This October, The Civic celebrates Black History Month with Roots & Routes, a programme of theatre, dance, music, film, visual art, poetry and storytelling exploring heritage, migration, identity and belonging.

Curated by Esosa Ighodaro, the programme brings together Black artists and creatives from across Ireland to share stories of where we come from, the journeys that shape us and the ways we create a sense of home and community.

Join us from 21st – 25th October

Routes & Routes: Gallery Exhibition – Celebrating Black History Month

Gallery Exhibition
Running throughout October, Roots & Routes is a month-long visual arts exhibition responding to themes of heritage, memory, migration and belonging.

Featuring photography by Israfil Adeniyi, textile works from Home Is What We Brought Along, and the communal table created through What the Table Knows, the exhibition grows and shifts throughout the month. Together, the works invite audiences to reflect on migration, memory, belonging and the many ways we make home.

Running throughout October – free to visit, just drop in

Launch Event: Routes – Celebrating Black History Month

Black History Month 2026 begins with Routes, an evening exploring migration,
movement and belonging through fashion, poetry and live music.
Created by Aesha Tandy and Belema Art House, Home Is What We Brought Along is
an immersive fashion, poetry and live music performance inspired by the journeys,
memories and cultural inheritances we carry with us across borders. Through textile,
sound and storytelling, the work reflects on identity, home and the connections we
create between places.
Audiences are also invited to experience the month-long Roots & Routes exhibition,
which brings together visual artists responding to this year’s theme.
Part of a week-long programme curated by Esosa Ighodaro, celebrating Black and
Irish identity through theatre, dance, music, film, visual art and storytelling.

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Home Bittersweet Home – Celebrating Black History Month

Rehearsed Reading

When their landlord is found dead on the kitchen floor of a crowded Dublin house-share, the five housemate find themselves facing an impossible problem: nobody knows what happened, but everyone is convinced they might somehow be responsible!

As suspicions fly and long-buried secrets surface, a simple house meeting spirals into chaos. Alleged curses, mistaken identities, dodgy romances, family dramas and a growing sense of panic all collide in this darkly comic new play about housing, belonging and survival in contemporary Ireland.

Written by Esosa Ighodaro and devised with Gabriel Adewusi, Leah Minto, Emmanuel Okoye and Tierra Porter, Home Bittersweet Home is a sharp satire exploring home, community and what happens when the people you live with become the people you’re stuck with.

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Finding The Way – Celebrating Black History Month

An evening of dance and theatre exploring identity, transformation and the search for belonging.

Featuring Rooted & Rising: A Dance of Two Selves by Favour Odusola and AfroLatIndierican by Tierra Porter, this double bill brings together two distinct artistic voices responding to this year’s theme of Roots & Routes.

Through movement, storytelling and performance, these works examine the paths we follow, the identities we inherit and the journeys that shape who we become.

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Creating a Home – Celebrating Black History Month

Film, Music, Spoken Word & Performance
A multidisciplinary showcase bringing together exciting Black artists working across poetry, film, theatre, comedy, music and spoken word.

From intimate personal stories to bold artistic responses to place, identity and community, Creating a Home celebrates the many ways we build belonging for ourselves and one another.

Featuring short films, live music, spoken word performances, theatre excerpts, photography and comedy, this vibrant evening highlights the diversity of Black artistic practice in Ireland today.

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Roots; What The Table Knows – Celebrating Black History Month

Open Table is a collective of Black women brought together through relationships with food, cooking and gathering. Through conversation, eating, listening, touch and making, the collective explores the ways food carries knowledge about culture, community and ourselves.

For Black History Month at The Civic, Open Table presents What the Table Knows, an intimate participatory experience inviting audiences to gather through food, sound, conversation and the senses. Together, we ask what becomes possible when food is not only something we eat or talk about, but a way of remembering, exchanging, noticing and coming to know one another.

A fitting closing event for Roots & Routes, celebrating connection, community and the stories that nourish us.

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