://www.lrb.co.uk/the-paper/v47/n10/jeremy-harding/paths-to-restitution
The museum’s acquisition of works by contemporary Congolese artists is a consequence of the long effort to turn it from a temple of racist kitsch into a modern, ‘decolonised’ institution. Its earliest incarnation dates from the World’s Fair in Brussels in 1897, whose ‘African’ component was staged in the Palace of the Colonies. The palace became the site of a permanent colonial display the following year. Leopold II of Belgium had been running the Congo Free State as a personal fiefdom for more than a decade, issuing franchises to European companies at terrible cost to the Congolese.
I hope this works for non-subscribers; let me know if it doesn’t please, and I’ll see what I can do..
2. Writers Demand Immediate Gaza Ceasefire is the title of an open letter from nearly 400 writers here in the UK https://medium.com/@horatioclare/writers-demand-immediate-gaza-ceasefire-65ae44bd7241
We, the undersigned writers of England, Wales, Scotland, Northern Ireland and the Republic of Ireland, ask our nations and the peoples of the world to join us in ending our collective silence and inaction in the face of horror.
3. Good notice, I hope, of the Green Action ELT event from 11:45 to 17:30 UK time next Friday, 6th June, Green Educator Conference – Teaching For A Better Future More info and registration here https://green-action-elt.uk/events/ Full programme here https://green-action-elt.uk/wp-content/uploads/2025/05/TFABF-programme.pdf and attached below.
4. There’s an ECML (European Centre for Modern Languages) webinar at 15:00 UK time next Wednesday, “Resources for assessing the home language competences of migrant pupils”. More info and registration here https://www.ecml.at/en/Resources/Webinars and more info and an introductory video on the RECOLANG project itself here https://www.ecml.at/en/ECML-Programme/Programme-2020-2023/RECOLANG
The overall aim is to support the social and institutional recognition of home languages and to enhance learners’ plurilingual repertoire. The RECOLANG project aims to rethink language assessment, particularly the assessment of those languages for which there are few (or no) assessment resources, and which are not seen as part of national education systems. Why is it relevant to assess home language competences of migrant pupils? How do you assess language competences not learned at school? How do we get started? How to encourage learners? How to get involved as a teacher, parent or pupil?
There’s a very comprehensive project bibliography here (and below) https://www.ecml.at/Portals/1/6MTP/project-audras/documents/Recolang-bibliography-EN.pdf?ver=2024-09-27-084113-073
5. And, finally, the awe-ful moment a Swiss village disappeared yesterday: watch and listen from the other side of the valley from about 3’49” in https://www.youtube.com/live/FNS7p5l1Wpc
Roy Cross's Blog 