Discover this ambitious and thought-provoking body of work.
The inspiring narratives of 60 people, captured as a creative response to 50 years of mental health and racial inequalities in Leeds, are showcased in a new digital exhibition, launched on 12 February 2025.
Remembering What’s Forgotten’s digital exhibition champions unheard community and lived experience narratives to tackle the overrepresentation of Black and South Asian men detained under the Mental Health Act in Leeds.
Based on nine months of interviews, focus groups and creative interventions, the co-produced exhibition features the lived experience narratives of 30 Black and South Asian men, carers, community advocates and asylum seekers.
Also highlighted are 30 community, heritage, culture, third sector and mental health system activists, artists and leaders, tasked with reimagining a more equitable mental health system.
Arthur France MBE (Founding Member, Leeds West Indian Carnival), Alison Lowe OBE (West Yorkshire Deputy Mayor for Policing and Crime), Arfan Hanif (CEO, Touchstone) and Marvina Eseoghene Newton (Co-Founder, Leeds Black Lives Matter) are among those profiled.
Professor Emily Zobel Marshall, Co-Chair, David Oluwale Memorial Association, said: “It’s key that the often-silenced voices of those suffering from mental health inequalities are amplified. Racial justice, especially in terms of mental health, means a commitment to deep-rooted structural change, which takes time and financial investment, as well as listening to those with lived experiences. It’s important that the projects committed to these changes have a long-lasting legacy.”
Co-founded by Synergi-Leeds and Words of Colour in partnership with Leeds City Council / Public Health and Forum Central, the 12-month hybrid programme and exhibition were co-produced with Touchstone Leeds, Heritage Corner and Leeds Young Authors’ Artistic Director Khadijah Ibrahiim.
Funded by Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, the exhibition’s launch is timely as the Trust has just announced its first ever health inequality strategy that centres anti-racism in its mental health services.
Dr Sara Munro, CEO, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, said: “I feel proud and humbled to be part of the Remembering What’s Forgotten exhibition. It’s also timely as we launch our first ever Trust strategy to address health inequalities. A key pillar of this is being anti-racist and building on our work to address racial inequalities in people’s access, experiences and outcomes from the services we provide.”
Remembering What’s Forgotten aims to fill an experiential and knowledge gap that is urgent as Black men in the UK continue to be disproportionately overrepresented in restrictive inpatient mental health settings and underrepresented in mainstream services that offer community-based support. More than any other ethnic group.
Dean Matheson, Director of Calm and Centred, said: “We are passionate about Remembering What’s Forgotten’s aim to highlight the overrepresentation of Black men in inpatient wards and their disproportionate detention under the Mental Health Act. My biggest hope is that we see a real and genuine paradigm shift, for the better, and from each member of society, in tackling these issues.”
Sharon Prince, Deputy Director Psychological Professions, Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Co-Lead of Synergi-Leeds, added: “Remembering What’s Forgotten’s digital exhibition showcases the power of creative interventions to illuminate and amplify the voices of those who have been marginalised within the mental health space. It celebrates the innovation, resilience, and determination of individuals and communities who navigate this challenging environment.”
Remembering What’s Forgotten’s first lived experience poet in residence Omari Swanston – Jeffers has crafted a multimedia poetic response, centring the Black male experience of ‘bruddahood’ as a tool for all men of colour to navigate mental health challenges.
There are plans for an in-person version of the Remembering What’s Forgotten digital exhibition to tour community spaces in Leeds in 2025.
The digital exhibition will be promoted as a campaigning tool for the third sector, and as a resource for statutory sector leaders and mental health commissioners to improve their cultural competency and promote racial justice in service provision.
Full link to visit the digital exhibition: https://exhibition.rememberingwhatsforgotten.co.uk/
Short link: https://bit.ly/RWFExhibition
Official hashtag: #RWF2024
For context – research has consistently shown that:
- Black people are four times more likely than white people to be detained under the Mental Health Act.
- Black and minority ethnic people are 40% more likely to access mental health care via the criminal justice system than white people.
- Black and minority ethnic people are less likely to access primary care support, through their GP and more likely to end up in crisis care.
About Remembering What’s Forgotten: RememberingWhatsForgotten.co.uk
Remembering What’s Forgotten is a 12-month co-produced programme and hybrid exhibition established to amplify the unheard community-based and lived experience narratives challenging the mental health inequalities and racial injustice facing Black and minority ethnic communities in Leeds.
A creative and heritage-inspired response to the overrepresentation of Black and South Asian men in inpatient wards, and their disproportionate detention under the Mental Health Act, the narratives and outcomes will be used to inform policy and how mental health services are delivered and commissioned, as well as influence what research is conducted to privilege lived experience and community knowledge.
Co-founded by Synergi-Leeds and Words of Colour and funded by Leeds and York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust, programme partners include Leeds City Council and Public Health, and Forum Central. Touchstone, Heritage Corner and Leeds Young Authors are co-producing partners with Thackray Museum of Medicine, Northern School of Contemporary Dance, Museum X, Renaissance One, New Writing North and Manchester Poetry Library as project allies.
Remembering What’s Forgotten Co-Founders
Synergi-Leeds | rememberingwhatsforgotten.co.uk/synergi-leeds/
Established in 2018, Synergi-Leeds seeks to redress racial injustice and ethnic inequalities in mental health in Leeds. Led by Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust and Leeds City Council, the partnership includes membership from the third sector and statutory services and is instrumental in supporting the delivery of Priority 2 within the Leeds All-Age Mental Health Strategy, to reduce the overrepresentation of people from ethnically diverse communities admitted to mental health services in crisis. Synergi-Leeds won the Legacy Awards 2022 and the HSJ Award for Mental Health Innovation of the Year 2023.
Words of Colour – The Immersive Change Agency | wordsofcolour.co.uk
Words of Colour creates alternative pathways and sustainable opportunities for writers, creatives, entrepreneurs and communities of colour to thrive – and for unheard stories to be told. Launched in 2006, it originates, curates, produces and collaborates on projects that straddle literature, creative industries, academia, research, digital entrepreneurship and creative wellbeing to generate meaningful change. Among its awards is the NESTA/Observer ‘New Radicals’ Award 2018 for the Synergi Collaborative Centre, a national initiative it co-founded, and the Legacy Awards 2022 and HSJ Award for Mental Health Innovation of the Year 2023 as part of its co-produced work with Synergi-Leeds.
Project Funder and Partner
Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust | leedsandyorkpft.nhs.uk
Leeds & York Partnership NHS Foundation Trust provides specialist mental health and learning disability services to the people of Leeds and across Yorkshire, the Humber and the North of England.
Project Partners
Leeds City Council | leeds.gov.uk
Leeds City Council is the second largest local authority in the country, with around 14,000 employees. The council is committed to making Leeds a vibrant, environmentally-friendly and compassionate place to live, work and visit, with a people-first ethos that fully embraces values such as equality and diversity. This approach is helping to deliver real and transformative change for the city through major ongoing investment in areas like housing, infrastructure and public transport.
Forum Central | forumcentral.org.uk
Forum Central is the network of health and social care third sector organisations in Leeds providing voice, advocacy and representation for a membership of 300 voluntary, social enterprise and faith organisations, and committed to ensuring the least heard voices of the sector are fed into decision making. Forum central works to ensure sustainability and equity for the sector with a wide range of statutory and third sector partners across Leeds and West Yorkshire and is a partner on the West Yorkshire NHS Integrated Care Board.
Co-Producing Partners
Touchstone | touchstonesupport.org.uk
Touchstone began as a weekend club in 1982, born out of an identified need for friendship and community in South Leeds. More than 40 years later, it provides health and wellbeing services to over 10,000 people living in diverse Yorkshire communities every year. Touchstone also works with communities to grow their confidence and capacity to demand the services and positive experiences they are entitled to.
Heritage Corner | heritagecornerleeds.com
Heritage Corner delivers the award-winning Leeds Black History Walk, designed to assist navigation around a complex history often hidden in plain sight. It promotes reclaiming narratives as part of a strategy toward positive mental health as imposed narratives can have a negative impact. In 2024, Heritage Corner will celebrate the 15th anniversary of the Leeds Black History Walk, and continue its legacy with Heritage Crew CIC, generating arts projects with young people.
Leeds Young Authors | facebook.com/LeedsYoungAuthors/
Leeds Young Authors (LYA) was founded in 2003 by poet and playwright Khadijah Ibrahiim as an approach to creative education to promote positive social dialogue through the written and spoken word among young people of High School age (ages 13-19), primarily in the City of Leeds. Leeds Young Authors runs creative writing projects, out-of-school and in schools, to nurture and develop youth talent and encourage socially inclusive engagement.
