Black History Month – Brilliant exhibitions, and so, so much more!

Whenever it comes around, the UK’s Black History Month gives us all a fantastic opportunity to engage with the rich cultural and historical legacy of Black people in our communities. Not to mention their ongoing influence and inspiration to those around them.

Throughout this October, the exhibitions and museum industries continue to play a major role in showcasing the extraordinary legacy that past and current generations of Black Brits and visitors (wouldn’t you have loved to have heard Frederick Douglass speak?) have created. Here are the ones that really caught our eye.

If you’re serious about Black History in the UK, then you should start at some of the permanent exhibitions around the country, with a spotlight on Bristol and Liverpool (two major slave ports in the 18^th and 19^th centuries).

Bristol’s M-Shed has a cracker of a display in the Bristol People gallery on the first floor. It tells the story of transatlantic slavery in the city port.

Meanwhile Liverpool’s International Slavery Museum is a phenomenal tribute to the suffering and triumphs of Black people in the British Isles. The museum also features a host of pop-ups that will bring you back again and again.

Heading London way, there’s a Black Lives Matter Festival taking place at Somerset House. The very last one is being held this coming Saturday 22^nd, and promises to be “an immersive celebration of Black contribution and the many stories it tells through a series of talks and workshops.”

Next tube stop is Canary Wharf, followed by a short amble across the mighty Thames to the Museum of London Docklands. Here you’ll find the London, Sugar and Slavery exhibit, where we overheard two older Londoners talking about how fascinated they were by the stories. You will be too.

“The museum’s building is central to this story. It was built at the time of the transatlantic slave trade, to store the sugar from the West Indian plantations where enslaved men, women and children worked.”

Featuring historical objects and documents, this permanent display is a loving and deeply respectful tribute to the ghosts of the past.

The museum is also putting on a brand new, free display that shines a spotlight on four African and Caribbean businesses and their owners. Feeding Black: Community, Power & Place explores how these epicurean entrepreneurs  are much more than the services and goods they provide.

“London’s African and Caribbean food businesses are not just about buying or selling,” explains the museum. “They are vitally important spaces – untangling questions around politics, culture, heritage and resistance in an ever-changing city.”

Next up, everyone back on the tube to South Kensington, because the eternally fabulous V&A is showcasing Africa Fashion.

“Spanning iconic mid-20th century to contemporary creatives through photographs, textiles, music and the visual arts, Africa Fashion explores the vitality and global impact of a fashion scene as dynamic and varied as the continent itself.”

★★★★★ “Elegant and exuberant”, says The Telegraph. But what’s the Guardian’s view? Well, they’ve done a feature on it too, so with everyone onboard, it would be utterly rude not to.

We’d love to cover more, but we could literally fill a book with all the brilliant Black History Month exhibitions and events being held around Britain. There’ll definitely be a truck load of local stuff going on your area too, so get your glad rags on and join in the celebration.