Black History 365 was launched at Central in October 2021, with a keynote speaker event, which facilitated two key initiatives in the shape of an Arts Residency and Public Lecture Series, as well as the premiere of a decentred research documentary film project entitled, ‘My name is.’
What is Black history? Or perhaps more importantly, why is Black presence erased from our historical memory – compartmentalised and selectively acknowledged one month a year, through a narrativizing of oppression?
In recent years there has been a sector wide push for ‘decolonising the curriculum’, but how can we ‘decolonise the curriculum’ when we fail to decolonise our own Eurocentric framings of ‘history’? A ‘history’ which erases Black excellence and contributions to society as we know it today.
Through the Learning Skills programme, we now say, no more! Black history is our history. We cannot aim to decolonise or aspire for an equitable society against a backdrop of shameless omissions, erasures, and segregated histories.
After a two years collaboration with The Centre for Race, Education and Decoloniality (CRED) on a series of events (framed as interruptions to the erasures and segregations) that fell into the UK Black History Month. We have had the honour of collaborating with some key voices behind important discourse, research, and practice that interrogate race and racism. Learn more about Black History Interruptions.
From 2020, we are shifting focus to ‘Black History 365’: a model of learning, teaching, and creative practice, which will aim to desegregate and include Black excellence and contribution, past, present, and future, in collaboration with artists, emerging scholars, activists, educators, and public intellectuals all year, every year under the ethos that Black history is made every day!