Image Text: MASTERMIND: Nyasha Pitt

A COVENTRY entrepreneur has received funding from Coventry City of Culture to create a free festival celebrating black culture, to be held at the Warwick Arts Centre on Saturday 3 August 2019.

iDENT Festival is described as “a celebration of the wide breadth of the black experience and diverse culture”.

It seeks to challenge stereotypes, dispel unconscious biases and stimulate conversation, while celebrating black commerce, community, heritage and culture.

“Coventry is a city of resurgence and resilience; themes that resonate with black heritage and culture. This is a contemporary approach to the celebration of African and African-Caribbean communities, that everyone will be able to take part in and enjoy,” said founder Nyasha Pitt.

iDENT Festival will include a broad range of activities and content including a film festival in partnership with Watch Africa; free workshops from experts providing guidance on personal branding, networking and public speaking; local poets and spoken word artists; a marketplace with booksellers, hand-crafted stationery and artisan clothing and jewellery plus more.

“That’s incredibly important to me personally. I am proud to be both back and British. I love my culture, both my Caribbean heritage as well as my absolute Britishness,” added Pitt. “They are both an intrinsic part of me and I wanted to create a celebration that everyone I hold dear to me, regardless of their race, would want to engage in and enjoy.

“I also wanted to deliver something to communities in Coventry and beyond that was different and unique in terms of the Black experience; the sort of event that would be considered, contemporary undertaking that people expect to take place in London.

“This event is set against the backdrop of divisions created by socio-economic challenges, Brexit ‘blues’, knife crime and an increase of hate crimes. It is an opportunity to set aside differences whilst celebrating diversity.”

The event runs all day, starting from 11am and ending at 11pm, and is a free inclusive celebration and open to everyone. Free tickets are available via Eventbrite and can be found by searching iDENT Festival 2019.

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