COLD ISLANDERS

About

Cold Islanders is a UK based community initiative that curates events for and with the Caribbean community.

From the beginning, Cold Islanders has been driven by the goal to create, hold and nourish community spaces. This is through our programme of events created to encourage collective learning; such as through the likes of panel talks, creation; art classes, and connection; facilitated wellness spaces and intention setting dinners.

Community

Creativity

Care

Upcoming events

  • Caribbean Fashion & Textiles: Archiving Through Drawing

    8th Feb 2025 | 12pm-2pm

    Join artist Jasmine Karis for an afternoon exploring Caribbean designs and styles through drawing.

    Learn more

  • Madras Crowns: Creating Traditional Creole Headpieces

    8th March | 11.30-2pm

    Learn more about the history and significance of Madras cloth and various styles.

    Learn more

  • Natural Indigo Dyeing: exploring the process and its complex legacy

    12th April | 1pm-3pm

    Samantha Russel of Tens Studio leads us through a workshop exploring the complex and creative history of Indigo dyeing.

    Learn more

  • Picture East Film Festival - a selection of short films

    Saturday 1st February | 1.30-3pm

    A varied selection of short films by local Caribbean filmmakers.

    Click Here

Want to get involved?

If you’re a venue, organisation or individual who would like to get involved in any capacity, drop us a message. We exist because of our community and are eager to connect with more people who can help to support and benefit from Cold Islanders.

Some of our previous events include

Folklore Storytelling

On a surprisingly sunny autumn day we headed to the library for a folklore storytelling sessions, where we read extracts of our favourite stories and explored the history of traditional carnival characters.

Thanks to Sean Reilly, Holborn Library, Stuart Keegan and Bloomsbury Festival for your collaboration!

Intention setting dinner

In the new year Cold Islanders invited Caribbean women to join us at a local restaurant for a dinner party focused around intention setting for the year ahead.

Thanks to No.63, Dalston for hosting us!

Cold Islanders Film Club

Over the summer 2024 Cold Islanders hosted a trio of film clubs where we gathered to watch The Harder They Come, Dancehall Queen and a selection of short films by local Caribbean filmmakers followed by a Q&A. 

London’s Screen Archives joined at each screening to share a trailer of their new ‘Undocumented’ project in partnership with The New Black Film Collective. Windrush Justice Clinic also joined Cold Islanders on the final evening to talk about the work they’re doing to help victims of the hostile immigration environment receive the compensation they deserve.

Cold Islanders Film Club has continued with shorts programmes and will be returning for more screenings of Caribbean features throughout 2025.


Thanks to Film London & Girl Dreamer for helping to fund the vision, The Orange Room for hosting us 🍊& Theo Angus for the snaps 📸

Black Adoption: A call to the community panel talk

We gathered with a panel of black adopters, adoptees and social workers to discuss the adoption process and why we need more black adopters.

Thanks to Holy Cross Church St. Pancras, Bernadette, Alison, Tiger-lilly,Christelle and Lou for your support and knowledge!

Community lunch and theatre trip

We partnered with Stratford East for an afternoon of food, domino’s, card games, DJ and free tickets to ‘The Big Life’!

Thanks to @poetic.phot, @djlongers, Nailah Cumberbatch
and @islandvibezkitchen for providing vibes, food and photos.

Threads of the Caribbean

Cold Islanders hosted a series of workshops celebrating cloth and fabric throughout the Caribbean.

We hosted a workshop focused on archiving Caribbean garments and textiles with artist Jasmine Karis, another workshop on creating traditional madras headpieces with Sakafet London and another one on Indigo dyeing with Samantha Russell.


Thanks to Jasmine-Karis, Sakafet London and Samantha Russell for their expertise and kindness. The Vibast Centre for hosting us and Annabelle King for the photography!

This project has been awarded as part of the Imagine Fund which is a participatory grant making scheme supported by the Barbican Centre and City of London Corporation. 

Find out more here: 
https://www.barbican.org.uk/take-part/communities-neighbourhoods .

"You can see time and care put into this."

"Amazing, especially loved carnival characters and reading list."

"You can see time and care put into this." "Amazing, especially loved carnival characters and reading list."

"The atmosphere is wonderful, with everyone around us enjoying the event."

"I love the community spirit and coming together."

"The atmosphere is wonderful, with everyone around us enjoying the event." "I love the community spirit and coming together."

Follow our journey

Indigo Dyeing is a practice you don’t often hear explored through a Caribbean context. As @fibrelegacy shared, enslaved Africans brought the expert dyeing knowledge to the Caribbean but were later banned from using dyeing vats for personal us
As an interdisciplinary artist and textile designer, Samantha explores the intersections of heritage, culture, and anti-colonial methodologies. Her work is grounded in traditional hand-crafted textile techniques and materials that originate from Afri
Photos from our Madras workshop hosted by the lovely Jennifer of @sakafetlondon 💙 It was a wonderful day learning about the history of Madras and headpieces accompanied by good music, vibes and sun! 📸 by @annabellekingx / @king__creates
A few pictures from our first shorts programme of 2025! Short’s screenings are one of our favourites, it’s so amazing to watch a variety of work and stories in one sitting, to soak in the impact that short films have on us and do so as a
Want to join us at the Theatre? We’ve got a handful of spaces to give away for a pre-show tour of the stage plus free tickets to The Women of Llanrumney on Thursday 27th March. Tickets are limited and on a first come-basis, so head to the lin
Jennifer Laurent-Smart is an Equity and inclusion specialist, the founder of Sakafet London and a Caribbean lead for Cultural Fashion and Arts. Having worked as an equity and inclusion specialist for over 27 years, Jennifer’s love of the colo
Archiving the archiving process 👉🏾 👈🏾 Some more snaps from Cold Islanders very own @annabellekingx
Excited to share a varied programme of short films this Saturday at Picture East Film Festival! Join us for some mid-day storytelling in the form of film, followed by a Q&A. Find out more about the films via the Cold Islanders website.