UK Civil Rights, Kung fu movies and anti-racist Street Fighters!
Schedule
Thu Mar 12 2026 at 06:30 pm to 09:00 pm
UTC+00:00Location
Birkbeck, University of London | London, EN
About this Event
An African Odysseys presentation:
The 1970s surge of Kung Fu cinema coincided with attacks by violent racists on Britain's Black community.
This unique combination of lecture/film/demonstration will provide a detailed explanation of little-known history of how Black people consumed Kung fu movies not just for entertainment but for instruction, and took up various martial arts to be used in successfully defending the community.
This event follows on from Professor Gus Johns film and talk (13 September) on 60 years since the 1965 Race Relations Act, the first law to protect people from racism,
Professor Lez Henry is a 4th Degree Black Belt, Senior Instructor, in Hung Kuen Five Animals, Shaolin Kung Fu and is a Shodan Black Belt in Kyokushinkai, Full Contact, Karate. He is a Professor of Criminology and Sociology. He is also an anthropologist.
We will cover
- The street climate of the 1970s/80s
- Kung fu and Black history/culture
- The importance of film as an educational tool /African Odysseys
- Which martial art do you train in ?
- Race,immigration and politics 1970s-2025
- Top Ten influential martial arts movies
- National Front/ BNP 'meet and greets'
- Black History bus tour
- Black History Steam Train Trip
- How Black People Won World War 2
- Black History Walks Theatreland, Hackney, Brixton, Mayfair, St Paul's/Soho
- Six African leaders removed by the French
- Frantz Fanon Weekender
- How to teach GCSE Black History
- The Gentrification of Peckham and Black Urban removal worldwide
- Regents canal Black history cruise
- Ismahil Blagrove Film and book season
About the speaker
Professor William Lez Henry (PhD) is a passionate and engaging speaker who delivers various forms of training and educational interventionist work to individuals, public and private sector organisations both nationally and internationally. Some of his most popular areas include consultancy; managing equity and diversity in the workplace; peer mentoring; life coaching; academic supervision; and educational empowerment sessions in schools, colleges, Pupil Referral Units, Prisons and Youth Offending Teams.
An accomplished motivator, Professor Henry uses his diverse skills and lived experiences to build capacity as he assists in the social, cultural and political development of others in various arenas and settings. Professor Henry is a regular contributor on mainstream news and current affairs programs on issues that affect global majority communities within and beyond the UK. He regularly features on several television and radio documentaries and has worked as an expert witness on African-Caribbean culture.
Professor Henry has written and published extensively on many of the concerns of the African Diaspora in the UK and beyond, on whiteness, youth violence and educational exclusion. He is highly experienced in the delivery of sessions and workshops on: ‘equity and diversity’, ‘conscious and unconscious bias’ and ‘structural and systemic racism’ within working and educational environments.
About African Odysseys
The volunteer-run, African Odysseys film programme screens educational, popular, anti-racist, films with Q&A's . It regularly filled the BFI Southbank 450 seater at 2pm on Saturdays when cinemas are typically 'dead'.The British Film Institute refused to answer 8 simple questions or meet the volunteers, then cancelled the programme so they could 'cut costs and promote diversity' HERE
African Odysseys continues to show films across London as can be seen HERE
Where is it happening?
Birkbeck, University of London, Malet Street, London, United KingdomEvent Location & Nearby Stays:
GBP 20.00
