Following the death of George Floyd reigniting the Black Lives Matter movement, conversations have been sparked about the experiences of Black people globally. These conversations have been empowering and uplifting, we’ve seen grassroots organisations come together to bring about real change within their communities. Black Women’s Forum UK exists to ensure the voices and experiences of Black women in Britain, past and current are not forgotten from these conversations. We are planning a series of events run by Black women in Britain, for Black women in Britain.

Thursday 13th August at 7pm, we will be hosting the first session: Conversations on organising; learnings from our past, fighting for our future.

The event will start with a poem ‘Black Women Aren’t Protected’ by Emma Osman, and an introduction to Black Women’s Forum from our founder Beverly Sesay.

We will then be joined by former British Black Panther Beverley Bryan. Beverley co-founded the Brixton Black Women’s Group (BWG), and the Organisation of Women of African and Asian Descent (OWAAD), both of which were among the first Black women’s groups in the UK, which aimed to raise consciousness and organise around issues specifically affecting Black and Asian women.

This will be followed by two deep dive sessions into self-organising (achieving things for self) and organising within local communities (collective organisation).

This event is open to people of all genders and for any person of colour.

An important book written by Beverley is”Heart Of The Race: Black Women’s Lives in Britain” by Beverley Bryan, Stella Dadzie, Suzanne Scafe.

https://www.goodreads.com/en/book/show/5917282-heart-of-the-race

She also recently published “From migrant to settler and the making of a Black community: an autoethnographic account” which can be found online.

https://www.tandfonline.com/doi/full/10.1080/17528631.2020.1