October is Black History Month, and the theme for this year is ‘Saluting our Sisters’.
There are events happening all the country, with many events in Yorkshire. Yet for York, it seems that not much has changed since October 2020, when we reported that very little was happening to mark the month.
This appears to not have been an affect of Covid – unfortunately, in 2023, there still aren’t many events. In fact, the official Black History Month website has no events listings York.
Luckily, this isn’t quite the case, as our academic institutions have an exciting programme of events – as has local charitable housing association, Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust.
University of York
The University of York has a number of events going on across a few different departments.
On Wednesday 18th October there’s a free panel discussion on institutional racism and how we resist it. The day after, on Thursday 19th October, there’s a lecture titled “Uprising, abolition and constitutions” by the Head of Department for York Law School, TT Arvind. Finally, if you want to find out more about the history of people of colour in the Victorian period, there’s a free online lecture on Tuesday 24th October.
York St John University
York St John University is also hosting an event called Intersectionality – Dual Oppression of Racism and Audism on Wednesday 18th October. This free event is both online and offline, and will take a critical approach towards the dual oppression of racism and audism from British African and Caribbean Deaf people’s views.
Joseph Rowntree Housing Trust (JRHT)
To mark Black History Month 2023 and its theme “Saluting our Sisters”, JRHT has published a blog commemorating notable women of colour across history – including Mary Seattle, Margaret Busby and Baroness Lawrence. On Friday 27th October at the New Earswick Folk Hall, they are also screening a film ‘Till’ and hosting a talk by York Racial Equality Network. This event costs £5, which includes food.
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Whilst it is a shame that more isn’t happening in York, these events cover a wide range of important discussions. Plus, it’s exciting to see that since 2020, there are many more events listed regionally on the Black History Month website.
It’s still not too late to have your own event or discussion to mark Black History Month 2023. If you want to do so, there are some great official resources to get you started.
If you are hosting an event and we’ve missed it – or if you are planning to host one – send your event through to livvy@social-vision.org.uk, we’ll publicise it in our next newsletter on Wednesday 18th October.
