THE ARKHE (2024 – Present)
Meaning 'first principle', the Arkhe is an Afro-speculative, morphological vessel for Black people in Britain.
This semi-tangible Black British Institution is designed to propose and co-propose:
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Historical & Contextual Education;
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Intentional & Foundational Black British culture-building rites and staples;
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Ways to gather, celebrate, and organise despite limited access to space.
'We are interested in how it is to be alive.'
– Keorapetse Kgotsitsile
Rooted in the Black Radical Tradition, and with a Pan Africanist intent, the Arkhe "docks" at phantom shores across the Black African Diaspora to inspire 'smaddification'.
The Arkhe is not a nationalist vessel, but a dialectical-materialist one, responding to our positionality as "Black Brits" without isolating ourselves from the rest of the Diaspora.
Artwork by Malikah 'Emkay' Holder
MAIDEN DOCKING AT YARD (LADYWOOD, BIRMINGHAM, UK)
MARCH, 2024
In March 2024, the Arkhe had its Maiden Docking at MAIA's Yard, in Ladywood, Birmingham.
'a place where you can access other Black people for social purposes; where you can learn about Black Britain and the Diaspora; where signposting to Black services is available; where provocations and calls-to-action can be announced to the wider community; a space for Black spirituality via guided meditations, prayer space, Capoeira, and proposed rituals; a gallery to show off the 'artefacts' of its people; a public house to share beverages, break bread, and casually discourse; a progressive site of mutual aid, dialectical materialism, resistance and protest; a fledgling library of speculative fiction, poetry, and educational material; the "bush" we retreat into for respite, coming of age, and rites of passage; and ultimately a morphological Black institution that encourages Pan African values, and disallows space for the Othering of marginalised identities.'
'To live in the Black Diaspora is I think to live as a fiction – a creation of empires, and also self-creation.'
– Dionne Brand
Artwork by Malikah 'Emkay' Holder
The Arkhe: experiments in 'smaddification'
FUBU Manifesto writing
This online gathering brought Black Brits together to speculate and negotiate a culture-building manifesto. Through an open discussion and the sharing of insights, participants explored and articulated potential shared values, and envisioned a future rooted in collective identity. A manifesto that embodies Black British unity is an ongoing project. This event presented many foundational and introductory ideas.
Capoeira Workshop
Facilitator Denise Amory-Reid introduced the group to Capoeira as a form of Basic Self Defence and Deescalation; Empowerment and Confidence Building; and a root back to Ancestry and the wider Diaspora. This workshop also included the singing of traditional capoeira songs, and the sharing of Pan African affirmations.
Afro Speculative art school
Facilitated by Simeon Mendez, this event utilised imagination to shape, define and redefine cultural identity through prompts and 'artefact' making. Workshop participants delved into themes and motifs of Black British identity, Afrofuturism, ties to ancestry, and rites of passage. Our main prompt – 'If historians were researching Black Brits 500 years from now, what "artefact" would represent you?' – resulted in sculptures, tea sets, embroidery, and wall displays.
Reimagining Bystander Awareness
Bystander Awareness refers to our ability to observe and understand an event taking place, especially one that involves potential harm or conflict, without directly participating. 'Reimagining Bystander Awareness' involved exploring how Black Brits may experience public conflict as a 'rite of passage', and how community could play an active role in conflict resolution, prevention, and other forms of support. Facilitated by Camille Sapara Barton.
'The legacy, what you telling me, man / Was made in Britain, man was raised / In Britain but I feel like the enemy
[...]
'Deep, why would I ever leave / I've been paying tax since 17 / Let me be.'
– Bashy
The arkhive
Black British Concretion: Igba Aje
Featured in Black Joy Archive, vol.3, 2025. Edited by Zoë Pulley
"My joy exists when I do not see or feel its presence. It lingers in sedimentary time, older than eons. It endures and escapes. It rises from the ashes. My joy is Other, with its oppositional gaze and sucked teeth. It perseveres out of spite. My joy has childlike conviction. Childish conviction. My joy was given an ASBO.
"And my joy will outlive this world. Because I said it."
– Excerpt from accompanying text, available in Black Joy Archive vol.3
Read
(Initial Typeface by Courtenay Welcome)
“[what we want is this] – we cannot be satisfied with the recognition and acknowledgement generated by the very system that denies, A) that anything was ever broken and, B) that we deserved to be the broken part; so we refuse to ask for recognition and instead we want to take apart, dismantle, tear down the structure that, right now, limits our ability to find each other, to see beyond it and to access the places that we know lie outside its walls. We cannot say what new structures will replace the ones we live with yet, because once we have torn sh*t down, we will inevitably see more and see differently and feel a new sense of wanting and being and becoming.”
– Stefano Harney & Fred Moten