Black History Month

Black History Month takes place in the UK and Europe in October every year. It represents an opportunity to celebrate black people, black history and culture, and reflect on what it is and has been to be black.

Lancaster University Library recognises the importance of Black History Month.

For the first time we celebrated Black History Month with a range of activities by:

• Creating this Black History Month guide
• Displaying relevant books from our collection on A Floor 
• Creating a reading list of Library materials relevant to black history, black scholarship and related topics in all academic disciplines
• Launching a Black History Month reading group, reading Yvonne Battle-Felton's 'Remembered'
• Providing access to additional online resources from ProQuest for the month
• Helping you to locate material in the Library and other sources relating to Black History
• Highlighting local stories and events in Lancaster  

Lancaster University Students' Union organised a fantastic programme of events during Black History Month.

In 2020 we facilitated reading groups centred around Yvonne Battle-Felton's 'Remembered' during Black History Month.

Reading groups were initially held in the last week of October Monday 28th October to Friday 1st November 2019 and included a mix of staff and students from the University. 

One participant wrote to the Library director to say:

"What an absolute joy to be able to talk to other people about that book and hear the author read on campus. It’s not often that students and staff can get together to talk so I personally really appreciated it. [The facilitator] managed our group beautifully with great sensitivity and insight."

The Library has launched a new project in support of campus wide initiatives to decolonise the University, and we need your help.

What resources can you suggest that might help us develop our collection to be more inclusive of any marginalised community, whether it be associated with race, ethnicity, gender, sexual orientation, gender identity, gender expression, physical ability, socioeconomic class or other?

Complete our Diversity collection development suggestion form to help us identify titles and authors to add to our collections.

Yvonne Battle-Felton read and discussed her novel 'Remembered' at a free event organised by the Department of English Literature & Creative Writing at The Storey, Lancaster on Monday 28th October 2019.

Throughout October the Students' Union  held a range of student-led activities to mark Black History Month 2019. The theme was "Life experiences, identities and belonging". 

Events include debates, workshops, screenings and performances

See LUSU's Black History Month page, and Facebook events.