The Music Is Black Festival - UCL talks and screenings

A series of UCL-curated events and cinema screenings exploring the influence of Black British music on film, fashion and sport kicks off The Music Is Black Festival from East Bank.

Inspired by V&A East Museum’s inaugural exhibition ‘The Music is Black: A British Story’, East Bank partners V&A East, Sadler’s Wells East, UCL, the BBC and London College of Fashion, UAL present The Music Is Black Festival, an 8-month period of cultural programming from some of the city’s most recognisable institutions. 

As part of this, UCL is producing a series of talks and screenings exploring and honouring Black British music’s contribution to fashion, film and sport as well as investigating its impact not just in London, but across the UK.  

The series is curated by UCL’s Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka, Academic-in-Residence for the festival, whose research spans Film Studies, Literature, Cultural Studies, Black Studies, and Art History.  

Talks and screenings will take place across the East Bank partner venues, with events planned at V&A East Museum, Sadler’s Wells East, London College of Fashion, UAL, and the UCL East campus, where the Community Cinema will screen a curated selection of films with Black British music at their core. 

The talks will feature some of Black British music’s most important names, representing generations of notable contributions to the canon.

Click on each event below for more information and to book your place. For some of the events, further information will be available at a later date. Watch this space!