Black History Month
Inside Levi's /
October 2021
ROOTED IN JOY
A celebration and a fostering of the wonderful, bright seeds of the UK’s multifaceted Black culture— and the joy that derives from it—#RootedInJoy aims to center and magnify the divergent talents and splendid modes of expression from the community, throughout the month of October.
As part of the celebrations, the brand will collaborate with Hazel Gardiner, floral artist and designer. Her splendid reimagination of Levi’s® Haus, London will provide a fertile space, both metaphorically and literally, in which Black creativity and community might be nourished, grow, and bloom. On completion of the project, visitors will be able to purchase individual plants from the installation for a donation to CODE1, a community interest group founded to provide uplift activities for Afro-Caribbean children and young people in and around Tottenham’s Northumberland Park, one of the UK’s most deprived areas.
The #RootedInJoy series will begin with the invitation of SAWUBONAmembers to share ideas, stories, and histories to be translated by East London illustrator, Olivia Twist, into the iconic Levi’s® truckers, available exclusively for purchase at Levi’s® Haus, London. Levi’s® very own Rahim, a stylist at the Carnaby Street store, has created three exclusive art pieces— with sand collected from his native Ghana, to be displayed in-store for the whole month of October.
October 11th marks the International Day of the Girl, and to celebrate Haus will open its doors that week to the Milk & Honey collective, a safe and intentional, Black girl-led space, created to foster the ‘Healing’, ‘Empowerment’, and ‘Resilience’ of young black women. Uptown Yardie, an independent lifestyle and shoe brand inspired and influenced by its founder’s Jamaican Heritage, will be producing a series of bucket hats produced from recycled denim and will be available exclusively at Levi’s® Haus, London from October 6th. On October 24th, Uptown Yardie and Code 1 will host an in-store activation where 22 young people from the community will be invited to take part in a creative workshop in the Levi’s® Haus, London store.
Black joy is justice by another name. Black History Month offers us the opportunity to unearth, center, and manifest these myriad stories and joys, in all the glorious forms they might take. Join Levi’s® for this inaugural Black History Month celebration as they do their small part to honour the lives, legacies and contributions of Black people and culture to the UK and across the world. #RootedInJoy will be a bold and brilliant celebration of all the creativity, innovation, laughter, and self-expression that underpins Black culture and community in the UK, making it the beacon of hope and joy that it is undeniably known for. Levi’s® hopes through this platforming of Black talent and artistry, that the project will have a lasting, positive impact this Black History Month and beyond.