Black History Community Celebration at Coin Street

On Saturday 21 October, the Coin Street neighbourhood centre came alive, as 150 guests joined in on Black History community celebrations. There was delicious food, live music, DJs, dancing, stalls, movies, massage, wellbeing workshops and more.

David Hopkins, Director of Communities said: "It was a really enjoyable event on Saturday and a good celebration of talent and history. As always it was a real team effort with everyone pitching in to make it happen.

"What I loved when I looked around the room was it was such an eclectic cross section of different people enjoying themselves. I loved the musicians, Sue and Adrian, who with Mini Sco’ played music from The Sudan (who joined us from the Midlands) were wonderful to listen to, and Jenny hit all the right notes with the music she played.

Jreena and her swing dance team brought lots of life and energy as they always do – and it was interesting to hear the history she wove into the performance.

Sue’s mask making looked to be popular all afternoon with a real variety of designs, and the food was outrageously good! There was jewellery making and family activities happening in Bernie Spain Room and Ian Davidson Room - something for everyone whatever their age.

Pulling together and managing such an interesting selection of activities is much harder than looks so thank you and well done!"

Aisha, from our Youth and Community Programmes team, welcomed attendees to the event and acknowledged the importance of bringing the community together and celebrating Black talent and history all year round.

We had raving reviews about the caterers, who were local to Coin Street, including Carnival Pot by Southwark station, Gabu Chocolatier from Gabriel’s Wharf, and Proudly Naija and Gursha Ethiopian Cuisine on Lower Marsh.

There was a variety of stalls, including a stall set up by Young Leaders to encourage healthy eating. They are part of the Bite Back youth activist movement, challenging the food system and affordability in the UK.

Amajit Bains, Coin Street Community Builders board member presented Yusra Maxamed (pictured) with a Jack Petchey Award and said: “Yusra was instrumental in the London Mayor’s visit to Coin Street neighbourhood centre in August. Not only did Yusra help us to plan the logistics in advance, but she worked tirelessly to make sure the meals were ready, and worked so hard to make sure that everything ran smoothly; and it did. The Mayors visit was a great success and our young people enjoyed meeting Sadiq Khan, and the Mayor seemed to really enjoy his time with us. He answered lots of questions about his dad being a bus driver and how much money Sadiq Khan has in his bank account!”