Zahra Dalilah on Black History Month & Black Activism Map in today’s Guardian ahead of the launch tomorrow.
I didn’t realise for some time that what I was looking for was a map. A way to navigate the past and present, connect the dots between space and time to make clear which paths lead where, and foster a joined together sense of what black and brown arts activism is, has been and is doing.
Earlier this year, the Stuart Hall Foundation came together to do exactly this, digitally and through live events, mapping the work of cultural resistance from the generations that came before, and shining a light on contemporary cultural producers.
The Black Cultural Activism Map link orients itself around legendary black and brown creative resistors from across the UK, such as David A Bailey, Maria Amidu, Gilane Tawadros and Julian Henriques, who have produced some deeply narrative-shifting work, constantly reshaping the landscape of arts institutions in Britain. Simultaneously, soundscapes by all-black women choirs and visual collages of modern reparations movements emerge as newer contributions to the map, rooted in and further looking toward a new era of arts activism.
Taking archiving one step further, the Black Cultural Activism Map has the potential to circumvent the unease that comes with swimming in new waters and working in isolation. The process redresses the imbalance of who or what enters and exists in the public imagination of Britain, just as Black History Month did before it. Offering a path to all those who would like to know where they’ve been and where they are going, we are gently ushered to go, ready to roll the dice.
Black Cultural Activism Map launches 13 October at Platform theatre in King’s Cross, London
Read the full Guardian article here