Afri-Co-Lab: A Community Land Grab
Afri-Co-Lab are in the middle of a Crowdfunder to open their doors once a week for us in the community to gather and dream – but why? Who are Afri-Co-Lab and what do they actually do? Co-founder ANNA MARIA NABIRYE explains.
Refugee Week event The Sitter And Their Stories – 12-hour drawathon
In the midst of the pandemic, with all my regular and non-regular work on hold or cancelled, grieving the recent deaths of both my biological and step father; in this bleak moment, the depths of winter, my sister, Lilly Babirye, and I signed a five-year lease on a shop space in Marine Court with no written or formalised business plan.
Some might say it was risky, foolish, irresponsible. Others – inspired, hopeful, genius. Looking back it was a healthy dose of all those things. Everything was impossible: travel, seeing loved ones, funerals, gathering; but in those days that saw every Pret A Manger in London closed, it felt like there was finally space. Space for something else. Space to dream a different reality. Lilly and I had always wanted to create a space to hold creative interventions, and in a time when so much was not possible – this finally seemed possible.
Afri-Co-Lab was born a visible Black-run space, modelling what it is to centre the experiences of Global Majority folks, brokering relationships between white led institutions and at the heart of it offering intentionally held space for Global Majority folks and white allies to gather and dream.
Existence can be struggle as well as joy
Being Black in a white majority seaside town has its ups and downs. Downs being the micro-aggressions that hit like a body blow, all the racist memorabilia and constant comments, are you on holiday? whilst walking through town, or I love your skin colour, when dancing at The Piper. The assumption that I must be on holiday as you can’t imagine a Black person living outside of the city. The absurdity that it is a compliment to draw attention to the levels of melanin in my skin, as if I had gone to Trade Paints and mixed the perfect tone for a Saturday night out on the town!
These reminders that you are other, are part and parcel of life down here for me as a Black woman; the same is true for many of my peers. However, after six or so years here, seeing a radical Global Majority and arts community grow and thrive in Hastings and St Leonards, and within that the co-founding and co-opening of Afri-Co-Lab: a Black-run, anti-racist creative space, slap-bang on the seafront, simultaneously speaks to the epic ‘Ups’ and what IS possible in our magical town!
This is the community that created SHADE (St Leonards and Hastings Alliance of Diverse Ethnicities), which campaigned for care, activism and arts through the pandemic. Up In Arms – a multidisciplinary social practice, exhibition, film and performance work of mine that finally got a full commission at the De La Warr Pavilion. Playing The Race Card – exhibiting 25 Global Majority artists from across the country to varied audiences for two glorious weeks, followed by the annual MLK Day celebrations in the same space in January. A full and expansive Refugee Week led by the Refugee Buddy Project. We Out Here – an exhibition of six Caribbean local artists at the Hastings Contemporary, and full programme of wrap-around events. All this is epic – we are definitely punching up as a town!
And I am proud to say Afri-Co-Lab is playing a big part of this radical momentum. The thing I think we offer that is most important, is supporting and giving space to folks to try things out – to experiment: the ‘Lab’ part of Afri-Co-Lab. And the ‘Co’ is doing this collectively.
“You feel safe when you are taking yourself out of your comfort zone there.”
Ted Barrow
“Doesn’t matter what the event is, I always feel there’s a space that’s created with my needs in mind as a Black woman, and not just my needs, but the needs of a wide range of people, Black Queer people, people who may belong to several different identity margins.”
Dorcas Magbadelo
A community-led open space
Setting up Afri-Co-Lab has been a real rollercoaster, especially as Lilly and I have been working on a volunteer basis, only paying our facilitators and admin support. This is something we want to change, to secure the space’s future and to help it live the life it so desperately wants to live. Like so much of our event programming, the drive to maintain and expand is only born from a living need or desire in the community.
I remember Darragh, before becoming our resident dance teacher, walking into the space to browse some beautiful locally-made crafts (we had an artists’ shop then) and inevitably staying for a cuppa. If you were in the space for more than four minutes, co-founder Lilly would offer you a cup of tea or a ‘fun drink’. That’s our open house policy – you come into the space and we treat you like family – a very Ugandan cultural norm.
This culture allowed for long, dreaming conversations to take place, and through these conversations grew ideas, plans and healing offers which came into fruition, like Darragh Dance or Every Body Positive Yoga. We’re about providing opportunities for local artists and creatives to share their talents locally, with the communities they live alongside, rather than having to go to further afield.
So many of our relationships and workshops have come about from conversations, or chance meetings when someone pops into the space – which is why we are so keen to open again for no other reason than to connect. Meeting, talking – connecting – is reason enough. This town is special, and when we connect magic happens: whether that is Jack in The Green, Playing The Race Card, Pirate Day, or We Out Here.
Safety isn’t just walls
As a person of Colour, having a space that you know you will be welcomed into, a space where you will not have to navigate well-meaning but problematic conversations, where you will see yourself reflected in the people, the space, its ethos and cultural context – that is respite, room to freely exist. We love being able to offer this and to model this for our community and our white allies.
It’s important for us that we offer space that is intentionally held only for Global Majority folks, alongside programming for all. It’s about creating an us culture, which sometimes means not everyone is invited into everything, in order to acknowledge different lived experiences.
There are times that we as a Global Majority community – diverse as that is – need to come together when whiteness is not centred. Not because specific white people are up to racially motivated shenanigans, but because whiteness as a systematic culture – white supremacist culture – is tiring and painful.
I know that can feel unfair to a white person, but as carriers of inherited systems and trauma, we must be aware it is present no matter how supportive the person or good the intention.
Even writing this is nerve-wracking: by taking up space to speak authentically from my lived experience as a Black person, will the sentiment be heard or vilified? What in turn will that mean for myself individually or Afri-Co-Lab? It’s these mental gymnastics that we enable folks to take a break from, find unapologetic space to breathe, let their shoulders lower – this is rare.. It needs to be nurtured to support moments of collective allyship across all racial intersections. This uncomfortable situation is where we are now – but hopefully it’s not where we’ll stay.
This is why creating Global Majority only spaces and why Global Majority owned and run spaces are important in the ecosystem of our town.
Crowdfunding To The Future
We miss our Open House days and whilst the shop wasn’t financially successful enough to keep it open, the conversations and chance meetings were riches beyond measure. So we are crowdfunding to be able to pay a staff member to open the space one day a week every week for no other reason than to gather and dream. Pop in for a quick cuppa, or stay all day and chat. Bring your laptop and jump on our wifi, or read and use our growing collection of books. The space will be open to all.
We have a crowdfunding target of £10,000; if we can raise £5,000, then East Sussex County Council will match us up to £5,000. This fund will help us open the space to support our community by inviting more people to become part of the Afri-Co-Lab family: we’ll be sharing more of our space, with more people, more of the time.
We’re holding three free events this July where you can come and meet the Afri-Co-Lab family, sample what we do, have a great time, and if the spirit takes you, donate to help us on our journey.
Afri-Co-Lab started in a very difficult moment but it has created so much joy and healing in its time in our community. We deeply understand the complexity of poverty, racism, and displaced trauma. We also understand and have experienced the power that community and creativity can have in overcoming obstacles. This is the “why” at the heart of everything Afri-Co-Lab does.
POTLUCK PARTY:
Thursday 13 July, @afri.co.lab, from 7pm-when it ends.
DARRAGH DANCE PARTY:
Monday 17 July, @thenest, from 6pm-9:30pm.
IMPROV COMEDY – GAMES FOR GROWN-UPS:
Thurs 20 July, @afri.co.lab, from 7pm.
ARTS AUCTION:
Friday 29 July, @afri.co.lab, from 7pm.
BOOKING REQUIRED. Please visit www.afri-co-lab.org to book or RSVP.
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There are 19th century paintings on the walls of the Royal Victoria Hotel showing black people in Hastings. But it does seem to be a hidden history. I’ve never seen any other mention or depiction of this heritage, perhaps a bit of public education on our real history is overdue?