A month of music, food, films, talks and art were woven together for Westminster School’s celebration of Black history
Reflecting the national theme for Black History Month, Westminster pupils focused on ‘Celebrating Our Communities’ — recognising the everyday, unrecorded contributions that shape communities but often go unnoticed.
The programme, organised to run through October was itself a huge community effort, with many departments part of a packed calendar of events, brought together by the Heads of School, Monitors, and Director of Inclusion and International Pupils
A newly launched inter-house art competition saw pupils research inspirational Black figures, from John Blanke to Ashleigh Johnson, while breaktime musical interludes in Yard traced the progression of Black music through polyphony, ragtime, spirituals and jazz.
Iconic Black dishes from African and Caribbean countries were served at breaktime pop-ups, lunch and tea, including Senegalese Yassa, Zimbabwean chikenduza, Cameroonian banana cake and Mozambican etoritory, each with information on its origins.
Numerous pupil-led societies hosted talks, from LawSoc x PolSoc’s ‘To the ballot and the bench: the fight for civil rights’ to American Society’s ‘Inside the controversial history of Juneteenth’. Moahnishan (Remove, CC) said: “I chose Juneteenth as my topic due to its importance in modern American culture. The holiday has sparked key debates about accountability for slavery and how we celebrate African American history. I’m glad to have introduced this debate into Westminster’s classrooms, and I hope it will spark more conversations.”
At a Literature Society poetry round table, pupils read aloud Still I Rise by Maya Angelou, Harlem by Langston Hughes, Making a Difference (a Poem to be Read Aloud) by Lemn Sissay and American Sonnet for My Past and Future Assassin by Terrance Hayes. An Economics Society talk explored colonialism and its legacy through ‘Empire by economics? Françafrique, France’s economic grip on Africa and African resistance’.
Some events looked specifically at the struggles of Black women, including a lunchtime screening of the 1961 film A Raisin in the Sun, in which the family’s daughter, Beneatha, challenges traditional gender roles amid her family’s pursuit of the American dream. A second Law Society event echoed this theme with a talk on ‘Cracks in the system: how Black women are overlooked’.
And Ved (Lower Shell, WW) chose to take up the mantle to give this year’s Abbey address to the School. He focused on the meaning of Windrush, and the people whose journey gave London’s Windrush Line its name. Reflecting on the opportunity to speak in Abbey and Black History Month as a whole, Ved said: “After I heard that there was an opportunity to do a Black History Month talk in Abbey, I immediately took it. Often when I’m walking home from school, I think about how easy the world could have been if every person was simply human, not defined by their race, gender or sexual orientation. I think about all the people whose voices are lost due to segregation and this is a missing piece of Britain’s History. This especially linked in to this year’s Black History Month theme of ‘Honouring Our Communities’ and I was delighted to share my thoughts on the topic in front of the whole school.”
Taken together, the programme highlighted the many ways Black history, culture and community continue to shape everyday life, both within Westminster and beyond, while underscoring the importance of recognising Black contributions to society and the challenges faced by Black communities.
Heads of School, Saathana (BB), Jahnvi (RR), Jeremy (CC) and Zac (BB), said: “Together, we reminded our community of a history that deserves to be remembered and a culture we appreciate every day, often without realising.”
