Liverpool will once again host a powerful programme of events to mark Slavery Remembrance Day this August, bringing together communities, artists, researchers and cultural organisations to reflect on the legacies of transatlantic slavery and honour the resilience of enslaved people.
Taking place across the city from 17 to 23 August 2026, the programme includes public lectures, workshops and performances alongside the annual Walk of Remembrance, a vibrant and inclusive act of remembrance, reflection and solidarity, open to everyone.
For the first time there will also be a Slavery Remembrance Summer School, a week of youth-led movement-based performance workshops, culminating in a final performance during the Walk of Remembrance.
While the International Slavery Museum is closed for major redevelopment as part of the Waterfront Transformation Project, Slavery Remembrance Day carries added significance. Through this busy programme of events the stories the museum holds can continue to be shared and understood, as well as inspire hope for the future as we look ahead for its reopening in 2029.
This year the prestigious Dorothy Kuya Slavery Remembrance Memorial Lecture welcomes acclaimed scholar and cultural historian, Anita Gonzalez (Ph.D), for a thought-provoking exploration of memory, performance and resistance within African Diasporic cultures.
Named in honour of Liverpool activist, educator and anti-racism campaigner, Dorothy Kuya, the annual memorial lecture continues her legacy of challenging injustice through education, activism and public engagement.
Anita Gonzalez (Ph.D) said: “Black lives have always been culturally resilient. We mobilise our stories internally for community building and externally for social justice. It is an honour to be the guest speaker at Liverpool’s Slavery Remembrance Day. Activists like Dorothy Kuya demonstrate the ongoing resilience of Black people, and transnational activism has always been the path forward for animating networks of social justice.”
Michelle Charters, OBE, Head of International Slavery Museum said: “It’s fitting that while International Slavery Museum’s doors are closed, we have gone big with this year’s programme. From Anita Gonzalez’s internationally respected research and creative practice, that speak directly to the themes of remembrance, resistance and cultural survival, to our very first summer school that will engage our local young people to play a symbolic part within the Walk of Remembrance, the programme is full of energy, meaning and purpose.
“Slavery Remembrance Day is as important as ever in a city continuing to confront its historic role in slavery and it feels vital that we create these spaces for reflection, dialogue and learning.”
Full programme can be found at www.liverpoolmuseums.org.uk/
Slavery Remembrance Summer School
17-21 August
10-3pm
The Black-E
Produced in partnership with The Black-E, this youth-led, movement-based performance project for ages 12–19, is a week-long summer school. Exploring legacy, identity, and rites of passage, participants create authentic work reflecting lived experience, culminating in a final performance during the Walk of Remembrance.
What does successful community-led research look like?
22 August
11-2pm
Museum of Liverpool
Founded in 2006, the Centre for the Study of International Slavery (CSIS) is a partnership between University of Liverpool and International Slavery Museum. It supports and shares leading research about slavery in history, culture, legacies and contemporary society.
This Call and Response workshop marks CSIS’s 20th anniversary by reflecting on its past, present and future. What has CSIS achieved and what work still needs to be done? By exploring this and more the workshop will help shape the next chapter of CSIS – and International Slavery Museum.
Dorothy Kuya Slavery Remembrance Memorial Lecture: ‘Slavery and Denial: Today and Onwards’ by Anita Gonzalez (Ph.D)
21 August
5.30-7.30pm
Liverpool Town Hall
A resurgence of anti-blackness undermines African American progress. Remnants of slavery continue to impact African diaspora populations in the Americas and beyond, yet community-based practices of mutual aid, convening, artmaking, and religion sustain socially and economically disenfranchised people. Hear from acclaimed scholar and cultural historian, Anita Gonzalez (Ph.D) for a thought-provoking exploration of memory, performance and resistance.
Walk of Remembrance
23 August
12noon
Williamson Square
The Walk of Remembrance will journey through Liverpool City Centre, pausing at landmarks of historic significance for moments of reflection, performance and historic insight, before culminating with a masquerade and libation at Liverpool’s waterfront.
This commemorative ritual, honours and remembers the ancestors who have gone before us.
Connector Pilot Launch
23 August
3-5pm
Museum of Liverpool
The Connector Project’s first research pilot, ‘Overwriting – Underwriting’, launches as part of International Slavery Museum’s Slavery Remembrance Day programme.
The event, which is delivered in partnership with the University of Cambridge’s ‘Legacies of Enslavement Initiative’, will share how a team of local researchers — the ‘Overwriters’ — will be exploring the North West-based merchant ‘Underwriters’, who insured slaving voyages, and helped to sustain the transatlantic networks that underpinned the system of enslavement.
The pilot is a partnership with the Centre for the Study of International Slavery, (CSIS).
The Connector Project is a £1 million initiative funded by Lloyd’s Register Foundation to support community-led research into the histories and legacies of transatlantic slavery.