This event is FREE, no need to book.  

Black History Month Belgium and AB are once again joining forces for a new edition of BHM. This year, the theme is ‘The Sounds of Blackness’. With this in mind, we are organising the official BHM launch party for all of Belgium - a large-scale musical celebration in the heart of Brussels for the entire community!

This year, Black History Month Belgium invites you to listen deeply with “The Sounds of Blackness” as its guiding theme. The sounds of our words, of our music, of our bodies have always been central to Black expression, carrying memory, resistance, joy, and collective imagination across time and place. From rhythm and melody to voice and silence, sound shapes how Black stories are remembered, shared, and transformed.

For Black communities in the Diaspora, music is more than art. It is a vessel of survival, connection, and storytelling. Music holds grief and celebration at once, allowing emotions, identities, and futures to be expressed beyond language. Ancestral songs, spirituals, drums, protest chants, club culture, and contemporary soundscapes all form part of a living archive. Therefore, Black History Month Belgium has placed music at the heart of this edition’s programme, through concerts, listening sessions, and movement practices.

Sound goes beyond music. It is the sound of the words we use to tell our stories and to express our inner feelings. It is the laughter and clamour as well as the sigh and the cry. It is the sound of release when we move our bodies. Therefore, expect an amplification and propagation of sound through conversations and reflections that explore the realities of our bodies, communities, and histories.

Alongside moments of collective celebration, the programme also creates space for attentive listening, learning, rest, and healing, recognising these as essential practices within Black cultural life.

By amplifying Black sounds within the Belgian context, this edition highlights the many migration journeys, musical influences, body experiences, and intergenerational narratives that connect Black communities. At the same time, it calls for continued awareness and solidarity with those whose voices are being silenced elsewhere, including in the Congo, Sudan, and beyond. 

The Sounds of Blackness honours these legacies as deeply rooted and constantly evolving. The Sounds of Blackness invites us not only to hear, but to listen, feel, and resonate together.

Visuals: Rachel Hansoul