Brixton X Harlem
Brixton X Harlem Festival
Building on our BID Twinning with Harlem’s 125th Street BID, we are excited to inform you that, following a successful funding application, we will be running the Brixton X Harlem Festival this Summer to celebrate the common threads between the two places.
Brixton X Harlem 2023
This August we will be hosting our second festival, exploring the common threads between Brixton and Harlem, through business twinning and individual projects we will be showcasing our businesses through talks, events, exhibitions and more!
Brixton X Harlem 2022
At the beginning of 2022, Brixton BID was awarded funding from Lambeth Council’s Economic Resilience Fund Round 3 to bring the twinning to life through a five-day festival across Brixton. The festival will celebrate and amplify this twinning, building on the shared projects already underway between the two BIDs. The festival programme explored the deep cultural and historical similarities between the two communities.
A bond across the pond
A first of its kind twinning joins two important Business Improvement Districts (BID) between two radical communities of colour. Both BIDs are located in communities with a long and rich history of being the epicentres for a convergence of diversity, informed by a high percentage of its population being of African descent, representing various parts of the diaspora, living and working within the BID’s borders.
Our BID Twinning
The two BIDs were forged out of almost identical principles and values such as equality, togetherness and social justice. Their mission reflects this: to improve the quality of life for residents of their respective communities by improving the economic health and well-being of the community, and by creating programs that reflect the vibrancy and history of the people and the neighbourhood.
125th Street BID, Harlem
Harlem (NYC) and Brixton (London) share a number of common traits beyond the socio-demographical makeup of their neighbourhoods. These two communities share similar history, social issues including inequities and crime, and in recent years, both have experienced a rapid socio-economic transformation, which many reference as gentrification due to the new influx of wealthy individuals moving into the area.
Canvas for Change
In 2020, community residents in Harlem found themselves battling two major crises simultaneously – the pandemic and the demand for social justice. Understanding the overwhelming pain the community was grappling with, the 125th Street BID created the Harlem Canvas for Change. With the help of local business owners, plywood canvases, painted black, began popping up around the neighborhood with an invitation to all who wanted to express themselves, to fill the empty canvases with their messages.
Lamp Post Banners
Both BIDs have created a community Street Lamp Banner Project. These banners have already begun to appear in Brixton and in Harlem, and will soon go up across the 125th Street BID’s boundary. The Harlem 125th St. BID has partnered with the National Black Commission on Health, City University of New York School of Public Health, Blick Art Materials and the local owner of Settepani restaurant to produce a series of banners with reinforcing messages around health, safety, and social justice issues.
Explore Harlem
Take a tour of Harlem snapshots and find out what is happening in their neighbourhood.
Harlem Happenings
See up to date news, views and events happening in Harlem, learn more abiiut the businesses of 125th Street district across social media.