Mek Wi Chat III: Opening Ceremony + Report Launch

​Join our Opening Ceremony + Report Launch!

​Starting on Thursday April 16th, 2026, Mek Wi Chat III returns to 198 Gallery, Brixton, for a 3-day exhibition and workshop series asking the question: who defines systems change, and from what position? 

​Provocations from:

• ​Dr Ian Phillips

• ​Michael Hamilton - The Ubele Initiative

• ​Yvonne Field OBE - The Ubele Initiative

• ​Martin Kalungu-Banda - Presencing Institute

• ​Professor Joy Warmington - Brap

• ​Adetola Stephanie Onamade

• ​+ Guests

​Mek Wi Chat is a Jamaican call to sit, reason together, and tell stories. This opening ceremony will explore learning from social labs, Black leadership journeys, and the cross-continental Nia Upeoni academy led by Michael Hamilton which introduces African and UK-based social economy leaders to creative tools for interrogating systems and community-led approaches to racial justice

​“Stories are not simply reflections of systems; they are part of the system itself, shaping what is seen as possible and permissible.” (p. 6)

​Exhibition

• ​2pm- 6pm Thursday April 16th - Saturday 18th, 2026

• ​The exhibition brings together paintings, images, video, sound, archive materials and objects tracing more than five years of work across the African continent and the diaspora in the UK exploring themes of ancestry, systems and community practice.

​Workshops

• ​Thursday April 16th - Saturday 18th, 2026

• ​The workshops will focus on:

  • ​Thursday 16th, 2pm - 4pm - Elite Capture by Michael Hamilton based on the book by Olúfẹ́mi O. Táíwò, this session examines how powerful elites co-opt progressive movements and resources meant to serve the marginalised. Register here!

  • ​Thursday, 16th, 5:30pm - 8:00pm - Opening Ceremony + Report Launch Register here!

  • ​Friday 17th, 11am - 1pm - The Ubuntu Lab - Martin Kalungu Banda from the Presencing Institute, Ubuntu Lab This session invites you into Ubuntu as a way of seeing, listening, and making decisions within the living system of life. Through dialogue, silence, and an embodied listening ceremony, we will encounter the four voices Ubuntu asks us to hold in every decision we make: Ancestors, Current Generations, Future Generations, and Nature.  - Register here!

  • ​Friday 17th, 3.30pm - 5.30pm, Design Thinking - Lorraine Suxdorf - This workshop invites participants to explore identity, belonging, and community through conversation and creative practice. Using a simple Design Thinking approach, participants share perspectives and reflect on how lived experience and environment shape the spaces around us. Register here!

  • ​Friday 17th, 6pm - 8pm, Film Screening & Discussion - Community Spaces led by African and diaspora Women featuring Carmen Lindsay, Margaret Taribo, Margaret Pierre, and Bukola Bakinson - Register here!

  • ​Saturday 18th

  • ​2pm - 4pm - Gen Z Rising - Collective Action, Systems Change & Black Futures - Transnational Dialogue with Kenyan Social Leaders, Young Emerging Leaders Collective (YELC) and wider ecosystem. Register here!

  • ​4pm - 7pm - Word, Sound, Power - Featuring Tafadzwa Mbandaka and master drummer Ras Happa. This ceremony invites poets, spoken word artists, drummers, and anyone with something to say to step up, perform and explore the relationship between word, sound and power. Register here!

  • ​Daily Creative Practice Space - Drew Sinclair will lead an open, experimental space for creative expression, play, and collaboration to explore ideas freely, make things together, and tap into creativity as a force for connection and change.

​As the report reminds us, “The work is not a finished model, but a way of being in the work” (p.216). 

​Emerging Questions:

• ​How do we experience racialised systems?

• ​What does anti-racist systems change actually mean — and who decides?

• ​What happens when communities organise collectively to change systems structured by race and class?

• ​And what can we learn from African, diaspora and Black-led systems change practices? 

​Display image is a painting by Ken McCalla

​We are The Ubele Initiative, an African diaspora led, infrastructure plus organisation, empowering Black and Minoritised communities in the UK, to act as catalysts for social and economic change.

​To achieve this, we work with community leaders, groups, and organisations in the UK and beyond to strengthen their sustainability, resilience, and voice.

​Thanks to Impact on Urban Health, Youth Futures Foundation, and Nia Upeoni Academy for all your support