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IN 2020, BRENT WAS THE LONDON BOROUGH OF CULTURE

Brent 2020 was a year-long celebration of London’s most diverse and exciting borough.

We told the tales, traced the stories and raised the voices of all those who are proud to call our borough home – radicals and rebels, strivers and thrivers, from those born here to those who’ve chosen to make their homes among us.

This is Brent, the Borough of Cultures. This is our city, our borough and these are our stories. We’d love to tell them to you.


WHAT WAS BRENT 2020?

Brent 2020 was a new way of celebrating a borough and its people – a cultural journey that dived deep into who we are, where we’re from and what our futures hold.

The programme was packed with plenty of one-off specials that you could enjoy in person: events and exhibitions, premieres and performances.

Brent 2020 also featured strands that could be explored and enjoyed online anytime, anywhere – all at a safe social distance, and all for free. From oral histories and online archives, to digital artworks and podcasts about life in the right-here-right-now, we found new ways to tell you our stories.

We’re proud of the history of Brent, and we’re focused on the future. From the Blueprint Collective, a coalition of young people who helped to shape our programme, to Metroland Cultures, the charity that will continue the work after Brent 2020, we want to make a lasting impression on our borough – and make sure that the voices of our fellow citizens are heard long beyond 2020. Are you listening?


WHERE WE ARE

Brent is the most diverse borough in one of the world’s most diverse cities. Our territory is the heart of north-west London: from Kilburn at one end all the way up to Northwick Park at the other, with Wembley Stadium bang in the middle.

Brent is home to around 330,000 people from countless countries and cultures. Within our borders, you’ll find the largest Hindu temple outside India, the biggest reggae record label outside the Caribbean and the largest Irish population in Europe outside Ireland. We’re all things to all people – and most importantly, we’re a home.


LONDON BOROUGH OF CULTURE

The Mayor’s London Borough of Culture award is a major new initiative launched by the Mayor of London in June 2017 and inspired by the UK City and European Capital of Culture programmes.

The Mayor’s London Borough of Culture award brings Londoners together. It puts culture at the heart of local communities, where it belongs, illuminating the character and diversity of London’s boroughs and showing culture is for everyone. Now more than ever, the Mayor wants Londoners to get to know each other and feel part of our great city. Thanks to this new award, all Londoners will now have the chance to be part of something extraordinary.

London Borough of Culture is a Mayor of London initiative, supported by the City of London Corporation’s charity, City Bridge Trust.


MANIFESTO

This is us.
This is Brent.
We are English and Irish, Indian and Windrush,
We are Somali, Italian, Romanian, Chinese.
We sing in temples, in pubs and in stadiums.
We speak on the high-roads, in the libraries (shush),
and on the Bakerloo line.
From Stonebridge to Cricklewood
From Queensbury to Queens Park
From Kilburn to Kensal Green,
We are mixing, melding, sharing, cooking,
dancing, praising, raising, playing.
We are unplanned and unfiltered,
We are the first place people come to
and the place people stay.
We are the past, the present and the future.
This is us.
This is Brent.

We are not just a borough of culture,
We are the Borough of Cultures.

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