This thesis is concerned with the legacies of black arts and heritage centres (1980s-present): centres that once thrived but have now been lost; those that exist but are struggling to survive; and those that are emerging with new possibilities for black organising and activism.

According to Field, Murray and Farmer (2015) we are witnessing the demise of the UK community and voluntary sector (CVS). Public funding is being cut, with funding inequalities disproportionately affecting BME groups.  I have worked with a network of ten UK BME organisations that gathered evidence that the existing BME CVS feels neglected, marginalised and exploited (Tilki, Thompson, Robinson et al., 2015). Field, Murray and Farmer found that the problem is especially acute with African diaspora community asset ownership and conclude that black-led spaces are increasingly vulnerable to being lost forever.

As an activist-scholar working deeply in black communities I have witnessed, researched and written about the lives of local black-led collaborative centres, their struggles to survive but also, crucially, the vibrant creation and recreation of new spaces.  However, there is little in the public realm that discusses or shares the journeys, trajectories or contributions of these organisations, connectedness with and influence on black communities.

The thesis will focus on the lives and trajectories of nine very different centres: three in Nottingham, which have disappeared (UKAIDI, ACFF, OSCAR); three in other parts of the UK (The Drum or 104 {Heathfield Road) – Birmingham, Black Cultural Archive – London, Fairfield House – Bath); and three abroad (Centre for the Racial Imaginary – US, Black Cultural Centre – Canada, Museum of Black Civilisations, Senegal). It will explore what connects these places in their struggle to provide space for collaboration and organising on issue-based work and the bigger, broader, more intangible work of black struggle and liberation, as well as how activists/organisers renew and create vibrant, self-governed, healthy spaces and places. Ultimately, the thesis will ask how a Centre for Black Life might be created in Nottingham by connecting and learning from the varied, collective legacies of black centres past and present.

I have significant experience in co-producing research through strategic involvement with black communities and collaboration with university researchers and translating of this research and knowledge into legacies documents for multiple audiences. Working with supervisors from UK Black Studies my thesis will extend the existing research to facilitate diasporic conversations, gather examples from multiple spaces, and share learnings widely through creative digitalised outputs.

Context, aims and objectives and potential application and impact 

The birth of Black Lives Matter has recently increased focus on ‘African diaspora activism’ (Andrews, 2018). In the UK, historical work is being developed on Black social movements (Perry, 2016) and authors like Andrews are sharing ideas for creating independent, sustainable spaces for activism. Central to the discussion is what constitutes activism, given the varied history of protest, organisation, religion and service provision in different regions and nations (Hylton, 1999). What is common in these settings is the ‘Black death’ of spaces and environments, which limits considerations and possibilities for resisting, surviving and thriving (Sharpe, 2016).

My research aims to explore the varied history of African diaspora activism through the histories of black-led collaborative spaces, which have attempted to unite the threads of resistance. Whilst reflecting on the scholarly implications of undertaking diasporic work, my thesis will add to the growing body of work on African diaspora activism, deal with the specific lack of scholarship on the issue of maintaining black-led collaborative spaces and preserve and disseminate a history of black arts, cultural and heritage centres which is at risk and/or yet to be assembled or mobilised.

Archival analysis, field-ethnography (multi-sited) and auto-ethnography methodologies will be employed to uncover, harvest and share knowledge, understanding and experiences from those who continue to learn from their work in saving, maintaining, renewing black-led collaborative centres across the diaspora.

Formulating the framework for a possible Centre for Black Life in Nottingham, the project will ask:

What are the power-paradigms within and between communities, their partners and funding agencies that influence the creation of, survival of and threats to UK black centres and how do these compare to other centres in the African diaspora?

What are the new learnings and older histories from the memories and intangible/tangible heritage, traditions and cultural histories of UK collectives and what of these can be used/re-purposed for sustaining and creating healthy, vibrant collaborative black places and spaces across the diaspora?

The thesis will enable me to extend my own and others’ research on the black community and voluntary sector and make this more widely available (through creative digital outputs) to my own future co-produced community research and to those researching black arts and cultural heritage centres. It will enable me to share my extensive skills and experience in conducting and presenting co-produced research with the Midlands4Cities teaching and learning community and promote Midlands4Cities opportunities with black communities/centres in the UK and beyond.