Lee "Scratch" Perry studio sessions to premiere in Barbican's Pan-Africanism season

Project a Black Planet runs from June to September 2026, bringing together more than thirty events examining how Pan-African ideas have shaped contemporary arts and culture. The programme spans concerts, exhibitions, film screenings, talks and participatory events, with music among the lenses through which it will explore themes of anti-colonial resistance, transnational solidarity and Black liberation.

The season opens with a week-long immersive installation in The Pit (5-11 June) featuring a collaborative project developed during studio sessions between producer Perry and Mouse on Mars in 2019, shortly before the producer's death two years later. The world-exclusive presentation will present new works in spatial audio on a D&B Soundscape system, foregrounding dub music's connections to Rastafari and its role in expressing a shared African heritage across the diaspora.

A concert series running throughout the summer traces Pan-Africanism's expression across different musical traditions and historical moments. On 13 June, the Cesária Évora Orchestra brings a tribute to the late Cabo Verdean singer Évora to the Barbican Hall, with special guest Mayra Andrade. The performance celebrates Évora's role as an ambassador for the archipelago's morna tradition, the Portuguese-influenced song form that she introduced to global audiences.

Visionary bassist and singer Meshell Ndegeocello [pictured above] appears on 20 June with No More Water: The Gospel of James Baldwin, a genre-blending work drawing on the writings of the civil rights activist. The piece moves through jazz, soul, funk and spoken word, anchored by Ndegeocello's basslines, creating a meditation on race, sexuality and belonging. The same evening, Pulitzer Prize-winning drummer Tyshawn Sorey joins pioneering pianist Pat Thomas for an improvised set at LSO St Luke's, with both artists drawing on Afrofuturist traditions that imagine new cultural and political futures.

Liverpool's Africa Oyé festival curates a concert on 21 June showcasing three African artists. Nigerian afrobeat star Patoranking headlines, supported by Mozambique's Ghorwane, exponents of the marrabenta dance style which blends traditional rhythms with Portuguese folk influences, and Kizaba, whose sound builds on Congolese rumba-rock heritage.

Congolese artist Sammy Baloji presents a three-part sonic performance on 5 July exploring Congo's history and the Black diaspora's journeys. The work unfolds in three acts, with the final section featuring Satch Hoyt performing from the Barbican Hall's balcony. Hoyt blends electric flute and percussion with contemporary synthesised sounds and antique African instruments to trace transatlantic passages.

Beyond the concerts, the season includes a major exhibition, Project a Black Planet: The Art and Culture of Panafrica (11 June – 6 September), featuring over 300 works drawn from Africa, the Caribbean, Brazil, North America and Europe. A film programme runs from 8 July to 6 September, presenting milestone works and rare archival material exploring Pan-African cinema.

Public events include In the Wake, a free installation on the Barbican's Level G foyer from 15 June reflecting on the 2020 Black Lives Matter resurgence as a moment of transnational Pan-African solidarity. A series of Reasonings talks (27 June – 19 July) creates space for debate on the Black experience, while Carnival workshops running from April to August culminate in a Sankofa Carnival Performance on 15 August, developed with Mahogany Carnival Design, IRIE! dance theatre and Endurance Steel Orchestra.

The late-night series anyone can dance returns on 25 July with a party celebrating African rhythms and diaspora club music, transforming the Level –1 foyer into a dancefloor open until 3am.