What Remains? - Study Day

Free entry with donations encouraged.

What remains when lives are lost, histories are contested and experiences are carried across generations? 

Join us for a day of conversation, reflection, poetry and creative exchange responding to Collateral Echoes, Baff Akoto’s exhibition exploring memory, grief, justice and the lives and legacies of Black and immigrant people who have died following police contact.

WHAT REMAINS? Study Day brings together Black writers, artists, poets, activists, community practitioners and organisers to explore memory, grief, identity, community, resistance and inheritance.

Rather than a series of formal panels, the day creates space for open and organic conversation, different forms of Black knowledge and experience, and creative responses.

Programme

12 noon – 12.15pm | Welcome & Introduction

An introduction to Collateral Echoes, WHAT REMAINS? framework and the day's programme.

12.15pm – 1pm | Experience the Exhibition

Time to explore Collateral Echoes and consider the stories, memories and questions held within the exhibition.

1.15pm – 2pm | Men’s Reasoning Circle

What do Black men carry, remember and pass forward?

An open conversation exploring identity, memory, grief, fatherhood, community, responsibility, resistance and what is carried between generations.

2.15pm – 2.30pm | Poetry & Spoken Word

A creative interlude featuring poetry and spoken-word responses to the themes of the day.

2.30pm – 3pm | Break, Lunch & Exhibition Viewing

Time to eat, connect and spend time with the exhibition.

3.15pm – 3.45pm | Women’s Reasoning Circle

The Women Who Remember

A conversation exploring Black women’s roles in holding memory, producing knowledge, caring for communities and creating forms of resistance.

The conversation will consider what women inherit, what they carry, what they choose to remember and what they pass forward.

3.45pm – 4.30pm | Activism, Justice & What Remains

Who supports families when lives are lost? What remains unresolved?

A conversation with activists, campaigners and social justice organisations working alongside families affected by deaths following police or state contact.

Together, we’ll consider family support, justice and accountability, community organising, remembrance and what needs to change.

4.30pm – 4.45pm | Break

A moment to pause, reflect and return to the exhibition.

4.45pm – 5.15pm | Creative Responses

Poetry, spoken word and other creative responses to the conversations and themes emerging throughout the day.

5.15pm – 5.45pm | WHAT REMAINS? Closing Conversation

A collective reflection on the question at the heart of the day:

What do we carry?
What do we preserve?
What do we pass on?
What remains unresolved?
And what can we create from what remains?

5.45pm – 6pm | Closing

Closing reflections and acknowledgements.

Visitors are welcome to continue exploring Collateral Echoes and connecting informally after the programme.

About the Day

The Study Day is intentionally conversational rather than overly structured or academic.
It brings different forms of Black knowledge and experience into the same space — including lived experience, poetry, filmmaking, community organising, activism, cultural practice, family knowledge and scholarship.

WHAT REMAINS? is an invitation rather than a question with one definitive answer. The day asks us to consider what we carry, what we remember, what is lost, what is preserved and what we might create from what we inherit.

Contributor Biographies

Tippa Naphtali

Tippa Naphtali is a Birmingham-based community activist and social justice campaigner whose work focuses on deaths in state custody, family support, remembrance and accountability. Following the death of his cousin Mikey Powell in police custody, he became involved in campaigning for justice and supporting bereaved families. He is associated with 4WardEverUK and the work to preserve the memory and legacy of those who have died following state contact.

Casey Bailey

Born and raised in Nechells, Birmingham, Casey Bailey is an award‑winning writer, performer and educator. He served as the Birmingham Poet Laureate from 2020 to 2022. Casey has published multiple poetry collections as well as a cultural history of Birmingham’s Grime and Hip Hop scene. As a playwright, his work has been staged at a range of theatres, and his play Please Do Not Touch completed a successful national tour in 2026. His contributions to the arts and education have earned him numerous accolades, including a Royal Television Society Award in 2022 and an Honorary Doctorate in Education from Birmingham Newman University.

John Bernard

John Bernard is a Coventry-based poet, musician and creative mentor of East African heritage. His work engages with social justice, youth empowerment, faith and purpose. He served as Coventry Poet Laureate from 2023 to 2025 and has worked with young people through creative practice and mentoring.

Candice Nembhard

Candice Nembhard (okcandice) is an anti-disciplinary artist-curator, writer, archivist, musician and grief practitioner working with sound, text, dance, and archives. They are the director of sonic practice studio Bedtime Stories, co-founder of queer dance party SHUBZ and a radio resident for Berlin’s Refuge Worldwide. Their practice is concerned with grief methodologies, audio-visual archives, Black oral history collections and experimental sonics in civic space. 

Carol Leeming MBE

Carol Leeming MBE D Univ FRSA is a Leicester-born multidisciplinary artist of Jamaican and African Caribbean heritage. Her practice spans poetry, writing, theatre, performance, music and composition. She is the founder and lead artist of Dare to Diva, an arts company established to support creative expression and cultural engagement. She was awarded an MBE in 2019 for services to poetry and the arts and Honorary Doctorate by Loughborough University for her work in literature arts and equalities in 2025.

Désirée Reynolds

Désirée Reynolds is a writer and curator based in Sheffield, recently awarded the Northern Writers’ Award for Narrative Non-Fiction. Her work explores the lives, histories and experiences of working-class Black people, with a particular interest in the ways personal and collective histories shape identity, belonging and community. She is the founder of Dig Where You Stand, a creative heritage project that brings overlooked histories into public view and creates opportunities for communities to explore, share and connect with their own histories. Through writing, research, archives and creative engagement, the project encourages people to become active participants in documenting and interpreting the past, recognising the value of lived experience and community knowledge. It creates space for histories that are often marginalised or absent from mainstream narratives to be preserved, encountered and passed on.

Panya Banjoko

Panya Banjoko is a poet and cultural historian based in the UK. Her work explores history, memory, identity and the archive through poetry, research and creative practice. She is the founder of the Nottingham Black Archive. Her poetry collections include Some Things (2018) and (Re)Framing the Archive (2022), published by Burning Eye Books. She completed a doctorate at Nottingham Trent University in 2022.

Organisations and representatives

INQUEST

INQUEST is a charity providing specialist advice and support to bereaved families following deaths involving state institutions, including deaths in police and prison custody, immigration detention and mental health settings. Founded in 1981 by bereaved families and friends, the organisation works with families, lawyers, advisers and others to pursue truth, justice and accountability. Its work combines individual family support with research, policy and campaigning to address state-related deaths and injustice.

Mo Mansfield

Mo Mansfield joined INQUEST in 2019. They are a community organiser, advocate and feminist campaigner with experience across the voluntary sector, including work supporting women affected by the criminal justice system. Their previous work includes roles with Women at WISH, Women in Prison and the Women’s Resource Centre. They have also been involved in prison abolition organising, including Reclaim Justice Network and Reclaim Holloway.

Naomi Oppenheim

Naomi Oppenheim joined INQUEST in 2022 to develop heritage-focused work connected to the organisation's history and archive. Her work has included making the INQUEST archive publicly accessible through Bishopsgate Institute and exploring creative approaches to memorialisation and campaigning. She has a background in research, heritage and community engagement, and completed a PhD at UCL in 2022 on Caribbean publishing and activism.

United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC)

The United Families and Friends Campaign is a coalition of bereaved families and supporters campaigning for justice following deaths in police, prison and psychiatric custody and other deaths involving state institutions. Its work brings families together to demand accountability, raise awareness and ensure that the lives and experiences of those who have died are remembered.

4WardEverUK

4WardEverUK is a community organisation associated with campaigning for justice and supporting families affected by deaths in state custody and other state-related injustices. Its work centres on family support, remembrance, community solidarity and accountability.