Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage is bringing together academics, researchers, archivists, artists and communities for Black Heritage Futures 2026, a week dedicated to critically examining how Black histories are documented, interpreted and transmitted, and why these histories remain fundamental to understanding contemporary society.

Taking place from 2–6 November in Leicester, this year’s programme, Changing the Lens, challenges the dominance of Eurocentric perspectives within historical interpretation and heritage practice. Through workshops, intergenerational knowledge exchange and an international conference exploring creolisation, reparations and historical repair, the programme considers how the histories and cultural contributions of the African and African Caribbean Diaspora can be more fully understood within our collective historical consciousness.

The programme draws upon a rich tradition of Black intellectual thought, including the work of cultural theorist Stuart Hall, whose understanding of cultural identity as continually shaped by history, representation and transformation remains particularly relevant.  Hall’s work reminds us that identity is not fixed or simply inherited, but is constantly negotiated through cultural experience, historical circumstances and the ways in which communities are represented.

Similarly, the writings of bell hooks, particularly her examination of representation, marginality and the relationship between education and liberation, challenge us to consider whose knowledge is privileged, whose voices are heard and how learning can become a transformative and participatory process.

These perspectives are central to the ambitions of Black Heritage Futures.  Heritage cannot be understood solely through the preservation of objects or the accumulation of historical records. It requires critical engagement with the structures of power that have shaped what is collected, whose experiences are legitimised and how histories are communicated.

From Young Archivists to Black Heritage Futures: An Intergenerational Approach

Black Heritage Futures marks an important development in Serendipity’s approach to heritage education, building upon the foundations established through its Young Archivists programme.

While Young Archivists focused on equipping younger generations with the skills to research, document and interpret Black histories, Black Heritage Futures recognises that cultural knowledge is neither confined to formal institutions nor transmitted in a single direction.

The transition reflects a more intergenerational and collaborative approach, bringing together the lived experiences of elders, the perspectives of younger generations, and the expertise of academics, researchers and cultural practitioners.

This approach resonates with bell hooks’ understanding of education as a practice of freedom, in which knowledge emerges through dialogue, participation and critical reflection rather than through established hierarchies of authority.

It also recognises the importance of what has historically been excluded from conventional archives. Oral traditions, family histories, music, dance and community memory offer essential forms of knowledge that can challenge, complement and expand institutional records.

By creating opportunities for reciprocal learning, Black Heritage Futures seeks to strengthen the relationship between academic research and community knowledge, recognising both as essential to the preservation and interpretation of cultural heritage.

Changing the Lens: Representation, Power and Historical Narratives

The theme Changing the Lens invites a critical reconsideration of how history is constructed, whose perspectives shape historical narratives and the consequences of exclusion.

For generations, the histories of African and African Caribbean people have frequently been interpreted through frameworks shaped by colonialism and European intellectual traditions.  These approaches have too often positioned Black communities as subjects of history rather than as active contributors to its creation and interpretation.

Stuart Hall’s work on representation is particularly instructive here.  His scholarship demonstrated that representation is not simply a reflection of reality but an active process through which meaning is produced, identities are constructed and relationships of power are reinforced or challenged.

Changing the lens therefore requires more than adding previously excluded stories to established historical narratives.  It demands a reconsideration of the frameworks through which those narratives are understood.

It means asking not only what is missing from the archive, but why it is missing, who determined its significance and what alternative forms of evidence might reveal.

The work of scholars such as Saidiya Hartman, who has examined the silences and limitations of colonial archives, further reminds us that historical records are not neutral.  They often reflect the priorities and power structures of those responsible for their creation.

For Serendipity, this reinforces the importance of developing approaches to heritage that recognise the authority of communities to interpret and communicate their own histories.

Sankofa: Memory, Knowledge and the Future

The African principle of Sankofa, commonly understood as looking back to move forward, provides an important philosophical foundation for Black Heritage Futures.

Sankofa recognises that historical understanding is essential to cultural continuity, identity and the development of future possibilities.

It also challenges the assumption that heritage belongs exclusively to the past.  Cultural memory is continually reinterpreted through contemporary experiences, changing social conditions and the dialogue between generations.

In this respect, Sankofa connects with Stuart Hall’s understanding of identity as a process of becoming as well as being.  Our relationship with the past is not static; it informs how we understand ourselves and how we imagine our collective futures.

Within Black Heritage Futures, this principle is reflected in the emphasis on intergenerational learning, the preservation of oral histories and the recognition of cultural practices as important repositories of knowledge.

The programme encourages participants to consider what is gained when historical experiences are shared, but equally what is lost when knowledge is fragmented, marginalised or excluded from the public record.

Creolisation, Reparations and Historical Repair

The second annual Black Heritage Futures conference provides a central platform for exploring these questions through the lens of creolisation.

Creolisation offers an important framework for understanding the formation and transformation of cultures within the African and African Caribbean Diaspora, particularly in relation to enslavement, colonialism, displacement, resistance and cultural exchange.

Rather than understanding cultural identity as fixed or singular, creolisation recognises the complex processes through which new cultural forms, languages, practices and identities emerge.

Stuart Hall’s reflections on Caribbean identity, alongside the work of thinkers such as Édouard Glissant, provide important intellectual foundations for these discussions.  Glissant’s exploration of relation and cultural interconnectedness challenges rigid notions of identity and offers alternative ways of understanding the historical and contemporary experiences of Diasporic communities.

However, creolisation must also be understood within the unequal power relationships that shaped its development.  The emergence of new cultural forms cannot be separated from the violence of enslavement and colonialism, or from the resilience and agency of those who navigated these conditions.

The conference’s opening keynote, Creolisation, Reparations and the Urgency of Historical Repair, delivered by Professor Verene A. Shepherd, places these questions within the wider debates surrounding historical justice, reparative responsibility and the continuing legacies of colonial exploitation.

At a time when museums, universities, governments and cultural institutions are increasingly confronting questions of restitution, representation and accountability, these discussions have considerable contemporary relevance.

The conference also considers Creolisation on the Dance Floor, recognising dance as an embodied archive through which cultural memory, identity and resistance have been communicated across generations.

Dance and music are not simply artistic expressions; they are forms of historical knowledge.  From the development of Caribbean dance traditions to the political commentary embedded within calypso, cultural practices have documented social experiences, challenged established authority and sustained connections across the Diaspora.

By bringing together historical research, cultural theory and artistic practice, the conference seeks to broaden our understanding of what constitutes historical evidence and how knowledge is transmitted.

Heritage as a Living and Shared Practice

Across the wider Black Heritage Futures programme, workshops and discussions address the practical and ethical responsibilities associated with preserving cultural heritage, including archival practice, intellectual property, digital access, audience engagement and oral history.

Attention is given to Black women’s voices, recognising the historical marginalisation of their experiences within both institutional archives and wider public narratives.

These discussions raise fundamental questions about ownership, consent, representation and the responsibilities of those who collect and interpret cultural material.

They also reflect a growing recognition that heritage practice must move beyond the assumption that institutions alone possess the authority to determine historical significance.

For Serendipity, Black Heritage Futures is part of a wider commitment to creating a more equitable relationship between communities, researchers and cultural institutions, where knowledge is shared rather than extracted and where heritage is understood as a continuing process of dialogue and interpretation.

Reimagining Black Heritage Futures

Black Heritage Futures is ultimately concerned with the relationship between historical understanding and contemporary responsibility.

The programme recognises that the histories of African and African Caribbean communities are not peripheral to Britain’s cultural development, but fundamental to understanding its social, political and cultural formation.

Drawing upon the intellectual contributions of Stuart Hall, bell hooks and other scholars who have challenged dominant narratives, Black Heritage Futures encourages us to reconsider not only what we know about the past, but how that knowledge has been produced and whose interests it has served.

It also recognises that meaningful change requires sustained opportunities for research, critical dialogue, skills development and intergenerational exchange.

Changing the lens is therefore not simply about making previously marginalised histories visible. It is about questioning the structures that rendered them marginal in the first place and creating the conditions for a more inclusive and critically informed understanding of our shared past.

In the spirit of Sankofa, Black Heritage Futures invites us to engage with history not as a closed narrative, but as an ongoing conversation that informs our understanding of the present and our capacity to imagine different futures.

Black heritage is not simply about remembering what has been.  It is about recognising how the past continues to shape the present, and ensuring that future generations have the knowledge, agency and critical understanding to determine what comes next.