Help City Hall celebrate Black culture in London
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215 Londoners have responded | 28/11/2022 - 03/09/2023
Big events have the power to bring communities together. Think of religious or cultural celebrations like Christmas, St George’s Day, Diwali, Eid, St Patrick’s Day, Lunar New Year, Vaisakhi, Black History Month, Chanukah, Pride and UK Black Pride.
This event aims to showcase Black creativity in the capital and offers a platform to new and established Black artists. Called 'Black on the Square', the first event will take place on 2 September 2023.
We’d like to know your best ideas and suggestions for this afternoon of celebration.
Please tell us:
- What you would like to see or do at an annual event celebrating Black culture in London
- Which creatives, artists or organisations would you like to see represented
- What do you think City Hall could do to support Black creativity and culture in London in 2023 and beyond
You can share your ideas below, comment on other ideas, or use the arrow to vote an idea up or down.
Closed
Open for ideas between 28 November 2022 and 03 September 2023
55 ideas generated by Talk London members
St George's Day
3 comments
Last activity 1 year ago
Celebrate English heritage instead of demonising it and wanting English people to be ashamed of being English. For me London is no longer English or home. I've lived in 4 other countries all of which were rightly proud of their heritage. Why can't we have that without being abused? It is English culture which created a country which affords others safety and tolerance.
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Collaborator Network

0 comments
Last activity 1 year ago
As a cultural curator, my talent mapping is often my IP - so I have a networks and representatives that could make a massive moment of this afternoon in Trafalgar Square but I'd not like to share that publicly. I'd love to discuss further - a few projects that I've developed in the past can be found on the instagram of my creative studio (https://www.instagram.com/playniceldn/?hl=en) and my own (https://www.instagram.com/nateagbetu/?hl=en) I'm also available over email at [email protected] Thanks
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Black Cultural Council

0 comments
Last activity 1 year ago
This project should explore Black Cultural Production from all verticals, being the stage design, curation, programming and logistics. So often our community sits in front of the camera - but we are behind the scenes, building the scenes and capable of producing culture shaping projects with ease. Working with black production houses behind the scenes will help to increase the equitable support to come from making a project like this and enlisting creatives on all other sides of the process will help to refer the event deeper into the networks of Black London without big spends on advertising or marketing. All this space needs is facilitation and process design to ensure that the right voices are heard and collaborators selected.
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Reaching out

0 comments
Last activity 1 year ago
I would like to raise mental health awareness. As author and founder of the www.scriptureofbalance.co.uk/ I have published three self-help books and a website and am continuously blogging about my mental health journey. It has been shared on my NHS profile website. I had not picked up a brush since I was 8 years old. I did a research project with the ERA in 'Art Therapy' for Mental Health, and I found it very rewarding and have not put the brush down since. I also use it on social media to encourage others to create something they find hard to talk about. (https://www.facebook.com/groups/495765142605845) I believe everyone's voice should be heard and if not, their creativity will speak. I believe that we should have funding to set up some workshops to enable our young people to be able to express themselves through art to encourage them to show others that there is another way to let out the frustrations of life. Give them the opportunity to activate the skills that they already have and to pass this down to the next generation.
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Black Engagement

0 comments
Last activity 1 year ago
The black community in London as diverse as any other, but many black people do not feel engaged with local politics. If we can get more black people to vote, get engaged we can be better represented. Local politics is dominated by white middle class people, promoting things they want such as LTN's to push up their house prices. Cycle routes and funding because it suits them, these schemes are often to the detriment of black and working class white people, but we don't stand up and have our voices heard. The recent documentary by a black film maker 'Divided' sums up how we feel. Why not promote this as to why we should vote and why we should engage more.
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Celebrating Black leaders
0 comments
Last activity 1 year ago
Black people's contribution to life in London needs as much profile as it can get. Since, and before receiving the mayoral London Day London award in 2003, I have been supporting other young Black people to leadership in the capital. Their endeavours, successes and challenges add up to stories of overcoming and bringing together across generations, cultures and more.
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Security dome

0 comments
Last activity 1 year ago
I am a very creative person, when it's comes to helping the public. There have been lot of violence in London. Special knife 🔪 crime. Women walking home at night, going to the park to get home. And boy being chase by a group Of boys with a knife. You feel like you are not safe in London. Being a black man. I try to help young boys to stay away from crime. When I was working in Wembley stadium. I try to save as much as i can. So i can save money for my family And help with my project. I have work with a designer company. I have design a street shelter that save life. You will have the peace of mind and feel safe walking your dog, going to the shop. It would benefit the public. It would show others black people, they can do something good in their lives.
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Black Culture of Creativity festival UK | For Black Creatives, by Black Creatives

0 comments
Last activity 1 year ago
- Conference for Black creatives, Black creatives - Live performances from both upcoming and renowned artists, musicians and performers - Fashion shows for African & Caribbean culture clothing and accessories - Marketplaces for Black creators and vendors - Fun Games, activities and interactive workshops - Similar to the Globes, displays that educate people on Black historic creativity - Pitch competition for Black inventors, founders and entrepreneurs for funding - Raffle tickets to win prizes and gifts 🎁 - Programmes & workshops to help equip people transition into the creative industry, educate on the various career paths - Sponsorship & funding from various corporations to support small-medium sized Black owned businesses - Incubator or hackathon competition to inspire people to collaborate to work on creative projects based on creative briefs etc
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Children

0 comments
Last activity 1 year ago
A competition that all London and Grater London children can take part in. A community project that can be shown.
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Influential art-political voices and perspectives

0 comments
Last activity 1 year ago
It would be wonderful to have more than one performance area, so that established creatives, emerging artists and cultural commentators involved in interdisciplinary, cross-arts practice could share the platforms/stages and offer audiences true variety from across a spectrum of artistic genres - instead of only offering one schedule of headline music acts. I would hope there was space for showcasing published writers/poets, spoken word artists and exponents of dub poetics giving readings and delivering new work set to music. Importantly, there must be diversity of representation within Britain's Black and Brown communities so that LGBTQiA+ and disabled artists and other creatives are given equal prominence - e.g. Raymond Antrobus as an award-winning deaf poet with Jamaican-British heritage reading alongside Jacob Sam-La Rose, Belinda Zawi, Jackie Kay, etc. I would like visual artists to be commissioned to contribute new installation pieces - including dynamic, kinaesthetic light-themed art installations and archival image-based pictorial narratives - that could be projected on the facades and exterior wall spaces of prominent buildings such as the National Gallery, NPG, and the nearby embassies. Black/Brown women artists must be given prominence at this festival - including some of our most celebrated creatives, such as Sonia Boyce RA, and less well-known emerging talent. Black British actors as well as DJs could be invited to serve as announcers/comperes and event continuity facilitators. Please also consider having more temporary seating and public WCs so that elders and other less mobile members of the community get to enjoy the event activities in comfort. And finally, please consider inviting specialist African and African and Caribbean diaspora booksellers and small press publishing houses to set up stalls alongside fashion designers and retailers, street food sellers, rum punch marquees, etc.
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Positive Action in Recruitment (PAiR)

2 comments
Last activity 1 year ago
Invite employers looking to recruit qualified candidates from under-represented black ethnic minority backgrounds, into management, leadership and other positions within their organisations, for fairness, inclusion and productivity, to do so at the annual event. It will help to address the perception and experience of institutional unlawful discrimination in employment in London, and improve community cohesion, economic performance and the welfare of many Londoners.
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A big thank you to everyone who shared their ideas here on Talk London.
In the run-up to the event on Trafalgar Square, our City Hall teams had monthly meetings with a community advisory board. Your suggestions were brought to these meetings and were carried out where possible. They told us they all found this support from Londoners amazing.
Thank you very much for taking the time to send in suggestions and questions for the new mayoral flagship event Black on the square. The event was very successful.
The beautiful sunny day saw over 15,000 attendees enjoying great food, lovely music and interactive stalls.
The Mayor of London, Sadiq Khan was serving the community behind catering stalls, bookshops and community-led organisations.