Always on
This project successfully funded on 22nd September 2024, you can still support them with a donation.
The Benjamin Zephaniah Digital Archive Library
Chatham, Medway, United Kingdom
Aim
Building a grassroots Black art hub & library to archive, educate, and empower. Support exhibitions, equity, and cultural preservation.
I’m Ms. Michi Masumi, a UK Black Generative AI Artist, Photographer, Poet, and Digital & Ethnographic Anthropologist. I founded The Black Art Hub CIC and The Benjamin Zephaniah Library to create a grassroots, Black-led and Artist-led space where art, poetry, culture and heritage are archived, celebrated, and shared.
Our team of volunteers includes creatives, researchers, and community organisers who believe in storytelling, cultural preservation, and inclusive education. We specialise in exhibitions, networking, and research & development, focusing on Black British and African diaspora voices through grassroots visual arts, poetry and archival blogs.
Currently we use a blog style, which we aim to continue and develop, it needs to intergrated with book loaning, academic printing on demand research resources and educational library workshops downloadable packages for schools, the community and academic specialists.
We are registered members of:
We’re raising £50,000 over three years. Our Phase 1 goal is £20,000 to fund:
- £10,000 for website development, integrating TinyCat library software with a Wix platform, plus 5 years of hosting and subscriptions.
- £7,500 for three years’ rent at Nucleus Arts, Chatham.
- £2,100 for overheads including Wi-Fi, admin, graphic design, and editing software.
- £400 for a two-week archival exhibition at The Halpern Gallery.
We also invite donations of second-hand Black books to support reading equity and reduce landfill waste. Representation in the arts matters, and we aim to provide a welcoming space where Black culture and literature are accessible to all.
Donate £100 to have your academic paper archived in our first online research, batch, along with a video interview along with a video interview.
Donate £200 to receive an exclusive invitation to our launch event.
Together, we can build a legacy of art, activism, and access.
Funding method
Keep what you raise – this project will receive all pledges made