Celebrating British Black History Month

October marks the celebration of Black History Month across the UK and Ireland to recognise and honour Black culture. Throughout the month, Pinterest will celebrate with a range of activities including a first-ever online speaking event Black Gold, and a virtual exhibition from multidisciplinary Black artists. Additionally, we’ll feature 31 days of inspiring content showcased on the Today tab, including Shopping spotlights featuring Black-owned businesses to make it easier for Pinners to discover and shop their products.

Black Inspired

Each day in October, Pinners can discover daily inspiration of Black culture, history, heroes, movements and icons in celebration of Black History Month on the Today tab. You can find the “Today” tab at the top of your home feed from your iOS or Android app.

Black creators, Black-owned businesses, publishers and allies such as Kristabel Plummer, Onyi Moss Bintu Hardy, Dope Black Mums, Glamour UK, Buzzfeed UK and The Elephant Room will be sharing ways to be inspired by Black culture. Ideas for strengthening Black allyship will also be featured in the Today tab to help educate Pinners on the importance of becoming allies with relevant resources on how to take action. Brands such as Bumble have created Pins and boards on Pinterest as part of their #MyLoveisBlackLove campaign to celebrate the breadth of Black love with more than 30 Black British artists, musicians, writers, entrepreneurs, activists sharing stories on what love means to them.

Kristabel Plummer, Founder of 'I Want You to Know' fashion, travel and lifestyle blog

“Pinterest has been such a useful tool for me, whether I’m searching for different braid patterns or curating my ‘Let’s Talk About Race’ board. It’s allowed me to categorise numerous articles on racial identity, Black History and colourism, charting the conversations and numerous perspectives that have grown over the past five years. I don’t know where I’d be without it.”

Shopping Black-Owned Businesses

Pinners have always come to Pinterest looking for ways to take action on the ideas they discover and that includes deciding what new products to purchase. In celebration of Black History Month – and supporting Black Pound Day – we’ll help Pinners discover the importance of shopping and supporting Black-Owned businesses, with dedicated Shopping spotlights including Anna Phillip London, We Are KIN, Uoma Beauty, Tihara Smith, and EbonyX. Shopping spotlights is a new feature that brings curated, shoppable Pins to Pinners before they even start their search by featuring shoppable inspiration to Pinners based on insights and experts. By bringing curated boards from British Black-Owned businesses and creators into focus in Shopping spotlights, we’ll be making it easier to support and buy from Black-owned businesses—both big and small.

Black Gold Event

“Pinterest’s Black Gold event is part of our long-term efforts to build a positive, inclusive place where Black Pinners and creators as well as Black-owned businesses can thrive. The Black Gold initiative and our wider programme of activities for Black History Month this October are designed to support, celebrate and elevate Black voices throughout the month and beyond. At Pinterest, we're thrilled to make Black Gold a reality and it's just the start of what's to come.” - Zoe Pearson, Head of Growth Ops for English Speaking Countries at Pinterest.

To honour the compelling contributions of Black voices throughout history, we’re hosting the first-ever Pinterest Presents: Black Gold digital speaking event on October 14th. Created in celebration of Black-owned businesses, Black Creators and allies, the event will spotlight these role models through a line-up of compelling talks and conversations. The roster of provocative and inspiring speakers includes: Sharmadean Reid of Beauty Stack, Mark Maciver of SliderCuts, Monica Rastogi of Estée Lauder, Charlotte Williams of SevenSix, Charmaine Hayden of Good Soil VC, Yvonne Bajela of Impact X, Kamiqua Pearce of UK Black Comms Network & Coldr, Bianca Miller-Cole of The Be Group and Diversity and Inclusion Facilitator, Bilal Khan.

Black Gold Exhibition

Pinterest, along with support from Arts Council England and Somerset House, will curate and amplify a compelling online exhibition to inspire Pinners and spotlight the contributing artists.

Curated by Black British creatives across multidisciplinary art, culture, and social innovation, the exhibition will include creative forces such as Yinka Ilori, Iggy London, Alexander Ikhide, Hamed Maiye, Rachel Isabelle, and more. Pinners will be inspired by a dedicated board with the artist’s work and curated ideas, and see the content featured in the Today tab.

As an extension of the Black Gold exhibition, Pinterest is collaborating with Somerset House to ignite young creatives, which will serve as another building block in our commitment to inclusive representation across the platform. Six young creatives from underrepresented groups have been selected from over 250 applicants to be nurtured in their creative journeys. With the support of seasoned producers from Comuzi, the participants will explore Black Heritage and Somerset House’s history to produce the ‘We Are All Ancestors’ digital experience, leveraging Pinterest to inspire their creative journey. The collaboration brings Pinterest and Somerset House together to work with design studio and Somerset House Studios resident, Comuzi to co-produce the project inspired by Black heritage, to be revealed in December 2020.

We’re continuously focused on building an inclusive place on Pinterest with diverse inspiration that is relevant to each person who searches for ideas. Celebrating Black History Month is part of our sustained effort to express not only our solidarity but also our commitment to making a difference for Black Pinners, creators and businesses to thrive.