International Women’s Day is an opportunity to celebrate women’s achievements, reinforce commitment to gender equality and a call for action and equity.  For Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage, this means highlighting key issues faced by women from the African and African Caribbean Diaspora and acknowledging trailblazing Black women who have made significant change.  For 2026, Serendipity recognises the pioneering work of Leila Hassan Howe.

Leila Hassan Howe is a significant leader in racial justice and collective politics in the UK.  She began her activism in the Black Power movement in the 1970s, when she became a member of the Black Unity and Freedom Party and pioneered change within the Institute of Race Relations.

Alongside her husband Darcus Howe, she was one of the organisers of the Black People’s Day of Action in March 1981, following the deaths of 13 young Black people in the New Cross fire tragedy.  At the time, it was the largest demonstration of Black people in the UK and became a milestone in the forging of Black British identity.

Hassan Howe was a founding member of the Brixton-based Race Today Collective in 1973 and eventually became editor of its phenomenally influential journal, Race Today.  In 1974, Hassan Howe, alongside the Race Today Collective, campaigned on behalf of striking workers at the Imperial Typewriters factory in Leicester.

Howe is Chairperson of the Darcus Howe Legacy Collective, dedicated to preserving the contribution that he made to the British and International movements for change and justice.  More recently, Hassan Howe has co-edited Here to Stay, Here to Fight and in 2023 co-edited a special issue of Race Today, the first since 1988.  In 2024, Hassan Howe was conferred with an honorary fellowship by Goldsmiths, University of London and recognised as one of Serendipity Institute for Black Arts and Heritage’s 100Black Women Who Have Made A Mark.

The evening will feature a screening of We The People, produced and directed by Fan Sissoko and Virginia Nimarkoh in association with Tommy Ross-Williams.  The documentary explores intergenerational activism in Brixton.  The screening will be followed by an in conversation with Leila Hassan Howe.

Image Credit: Black People’s Day of Action. 1981. Photographer Homer Sykes / Alamy.