Chorlton Library – Celebrating Black History Month

Chorlton library had a wonderful event this year to celebrate Black History Month, we have run an event for a few years now, but this year was even bigger and better, with the entire library becoming a vibrant community space for culture, creativity, health, learning and connection.

The Windrush Engagement Team came up for the day from Sheffield for the day to join us, they assist with compensation claims. One lady that we know of, was told she was eligible for compensation. The Caribbean Health Network had a stall; CAHN was set up to address long-standing health inequalities disadvantaging people of Caribbean and African heritage. They offer great community engagement and were able to talk to people about a full range of important issues including health and wellbeing. The support and guidance given to people was very valuable.

We had a lovely Storytime for our younger audience with local author Eunice Stephenson. She read her book Shamir and the amazing drumsticks. It was a lovely, relaxing part of the day enjoyed by all. DJ MuMu provided the music for the day. She had a great selection of vinyl LPs to create a wonderful vibe for the day. People were able to ask for requests, and she also offered a DJ workshop for those with an interest. This really added to the atmosphere.

Thanks to our talented face painters -Sista’s Painting Faces, the event had a real visual flair, with folk enjoying having bold face designs, or shimmering glitter tattoos. It truly added to the fun element of the day.

Zoe from our library children’s team offered a wonderful craft for children and families, it was busy with the children getting creative and having a lovely arty time.

As always, the lunch was an absolute highlight of the day, the food was catered by Bahar Cafe, a local Somali family-run business, everyone agreed it was delicious. We had a great volunteer Unique, to help dish out the food and drinks, she was very organised and ensured it ran very smoothly. This part of the day brought people together to enjoy good food and good conversation.

A chair Yoga session was taught by Peter Ogazi, he is an amazing teacher, the session was well attended with people benefiting from physical posture and breathing exercises. People left the session feeling relaxed and positive. Dennis Hanse presented two short films. One was about prostate cancer awareness, which affects more black men than Caucasian men. The other film was about bowel cancer awareness. Afterwards there was a Q&A session.

The library is also hosting a Black History Month Art Exhibition through October and November, the artwork is all original and by local black artists. It has been curated by award winning artist Tina Ramos Ekongo

All this went to making a fabulous, celebratory environment where people could access useful information and support while enjoying Black history, art and culture. The event was extremely well received and brought the community together for a joyful day.