Tickets for Black Women Speak Volumes, featuring Joy Francis, Bernardine Evaristo, Yvvette Edwards and Andi Oliver, sold out within weeks of release.
Being hosted at the British Library on Friday 6th March 2026 and organised by Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions will celebrate the launch of two powerful new books against the backdrop of women only occupying around 0.5% of recorded history, according to Bettany Hughes. As for the older Black women, their life experiences are frequently compelling and fascinating yet rarely heard.
Black Women Speak Volumes will showcase Black women’s diverse stories via thought-provoking fiction and non-fiction, including Yvvette Edwards’ tragi-comic novel, good good loving (Virago Press), and Challenging Britannia: Black British Women Speak Volumes (George Padmore Institute), where our very own Joy Francis (Hon) FRSL interviews seven groundbreaking older Black women in the arts. They will be joined by broadcaster and writer Andi Oliver and the chair for the evening, Booker Prize winning author Bernardine Evaristo.
Music from Dominique Le Gendre will accompany film clips from Joy Francis’ interviews with Paulette Randall, Dominique Le Gendre, Ingrid Pollard, Sharon Watson MBE, DL, Anni Domingo, Verna Wilkins and Valerie Bloom.
The event is an outcome of Women Speak Volumes Between the Generations, an 18 month project led by Speaking Volumes Live Literature Productions in partnership with Words of Colour and the George Padmore Institute where a talented cohort of young Black women learn about curation, archives and how to create community archives centring older Black women. The project is funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund.
