Arcadia England

This past weekend, a group of 41 students went on the Oxford trip. They were given a historic walking tour of the beautiful city, as well as entry to Christ Church College. After that, the afternoon was free for them to do as they wished. It was a hugely successful trip as can be seen from the feedback below:

I loved the place! It's an awesome mix of medieval architecture with the thriving energy of a college town. Our tour guide was a wonderful lady who was very informational and easy to talk to. She told us some wonderful stories about Oxford's history that were extremely fascinating. - Ruby Zenteno (FYSAE)

Oxford was a beautiful city to visit and I would definitely go back to do some more there again! The tour guide that we were assigned to was amazing! She new all about the history of the city, all the buildings within it, and even many little very interesting locations around the city! I would highly recommend the oxford trip to anyone who is considering it! - Swathi Jaishankar (KINGS)

The group was also lucky to visit on the same day as the Oxford Literary Festival. Kimberley Aparisio, a member of the Student Life team went along and gave us this account:

I was very pleased to visit the Oxford Literary Festival during the Arcadia excursion to Oxford this past Saturday.  I attended a discussion between human rights campaigner Shami Chakrabarti and children’s laureate, Malorie Blackman.  Ms. Blackman is a prolific British author, and Ms. Chakrabarti is the director of Liberty, a prominent civil rights organization with an 80 year legacy.

The topic of the Festival discussion was ‘Writing for Young People and Human Rights.’  Ms. Chakrabarti commented that she and Malorie Blackman were selected to share the stage because they both address injustice, highlight subjects that society is wont to ignore, and also focus on young people.

Malorie shared that her love of reading as a youth spurred her to become an author.  She feels that reading fiction is critical to the development of emotional intelligence.  Shami responded that storytelling is arguably the “most radical mover of people there is.”  Malorie uses her books to explore various themes she finds meaningful.  For instance, her latest work, Noble Conflict, explores the idea of “never giving power to the ones who want it.”

When asked about her critically acclaimed book series Noughts & Crosses, Malorie explained that she began her writing career intentionally crafting books that had nothing to do with race.  She wanted to make it clear that as a black author, race was not the only thing she “was qualified to write about.”  Consequently, she only devised Noughts & Crosses after she had established a reputation as an author of technology thrillers.  The series was also partially sparked by the emotions she felt following the murder of Stephen Lawrence.

Blackman wanted to write about the legacy of slavery, and went about doing so in an original and considered way.  For instance, the series includes an analysis of how the minority will typically know about the folkways of the majority in society, and the reverse is less likely to be true.  Blackman said of Noughts & Crosses – “it was a painful and cathartic book to write.”  She feels that the whole point of reading is that it promotes empathy, and that the best fiction is about placing oneself in other people’s shoes, so as to understand where they are coming from.

I was so impressed with the discussion that I bought all four books in the Noughts & Crosses series, and have almost completed book one. I highly recommend it – it is a critical and engaging look at division in society.