Threads of Memory

Creative Lancashire in association with the BFI National Archive and British Textile Biennial presents a special Conversations in Creativity screening of Threads of Memory by Juliana Kasumu.

Screening followed by panel discussion and Q&A with:

• Harris Elliott – Cultural Curator
• Jemma Buckley – BFI National Archive
• Juliana Kasumu – Filmmaker

Hosted by Tosin Adeosun – Curator & Fashion Historian
Full line-up tbc

Using historical footage from the BFI National Archive, as well as more recent online video works, this exploration of the influences of West African and Caribbean migration on Black British fashion highlights how migration, identity and resilience alongside the ever-expanding style and social exchange via moving image have shaped (and continues to shape) this fashion movement.

This fascinating compilation of archive material will be followed by an expert panel to discuss the themes and ideas explored by Kasumu, and the importance of archival footage in telling and preserving stories for future generations. Alongside Kasumu, contributors include Harris Elliott (Le Tings), Tosin Adeosun (African Style Archive) and Jemma Buckley (BFI National Archive).

This event forms part of the wider Inside the Archive exhibition that will be on display at the Harris Museum & Art Gallery from 19 October – 1st November 2026.

The Inside the Archive Exhibition is supported by the BFI Screen Heritage Fund, awarding National Lottery Good Cause Funding.

Image credit: Still from ‘Threads of Memory’: Ghana – New Nation (1957) © Crown copyright. The British Film Institute

SPEAKER BIOGRAPHIES

Harris Elliott OBE

Harris Elliott OBE is an international multi-disciplinary visual artist and cultural curator who alchemises beauty and counterculture into narratives; visual poetry that anchors us into the slipstream of popularism with disruptive elegance – specialising in identity and culture.

His practice draws on the socio politics of fashion and cultural identities through films, exhibitions, design and style. Over two decades he has shaped a cross-cultural body of work spanning Anglo, Japanese and African Diaspora influence. He is founder of Le Tings, an experiential studio that ignites playful and visual explorations honouring essences of African diaspora narratives.

With Andrew Ibi and Jason Jules, Harris  launched The Black Orientated Legacy Development Agency (BOLD) as a creative, design development agency working to forge structural and institutional change across the fashion industry and beyond. In 2023 the trio collaborated to curate the landmark Missing Threads Exhibition at Somerset House. 

Juliana Kasumu

Juliana Kasumu is an artist, filmmaker, and creative producer focused on developing distinct, community-centered stories.

Through fragmented, non-linear storytelling, she explores identity, collective memory, and the diasporic experience. Her acclaimed cinematic catalogue includes the award-winning short BABYBANGZ (2021), Losing Joy (2022), and Adura Baba Mi (2024), which premiered at the Camden International Film Festival and was nomination for Best Short Film at the BFI London Film Festival. Her most recent film, Threads of Memory, explores enduring influence of West African and Caribbean cultural memory on Black British fashion. Kasumu’s work has been exhibited internationally at institutions such as the Victoria and Albert Museum and the Whitechapel Gallery. Her installation What Does the Water Taste Like? won the 2021 Aesthetica Emerging Art Prize and was most recently featured in the Aesthetica Art Prize 2026 exhibition at Mercer Art Gallery.

Tosin Adeosun 

Tosin Adeosun is a curator, fashion historian, and founder of African Style Archive, a platform dedicated to documenting and sharing histories of African fashion, material and print culture. Her work focuses on archives, photography, and visual culture, with a particular interest in how image-making practices shape collective memory. Through research, exhibitions, writing, an expanding reference library, and public programmes, she explores the intersections of fashion, identity, and the African diaspora.

She has also worked across television, museums, and academia – serving as a visual art researcher for numerous projects, contributing to the Africa Fashion exhibition at the Victoria and Albert Museum, and curating a digital exhibition with a public programme in partnership with the London College of Fashion. She is currently an Associate Lecturer at London College of Fashion UAL.

British Textile Biennial

The British Textile Biennial is a festival of contemporary art, commissioning artists and designers from all over the world to make work inspired by the context and legacy of the textile industry in East Lancashire and its global impact, often in the places that were created by it.

britishtextilebiennial.co.uk

Conversations in Creativity

Creative Lancashire’s Conversations in Creativity programme is a publication and series of talks and interventions where practitioners from around the world, and across disciplines, explore how creative inspiration informs process. Previous contributors include Lubaina Himid, Halima Cassel, John Puttick, Hemingway Design, Donna Wilson, Nick Park, Keith Brymer Jones, Patrick Grant Lemn Sissay and Jeanette Winterson to name a few. Creative Lancashire and Conversations in Creativity are services provided by Lancashire County Council.

creativelancashire.org