Certain Blacks Bring Black Athena Festival to Rich Mix & The Place

In spring 2026, Certain Blacks will launch Black Athena Festival at Rich Mix and The Place. With a programme inspired by themes in Martin Bernal’s radical book Black Athena, published in 1987, the festival reflects on inherited cultural narratives and the importance of recognising difference within contemporary UK society. 

Featuring performance, sound and dance, Black Athena Festival features artists from the UK and beyond, fostering innovative international collaborations while presenting and platforming bold new work. Says Clive Lyttle, Certain Blacks Artistic Director: “Who decides what is considered culture? Is it contemporary ballet, dance, and music? Is it based on the ideas of ‘cultured’ men such as Shakespeare and the empires, kings and queens he wrote about? Or the themes of The Age Of Enlightenment that have been championed by Western civilisation? Black Athena challenges perceived ideas of culture. This festival presents work that highlights modern cultures and challenges norms.” 

Certain Blacks launches Black Athena Festival at Rich Mix on Friday, March 13 with immersive sound and performance event The Science of Dub devised and led by Tony T with a full live band alongside ambient-dub pioneer Greg Hunter and esteemed producer and mix maestro Scientist in an exclusive London appearance. This event will explore dub as both a cultural art form and a live mixing performance, using a Dolby Atmos / Sony 360 / Ambisonic setup to allow the audience an unprecedented dub experience: spatial, three-dimensional, and dynamically shaped in real time.

At Rich Mix on Saturday 14 March, Graffiti Bodies XV by Dam Van Huynh offers a sensory explosion of dance, sound art, poetry, sculpture and visual imagery in collaboration with multifaceted vocal and movement artist Elaine Mitchener. A new Certain Blacks commission, this piece addresses police brutality against marginalised urban communities and is inspired by Jean-Michel Basquiat’s 1981 painting La Hara. 

Wednesday 18 March, Livia Kojo Alour’s STÚRM at Rich Mix fuses live art with sound as Livia explores climate anxiety and collective healing, blending themes with Afro-futuristic visions. Drawing on the healing properties of sound frequencies, the artist combines orchestral music, vocals, spoken word, and visual design in a contemplative performance that introduces the idea of rest as resistance. 

Nigerian theatre company Kininso Creative  present Waterside at Rich Mix on Friday 20 March, a story of two friends on a journey of discovery delving into totemism, community and the realities young people face in the Niger Delta. Combining clowning, rhetoric and contemporary African theatre practices, Waterside is an emotional and magical journey into tradition, family and fate.  

Certain Blacks join forces with Senegal’s Kimpavita Festival created by Collektif Sankarista - a pan-African, feminist, eco-responsible initiative. From the UK, Pid’or Tampa will create a new, movement-based work with Senegalese dance artist Dominica Maboudou aka ‘Candela’ on Saturday 21 March. Titled Rising Mirrors / Miroirs en ascension / Kitalatala ya ntombua this cross-cultural collaboration will be presented in both Senegal and the UK in 2026, the culmination of a British Council-funded project, further details to be announced.