Black Arts. Black Pedagogies. Black Futures (Open Call)
Black Arts. Black Pedagogies. Black Futures. is a five-day dialogic, performative, and pedagogical program that resonates with the imaginative and self-determined artistic, pedagogical, and knowledge practices of the Black Diaspora in Europe and the United States. This program brings together Black artists, educators, thinkers, and cultural workers to facilitate artistic dialogue, foster collective (un)learning, and share methodologies.
Black Arts. Black Pedagogies. Black Futures. is an open and evolving program that amplifies the imaginative production of Black artistic communities. Running from June 30 to July 4, 2025, in Amsterdam, it inaugurates an annual creative, artistic learning environment—an experimental space for dialogue, exchange, and collective imagination.
Practical information about applying can be found here.
First Chapter
Hold Each Other Close
We have always lived in times when freedoms are under siege. Black futures have always been uncertain, but for some of us in this time, this uncertainty feels treacherous. Standing at the brink, we ask: how do we find beauty, hope, joy, and community when the world feels inhospitable? How is life lived under siege? We turn to the beautiful spaces that others have made in the midst of struggle. Across the world, Black people have built spaces of care, joy, and imagination - holding onto beauty despite erasure and appropriation. What do we create to continue seeing ourselves, even when others refuse to? How do we dream, love, learn, and grow, even when tomorrow is not promised?
What happens in the attic, in the basement, in the tiny underground club, in the strip club, in the church, in the obeah yard, in the shebeen, at the buka, at the market, at the nail parlour, at the women's group, at the community football game? These are the spaces we turn to - where beauty is not just seen or heard but felt. A beauty we just know.
We seek to craft a theory of living through art-making - unraveling the essence of Black artistic practice. This school is an inquiry into process and methodology: how we hold each other up, how we create, what we tap into. What is at the core of our practice? How do we make beauty? What rituals and processes shape Black artistic creation? How might we create black art that responds to the time? How might black art free us, and hold us now? We will offer possibilities, experiments, suggestions, hypotheses for a beginning.
Methodology
The programme will be a gathering of like minds from across the diaspora. Invited collaborators and facilitators will create spaces of learning, doing, thinking and dreaming together. There will be walks, workshops, films, and somatic exercises to invite you to enter the space of imagination and care. Theory making will be outward towards the (black, global) city, where we will engage with local artists, thinkers, shopkeepers and makers in the art of beautiful spaces.
Organizers
Metro54 - Amsterdam, The Netherlands
Metro54 is a space for global sonic, cultural and artistic practices, gathering(s), (un)learning, histories, grassroots community work, spatial politics and transformative justice.Together with artists, thinkers, activists, neighbors, writers and hustlers Metro54 organizes pluriversal programs, exhibition projects, collaborations, listening sessions, weekenders, research projects, conversations and take-overs.
- Amal Alhaag
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Thierno Deme
- Tracian Meikle (Guest Curator)
The Space for Creative Black Imagination, Inc. - Baltimore, The United States of America
The Space for Creative Black Imagination, Inc. (est. 2020) bridges creative visions with actionable practices worldwide. Embedded in care, collaboration, and community, we empower creative imagination through cutting-edge strategies and sustainable best practices informed by the Global African diaspora’s artistic and cultural legacies. Our dynamic, publicly engaged programs—spanning events, knowledge exchanges, and critical interpretations—are designed to inspire and activate transformative thinking.
Through strategic partnerships with institutions, the Baltimore City community, the state of Maryland, and global collaborators, The Space, Inc. fosters ultra-innovative approaches to the theories, practices, and challenges of creative imagination. By developing methodologies that amplify the intersections of art, culture, and society, we advance creative and intellectual inquiry both locally and globally. Our work encompasses art-making, research, teaching, mentorship, public debate, and interactive projects—cultivating new possibilities for the future of creative thought and expression.
- Co-Conveners:
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Dr. Raél Jero Salley
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Raimi Gbadamosi