The best: Black History Month events around Manchester

Marking 80 years since the Fifth Pan-African Congress, this absorbing Big Picture Show examines one of the most significant moments in the global struggle for freedom and independence. Held in Manchester in 1945, the Congress brought together activists, intellectuals and political leaders from across Africa, the Caribbean, the US and Britain, including future presidents Kwame Nkrumah and Jomo Kenyatta.

Created with Manchester-based young poets from Young Identity, the seven-minute film combines spoken-word poetry, archive imagery and panoramic projection to connect the Congress’s legacy with a new generation. The film runs in IWM North’s Main Exhibition Space, with screenings at 1pm during term time and 12pm during school holidays.

Cephas Williams’ powerful photography exhibition returns to Manchester, bringing together portraits of Black people living across the UK and unpacking the question of what it means to be Black in Britain today.

Originally commissioned for Manchester International Festival in 2021, the project offers a broad portrait of the African diaspora, looking beyond familiar faces and conventional success stories.

Now installed at Aviva Studios, the exhibition honours figures from Manchester and beyond, continuing Williams’ ambition to create a major photographic archive of Black British life. Portrait of Black Britain is open Tuesday to Sunday from 10am to 6pm and is free to visit without booking.

For more than five decades, Lenny Henry has moved fluidly between comedy, television, theatre and activism, becoming one of Britain’s most recognisable performers along the way. His latest show, Still at Large, combines stand-up, storytelling and conversation as Henry looks back over the experiences, characters and creative sparks that have shaped his career.

From The Lenny Henry Show and Chef! to Othello and The Lord of the Rings: The Rings of Power, the one-off show charts a remarkable life lived across the stage and screen, with bags of Henry’s trademark humour throughout.

Over at RNCM, Booker Prize-winning author Bernardine Evaristo joins acclaimed screenwriter Russell T Davies for an evening of conversation at Manchester Literature Festival, pairing two influential voices whose work has helped broaden the stories represented in contemporary British culture.

Evaristo’s Girl, Woman, Other became the first novel by a Black British woman to win the Booker Prize in 2019, while Davies has spent four decades creating landmark television including Queer as Folk, Years and Years, Doctor Who and It’s a Sin.

Together, the duo will join in a special celebration of storytelling, creativity and the power of television to unite the nation.

African Soul Rebels returns to Manchester with a trio of artists drawing on West African traditions while pushing them into new musical territory at the Bridgewater Hall.

Les Amazones d’Afrique lead the bill with their fusion of traditional roots and contemporary sounds, joined by Malawian babatoni player Gasper Nali and Guinean-born, Wales-based balafon player N’famady Kouyaté.

From Les Amazones d’Afrique’s message of strength and unity to Nali’s homemade three-metre bass guitar and Kouyaté’s blend of West African heritage with Western influences, the evening promises a richly varied showcase of music spanning the continent.

A limited number of tickets remain for perhaps the defining moment in Manchester’s 2026 cultural calendar, as former US President Barack Obama comes to Co-op Live for an evening of conversation, discussing America, its place in the world and what comes next as the country marks 250 years since the Declaration of Independence. The event forms part of a short UK tour taking in Belfast, Glasgow and Manchester.

Obama’s eagerly anticipated appearance in the city offers an opportunity to hear directly from the 44th President of the United States, who became the country’s first Black leader on a ticket of hope, defiance and transcending division.

Two major poetic voices meet at Manchester Literature Festival, with Jamaican poet Kwame Dawes joining American poet Carolyn Forché for a night of readings and conversation exploring the connections between survival, testimony, history and poetry across continents.. Dawes, the Poet Laureate of Jamaica and Artistic Director of the Calabash International Literary Festival, brings work from Sturge Town, exploring Jamaica, memory, family history and inheritance.

Forché, meanwhile, boasts a stellar five-decade career of stirring poetry shaped by political violence, human rights and personal witness, and will read from Otherwhere: New & Selected Poems 1976-2026.

The Portico marks 100 years of Black History Month with a celebratory occasion full of heritage, food and conversation beneath the library’s magnificent dome.

The inaugural Diaspora Dine & Discussion begins with a drinks reception before guests move into the Members’ Reading Room for a specially curated meal inspired by the culinary traditions and cultural origins of the African diaspora.

Guest curator Carol Ann Whitehead will introduce the Ledger of Liberation exhibition and its stories of resilience, identity and collective achievement, while guest speaker Councillor Hilaria Asumu will discuss community, leadership and connection.