George Floyd’s murder and the resulting protests sparked a truly international movement, and one of the most prominent displays of solidarity with US protestors came from Britain. In the summer of 2020, Black Lives Matter rallies in London were attended by tens of thousands of people, and they reinvigorated the conversations around what it means to be Black and British. In this collection, seventeen prominent Black British figures explore their experience within Britain and demonstrate that their lives and work should be celebrated when they are too often undervalued. Edited by Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder, two leading British television personalities and champions for diversity in media, this collection illustrates the global impact that Black Lives Matter has had, and introduces a unique international perspective to what started as an American movement. “We achieve everything not because we are superhuman. We achieve the things we achieve because we are human. Our strength does not come from not having any weaknesses, our strength comes from overcoming them” — "I always presumed racism would always be here, that it was a given. But the truth is, it was not always here, it was invented." — “Our identity and experience will shape every story, bleed into every poem, inform every essay whether it’s about Black ‘issues’ or not” —