Bristol Old Vic Announces Black History: Black Present: Black Future

Bristol Old Vic hosts a series of talks from leading figures in the city for Black History Month.

Black History: Black Present: Black Future, is a series of five conversations that focus on the momentous events of 2020, Bristol's relationship with its past and some of the individuals and organisations who are committed to changing the city now and in the future.

Curated by award-winning Bristol playwright and Bristol Old Vic Trustee, Chinonyerem Odimba (Princess and the Hustler, Unknown Rivers), these conversations will reflect on aspects of Black British history, and ask whether we are ready to rise to the challenge of Black Lives Matter to create a fairer and more representative city after the pandemic. How can a better understanding of our past help this? What is the direct and indirect impact of Bristol's history on the racial injustice we witness in the present day? How can we use stories of the past to help us build a better city for the future?

Speaking about the series, Chinonyerem Odimba said: "I am thrilled to be co-curating this series with the wonderful team at Bristol Old Vic. It has never felt more urgent, or more important, that we no longer just look at celebrating Black presence as a past event. We have to look forward. From tomorrow to the unknowable future, we have to keep actively working to build an arts ecology, a city, a country that speaks to and for all of us. There has to be a real commitment to doing that. This series of events is about bringing together some brilliant minds, activists and artists in the city in order to ask the big questions needed to bring about change in all aspects of our public and private lives. I am so excited to hear some of these voices speak to us and to each other."

The series of talks were inspired through conversations with Bristol historian David Olusoga, who said: "This series of talks looks at the black British experience in the context of British and European history and addresses a unique opportunity for change. This summer we have seen a powerful idea turning into a widespread movement; an idea that we could possibly create a society that isn't racist: a society that is anti-racist. This is a generation whose attitude towards racism is very different to the attitudes of their parents and grandparents. They are intolerant of the idea of racism. What we saw this summer is a new generation come of age and find its voice and this matters to them deeply. Inspired by their leadership, we have the chance to learn from the injustices of the past and the present and to build a better future."

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