Inspired by Afrosurrealism, surrealist philosophy & the archetypal imagination, the Black Marvellous is a growing collection of conversations and reflections that adventure into Black imaginative vigour—in art, attitude & life.

I have been thinking and feeling deeply with a surrealist sensibility, which is the poet’s perspective, since reading Andre Breton’s Manifesto of Surrealism (1924). And since 2018, guests on Busy Being Black have offered world-building, criticism and artistry that encourage us towards the marvellous and the imaginative—not as a way to make sense, per se, but of making something else entirely.

In many ways, we are always in conversation with and about the impossible. Luckily for us, Black people go nowhere without leaving maps, magic, footprints, food and role models—and Busy Being Black has gathered some of them here in the hopes we each might find our way forward and back to each other, with more grace, rage and tenderness, but especially more imagination.

The work Josh Rivers creates through his podcast Busy Being Black means he is uniquely placed to have vital cultural conversations. Having programmed a special screening of Looking for Langston, it soon became clear that this seminal film warranted further discussion. Josh drew out the deep connections people have to this work while also exploring the wider cultural context of accessing film heritage. What followed was an extraordinary conversation that spoke to the audience and the BFI as an institution for all people.

Katie Reddington, Senior Librarian, BFI

It is a time of despondency and the desire for death. Man cannot and does not survive in this cruel zone. This means that all lived reality reveals itself transfigured, veiled or enriched in proportion to the strength of our capacity for passion and dream.