Changing the Gaze: Four New Publications for Black History Month
Black History Month (BHM) has always been a moment for reflection, celebration, and radical reimagining. For Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage, it is also an opportunity to shape new dialogues through publishing, carving out spaces where Black voices, histories, and perspectives are central. This year, Serendipity launches four landmark publications: BlackInk Issue 6, The Forensic Ballerina (Pocket Book Series), Intersection: Diasporic Dialogues, and 40 Years of Leicester Caribbean Carnival. Together, these works are not simply books; they are acts of cultural intervention, shaping narratives that resist erasure and “change the gaze” (Hall, 1990).
In an arts and heritage landscape still dominated by Eurocentric publishing platforms, Serendipity stands out as an independent publisher committed to documenting, amplifying, and celebrating the richness of African, African Caribbean, and Diasporic creativity. These publications reaffirm the organisation’s long-standing belief that publishing is not only about preservation but also about power: who gets to speak, whose words endure, and whose legacies are remembered
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BlackInk Issue 6: Cultural Theory, Cultural Politics, International Arts
Launched annually, BlackInk has become a touchstone for readers seeking cutting-edge commentary at the intersections of arts, heritage, politics, and identity. Issue 6 continues this legacy, offering both digital and physical editions to ensure wide accessibility.
This edition explores themes of identity, memory and Diasporic politics, and features leading thinkers and practitioners from across the African and Caribbean diaspora. Contributors include Professor Verene A Shepherd, who delivered the Annual Windrush Day Lecture and reflects on the ongoing significance of Caribbean histories within British society; Opal Palmer Adisa, offering Dub Ravings and Truths: Jean Binta Breeze Uncensored, a moving tribute to the late poet and cultural icon; and SuAndi, Artistic Director of the National Black Arts Alliance, whose contribution speaks to the enduring power of Black-led cultural organisations in shaping Britain’s arts landscape.
Bringing these figures together is itself an act of cultural resistance. Shepherd, as a historian and activist, situates Black British identity within a broader Caribbean framework, reminding us of the global dimensions of migration, citizenship, and belonging. Palmer Adisa’s tribute reclaims the radical artistry of Jean Binta Breeze, a Jamaican dub poet whose work challenged silences around gender, class, and mental health within diasporic communities. SuAndi’s reflections, meanwhile, ground these themes in the lived realities of Black artists in Britain, where advocacy and institution-building remain central to survival and recognition.
The range of voices in BlackInk Issue 6 demonstrates Serendipity’s editorial vision: to create a journal that is not only international in scope but also intersectional in content. Diaspora, feminism, and cultural resistance are not treated as separate concerns but as overlapping forces that shape how communities live, create, and remember. Unlike mainstream arts publishing, which often treats Black contributions as supplementary, BlackInk centres them, positioning Black cultural expression as a primary site of theory and innovation.
In doing so, Serendipity affirms what hooks (1992) calls the “oppositional gaze”: a reframing of the cultural lens, rooted in lived experience and critical resistance. BlackInk is therefore not just a magazine but a cultural archive, documenting the intellectual and creative labour of those who continue to reimagine Diasporic futures.
Intersection: Diasporic Dialogues
At a moment when global migration, belonging, and identity are increasingly politicised, Intersection: Diasporic Dialogues offers timely reflection. Drawing heavily on contributions from the Latinx community and its intersections with African and Caribbean Diasporas, the volume provides insight into intercultural understanding and practice.
This publication is also ground-breaking for Serendipity’s publishing history: for the first time, a paper is presented in two languages, English and Portuguese. Cia Pé no Mundo, a Brazilian contribution, is published bilingually to widen access and acknowledge the linguistic diversity within the diaspora. This decision is both practical and symbolic it reflects Serendipity’s commitment to accessibility and demonstrates how language itself is a terrain of cultural power.
The volume features the work of Eduardo Vilaro and Ballet Hispánico, exploring how Latine identity is expressed through dance in the United States, and Professor Anita Gonzalez, whose scholarship and creative practice highlight the intersections of Black performance, migration, and intercultural dialogue. Their work exemplifies how diasporic voices speak across borders, challenging the idea of culture as fixed and instead emphasising hybridity, translation, and negotiation.
Intersection also forms part of the larger body of work Serendipity has undertaken on Black dance, documenting its histories, theories, and practices. By bringing Latin American and Black British conversations into the same frame, the book extends the reach of Serendipity’s scholarship, insisting that the story of Black dance cannot be told without recognising its global resonances.
In the words of Stuart Hall (1990), cultural identity is not fixed but “a matter of becoming as well as of being.” Intersection captures this fluidity, positioning intercultural practice as a dynamic process of creation rather than assimilation. It is a timely reminder that Diasporic creativity thrives at the points where cultures intersect and that those intersections are as political as they are artistic.
The Forensic Ballerina – Pocket Book Series
The Pocket Book Series was conceived by Serendipity to provide accessible, practitioner-led insights into creative processes, career development, and cultural resilience. The Forensic Ballerina is the latest addition, spotlighting the career of Claudine Carter Pereira.
Part memoir, part professional guide, the book offers an intimate exploration of Carter Pereira’s journey as a dance artist navigating multiple roles, performer, teacher, mentor, and advocate. What makes this volume particularly distinctive is its reflection on duality: Carter Pereira is not only a committed dancer but also a leading forensic scientist. She embodies two careers that are separate yet connected, balancing the rigour of scientific investigation with the artistry of performance.
Her reflections highlight both the challenges and possibilities of working in spaces where Black presence has historically been marginalised, while demonstrating that excellence is not confined to a single discipline. In celebrating this dual career, The Forensic Ballerina pushes back against narrow expectations of identity and achievement, showing how artistry and science can coexist in ways that expand our understanding of creativity and resilience.
Though concise, the book continues the series’ tradition of amplifying lived experiences that might otherwise remain undocumented. In doing so, it affirms Gilroy’s (1993) argument that Diasporic culture is defined by movement and hybridity, situating ballet within the broader dialogues of Black British dance and resilience.
40 Years of Leicester Caribbean Carnival
The final publication in this year’s series is a visually striking coffee-table book marking four decades of Leicester Caribbean Carnival. Far from being a simple retrospective, the book documents the Carnival as both cultural celebration and political intervention.
Featuring archival images, oral histories, and newly commissioned writing, the book highlights Carnival’s dual role: a space of joy, spectacle, and community pride, and a form of cultural resistance against racism, exclusion, and erasure. From its origins in the 1980s to its present-day role as one of the UK’s largest cultural events, the Carnival has been both shaped by and a shaper of Leicester’s multicultural identity.
Adding to this legacy, the book also includes What a Ting! Leicester Caribbean Carnival, a new commissioned poem by Carol Leeming. This powerful piece reflects on the vibrancy, resilience, and cultural significance of the Carnival, weaving memory and creativity into the wider narrative. The inclusion of Leeming’s words ensures that the Carnival is not only remembered through images and histories but also celebrated as living art.
This celebratory volume positions the Carnival as part of a wider Caribbean and Diasporic tradition of street performance as resistance echoing Fanon’s (1967) recognition of cultural practice as central to liberation struggles. For Leicester, the Carnival is not only heritage but also a living, breathing act of community resilience.
Independent Publishing as Cultural Intervention
These four publications demonstrate the breadth of Serendipity’s publishing work: from theory to practice, memoir to collective history, academic analysis to visual celebration. At the heart of this work lies a commitment to independence.
Independent publishing is not simply a structural choice; it is a political one. By controlling the means of production, Serendipity ensures that Black voices are not filtered through mainstream publishing’s gatekeeping practices, which often dilute or commodify Diasporic expression (Saha, 2018). Instead, Serendipity’s catalogue of works asserts authority, visibility, and longevity, ensuring that Black arts and heritage are archived and disseminated on their own terms.
Publishing, in this sense, becomes a tool of resistance. It documents voices that might otherwise be marginalised, provides platforms for new scholarship, and fosters intergenerational dialogue. Above all, it challenges what Hall (1990) called the “colonial gaze,” replacing it with perspectives rooted in lived experience, community resilience, and Diasporic creativity.
The launch of BlackInk Issue 6, Intersection: Diasporic Dialogues, The Forensic Ballerina, and 40 Years of Leicester Caribbean Carnival during Black History Month 2025 marks a significant moment. These publications are not simply outputs; they are cultural artefacts, interventions in a landscape where representation remains contested.
Through them, Serendipity continues to redefine what publishing can mean: not a passive act of recording, but an active process of shaping, reframing, and imagining. Together, they remind us that independent publishing is essential for “changing the gaze,” for ensuring that Black voices are not only heard but celebrated, remembered, and given the authority they deserve.
References
Fanon, F. (1967). The Wretched of the Earth. Harmondsworth: Penguin.
Gilroy, P. (1993). The Black Atlantic: Modernity and Double Consciousness. London: Verso.
Hall, S. (1990). ‘Cultural identity and diaspora’. In J. Rutherford (ed.) Identity: Community, Culture, Difference. London: Lawrence & Wishart, pp. 222–237.
hooks, b. (1992). Black Looks: Race and Representation. Boston: South End Press.
Saha, A. (2018). Race and the Cultural Industries. Cambridge: Polity.
