Through the lens of 14 photographers Staying Power explores the narratives of commonwealth immigration, uprisings and protest, youth alienation and the powerful influence of music and fashion during a time of great social change.

Café Club Lates return for late night openings with Fly Girls, B Girls and Home Girls celebrating the first wave of female UK Hip Hop on Thursday 12 February and Representations – AFIWIE with playwright, fine artist, and curator Dr Michael McMillan as he brings his personal interpretation to the photographs of iconic and prominent British photographers on Thursday 26 February.

We also celebrate the life and legacy of Claudia Jones, social justice activist and community organiser, founder of the West Indian Gazette and often hailed as the “Mother of the Notting Hill Carnival”. Black Cultural Archives holds photographs of Claudia campaigning in c.1955, a selection of texts such as ‘I Think of My Mother’ by her son Buzz Johnson and Carole Boyce Davis’ ‘Left of Karl Marx: The Political Life of Black Communist Claudia Jones’ along with selected archival materials, including copies of the West Indian Gazette which she founded in Brixton in 1958 and oral history testimonies.

To mark the first half of Staying Power we have joined forces with writer Chardine Taylor-Stone and the Body Narratives Team to host a one-day conference that attempts to trace Black feminist journeys and legacies from past to present day. View films in the Cinema of Collective Black Resistance; examine Black British feminism in the archives, and explore Black feminist activism on a tour around Brixton. The Black British Feminism: Past, Present and Futures conference takes place on Saturday 14 March.

Free admission to the Staying Power: Photographs Black British Experience, 1950s – 1990s. Audio guides and fun-packed children’s trails and exhibition toolboxes are also available.

For more information and to book tickets for events at Black Cultural Archives, visit www.bcaheritage.org.uk