Community leaders to “re-imagine black Britain” at Birmingham conference

A new con­fer­ence will dis­cuss what it means to be black in Britain today, and how black peo­ple can build stronger com­mu­ni­ties as tur­bu­lent polit­i­cal and social changes con­tin­ue to unfold.

Set up by a col­lec­tive of organ­i­sa­tions for black peo­ple, the Re-imag­in­ing Black Britain con­fer­ence will bring togeth­er a wide range of speak­ers, facil­i­ta­tors and per­form­ers at Cen­trala Space, Birm­ing­ham, on Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 27.

The con­fer­ence will explore what these chal­leng­ing times mean for the coun­try, black com­mu­ni­ties in Britain and, in par­tic­u­lar, young black women.

Through this event, the organ­is­ers – No Fly on the Wall, Sassy Tees, Cul­tured Lens and We Are Super­woman – aim to chal­lenge oppres­sion and mar­gin­al­i­sa­tion “in all its vari­ety and het­ero­gene­ity”, and pro­vide atten­dees with the resources to shape and “re-imag­ine” the future that they want to see for them­selves, and for their community.

This will include:

  • Dis­cus­sion pan­els explor­ing iden­ti­ty and Afro-futur­ism, arts and cul­ture, busi­ness and enter­prise, and net­work­ing and collaboration.
  • Work­shops to inspire atten­dees to move “from idea to action”.

Founder of No Fly on the Wall, writer and poet, Siana Ban­gu­ra, said: “We want to ask the impor­tant ques­tions: ‘How can we lib­er­ate our­selves through edu­ca­tion and decolonised his­to­ries? How can we empow­er each oth­er through start­ing and sup­port­ing black-owned busi­ness­es? How can we build as a com­mu­ni­ty, whilst still dis­sect­ing our dif­fer­ences and the way those may impact our lived expe­ri­ences in Britain? What role can the arts play in our lib­er­a­tion? How can we build a mean­ing­ful and inclu­sive movement?’

“We hope to explore and make some head­way towards answer­ing these ques­tions and more through­out the day, aim­ing to be solu­tion-focused at every turn.

“We’d also like to high­light that we have made a con­scious deci­sion to hold the con­fer­ence in Birm­ing­ham, rather than Lon­don, in the spir­it of ‘Re-imag­in­ing’. We hope that decen­tring the cap­i­tal and bring­ing our col­lec­tive ener­gy to a vibrant and upcom­ing city like Birm­ing­ham, which also has a sig­nif­i­cant pop­u­la­tion of peo­ple of Afro-Caribbean descent, will send a strong mes­sage about com­mu­ni­ty build­ing, inter­sec­tion­al­i­ty, and new approaches.”

The Re-imag­in­ing Black Britain Con­fer­ence will take place at Cen­trala Space, Birm­ing­ham, from 9:30am on Sat­ur­day, Jan­u­ary 27. The event will be fol­lowed by evening enter­tain­ment of music and poet­ry. Tick­ets range from £6 to £20.

For more infor­ma­tion and to pur­chase tick­ets, vis­it the Re-imag­in­ing Black Britain event page.

You can fol­low the con­fer­ence team on Twit­ter at @ImagineBlkBrit.

Image: cour­tesy of Re-imag­in­ing Black Britain