Artist Wendell McShine

Read our article about where to buy African and Caribbean art in London

Browse the Arts section in our archives for more features and interviews on Black Art: click here

British Museum: Room 25 at the British Museum includes objects  relating to ancient and contemporary African cultures. Also look out for special exhibitions and walking tours of the museum organised by Black History Studies.

Museum of London Docklands: Visit the only permanent exhibition to examine London’s involvement in transatlantic slavery in the London, Sugar & Slavery gallery.

Victoria & Albert Museum: We love the V&A for their eclectic Friday Late events that include live performances, fashion, displays and installations.  They also host a number of Black History Month Events as well as the Caribbean UK Film Festival.

Sadler’s Wells: The #1 venue dedicated to international dance, from ballet and flamenco to jazz and street dance. They host Breakin’ Convention every year in May and count Zoonation as one of their resident companies.

The Place: Centre for dance, with performances presenting independent companies throughout the year.

Stratford Circus: Partners of the East London Company, they host several of their dance shows

ADAD: The Association of Dance of the African Diaspora support and promote dance of the African Diaspora through events such as the Bloom Festival, dance conferences and development programmes.

East London Dance: Inclusive dance organisation for communities and artists across and beyond East London. They organise events and workshops all through the year.

Zoonation: A resident company at Sadler’s Wells theatre, Zoonation creates hip-hop dance narrative theatre such as the award-winning West-End show Into The Hoods. Their latest show Some Like It Hip-Hop (2011) was nominated for two awards.

Vocab Dance Company: Dance theatre company led by Alesandra Seutin. Read our interview with Alesandra here

Black History Walks: Walking tours of London, as well as talks and film screenings.

100 Black Men of London: An organisation of professional African British men who help the youth and their community.

Black History Studies: Provide a wide range of courses and activities to promote the learning of black history within the community and for anyone who is interested in the subject.

Inspirational You: Social enterprise that promotes entrepreneurship in women and young people in the UK.

British Black Music: Provide information about the music industry with a bias towards British and black music. Seminars, talks and workshops are held throughout the year.

The Knowledge Fountain: A resource for African and Caribbean Black Businesses with a magazine and regular networking events.

Precious Awards: Awards highlighting the work accomplished by female entrepreneurs of colour. Also an online magazine and a networking group. The editor of Catch a Vibe received the Precious Blogger of the Year award in 2010.

African Writers evening: Writers from the African diaspora and beyond read excerpts from their books every other month.

Book Slam: Their title of London’s best literary night club is totally deserved. The events mix readings, spoken word, live music and DJ; and have featured authors such as Zadie Smith, Ekow Eshun, Andrea Levy, Ben Okri or Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie.

Southbank Centre: Their Literature and Spoken Word events line-up is always interesting, with artists such as Lemn Sissay, Nick Makoha Charlie Dark often gracing the stage.

Apples and Snakes: Promote poets and spoken word events in London in the UK. This should be your first port of call if you are a poet.

The Poetry Society: Promote poetry and hold poetry events and readings almost every night in their Covent Garden cafe.

Farrago Poetry: London’s longest-running slam poetry promoters.

ONiT: Focused on raising the profile of spoken word and performance poetry. ONiT PR represents artists such as LeeN, Beyonder and OneNess Sankara. Get on their mailing list to know when these poets are performing.

Check out our interviews with two of Londonn’s most notable poets:

Inua Ellams

Dean Atta

Images of Black Women: Our favourite festival. They have screened gems such as Chico & Rita, For Coloured Girls and I Will Follow. Usually over 4 days, the event also includes a filmmaker’s forum and workshops. (March)

Film Africa: This celebration of African cinema has taken many forms and many names over the years. The 2011 festival was the biggest yet and included live music events as well as screenings. (November)

Caribbean Film Corner: Free festival featuring short and feature films from the Caribbean diaspora. A very worthy initiative, as films from that part of the world are often overlooked. (September)

BUFF: The British Urban Film Festival features free screenings of homemade black productions. The programme includes shorts, feature films, documentaries and Q&As. (September)

As a rule, film festivals have a programme that is quite inclusive, with productions from all over the world. Below are listed the festivals where you will find interesting movies from Africa and the diaspora.

Human Rights Watch Festival London: Documentaries and dramas from all over the world highlighting human rights issues. (March)

I Will Tell Film Festival: A festival that aims to raise awareness of global and local issues: relationships, war, poverty, racism and reconciliation. (September)

The London Film Festival: the biggest film event in the UK. Browse through the World Cinema strand for the best of what modern black cinema has to offer. (October)

Mainstream studio and cinemas are more and more reluctant to produce and distribute black films in the UK. Thankfully, the organisations listed below are doing a great work of bringing Afro-American films to London and supporting homemade productions.

Black History Walks: Past films screened include: Jumping the Broom, The Story of Lovers Rock, Besouro, Miracle at St Anna. They also curate the monthly African Odysseys at the Southbank Centre.

Rapture Film Club: They promote Afro-American films with Christian values. Past screenings include The Help, Black Power Mixtape, The Interrupters and For Colored Girls.

Rio Cinema: Cinema in the heart of Dalston, with a diverse programmation.

Ritzy Brixton: Given its location, you’d expect the venue to include more movies from the African and Caribbean diaspora. This said, they did accomodate the Film Africa in 2011 and were one of the rare cinemas to screen the Congolese hit movie Viva Riva. Hopefully we’ll see more of this type of events in the future.

Frontline Club: An organisation that champions independent journalism and screens riveting documentaries and on issues.

Tricycle Cinema: They host of the Images of Black Women Film Festival; their programmation is eclectic and always interesting

Talawa: Founded 25 years ago, Talawa is one of the most successful black theatre companies in the UK. They also promote new writing through schemes such as Flipping the Script and Talawa Writers Group.

Tiata Fahodzi: Founded by Femi Elufowoju , jr in 1997 (he also served as Artistic Director until 2010), Tiata Fahodzi is the UK’s premier African-British theatre company. Each year, their festival Tiata Delights puts the spotlight on emerging writers.

Nitro: Black Music Theatre company with a unique repertoire

Hackney Empire: Hackney is a very diverse borough and so is the programmation of this venue. A special mention to their comedy line-up.

Broadway Theatre: Supporters of black comedy and black theatre

Albany Theatre: Performance arts venue that features a lot of work depicting the black experience. With numerous productions for young people.

Royal Court Theatre: Mainstream London theatre but with an inclusive and cutting-edge programmation

Cottons Islington: They run a weekly comedy night, on Wednesdays

Check out our Archives section for black theatre features, interviews and reviews

Jazz Cafe: Legendary music venue in Camden with an impressive line-up: Eric Benet, Julie Dexter, Raheem De Vaughn, Andreya Triana,  Jose James, Angie Stone, Roy Ayers, Leela James, Dwele… They’ve all played there.

O2 Academy Brixton: Another favourite venue for Black musicians such as D’Angelo, Jill Scott and Erykah Badu

Koko: Events are a bit more left-field, good for urban/alternative black music (Flying Lotus, Emeli Sande, Ghospoet…)

Jazz Re:freshed: Weekly live music residency, covering jazz and jazz-influenced music:  Julie Dexter, Kaidi Tatham, Fertile Ground, Azymuth, , Xan Blacq, Jason Yarde, Kissey Asplund, Mark de Clive Lowe, Muhsinah, etc…

Aesthetic Sounds: Live soul music night hosted by Sarah Fonteyne. Past guests include Jaguar Wright, Glen Lewis, Jesse Boykins, J*Davey…

The Vortex: Intimate Jazz venue in Dalston

London Jazz Festival: Every Year in November. The biggest jazz event in the calendar.

Kemia Bar @ Momo resto: this basement bar plays hosts to intimate gigs by artists from Africa and beyond.

Passing Clouds: Daily evening events that champion diversity, with gigs that range from Asian to West African music.

Afrobeat Vibrations: Monthly afrobeat sessions with Dele Sosimi (Fela Kuti’s Egypt 80). Followed by DJs playing afrobeat, afro funk until the early  morning.

Barbican: The biggest stars in African music have graced the stage of the Barbican: Hugh Masekela, Angelique Kidjo, Orchestra Baobab, etc…

Joyful Noise: The producers of the annual London African Music Festival

Afropop Live: Their roaster includes Wanlov The Kubolor & M3nsa

Cokobar: For the latest Afrobeats / Naija music events and tickets

Focus Organization: They put the spotlight on music from the African diaspora

Got Soul: Every Sunday at Juno Bar. With DJs on rotation.

Amplified: Alternative soul collective, champions of neo soul and alternative black music.

Soulbrew: Funk, soul, hip-hop, boogie, reggae and disco from DJs Andy Bird and Spin Doctor (The Doctor’s Orders)

Soulbrew Karaoke: Monthly r&b, soul and funk karaoke night. With live backing band.