Black Music Research Unit Petition – Call for Signatures

Dear Popular Music Scholars

On behalf of the Black Music Research Unit at the University of Westminster, we’d like to bring our petition to your attention. The petition is available here: https://bmru.co.uk/a-petition-to-preserve-and-celebrate-black-british-music.

You may be aware that we co-curated the first ever national exhibition of Black-British music at the British Library from April-August 2024. If you missed it, you can catch some highlights here: https://www.bl.uk/press/beyond-the-bassline-500-years-of-black-british-music-opens-at-the-british-library.

The exhibition was a resounding success, with over 43,000 visitors and a whole host of associated events, performances, symposiums and satellite exhibitions facilitated because of it. In the wake of the exhibition ending and our evaluation of it, one thing is incredibly clear: a temporary exhibition is not enough. We need to use the momentum of Beyond the Bassline to petition for a permanent space and dedication of resources to the preservation and exhibition of Black-British music and culture.

With that in mind, we are launching a nationwide petition lobbying for exactly that, and we need your help to ensure it reaches the widest audience possible. We’re reaching out to ask if you would like to sign the petition in the first instance, and if we can collect a short testimonial on the importance of the issue, and of the Beyond the Bassline exhibition and its impact, to be used to promote the cause further. This can be supplied in the form of a few lines of text or a short video, and would be shared across our social media platforms (@thebmru).

You can read and sign the petition here– https://bmru.co.uk/a-petition-to-preserve-and-celebrate-black-british-music. If you are interested in supplying a supporting testimonial or have any questions or additional comments, please feel free to email us using the following address: [email protected].

If you’re currently working at an academic or cultural institution, it may be easier to add your name via your personal email address. If you don’t mind supplying that, please share this with us when adding your signature or name to the petition.