The Black Feminism Remix Lab: on Black feminist joy, ambivalence and futures

ABSTRACT

We began to work together in 2016 as two of the co-organisers of the first Black Feminism, Womanism, and the Politics of Women of Colour in Europe symposium at the University of Edinburgh in September 2016. Buoyed by the momentum that followed the Black Feminism, Womanism, and the Politics of Women of Colour in Europe events in Amsterdam in 2017 and Berlin in 2018, we sought out different ways to critically consider, uphold, and archive Black feminist work. This culminated in our idea for the Black Feminism Remix Lab. Remixing is an open-ended and non-linear process that always involves both a nod to the past (what came before which is being remixed) and the development of something different that captures part of the present (the ongoing outcomes of the remixing process). An approach to co-creating a manifesto that is rooted in remixing is a rich way to reflect on the relationship between present-day Black feminist efforts, past Black feminist work and Black feminist futurities yet to be imagined. In this short article, we critically reflect on our desire to work with Black feminist activists across Europe to co-author a manifesto on Black feminist politics.

KEYWORDS:

• Black feminism
• Black women
• Europe
• remix

Disclosure statement

No potential conflict of interest was reported by the author(s).

Additional information

Funding

This work was supported by the Open Society Foundations.

Notes on contributors

Francesca Sobande

Francesca Sobande is Lecturer in Digital Media Studies at Cardiff University. She is the author of The Digital Lives of Black Women in Britain (Palgrave Macmillan, 2020), co-editor of To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe (Pluto Press, 2019) and co-author of Black Oot Here: Black Lives in Scotland (Bloomsbury, 2022).

Akwugo Emejulu

Akwugo Emejulu is Professor of Sociology at University of Warwick. As a political sociologist, she has research interests in two areas: racial, ethnic and gender inequalities in Europe and the United States, and women of colour's grassroots organising and activism. She is the author of several books including Fugitive Feminism (Silver Press, 2022) and Minority Women and Austerity: Survival and Resistance in France and Britain (Policy Press, 2017). She is co-editor of To Exist is to Resist: Black Feminism in Europe (Pluto Press, 2019).