Introduction: Towards a Black British Geography?

Abstract

This paper introduces the collection of six African-Caribbean academics, making the claim for the forum as an intervention that pushes towards the firmer establishment of a Black British Geography. This intervention forum arises out of a public event called “Urban roots of creative Black culture: gender, music, and the body,” which took place at the Midlands Arts Centre in Birmingham, UK, in 2019, and was co-sponsored by this journal, Transactions of the Institute of British Geographers (TIBG). After an introductory piece, the forum brings together four short papers by contributors to the event, each exploring Black creative culture, gender, music, and embodiment in relation to the city, archives, dance, and creative practice (respectively). Bringing together six African-Caribbean academics, the forum is an intervention that presents aspects of an emergent Black British Geography and, as such, challenges Geography as a discipline to be sufficiently open to accommodate it.