Black mixed-race Birmingham in perspective: ‘Making Mixed Race’

Wednesday 19 January 2022

This event is organised by the Midlands Art Centre (MAC) and The Stephen Lawrence Research Centre (SLRC), De Montfort University.

Join the author of ‘Making Mixed Race: A Study of Time, Place and Identity’ Dr Karis Campion, and the Deputy Director of the SLRC, Dr Lisa Palmer, to discuss some of the findings of the book that relate to Black (mixed-race) histories and identities in Birmingham.

Making Mixed Race centres around the life histories of 37 people of Mixed White and Black Caribbean heritage born between 1959 and 1994, in Britain’s second-largest city, Birmingham. The intimate life portraits of mixed identity reveal how colourism, family, school, gender, whiteness, racism, and resistance, have been experienced against the backdrop of post-war immigration, Thatcherism, the ascendency of Black diasporic youth cultures, and contemporary post-race discourses.

The coming-of-age stories in the book provide rich insight into the social and political forces that have shaped where the possibilities for racial mixing occurred in the city. Situated in Handsworth, Lee Bank, Sparkbrook, Selly Oak, Moseley, Northfield and Balsall Heath, to name a few, the stories in the book provide a comprehensive overview of Black mixed-race lives in the city and the localised nature of identity.

The event will be followed by a drinks reception.

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