This year’s theme for Black History Month is “Time for Change: Action not Words” and we’re committed to ensuring our celebrations inspire and support tangible action.
To mark Black History Month, there will be a range of events taking place for focused reflection on the experiences and achievements made by our Black students, staff and alumni at King’s.
Events taking place across the month:
Afro-Asian solidarities: Lotus and its afterlives exhibition
Thursday 6 October 2022 to Friday 14 October
The exhibition aims at fostering inclusive pedagogy through a focus on the anti-colonial writers and artists of the Afro-Asian Writers Association and their journal Lotus published in Arabic, English and French from Cairo and Beirut (1960s-1980s).
Building on our interdisciplinary expertise we foreground the importance of this neglected body of cultural production from the Global South, stressing its centrality in the making of contemporary global politics and world literature.
Find out more
Shakespeare and Race Festival 2022
The theme of the Shakespeare and Race Festival 2022 is ‘Spoken Word(s)’, withevents and resources available through out the month.
The festival will also showcase new and exciting creative work from the Folger Institute, as well as ground-breaking research from Shakespeare and Race scholars from around the world. This year, the Festival is co-produced and co-sponsored by King’s.
Find out more
KCLSU Events
Black Students Talk: Self-Expression
Thursday 6 October, 18.30 – 20.30
Black Students Talk (BST) is a peer support group that provides safe, supportive and therapeutic spaces for students at King’s who identify as Black (African, Caribbean, Mixed with Black heritage) to meet, share, learn and manage their mental health and wellbeing. These sessions are run by students, for students!
On Thursday 6 October, BST will be kicking off for the new academic year with a Black History Month session on Self-expression. Come along to Guy’s Hodgkin Building Classroom 11 for a thoughtful discussion in a warm and welcoming environment.
Find out more about BST on the KCLSU website
Black Student Leaders Meet and Greet
Monday 10 October, 18.00 – 20.00
Join us in the Vault to meet others in the King’s Black students community and say hello to some of our Black Student Leaders heading up our societies, networks and rep roles. Discover their plans and campaigns for the year to come as well as finding out more about plans for Black History Month!
Sign up here
Dismantle King’s Colonial Legacy Campaign Launch
Wednesday 26 October. 17.00 – 21.30
This is the launch event for a student and staff led campaign to Dismantle King's Colonial Legacy. This event is open to all interested students and staff, and will feature a variety of talks from activists and academics, group discussions and performances.
Sign up here
Events calendar:
Anti-Racism and Health: Levels of Health Intervention - Leverhulme Lecture by Visiting Professor, Camara Jones
Tuesday 4 October, 19.00 – 20.00
In this, the first in a series of three public lectures on Anti-Racism and Health to be offered by Professor Camara Jones during the year, she will make the case that “racial” health disparities cannot be eliminated until racism is named and addressed. Engaging with audience members in a spirited conversation exploring the pertinence of these ideas in the United States and United Kingdom contexts.
Register here
The Windrush Compensation Scheme – is justice finally being served?
Wednesday 5 October, 18.30 – 20.00
Set up to right the wrongs committed against the victims of the Windrush Scandal, the Windrush Compensation Scheme ( WCS ) has been in operation for over 3 years. The WCS has been subject to significant criticism which has led to some reform. The panel will provide a current assessment of the WCS and whether it is finally delivering justice.
Register here
Launch event: Afro-Asian solidarities: Lotus and its afterlives exhibition
Thursday 6 October, 18.30 – 20.00
The exhibition aims at fostering inclusive pedagogy through a focus on the anti-colonial writers and artists of the Afro-Asian Writers Association and their journal Lotus published in Arabic, English and French from Cairo and Beirut (1960s-1980s). Building on our interdisciplinary expertise we foreground the importance of this neglected body of cultural production from the Global South, stressing its centrality in the making of contemporary global politics and world literature.
Register here
Roundtable discussion on Black Political Thought
Tuesday 11 October, 17:00 – 20:00
What is the history of Black political thought – as a subject, as a disciplinary field? What should it be ? How should historians and other scholars think of it now? Join the KCL History Department and the Medicine and the Making of Race Project for an evening discussing these and other questions with an all star panel of experts in the field.
Sign up here
Race and Healthcare in Brixton
Wednesday 12 October, 12:30 – 14:00
Join Paul Addae and his ‘off stage historians’ from the Centric community organization in Brixton for a conversation on the limitations of healthcare and the history of contemporary race and racism in the UK.
The event welcomes history students and others eager to learn about the long history of activism in Brixton and the legacy that that history has had for the current dynamic activist agenda around healthcare.
Sign up here
Black & Minority Ethnic Experiences in Higher Education
Monday 17 October, 17.00 – 18.15
King’s Equality, Diversity and Inclusion team invite you to join Professor Kalwant Bhopal and Professor ‘Funmi Olonisakin talk about the experiences of Black and Minority Ethnic people in higher education.
This event has been designed to reflect this year’s Black History Month theme (Time for Change: Action not Words) and audience participation is encouraged. It is free to attend but space is limited so please book your place. If you have any access requirements then please contact diversity@kcl.ac.uk
Register here
Daniell Lecture
Wednesday 19 October, 15.15 – 18.00
PhD student Desmond Koomson will talk about his journey into chemistry research and his current and previous research ahead of the Daniell Speaker guest speaker (Professor Sir David Klenerman FMedSci FRS, Department of Chemistry at the University of Cambridge).
Sign up here
Estates & Facilities Black History Month Celebration
Thursday 20 October, 11.00 – 13.30
The E&F EDI Race Equality Workstream are holding an event to celebrate Black History Month. This would be an opportunity to celebrate our colleagues success across E&F and discuss remaining challenges.
Register here
Sustainability Seminar Series: Black Environmentalism
Monday 24 October, 15.00 - 16.30
We are delighted to invite Ibrahim Abdul-Matin, author of Green Deen: What Islam Teaches about Protecting the Planet. Working both with communities and wider organisations, Abdul-Matin is a leader of climate justice for Black and brown folks across the US and faith based activism.
Register here
Choreographing Freedom: Sound Images of a Black Revolution
Tuesday 25 October, 17.15 – 18.45
In late twentieth-century Britain, Black women, queer folks and transfeminine people were crafting new ways of living. Situated in the heart of Empire, outlaw women, erotic dreamers and gender rebels refused to adhere to the prevailing norms and codes that organised their lives. These adventures with beauty, sex, pleasure and performance offered blueprints for imagining a radically different world.
In a series of extracts from Bentil’s forthcoming book, Rebel Citizen, she explores the lives of those whose stories resist the dominant narrative of History and the insurgent desires that shaped the everyday revolution of Black life in 1970s and 1980s London.
Register here
Dismantle King’s Colonial Legacy Campaign Launch
Wednesday 26 October. 17.00 – 21.30
This is the launch event for a student and staff led campaign to Dismantle King's Colonial Legacy. This event is open to all interested students and staff, and will feature a variety of talks from activists and academics, group discussions and performances.
Sign up here