The National Maritime Museum will mark International Slavery Remembrance Day with a free day of performance, film, workshops and remembrance, culminating in a walk to the Thames.
On 23 August, Royal Museums Greenwich marks International Slavery Remembrance Day with a free public programme across the National Maritime Museum, Queen’s House and Caird Library, exploring the relationship between remembrance and reparative practice. The day brings together artists, filmmakers, researchers and community practitioners to consider how museums and cultural institutions can engage with histories of slavery and their ongoing legacies.
International Slavery Remembrance Day is observed annually on 23 August, commemorating the uprising that began in Saint-Domingue, now Haiti, in 1791, and recognising the resistance of enslaved people across the world. Drawing on the National Maritime Museum’s own collections, this year’s programme asks what role remembrance can play beyond commemoration, through a day of workshops, film screenings, performances, artist-led activities and talks.
What’s on
The day opens at Queen’s House from 11.15am with a keynote address from Wanda Wyporska, Chief Executive of Black Cultural Archives, and a musical performance from the Ethno Vox choir, introducing the themes of remembrance, repair and reparative justice explored throughout the programme.
Through the day, the Seminar Room hosts the Fon Stool Workshop with artist facilitator Love Hannington, using the National Maritime Museum’s own Fon Stool from Porto-Novo to explore the political alliances and symbolism that projected imperial power during and after abolition. In the Lecture Theatre, a film programme presented with the June Givanni Pan African Cinema Archive explores slavery, colonialism, cultural memory and Black resistance, running alongside a display of archive materials in the Propeller Space.
Ethno Vox also lead a participatory ‘Sing Freedom’ workshop, drawing on African musical traditions, plantation songs, Windrush-era music and contemporary calls for equality. At Queen’s House, artist Sharon Walters gives a tour of her display The Many Invincible Ones, inspired by historic photographs in the museum’s collection, followed by a conversation with curator Nydia Swaby on the research and practice behind it. In the Caird Library, artist Jahnavi Inniss invites visitors to contribute to a collaborative textile artwork drawing on quilting traditions, and later in the afternoon, film curator June Givanni discusses Pan-African cinema and archives with filmmaker Imruh Bakari.
Poet Esme Allman closes out the talks with a newly written long-form poem responding to this year’s themes of reparation and repair, drawing on archival research.
The Emancipation Walk
The programme closes at 4.15pm with a collective act of remembrance led by Ethno Vox. Participants walk together from Queen’s House to the River Thames, honouring the lives, agency and enduring legacy of enslaved African people, before being invited to scatter flower petals in memory of those affected by the transatlantic slave trade and all who fought for freedom, justice and equality.
The London x London Take: this is a genuinely full day, so it’s worth picking two or three sessions rather than trying to see everything, the keynote and Sing Freedom workshop make a strong start, and the Emancipation Walk is well worth staying for as a way to close the day out.
Need to know
- Where: National Maritime Museum and Queen’s House, Romney Road, Greenwich, SE10 9NF
- When: Sunday 23 August 2026, 11am–5pm
- Price: Free
- More info: rmg.co.uk/ISRD
