Blackbird Community Project is a community building initiative in Northampton, England, promoting proactivity and mutual support, now focusing on community-controlled housing.
[Katreyah and Brooklyn at Nature Knows No Kings Nov '25] Time after time, working class people have been sold off to the highest bidder - BCP is one of the local groups challenging that, rebuilding strength in the hands of ordinary people so it can't be stolen again.
Since we first set up as a weekly free food social in December 2021, our core crew kept growing. We kept working with other local and national community groups, such as our sibling project Dalston Solidarity Cafe, as well as the Autonomous Winter Shelters, among other voluntary support groups in Daventry, Rugby, Wolverhampton, Coventry, Milton Keynes, and more.
We kept learning and volunteering with effective groups and events up and down the country, including: -the radical cooperatives network Radical Routes, -the education and network org Solidarity Economy Association, -the excellent community-building crew of Cooperation Hull and their cousins Cooperation Sheffield in Yorkshire, -youth-focused collective action core RYSE in the south-west, -the broad-based Hay Community Resilience Initiative in Powys, -crisis-response crew Resist Deportations Manchester [Callum running the community kitchen in Nov '24]
2023 In the first year and a half of the community kitchen, a lot of the conversations were naturally about the difficulties everybody faced, so we started running mid-sized educational events with friends and community members, mostly on the things we felt we needed to learn to respond better to issues in the neighbourhood. These included: -food insecurity / food poverty - how to reclaim control of things we rely on -expensive housing - how coops can make life affordable for all -racist immigration laws - how the Rwanda deportations were stopped by collective action We also printed our first zine, featuring a variety of local voices. [BCP zine mid 2023]
[Amy's March '24 talk on how the campaign to stop the Rwanda Deportations scheme won]
2024 Blackbird first hosted gigs and arts events to promote solidarity in easier-to-reach places. The end of the year saw the first Nature Knows No Kings, a night of resistance poetry and music, featuring talent from across Northants, with both young and old performers, and through a creative mix of styles. We also ran our first reading group, focusing on Radical Routes' "How to set up a housing co-op", and hosted two talks at Umbrella Fair Festival on key learnings. This was also the year we officially began interviewing local people and producing community-focused media, though most of our interviews are not public as the main aim is to build relationships rather than just content. After bad flooding at Billing Aquadrome, we shared the concerns of residents who felt taken advantage of by the housing provider.
We also helped organise Northampton's anti-racist demo in August 2024, mobilising dozens of community members, and with Mike, YR, and a few dedicated Umbrella Fair volunteers feeding over 100 people in the evening.
[Brooklyn preaching to the converted at Nature Knows No Kings, Nov '25]
In 2025 we slowed down due to life pressures, but kept recording media and running events, now with a few additions such as fundraising and learning-circle follow-ups, channelling good energy towards collective action. -June Project Blackbird jam night at Coconut Paradise Cafe on Goldstreet Mews -Nov 2025 Nature Knows No Kings at the Lab Club -Dec Project Blackbird jam night at Coconut Paradise [Tre's Jan '25 talk on Matta Fancanta, Caribbean-British culture and community action history]
Finally, in the first 6 months of 2026, we have mostly been running quiet invite-only learning sessions. The biggest was Tre Ventour Griffiths' talk on the Matta Fancanta Movement, where a number of local elders who were active in the local scene in the '70s and '80s shared their learnings from the time of MFM and since. Most of our sessions this year have been dedicated to honing in on the cooperative project, what we need to know, who we need to work with, and what we can do already.
[Margo and Mike at Umbrella Fair Sept '24 - not dancing, just jumping off the stage]
In recent weeks, racist violence and intimidation has kicked off again in England, Northern Ireland, and Scotland. Far right white supremacists 'White Vanguard' were reported to local anti-fascist groups for trying to recruit in Northampton. The community project is collaborating with several other local community orgs and businesses to make sure there is a strong anti-racist presence across the town, and if people are unsafe, they can seek support with larger numbers of people.
If violence is taking place in Britain, such as the murder of Henry Nowak by Vickrum Digwa, the right response is not to target random foreigners and non-white people, as was the aim of Tommy Robinson and Nigel Farage when police bodycam footage of Nowak's final moments was published this month. The right response is to build stronger neighbourhoods where we deal with violence responsibly, and collectively work to keep each other safe, no matter demographic nor mental health status. Wherever prejudiced violence emerges, we must do what's necessary to protect the people being targeted.
When we don't know our neighbours, news and social media can manipulate how we see each other, and this is exactly what enabled organised racist and Neo-Nazi groups to attack random international and non-white people in summer 2024, completely appropriating the outcry after the Southport stabbings.
This harms everybody, but especially if we don't know who to rely on in a time of need. Chances are, if you live on a street of 30+ addresses,almost all the skills and tools needed to get by without struggling uphill are within walking distance.Nurses, trades people, teachers, carers, cleaners, trained first-responders, and more. In built-up neighbourhoods, it is incredibly likely that within one or two streets you will find every single one of these people and many more.
Wherever in the world you trace your family history back to, once upon a time, we all knew who was who, and what we were to each other. The community project is about promoting the things that make people's lives easier, particularly learning from the fact that community makes us all more resilient in the long run.
Thanks for reading, and many thanks to everybody who supports our work! -hope to catch you soon. Mike
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