Black History Month 2025
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Celebrate Black History Month 2025 throughout October with CSIS. See below a range of events hosted by CSIS and externally across the city.
Reflections on Power and Pride with Michelle Peterkin-Walker
October 2025
Sydney Jones and Harold Cohen libraries at the University of Liverpool
Featured in the University of Liverpool libraries will be this year's Black History Month art installation by Michelle Peterkin-Walker.
Reflections on Power and Pride is an amalgamation of work she has created between 1999 – present. The curation includes photography, prints, cards, small sculptures and films. The collection represents work aligned with the theme for Black History Month UK 2025 - “Standing Firm in Power and Pride”. Collectively, works explore community, activism, revolutionary icons, identity, cultural symbols and Love.
Last year's digital exhibition, Radiance by Mina Bihi, can be viewed on our YouTube page.
The African Diaspora: Intellectual and Artistic Responses to Slavery and Its Legacies
1st October 2025 (5pm)
Online
Speakers:
Dr Alexander Scott, Project Curator of History and Archaeology at the International Slavery Museum (ISM), Liverpool
Rachel Stephens, Professor of Art History at the University of Alabama in Tuscaloosa
Brandon R. Byrd, a scholar of Black intellectual and social history
Join the second webinar as part of a new online seminar series, Legacies of Enslavement: Transatlantic Dialogues on History and Justice.
The African Diaspora: Intellectual and Artistic Responses to Slavery and its Legacies seminar will facilitate conversation between three leading experts in the field from the both the UK and US. Drawing upon their own research, they will examine and discuss how the impact of the Transatlantic slave trade has been, and is still being, interpreted and understood intellectually and artistically by contemporary and modern figures alike.
Tayo Aluko and Andrew Barney: Black Activist Song Cycle
8th October 2025 (1pm)
Baritone Tayo Aluko and composer Andrew Barney present at the Tung Auditorium a programme including a new song cycle inspired by Black History related to Liverpool.
Testament to Truth: An Evening of Spoken Word and Performance
20th October 2025 (7:30pm)
Liverpool Cathedral
Join Testament for a one-off live performance that blends spoken word, music, and monologue, bringing to life multiple perspectives from a single dramatic day, exploring themes of race, faith, and community.
Through original theatre and reflection, this event explores the themes of inclusion, community, identity and the role of faith and spirituality in shaping who we are—both as individuals and as a society.
In honour of Black History Month, this evening is more than a performance—it’s a call to listen, to reflect, and to awaken. Testament to Truth invites you to walk with him through stories that challenge, uplift, and inspire.
Black History Month with Culture Liverpool
Under the theme Power and Pride, funding has been awarded to a diverse range of creative projects which will showcase and honour the rich contributions of Black communities to the city’s cultural, social, and historical fabric.
From spoken word and gospel music to textile arts and immersive technology, the commissions reflect a vibrant mix of artforms along with community and school engagement. Each project has been developed by local creatives and organisations committed to amplifying Black voices and stories in Liverpool.