Tag: archive

Postponed: Sparrows Nest fundraiser for Sumac / Rainbow Archive

NOTE event is POSTPONED due to the unprecedented scale and depth of the work in processing Sumac’s Rainbow archives.

Sumac Centre Library covers a range of topics from anarchism, animal rights, political and social theory, race, gender and class, environment and ecology, activism, to journalism and history and more.

Sparrows Nest Banner

The Sparrows Nest have adopted our huge wealth of pre-digital campaign resources from the 1980s & 90s. They will be storing our archives safely. Once catalogued many items will publically available and all will be maintained in perpetuity.

Support this project

We need to raise £400 for the next part of our archiving work.

Join us at this fundraising event at Sumac Centre when it is rescheduled, probably in September.

  • Exhibition of highlights from the archive
  • Quiz: 40+ years of radical history
  • Duplicates from the archive freely available
  • People’s Kitchen Meal
  • Forest Fields Social Club Bar

If you can, please DONATE via https://sumac.org.uk/get-involved/donate/

For the Public Catalogue search for “Rainbow Centre” and Rainbow archives detailed listing.

Rainbow Listings 1986 (Sparrows Nest Archive)

For the Public Catalogue search for “Rainbow Centre” and Rainbow archives detailed listing.

More information on the Sumac Library, including it’s Rainbow Centre pre-history, may be seen at https://sumac.org.uk/get-involved/library-bookshop/

Rainbow Listings 1986 (Sparrows Nest Archive)

Sparrows Nest Fundraiser for Sumac / Rainbow Archive

The Sumac Centre has its own small library, which people are free to browse when the Centre is open.

The library covers a range of topics from anarchism, animal rights, political and social theory, race, gender and class, environment and ecology, activism, to journalism and history and more.

We also welcome offers of help in helping to keep the Library (& book stall) organised.

Sumac also hosts the Veggies Book Stall, available whenever the Centre is open. Their are books and journals for reference and for sale covering green, human rights, animal issues, anti-war, co-operation and social justice. Some are available via Veggies online store.

We have started a catalogue of books in the library and another of journals and other archives.

We are working with the Sparrows Nest Library. They are adopting our huge wealth of pre-digital campaign resources from the 1980s & 90s. They hope to make our archives publically available, or at least catalogued.

For the Public Catalogue search for “Rainbow Centre” and Rainbow archives detailed listing.

See also “Raiubow Centre” at the Internet Archive 

 

Support this project

We need to raise £400 for the next part of our archiving work. If you can help with a small donation please DONATE via https://sumac.org.uk/get-involved/donate/

More information on the Sumac Library, including it’s Rainbow Centre pre-history, may be seen at https://sumac.org.uk/get-involved/library-bookshop/

Rainbow Listings 1986 (Sparrows Nest Archive)

Sumac Library and Bookstall + Rainbow Archive

The Sumac Centre has its own small library, which people are free to browse when the Centre is open.

The library covers a range of topics from anarchism, animal rights, political and social theory, race, gender and class, environment and ecology, activism, to journalism and history and more.

We also welcome offers of help in helping to keep the Library (& book stall) organised.

Sumac also hosts the Veggies Book Stall, available whenever the Centre is open. Their are books and journals for reference and for sale covering green, human rights, animal issues, anti-war, co-operation and social justice. Some are available via Veggies online store.

We have started a catalogue of books in the library and another of journals and other archives.

We are working with the Sparrows Nest Library. They are adopting our huge wealth of pre-digital campaign resources from the 1980s & 90s. They hope to make our archives publically available, or at least catalogued.

For the Public Catalogue search for “Rainbow Centre” and Rainbow archives detailed listing.

See also “Raiubow Centre” at the Internet Archive 

 

Support this project

We need to raise £400 for the next part of our archiving work. If you can help with a small donation please DONATE via https://sumac.org.uk/get-involved/donate/

More information on the Sumac Library, including it’s Rainbow Centre pre-history, may be seen at https://sumac.org.uk/get-involved/library-bookshop/

Resistance Exhibition

Since the early 1980’s the Rainbow Centre in Nottingham – now the cooperatve behind the Sumac Centre, has provided space, facilities and resources for a huge diversity of radical campaigns for positive social change. Our closely supported the emerging Road Alert network, @EarthFirstUK & later , Camps and more.

Nottingham Rainbow Centre  linked up with the (unrelated) London Rainbow Centre, and numerous other ‘Info Shops’, ‘centres for change’ and similar initiatives all over the UK. This was a powerful network, with its own media, such as SchNews, Squall, Undercurrents, ARC News, Free Information Network newsletters such as Notts FIN AKA Ned Ludd’s News,  and later Nottingham Indymedia.

Nottingham is dubbed the “City of Rebels” due to its long history of protest and defiance against the establishment.

As Left Lion, today’s batton carrier for indy media puts it:

As wider society became more conscious of environmental issues and animal rights, the activist subculture, which had loosely centred around the old Environmental Information Centre, needed a home. It found it in a little building on Mansfield Road, where various groups, including the Nottingham Friends of the Earth and CND, formed a collective space for gathering, learning and reading known as the Rainbow Centre.

Protests in Nottingham . Left Lion August 2018

All this leads us to …

The Resistance Exhibition

Documenting over 40 years of protest and resistance in the UK, through photos, videos, text and objects.
Resistance Exhibition, aims to foster a public archive of a vibrant protest culture in the UK; a documenting of history by the people who made that history.  It is an organically evolving archive that aims to span 25 years of movements for social change, from the 1990s road and animal rights protests to squatting and housing, from domestic violence and disability rights to LGBTQI and feminism, from anti-war and anti-racism to anti-capitalism and climate justice, and much more…

We are pleased to offer an exclusive opportunity to view the Exhibition, and discuss its contents with one of its curating team, at the Sumac Centre on Sunday 8th June. As well as the physical exhibition Sumac Screen Room will stream related activist filmed footage and you can explore our Rainbow Archive.

This event is the 3rd in a series, following and connecting DISCLOSURE: Unravelling the Spycops Files, with Kate Wilson on Sunday 1st June, and the   Battle of the Beanfield – 40th Anniversary Presentation  on Saturday 7th June.

As at many ofthe campaigns documented by the exhibitiion there will be #FoodByVeggies including Sumac Sunday Brunch and  #SamosasForSocialChange.

 

Book Your Space

Add an event to the Sumac events calendar. The submission will be sent to a group of moderators before approval, to reduce the chance of any problems.

Volunteer

There are many ways to volunteer at the sumac. Contact us if you would like to get involved..

Donate

Sumac constantly needs money to maintain the building and renovate its spaces to make the centre welcoming and accessible to all in our community, and to pay the mortgage! Please donate if you can.

© 2026 Sumac Centre

Theme by Anders Noren — Up ↑