A celebratory event reviewing the life and leadership stories of 3 pioneering black Gay men. Cultural researcher Shaun Wallace delves into local Black and LGBTQ History, by exploring the lives of 3 Social Activist Pioneers: Patrick Nelson, Ivor Cummings and Cecil Belfield Clarke. With Black British Historian, Stephen Bourne.

Through a ’conversational style’ illustrated presentation with Historian of Black Britain Stephen Bourne, (Black Poppies) we will discover the formidable lives and times of Patrick Nelson, Ivor Cummings and Dr Cecil Belfield Clarke; recounting their connection to Bloomsbury’s radical art, political and Intellectual circles in the 1930’s.”

* Some of the content is more suitable for those over the age of 16.

Stephen Bourne

Stephen Bourne is a writer, film and social historian specialising in black heritage and gay culture. His best-known book is Black Poppies – Britain’s Black Community and the Great War which was first published by The History Press in 2014 to coincide with the centenary of World War One. For Black Poppies, Stephen received the Southwark Arts Literature award. In 2019 a new edition was published and in October that year the Booker Prize winner Bernardine Evaristo voted Bourne her Black History Month hero on Facebook

Shaun Wallace

A long-term Camden resident, Shaun recently secured an internship within the Arts Development Team at Camden Council. With a background in Curating exhibitions and delivering talks, Shaun’s research interests surround Arts of the African Diaspora with a special interest in Global majority LGBTQ histories.