Memorial Day

Date: Thursday 23 August
Time: 9 to 11.40am
Location: City Hall
Admission: Unfortunately this event is now fully booked
Webcast: This event will be webcast.

The Mayor of London is calling for an annual national memorial day to remember the horrors of the Transatlantic Slave Trade, acknowledge the role of the UK, and commemorate the courageous acts of the people that fought and campaigned to end the brutal trade.

In partnership with UNESCO, the Mayor will hold a memorial service at City Hall on 23rd August (which is the UN’s International Day for the Remembrance of the Slave Trade and its Abolition). As well as calling for an annual national day of remembrance, the Mayor is inaugurating an annual memorial day for London.

Programme

9.00am	Jamaican Defence Force performs outside City Hall
9.30am	Guests enter Chamber
10.00am	Welcome and Reading: A Thanksgiving Sermon Rev. Dr. Rosalyn Murphy
	A Poem by Ben Okri
	Reading: Saving Souls (by Percival J. Patterson) Dawn Butler MP Jennette Arnold AM
	Something Inside So Strong (by Labi Siffre) - Part I London Community Gospel Choir
	Reading: 'Dark Symphony' (by Melvin B. Tolson) Gloria Mills CBE President, Trade Union Congress
	Poem: Aaforo Mama Yamakoi Jean ‘Binta’ Breeze
	Reading: 'Freedom' (by Langston Hughes) Kay Hampton Chair, Commission for Racial Equality
	Something Inside So Strong (by Labi Siffre) - Part II London Community Gospel Choir
	Reading: 'No Nation Has Plunged So Deeply Into This Guilt…' Diane Abbott MP Eroll Walters, Black Londoners’ Forum
	Poem: Newton’s Amazing Grace (by John Agard) Lee Jasper, Director for Equalities & Policing, Mayor’s Office
	Redemption Song (by Bob Marley) London Community Gospel Choir featuring Beverly Knight
	Poem: A Guide to the Exhibition Rommi Smith Parliamentary Writer in Residence to the British Slave Trade, Abolition, Parliament and People Exhibition
	Free At Last – A Traditional Negro Spiritual Rev. Jesse L. Jackson Snr Founder – Rainbow/PUSH Coalition
	Poem: Prose Poem for a Conference (by John La Rose) Linton Kwesi Johnson
	Statement for London Ken Livingstone, Mayor of London
	Statements in Response - UNESCO Professor Rex Nettleford Chair, International Scientific Committee to the UNESCO Slave Route Project Mme. Françoise Riviere Assistant Director General for Culture, UNESCO
	Signing of Statements Many Rivers to Cross (by Jimmy Cliff) London Community Gospel Choir featuring Beverly Knight
	Mayor formally signs his statement Assistant Director General for Culture (UNESCO) formally signs the UNESCO statement
11.40am	Close & Exit Chamber Efiba Arts and African Cultural Development