Blak Outside 2021
The second Blak Outside Festival takes place four times in 2021, starting online 22-25 April, with various collaborations with individuals, groups and institutions. The festival starts on Thursday 22nd April, the third annual Stephen Lawrence Day.
The festival is a culturally diverse inclusive event for community workshops, commissions and education and online talks.
In August, the largest council housing estate in Europe, Becontree in Essex will celebrate its centenary and Blak Outside has a commission with Create London at The White House. There will be events around the history of social housing and the land linked the estate.
For the 150th birthday anniversary of Peabody Blackfriars housing estate in Southwark, London, we will have a sliding scale charity houseplant sale, workshops, film screenings and live streamed DJ sets.
Dates of Blak Outside Festivals in 2021
April 22-25
Stephen Lawrence Day
Online
Saturday 14th August
11am – 3pm
Becontree 100 Festival
Parsloes Park
Dagenham
Essex RM9 5QP
Friday 3rd – Sunday 5th September
Peabody Blackfriars 150th
Peabody Square Estate, SE1 8HU & Online
Includes plant and gardening book sale (note this is NOT charity plant sale)
Friday 15th – Sunday 17th October
Yesterday, Together, Tomorrow: Public and Personal Archives from Brixton
San Mei Gallery
39a Loughborough Road
Brixton
London SW9 7TB
For Black History Month and to celebrate the first anniversary of the Blak Outside Collective we return home to Brixton for three days of archival images, a Q&A about housing activist Dora Boatemah, current squat scene and personal reflections on the 40th anniversary of the Brixton Uprisings.
Saturday 23rd – Sunday 24th October
Houseplant Festival
Garden Museum
5 Lambeth Palace Road
London SE1 7LB
Includes charity plant sale*
*Charities who will receive a donation from plant sales:
Stephen Lawrence Day Foundation
Ella Roberta Family Foundation
Black Thrive
Black LGBTQIA+ Therapy Fund
Blak Outside 2021 Festivals – Spotify Playlist
Who’s on the Jigsaw
October Festival: Dr Angela Davis (1944 – )
This scholar, a native of Birmingham, Alabama, US is well known for her work on racial justice, women’s rights and prison reform.
Dr Davis is an educator, activist, former Black Panther party member and civil rights activist the embodiment of resilience for us.
April Festival: Stephen Lawrence (1974–1993)
The festival began on the third annual Stephen Lawrence Foundation Day. Aged 18, he was killed in a racially motivated attack on Well Hall Road, Eltham, London. In 2011, after years of campaigning by his parents and high profile supporters, a change in the double jeopardy law meant two of his five attackers were jailed for his murder.
Stephen holds a Lignum Vitae ‘Wood of Life’ tree which bears the national flower of Jamaica where he is buried, his parents’ ancestral home.
August Festival: Jaden Smith (1988 – )
For the White House residency on the Becontree, Dagenham, Essex we’ve chosen the very resilient actor, singer and environmental activist, Jaden Syre Smith, native of Malibu, California. Why? Because we will be looking at the nearby Hainault Woods, the environmental impact of the estate in it’s 100 year existence and what the environment means in a celebrity driven age.
September Festival: Theodora ‘Dora’ Boatemah (1957 – 2001)
Ghanaian born social housing activist and Director of Angell Town Community Project (ATCP). Dora’s organisation worked with five architectural practices to lead her fellow residents in the redevelopment of the rundown Angell Town housing estate in Brixton, South London.