Skip to main content

Black History Month - events

BIRMINGHAM COMEDY
Saturday Night Laugh Fever
The Drum
Potters Lane
October 3
A full Saturday night special of upfront comedy featuring Brixton’s Felicity Ethnic, Afrocentric newcomer Athena Kugblenu and award-winning comics Kevin J and Axel Blake.
the-drum.org.uk

CROYDON/TOURING THEATRE
Holy & Horny
Ashcroft Theatre
Park Lane
October 8
Actress and author Tonya Joy Bolton explores the struggle of frustrated Christian Sheila to remain holy despite being as horny as hell. Through comedy, mime, physical theatre, song, poetry and drama Bolton sketches out her journey as she embarks on a set of disastrous dates which lead to unexpected life-changing consequences.
holyandhorny.com

GLASGOW MUSIC
Island Life: Celebrating
Caribbean Connections
Mitchell Library
North St
October 8
This concert features Caribbean and Scottish poetry set to music, performed alongside music of sea-faring adventures and life as an islander. Presented by soprano Susan Hamilton and the strings of Mr McFall’s Chamber, its afro-tinged music sits alongside epic encounters with Kurt Weill, Henry Purcell and Robert Burns.
www.mcfalls.co.uk

LONDON CINEMA
Stormy Weather
Minet Library
Knatchbull Rd, SE5
October 9
Special screening of Andrew L Stone’s 1943 film, considered the best Hollywood musical with an African-American cast. Stars greats such as Lena Horne, Bill Robinson, Cab Calloway, Katherine Dunham, Fats Waller, Fayard Nicholas, Ada Brown and Dooley Wilson.
lambeth.gov.uk/places/minet-library

LONDON EVENT
Acts of Rebellion
October Gallery
Old Gloucester Street, WC1
October 31
Coinciding with the exhibition Aubrey Williams: Realm of the Sun, this event explores the history of black communities engaged in acts of rebellion and innovation by focusing on pivotal creative movements within art, language and sound that challenged the status quo. It examines black histories through the impact of “rule breaking” by black artists in visual arts, music and literature and asks the question: How have artistic innovations affected the political landscape of today?
octobergallery.co.uk

LEICESTER THEATRE
She Called Me Mother
The Western Pub
Western Road
October 17
Michelle Inniss’s play has the great Cathy Tyson as Evangeline, a woman who’s been waiting a long time for a ticket home to Trinidad — and the sun, the mango trees, the street vendors — and for the daughter she let walk away all those years ago. Written in the Trinidadian vernacular, the play poses questions about Evangeline’s life and what it means to be elderly and homeless in our society today.
upstairsatthewestern.com

LONDON EXHIBITION
No Colour Bar: Black British Art
in Action 1960-1990
Guildhall Art Gallery
Guildhall Yard, EC2
Until January 24
This innovative look at black British cultural identities, heritage and creative voices — and the struggle black artists faced to have their voices heard from the 1960s to the 1990s — is the focus of this exhibition. It explores on the life works of Eric and Jessica Huntley and the Bogle L’Ouverture Press which promoted, and was shaped by, decolonisation and the fight against discrimination. Bogle L’Ouverture’s bookshop is recreated in the gallery to provide a multisensory, interactive installation alongside works by notable artists of the period including Eddie Chambers, Errol Lloyd, Denzil Forrester, Sonia Boyce, Keith Piper and Sokari Douglas-Camp.
cityoflondon.gov.uk

LIVERPOOL LECTURE
Airbrushed Out: The Untold Stories of Oxford University’s Black Scholars
University of Liverpool
Gordon Stephenson Building
Bedford Street South
October 7
Pamela Roberts’s lecture illustrates the long and illustrious history of black scholars at the University of Oxford and at the same time draws attention to those that are not portrayed or associated with the famed institution.
[email protected]

LONDON THEATRE
A Wolf in Snakeskin Shoes
Tricycle Theatre
Kilburn High Road, NW6
October 8-November 14
Marcus Gardley’s wicked new comedy, a fresh take on Moliere’s Tartuffe, is set in a world of fast-food tycoons and megachurches that rocks the foundations of trust, faith and redemption. Given just days to live, multimillionaire Archibald Organdy puts his faith in the flamboyant Archbishop Tardimus Toof, a prophet, preacher and part-time masseur, who arrives in Atlanta from the deep, Deep South of the US. He promises to absolve Archibald’s sins and heal his disease but his family suspect there’s more to this healer than faith, virtue and snakeskin shoes.
tricycle.co.uk

LONDON MUSIC
Women of Kampala
Greenwich Theatre
Crooms Hill, SE10
October 14
Five women African singers — including two soap stars from Uganda — are backed by a seven-piece band for an evening of new music and east African rhythms. They’ll be performing with Eben Oke and the Yoruba Soul-Jazz Band, originally from Nigeria but now based in Woolwich.
greenwichtheatre.org.uk

LONDON/TOURING POETRY
Three the Hard Way
Free Word Centre,
Farringdon Road, EC1
October 15
Three the Hard Way derives from Jamaican DJ culture where male DJs would work together across the dance halls, clubs and stages of Jamaica, bouncing off and responding to each other’s sets in collaboration and competition. The genre’s been appropriated by three women poets — Shruti Chauhan, Lydia Towsey and Jean Binta Breeze — who’ll be inviting men and women from all backgrounds and ages to explore our times and varying experiences, from the personal to the political.
3thehardwaypoets.wordpress.com

MANCHESTER POETRY
Young Identity: Battle of the Minds
Contact Theatre
Oxford Road
October 17
Young Identity, Manchester’s brightest young orators, present their own take on the curriculums of education and knowledge, teaching their lessons of life and sharing playground parables. Between lunchtime punch-ups, discovering self-worth and devising a failsafe plan to avoid PE, these poets think out loud about what they know and where they learned it from.
youngidentity.org

MIDDLEBOROUGH
EXHIBITION/PERFORMANCE
Displaced
Constantine Gallery
Teesside University, Middlesbrough Tower
Until October 23
Artist Richey Henderson explores his identity as a dual-heritage grandson of a Caribbean migrant, as well as presenting performances during which visitors will be invited to swap items of clothing with him, creating a dialogue around cultural identity, gender, ethnicity and class.
tees.ac.uk

NOTTINGHAM EVENT
Black Lives Matter
Centre for Research in Race and Rights
The University of Nottingham
University Park
October 28
Marking the 50th anniversary of the Race Relations Act and the US civil rights movement, this event explores the significance of the Black Lives Matter protests globally and its response to the oppression, violence and exclusion that shapes black lives. A series of panels and activists focus on the issues and in the evening hip hop performance and dialogues feature Akala and activist-scholars Dr Monica Miller and Dr James Peterson.
nottingham.ac.uk/research/groups

SWINDON/TOURING THEATRE
Call Mr Robeson: A Life, With Songs
Swindon Arts Centre
Devizes Road
October 24
Tayo Aluko’s one-man show (below), greatly admired by this paper’s critics, tells the story of actor, singer and civil rights campaigner Paul Robeson. It features much fiery oratory and some of his famous songs, including a dramatic rendition of Ol’ Man River.
callmrrobeson.com

OWNED BY OUR READERS

We're a reader-owned co-operative, which means you can become part of the paper too by buying shares in the People’s Press Printing Society.

 

 

Become a supporter

Fighting fund

You've Raised:£ 13,288
We need:£ 4,712
3 Days remaining
Donate today