Liverpool Black History month 2024 events

Events, exhibitions, activities and performances are taking place across Liverpool to mark this year’s Black History Month which runs throughout October and has the overarching theme for 2024 of Reclaiming Narratives.

The programme is a collaboration between arts, cultural and heritage organisations, universities, businesses and community activists with the month aiming to shine a light on Black creativity, culture, heritage, identity and achievements across the city and the whole year.

National Museums Liverpool is involved through several of its sites including the Walker Art Gallery which is offering a busy programme of exhibitions – Chris Day’s installation Now You See Me and Karen McLean’s new work Stitching Souls: Threads of Silence, along with Conversations, opening on October 19 and which brings together work by nearly 50 contemporary Black female artists.

The gallery has also been involved with Carving Out Truths, a community-led research and display project confronting its collections’ links to slavery, colonialism, and empire. Showcasing several permanent ground-breaking interventions in the Walker’s Sculpture Gallery, the work examines the origins of the collection, focusing on individuals and stories that have previously been excluded.

Above: Black History Month takes place throughout October. Top: Lost Soul VI (2009), by Zak Ové in Carving Out Truths at Walker Art Gallery © National Museums Liverpool.

Sandra Penketh, NML’s Executive Director of Collections and Research, says: “This Black History Month we're delighted to bring a wealth of exceptional artists to the Walker Art Gallery. The diverse collection of works on display are a testament to the wonderful art being created by Black British artists and remind us of the power of art to inspire dialogue, questions, reflection and transformation. 

“Across National Museums Liverpool ongoing capital projects, research and new displays, involving individuals, communities and other key partners all contribute to making diverse histories more visible." 

Meanwhile Emergence as Empowerment, at the International Slavery Museum on October 25, is being organised in collaboration with the Tung Auditorium and centres around a screening of Delado: Rising from the Ashes, a documentary which delves into the tensions of Liverpool 8 following the 1981 Toxteth Uprisings. The event also includes a live conversation and Q&A session. 

The Museum of Liverpool will host a series of Inspirational Black Scousers tours which run on October 1, 2, 8, 10, 16, 17 and 23 October.

And World Museum, which has one of the best collections of Nigerian art and architecture in the UK, will stage a Rethinking Relationships Discovery Day on October 19.

Above: The Chinese Arch is the starting point for Writing on the Wall's Great War to Race Riots walking tour on October 6.

Writing on the Wall (WoW) is running events from October 3-27 across Liverpool and online, including walking tours on October 6 (Great War to Race Riots), October 13 (George Garrett), October 19 (L8 Activism), October 20 (Dorothy Kuya) and October 27 (Liverpool and Slavery).

It is also hosting film screenings at FACT and the British Music Experience, and – on October 24 – Babylon’s Burning with Rick Blackman at Rough Trade.

Wow's Madeline Heneghan and Mike Morris say: “During Black History Month we look to historical lessons of how the far right have been marginalised and ultimately defeated, through education, music and culture, community and trade union activism and, as we saw in the magnificent anti-racist demonstrations in cities and towns across the UK, by confronting them and reclaiming the streets.

“Most importantly during this Black History Month we send a message of solidarity from Writing on the Wall to all communities affected by recent events, and we declare ‘Whose streets? Our streets!’”

Above: Play On! is at the Liverpool Playhouse. Photo by Ellie Kurttz

Throughout October, Toxteth Library is hosting a trio of Black music exhibitions.

Echoes from the Islands, created by Liverpool-based artists Whispered Tales, features three UK reggae icons in a 20-minute film watched via a vintage Jamaican Sound system, while the national Beyond the Baseline highlights 500 years of Black British music, and Liverpool: Next Stop New York is an evolving social archive.

Blackfest’s Visual Arts Exhibition programme is launched at Smithdown Social Arts Club on October 3.

The Real Thing – who are due to be made Liverpool Citizens of Honour this week – appear at the Philharmonic Hall on October 4, and Lady Nade sings Nina Simone in the hall’s Music Room on October 11 while funk and soul jazz organist Ronnie Foster visits the venue on October 18.

Meanwhile Liverpool Playhouse welcomes the touring production Play On! from October 15-19, a stylish retelling of Shakespeare’s Twelfth Night set in the Cotton Club in 1940s Harlem.

The British Music Experience is the venue for a film screening and panel discussion on The Rise of 2 Tone on October 17; Central Library hosts the short ballet Island Movements on October 18; baritone Tayo Aluko and composer Andrew Barney present a Black Activist Song Cycle at St George’s Hall on October 23, and the Black-E stages the free, two-day African Routes Revival celebrating Black dance on October 25-26.

Black History Month runs from October 1-31. Full details on the whole programme HERE