A festival of Pan-African Experiences
A festival of Pan-African Experiences

Future

HOMAGE
7–11pm, 16 Oct 2025
CONTACT, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M15 6JA
Booking required
A tribute to Manchester's dance legacy by acclaimed dance artists and choreographers Joe Price and Kieron Simms.
PAC 80th Anniversary
1–5pm, Sat 18 Oct
MMU, Grosvenor East Building, Cavendish St, Manchester M15 6BG
Free RSVP
Bringing together Pan-African led and global majority groups to reflect, connect, and strategise for the liberation of their communities

SMW Festival

SEE MY WORLD Festival 2025
7pm – late, 24 Oct 2025
CONTACT, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M15 6JA
Booking required
Presenting a one-night music experince flaunting Manchester’s Pan-African music legacy.

Present

SEE MY WORLD: Manchester, Lagos & ME

A SEE MY WORLD FILM BY PAPA QUAYE / AYOKUNLE ODUNSI /JOSHUA INYANG / DEBORAH JOHNSON.

A cinematic-exhibition exploring cultural and political conditions for artists in Lagos and Manchester. The illuminating film documents makers, thinkers and doers as they create, interpret and evolve their crafts. 

It journeys through a globe-trotting incubation experience for four artists, handpicked by Manchester’s art and culture organisations Big People Music (BPM) and Big People Community CIC (BPC) and The Book Buzz Foundation (BBF). 

The subjects of and behind the camera; music producer and visual artist Joshua Inyang of Space Afrika, multi-disciplinary artist Papa Nii Akushey Quaye aka Renzniro from Manchester, poet and performance artist Deborah Johnson, as well as Musician and film-maker, Ayokunle Odunsi from Lagos. Showcasing their experiences over the course of a year, and their processes as they write, shoot, edit and score the film themselves.

At its heart, the centring of ideas from artists of the African diaspora, and a unique depiction of the beauty of two oddly connected cities. As much a memoir of the residency experience itself, as an education into the minds and creativity of Pan-African artists who make these cities pop.

BIG PEOPLE MUSIC & Big People Community present in association with Book Buzz Foundation and Funded by the British Council.

Past

SEE MY WORLD: Connected Fragments – Private Viewing
15 July – 28 Sept 2024
Archive
A private exhibition to celebrate with artists and creatives pioneers from across the region joining us for a special evening.
SEE MY WORLD: Connected Fragments - Closing Party
15 July – 28 Sept 2024
Archive
A visual exploration of hyper locality in the Global African Diaspora is curated and takes over Manchester's Central Library.
Explore the Archive
2020 to now
Look back through past events and experiences, bringing people together through art, film, music, workshops and more

Get involved

Calling all people with skills to share and skills to learn. SEE MY WORLD is looking for volunteers to work with us on a number of upcoming events. If you're a creative, maker, thinker or doer and are looking to gain experience in Event Management, Art Productions, Workshop Facilitation, Creative Marketing and more, this is for you.

To apply, please email us at with your interest at ekabo@bigpeoplemusic.co.uk

Follow our world
@seemyworldfest

Contact
ekabo@bigpeoplemusic.co.uk
© Copyright , BIG PEOPLE MUSIC.
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HOMAGE

7–11pm, 16 Oct 2025
CONTACT, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M15 6JA
Booking required

SEE MY WORLD presents 'HOMAGE', a dance experience by acclaimed choreographers Joe Price and Kieron Simms celebrating African and Caribbean inspired dance heritage in Manchester.

Blending film, movement, and Narration, HOMAGE explores three generations of the city's dance culture. Featuring collaborations with 0161 Dance Company, Home of the New Wave, The Ash Company, and KXT Dance and more, the performance is a living archive honouring pioneer dancers and future trailblazers. Experience an unforgettable evening where Manchester's dance history and future come alive on stage.

This is more than performance -
It's connection.
It's history.
It's life.

—

This is a Big People Music & Big People Community CIC production. In partnership with CONTACT and The Black Creative Trailblazers. Funded by Arts Council England.

Please contact yemaya@bigpeoplemusic.co.uk if you have any access needs.

Book Now
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PAC 80th Anniversary

1–5pm, Sat 18 Oct
MMU, Grosvenor East Building, Cavendish St, Manchester M15 6BG
Free RSVP

SEE MY WORLD in partnership with the Black and Global Majority Cultural Creative Network, MMU, and Oxford Road Corridor presents The Pan-African Congress 80th Anniversary event on Saturday 18 October 2025 at Manchester Metropolitan University Grosvenor East building (formerly Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall), where the 1945 Panafrican Congress took place.

In commemoration of 80 years since the Fifth Pan-African Congress (15–21 October 1945), SEE MY WORLD brings together Pan-African led and global majority groups from across the North West to reflect, connect, and strategise for the liberation of their communities. This moment will explore what liberation, self-realisation, and self-determination looks like for communities today, and how the enduring legacy of the Pan-African Congress can inform collective action and cultural leadership in the region.

This get together will provide a chance to network in solidarity, fostering connection among Manchester’s Pan-African and wider communities, offering a space to break bread, reason, and flaunt our shared histories, surrounded by Food, Art and Love.

Attendees will engage in  roundtable discussions around resilience, reclaiming narratives, and identify tangible pathways for community consciousness, connecting the historic vision of 1945 with contemporary efforts for justice, solidarity, and development.

The event will be a note of collective ambition, encouraging attendees to take the insights back into their communities. It is a blessing to honour our past, recognise our present, all whilst imagining the futures we are building together, reinforcing that Pan-Africanism, creativity and unity continue to thrive across the North West and its surrounding areas.

This is a Big People Music & Big People Community CIC production. In partnership with MMU, The Black and Global Majority Cultural Creative Network and The Oxford Rd Corridor. Funded by Arts Council England, The National Lottery Heritage Fund and The National Lottery Heritage Community Fund.

Please contact yemaya@bigpeoplemusic.co.uk if you have any access needs or would like to join the roundtable discussions with formal recommendations.

RSVP now
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SEE MY WORLD Festival 2025

7pm – late, 24 Oct 2025
CONTACT, Oxford Rd, Manchester, M15 6JA
Booking required

SEE MY WORLD presents a one-night music experince flaunting Manchester’s Pan-African music legacy.

Taking place at CONTACT (previously Contact Theatre) on Friday 24 October 2025, the festival documents and propels the city’s Black music scene across timeline weaving past, present and future, while commemorating the 80th anniversary of the 1945 Pan-African Congress.

In October 1945, Manchester became the stage for a landmark gathering that shaped the course of global and black history: the Fifth Pan-African Congress.

Hosted in Chorlton-on-Medlock Town Hall, now part of the MMU (just streets away from contact), the congress brought together activists, intellectuals, and future african leaders such as Kwame Nkrumah, W.E.B du Bois and Jomo Kenyatta who demanded an end to colonial rule and racial discrimination by western imperial power and set the blueprint for African and Caribbean independence movements. 

80 years later, SEE MY WORLD FEST channels that same spirit of solidarity, self-determination, and cultural pride through music and performance.

The lineup unites established and emerging artists who continue to shape Manchester’s sound culture: CHUNKY, LayFullstop, Isaiah Hull, Sinead D’Abreu-Hayling, DJ Silva, Ms Dee, Papuraf, DJ Fya, and DJ FB. Their artistry reflects the continuum of Pan-African expression in the city.

SEE MY WORLD FESTIVAL is a living archive of Pan-African creativity, connection, and legacy. It bridges historic struggle with present-day liberation, reminding audiences that Manchester’s role in the global Pan-African movement was not only political but deeply cultural, a spirit still alive in the city’s music scenes today.

—

This is a Big People Music & Big People Community CIC production
In partnership with CONTACT and The Black Creative Trailblazers.
Funded by Arts Council England.

Please contact yemaya@bigpeoplemusic.co.uk if you have any access needs.

Book your place