The last few days have been overwhelming to say the least. It felt important for us to take time to grieve and process the pain and frustration brought on by our current cultural climate. We have been reflecting about how See Collective can utilize its role in the London community to actively disrupt the machine that is systematic racism.

We have spent four years being unwaveringly committed to the local creative community— moved by the desire to inspire and the need for diverse storytelling, it’s something we felt was missing in our city. What may not be known to many of our followers is that See Collective is founded and operated by two black women. For the past few years, we have dedicated countless volunteer hours to write the love letter that is this publication to a city that doesn’t always show up for us, or the people who look like us. We would like to make our stance on this subject very clear— Black Lives Matter.

While the entire world is suffering immensely due to the coronavirus pandemic, the reality is that members of the Black community are dying at an exponentially higher rate than other groups, while continuing to be subjected to undue violence. Disturbing as this is, we have found some solace in the hope that our unified efforts will help to further dismantle systemic racism. We would like to emphasize that this problem is not exclusive to the United States; we’ve observed that the insidious nature of racism towards POC and Indigenous peoples in Canada often goes unacknowledged. See Collective pledges to continue to highlight and celebrate diverse stories with care, precision and creativity.

We have compiled a master list of black-owned businesses, services, organizations, and local artists that continue to enrich our community. Moreover, in our campaign to further the advancement of black voices, we have created a fund that, with your help, will directly pay for the contributions of black artists and visionaries as they share their stories through our platform. The See Collective Black Artists Fund will offer local visual artists, photographers, writers, etc. an opportunity to showcase their work. Our hope is that this fund will help to localize the global issue of anti-black racism, empower black art; and in doing so, provide some much needed perspective.

“The purpose of art is to lay bare the questions that have been hidden by the answers.”

-James Baldwin

We stand with and support the Black community here in London and around the world, today and everyday, and we urge our fine citizens to continue speaking out against acts of racism. We cannot continue to hold our tongues at the cost of black lives— in the words of Leonard Peltier, “silence is the voice of complicity.”