Lambeth Libraries in partnership with the Black Cultural Archives and local organisations host Black History Month with authors, films, music, dance, theatre and a month-long chance to learn about and celebrate African Caribbean Heritage and Culture. Below is a selection of events. For a full listing pick up a printed guide from your local library or download a brochure here.
2 OctoberThe African Experience in Lambeth: Success Story in Education
Wednesday 2 October, 6.30pm. Brixton Library
Dr Feyisa Demie shares the historical evidence of the presence of African people in Lambeth and their success story in education. The format includes a presentation, Q&A and open discussion. All welcome.
4 October Black Cultural Archives Film Festival 2019
Friday 4 – Sunday 6 October. BCA, Windrush Sq.
A three-day festival dedicated to Black films from across the diaspora. Curated in association with arts and culture newspaper Alt Africa. Films and activities for all ages. Various times and locations (see www.blackculturalarchives.org)
4 OctoberCome Dine With Me
(Black History Edition) with historian Robin Walker
Friday 4 October, 6.30pm to 9.30pm. BCA, Windrush Sq
Hear about ancient and medieval African history from historian and writer, Robin Walker while being treated to a four-course meal.
Tickets £36.97 + booking fee, includes 5 meal. info@bcaheritage.org.uk
7 October ABC Merriman-Labor: A Sierra Leonean in South London 1906-1919 with S I Martin
Monday 7 October, 7pm. Minet Library
Take a journey around the South London Pan African scene 1906-1909 through the eyes of ABC Merriman-Labor, the Sierra Leonean lawyer and businessman. His 1909 book Britons Through Negro Spectacles shines a comic light on attitudes to Africans in Britain and lets us compare community relations now and then.
8 October Black Poppies with author Stephen Bourne
Tuesday 8 October, 7pm. Carnegie Library
Stephen Bourne presents an illustrated talk about the recently published 2nd edition of Black Poppies, winner of the Southwark Arts Forum Literature prize. The critically acclaimed book explores the lives of black servicemen and Britain’s black community during the First World War.
19 October Djofray Makumbu – Emotion Picture. Art exhibition launch
Thursday 10 October, 6pm. Brixton Library
As part of Brixton Library’s visual Black History Month, Djofray Makumbu opens up his diary and invites audiences into the world of a young black man on a journey of self-expression.
11 October Song of Solomon – Brixton Radical Reads book group special
Friday 11 October, 7pm. Brixton Library
Join the reading group to discuss Song of Solomon, the landmark work by Nobel Prize winner author Toni Morrison.
For a copy of the book contact the library on 020 7926 1056.
11 October The Stuart Hall Project
Friday 11 October 7 – 10.30pm. Effra Space, 21 Effra Parade
The Stuart Hall Project is a 2013 British film written and directed by John Akomfrah, centred on Jamaican cultural theorist Stuart Hall, one of the founding figures of the New Left, New Left Review and a key architect of Cultural Studies in Britain.
Doors open 19.00 for drinks and food. Film Screening 19.30pm (105mins) followed by Q&A.
Admission on the door by donation (£5 per person, suggested) and serving a range of tarts (vegetable & vegan)/salads/cakes (including some vegan)/snacks for sale.
12 October Pan African Book Sale
Saturday 12 October, 12pm – 6pm. BCA, Windrush Sq
An opportunity to buy some of the best in Black books. If you’re a bibliophile interested in works written by authors from across the diaspora this is not an event to be missed.
12 October Pegasus Opera Company present: Legacy & Hope
Saturday 12 October, 7.30pm. Brixton Library
Join Pegasus Opera for an evening of splendid singing. The evening will end with some audience participation so bring your best voice.
Booking: Pegasus Opera Legacy & Hope
17 October Black History Studies presents ‘Africa before the Slave Trade’
Thursday 17 October, 7.30pm St Martins Community Centre, Tulse Hill
The ‘Hidden History of Africa before the Slave Trade’ is a presentation that addresses one key question: What history do Black people have before the slave trade started? This lecture discusses the Empire of Mali, the Yoruba Kingdoms, Medieval Sudan, Medieval Ethiopia and the East African Coast.
For tickets and more information call 0208 674 3038 or visit www.stmartinscc.org
22 October Stories from the Street: Windrush and the Hostile Environment – Film showing
Tuesday 22 October, 7pm. Brixton Library
Brixton based artist Tony Cealy presents: Stories from the Street, a behind-the-scenes drama- documentary film interspersed with interviews and narratives from local people of Brixton on the implications of the recent Windrush scandal and the Government’s hostile environment policy.
Photographed and edited by Nathaniel Bagot Sealey
25 October Here to Stay, Here to Fight: A Race Today Anthology
Friday 25 October, 7pm. Brixton Library
Join members of the Race Today Collective, past contributors and those today who take inspiration from Race Today, to launch the first book-length anthology of articles Here to Stay, Here to Fight.
From 1974 to 1988, Race Today, the journal of the Brixton based Race Today Collective, was at the epicentre of the struggle for racial justice in Britain. Placing race, sex and social class at the core of its analysis, it featured contributions from some of the leading voices of the time including C. L. R. James, Darcus Howe, Linton Kwesi Johnson, Toni Morrison, Maya Angelou, Walter Rodney, Bobby Sands, Farrukh Dhondy, Mala Sen and many more.
Organised by the Darcus Howe Legacy Group in collaboration with Lambeth Libraries.
26 October London is the place for me – A tribute to our Windrush Residents
Saturday 26 October, 7.30pm. St Martins Community Centre, Tulse Hill.
St Martins Community come together to celebrate the contributions and achievements of their local Windrush residents. A commemorative evening filled with song, dance and poetry. For tickets website www.stmartinscc.org
26 October Tribes with David Lammy
Saturday 26 October, 7pm. Brixton Library.
In 2007, inspired by the bicentenary of the Abolition of the Slave Trade Act and looking to explore his own African roots, David Lammy took a DNA test.
His nucleic acids revealed that he was 25% Tuareg tribe (Niger), 25% Temne
tribe (Sierra Leone), 25% Bantu tribe (South Africa), with 5% traces of Celtic Scotland and a mishmash of other unidentified groups.
Both memoir and call-to-arms, Tribes explores both the benign and malign effects of our need to belong. This book is a fascinating and perceptive analysis of not only the way the world works but also the way we really are.
31 October Dark & Light theatre performance
Thursday 31 October, 7pm. Brixton Library
Local older people from Lambeth have spent the last two months making a live interactive theatre and heritage performance at Longfield Hall.
The project celebrates and commemorates the ‘Dark & Light Theatre Company’ who were based in Brixton during the 1970s. The performance will be a sharing of the group’s memories of Brixton during the early 1970s. The project was led by local Brixton based arts practitioner Tony Cealy. www.tonycealy.com
27 October Feast in the Archive
Sunday 27 October, 3pm – 6pm. BCA, Windrush Sq.
An afternoon of culinary delights. Delve deep into the Archives as well
as enjoying entertainment, history and community.
Tickets £25 + booking fee. info@bcaheritage.org.uk
27 October BCA presents HERO
Sunday, 27 October, 5:00 PM 8:00 PM Ritzy Brixton
Black Cultural Archives (BCA) gives you another opportunity to see the incredible film HERO inspired by the extraordinary life and times of Trinidadian war veteran Ulric Cross.
BCA will receive 25% of every ticket sold. £10.88 + BOOKING FEE | BOOK ONLINE
EXHIBITIONS
18 – 27 October The Coldharbour Project
Friday 18 October to Sunday 27 October. Brixton Library
The Coldharbour Project is a 360 ̊ VR film that takes viewers on an alternative tour of Brixton, meeting people along the way who have shaped Brixton’s strong and symbolic cultural fabric over several decades.
The project takes viewers on a journey through Brixton Market, Windrush Square and Railton Road (the Frontline). Along the way, we meet authors Alex Wheatle and S I Martin, Felix Buxton (Basement Jaxx), Ricky Ranking, George Lightfoot and Lorna G of Nasty Rockers Sound System, Linda Bellos, Michael Groce, the Legs 17 Eleven Sound System and the Brixton Immortals Dominoes Team, as well as market traders and customers.
Produced by the Independent Film Trust and Booted and Rooted, the project has involved local people at every stage of the production process.
Till 9 November Dear Ayeeyo Photography Exhibition
BCA, Windrush Square 24 September to 9 November
Writer, poet and curator, Amina Jama, brings the photography of the award-winning Yasin Osman to the Black Cultural Archives. Immerse yourself in the vibrancy and emotion of Yasin’s exhibition in honour of his grandmother. £3 admission
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