This Black History Month, Black Lives Natter is hosting a free one day community event at Theatre Deli in London on the 21st October. This event celebrates History, Community, education, Business, Wellbeing, Culture and the Arts in a day-long event.

The event commences at midday, from there visitors are greeted and can choose between visiting the Black Joy Marketplace where visitors can browse stalls with food, arts and crafts, books, clothes and more or alternatively visitors can leave their business cards on the sharing table for networking and social events later in the day and/or sign up for the talks. Additionally art and photography will be displayed and on sale in the marketplace and cafe/bar area, including moving images on Delivision exploring themes of Black Joy.

The Cafe/Bar will host an open-mic stage for artists, performers and community members to use as a free promotional platform for their work and/or news.

From 12:30 - 18:45 in Studio 12 there will be Talks and Audience Q & A’s with several different Guest Speakers from organisations Black Lives Natter, Quest-Life, Black History Walks, Black Women's Wellness, Little Ro, Black Health Matters, Do it Now, and the National Centre for Circus Arts, with multiple opportunities available to get involved or just have a natter.

From 18:30 - 19:45 there will be further opportunities to socialise and network in the Theatre Deli Cafe/Bar. This is an ideal setting for creatives, businesses and organisations to foster relationships, skill swap and meet.

The networking and socialising is followed by BLN-LIVE Black Joy Cabaret with live music, dance, spoken word, monologues, burlesque and drag performances from 20:00 - 21:30.

Hosted by Shakona Fire with BLN-LIVE Residents Amaziah Rose & Pastor Will, and guest appearances from Dior Clark, Livia Kojo Alour,

Nova Stormm, REIx & Roxy.

The event closes with DJ $abs from 21:30 - 23:00. Black Joy is a queer friendly and access sensitive, proactive event.

Black Womens Wellness. Purple background using white fonts. There is an icon of a speech bubble with a sound wave inside. Beneath is written Black Womens Wellness in typewrite font with Christine Dean in cursive underneath.

Quest Life Spicing Up Arts & Culture on an Orange background. There is a white square with a circulat sun likee image in orange and white. QUESTLIFE is underneath written in capital letters in white. IF within the word QUESTL(IF)E is in black.

Black Health Matters in capital letters in white font. Black Background with a three tier geomatric frame in white.

Rio Hayles NCCA - Circus Arts: Changing the Narrative

Rio is the Learning and Participation manager at the National Centre for Circus Arts Rio manages the London Youth Circus; a progressive training programme for 11 – 18 Year olds. Rio is passionate about creating accessible pathways into the arts and circus sector for young people from all backgrounds. Rio is the co-founder of ER Dance Academy.

Circus has been historically white centric and underrepresented. Despite the art forms' contemporised move toward social and cultural themes in performance, and the progressive spaces circus presents itself in, there is still a long and demanding road we must endure to diversify those who represent and embody circus arts. This talk delves into what Circus Arts is and spotlights where in the world people of colour are representing circus. We discuss NCCA’s Degree programme, access projects and our partnership with Black Lives Natter.

WATCH

Niina Nia Kabesa Mother of Nations - Every Child is Your Child

Niina is the founder of Mother of Nations which is a non-profit organisation, that was created to give back to the community.

The Mission is to bring solutions to the community via activities, award recognition, networking events and Lifecoach programmes.

'What you make happen for another child, you have made happen for your child too.’

Why assisting or educating other children is beneficial to your own children?

‘Our children are only ours from the womb. Once born, they belong to the whole village.'

WATCH

Roz Etwaria Little Ro - The Blues People - Going Down Batting In The Face of Colonial Meltdown

Roz is the ebullient driving force behind Little Ro, advocate lead at Traumascapes and partner at Survivors Voices. Roz campaigns for survivors of child sexual assault and abused people. She is a researcher who studied trauma through Black history, Feminism and Abuse. Roz has spoken to audiences worldwide on hope and healing and is on a mission to help us be the change we want to see through self-examination and laughter. Roz is a playful award-winning, highly respected public speaker and thought-provoking social intellectual. She speaks with wisdom and wit. Educated at the postgraduate level and trained as a lawyer. As a consultant, Roz has worked with seed and large multi-million-pound projects.

Join Roz for 'The Blues People Keynote,' a profound journey dedicated to respecting, correcting and protecting our invaluable contributions to the world.

Together, we will celebrate while confronting historical injustices and address pressing contemporary issues, including the relentless pursuit of wealth at any cost.

WATCH

Christine Dean Black Women's Wellness - A Centre of Excellence

Christine is a former family lawyer, passionate about fighting for women's equality. She was appointed Deputy Leader of the Women's Equality Party in 2020. Her work on campaigns to improve black women's health and participation in the Black Women's Reproductive Health Project inspired her to found the 'Black Women's Wellness Podcast' this year.

What if there was a centre of excellence focused on giving Black Women advice and guidance on how to improve their health and wellbeing?

Christine will talk about why she is passionate about creating a safe space, a one stop shop, for Black Women to share information, get and give advice and support on the many health issues, physical, mental and emotional that impacts their lives on a daily basis.

WATCH

Marc Thompson - Love Tank

Marc is the founder of Black Health Matters.

Its aim? To support current and new generations of lived experience leaders who are addressing different health inequality issues. By bringing lived experience leaders from diverse health issues together on the project, we aim to establish more joined-up thinking and action, relating to health inequalities faced by Black people.

The Love Tank Black Health Matters project. The COVID pandemic highlighted and confirmed the health inequalities experienced by Black people. The role of Black people in advocating for their own healthcare can play a key part in addressing some of the disparities

The BHM programme of work, developed in 2021, aimed to work with Black people across a range of health conditions to develop and enhance their skills and knowledge to enable them to utilise their lived experience and become leaders in their communities and across the health and well-being landscape.

Marc discusses the context and need for the programme, gives an overview of the aims and closes with the outcomes of the programme.

WATCH

Tony Warner Black History Walks - Hidden Black History in London's Streets

Tony is a community activist and guerrilla historian. He has been exhibiting educational and empowering films about African/Caribbean history since 2000. He pioneered community partnerships with and lectured at the Imperial War Museum, National Portrait Gallery, Museum of Docklands and the British Film Institute – which all led to huge increases in Black audiences.

Tony is the co-founder and chair of the African Odysseys programme. This grassroots initiative has been exhibiting African diaspora films plus Q&As on a monthly basis at the British Film Institute’s Southbank cinema complex since 2007. It is the only such programme in the country and has been attended by tens of thousands of people. He is also the founder of Black History Walks in London, a group which explores the Caribbean and African history of the capital via 12 guided walks, talks, films, courses, bus tours and river cruises.

Tony is the author of Black History Walks in London Volume 1. The book explores the African/Caribbean presence in London over the last 2000 years. He is also co-author on the Pearson GCSE history book on Migration.

WATCH

Hadiru Mahid in Conversation with Melanie Abrahams

ReViVe - A Safe Space for Black Creatives

Hadiru is a producer at Questlife and an artist working across poetry, prose, music and visual art. Through the 2010s he co-ran artist-led project spaces as part of the art collective Vulpes Vulpes. His creative life co-existed with a career in the charity sector, community groups and activism. He has worked in the worlds of poetry publishing, performance, theatre and music

Melanie Abrahams is an Associate Curator at Questlife. She instigates and creates multidisciplinary arts, spoken word and literature for over 20 years, as a curator, producer, mentor, and a speaker.

As an active freelancer in the creative industries, she consistently pushes for greater diversity in the arts, with a focus on race, class and intersectionality.

Hear about the first round of ReViVe, QuestLife's wellbeing programme. 8 weeks of workshops to ReViVe the creative spirit for black creatives exploring identity and wellbeing in their work.

WATCH

Letitia Seglah Entrepreneurship and Black Business Ownership

Letitia is Head of Learning and Programmes at Do It Now Now, creating practical and accessible programmes and workshops, to help business owners to gain the financial confidence and strategic know-how to build, grow, and scale successful businesses. Letitia is an ex-investment banking professional with 15 years of experience in the city. She has since gone on to start and exit several businesses, consulted 300+ startups & SMEs, and has worked for the Executive Agency for Small and Medium Enterprises (European Commission).

Economic empowerment - Ownership, money and belonging.

Letitia talks about economic empowerment, she discusses the need for more black people to start businesses, gain ownership and economic influence in order to obtain social justice and equity. I How changing our mindset towards money and ownership will influence our sense of belonging.