Black Joy Day: The Music is Black - Sounds of Our Stories

Join Jacqueline Springer, Lead Curator of The Music Is Black: A British Story (TMIB), for this opening session where we explore over 12 decades of Black music-making in Britain and the creativity, resilience and joy embedded within it. Through key objects, sounds, and stories, Jacqueline will introduce the exhibition’s central themes, tracing how Black British music has shaped cultural life across generations and transformed the nation’s artistic landscape.
 

Jacqueline expands this narrative through four acts, and eight music genres by examining the communities, movements, music-makers, and exchanges, that nurtured genres ranging from lovers' rock and 2 tone, to jungle, grime and beyond. Rather than presenting music as entertainment alone, the exhibition reveals it as a powerful force for identity, belonging and collective expression. Through this lens, you are invited to consider Black music as both a record of lived experience and a source of imagination, innovation, design, and joy, before encountering the exhibition itself.

Sounds of Our Stories Workshop (1950s - 2000s) with Dr Michael McMillan, playwright, artist, scholar and curator.

In the second half of Black Joy Day, you are invited to slow down, to look again, and to listen. Drawing from the V&A East Museum’s current exhibition The Music is Black - A British Story, this immersive session asks you to encounter photographs not only as images, but as living carriers of sound, spirit, and memory.

You begin by tuning your attention differently. What do you hear when you stand before a photograph? The hum in a record shop, the bassline spilling from a blues dance, laughter between friends, the quiet rituals of home. Through guided listening, dialogue, and shared reflection, you explore how sonic elements and oral traditions live within the stillness of images, how photographs hold echoes of voice, music, and presence.

Drawing on photographs by a generation of Black British photographers who documented the richness of everyday life beyond mainstream narratives, this session invites you to use images from the exhibition, the V&A collections and your own personal photographs as prompts for storytelling. Share memories, make connections across generations, and reflect on the enduring influence of Black music, creativity and community. Together, we will explore how these stories continue to resonate as archives of resilience, belonging, cultural pride and Black joy.

 
 It is advisable to bring a packed lunch. Beverages are available at the E5 Bakehouse Cafe.
 
 Please note, that you will be walking and standing for extended periods of time in TMIB exhibition – a limited number of museum chairs will be available on the day.
 

joy is an act of resistance….Poet Toi Derricotte.

 
Black joy is a powerful force. It helps us through difficult times and gives us the confidence to speak with one voice. Choosing joy is an act of resilience. Through Black joy, we honour our history, culture, and community. We come together to share, listen, and support one another, especially in spaces where we do not always feel welcome. Black joy is more than a feeling, it nurtures emotional well-being and renews the spirit. 
Janet Browne, Senior Producer Africa and Diaspora.
 
 

A detailed programme will follow soon.
 
This event is part of the wider celebration of The Music Is Black: A British Story Exhibition.
 
In collaboration with the Black Gallery Visitor Network (UK).