1pm, 2 May 2026
Pelican House
144 Cambridge Heath Road
London EI 5QJ
Join us to celebrate the publication launch of "We, the Living Archives".
Three years ago, the Liberatory Archives and Memory programme at Whose Knowledge? invited memory workers of African descent and other minoritised communities in the UK to gather for a one-day event. Together, we asked: where and with whom do you do your memory work? What are your favourite archival and memory frameworks and practices? What are we dismantling? What are we dreaming of, and working towards? These questions—and our responses—did not end there.
This publication brings together a collection of essays that emerged from the UK Community of Practice’s series of convenings in Bristol, Birmingham, London, and Brighton. From reflections on anticolonial archives and the politics of Black and diasporic cultural memory, to photo essays, poetry, conversations, and community-based storytelling, memory workers, artists, and archivists share reflections, research, and anticolonial practices that reimagine archives as living, collective spaces of resistance, solidarity, and liberation.
The event will feature a collective conversation led by the publication’s editor, Dr Carol Ann Dixon, with some of the contributing authors, Caro Gervay, Corrd, and Dr Tola Dabiri. The event is free, with publication copies available by donation.
Event Agenda:
12:45pm: Guest arrivals and light refreshments
13:00: Welcome and Introductions
13:15: Collective sharing session
14:15: Q&A
14:30: Grab your publication and mingle
About Whose Knowledge?
A global, translocal multilingual non-profit organisation and a campaign centering the multiple knowledges, histories, leadership, and imaginations of the minoritised majority of the world.
About Pelican House
Pelican House is a community-owned cooperative and social centre for organising, movement-building, arts and culture, run by a network of community groups, grassroots organisations, unions, solidarity campaigns and resistance networks.