Black Achievement Month at Fenix
A month centred around stories, experiences and artists from the African diaspora.
Turning Black Excellence into Change
In October, Fenix takes part in Black Achievement Month. This annual programme highlights the strength and significance of the African diaspora. Black Achievement Month was founded ten years ago on the initiative of the National Institute for the Study of Dutch Slavery and its Legacy (NiNsee). In 2026, Fenix joins the programme as a new Rotterdam venue.
This year’s theme, Turning Black Excellence into Change, celebrates talent and explores how art, culture and stories from the African diaspora can create space for new connections and social change.
In the exhibition All Directions, we highlight three artists who each connect to the theme in their own way. The artworks by Laetitia Ky, Seyni Awa Camara and Omar Victor Diop explore visibility, drawing strength from your roots, and passing stories on to the next generation.
View the full programme
Experience the premiere of Sites of Memory’s latest performance during Afrovibes Festival, set among the artworks at Fenix. Dance, visual art, music and spoken word explore colonial legacies and new connections.
This edition: chefs Ranya and Abdelrahman from Napata. Gather around the Al Seneia, a traditional shared platter, and experience Sudanese dining culture as it is meant to be: together around one table.
Ten chefs take over Plein with flavours from Africa and the diaspora. At this free family festival, enjoy food passed down through generations: from richly spiced Mozambican dishes to Cape Verdean treats.
In the exhibition
Discover Diaspora (2014–2015) by Senegalese artist and photographer Omar Victor Diop. In this series, he takes on the roles of prominent African figures who lived outside the African continent between the fifteenth and nineteenth centuries, bringing their often-forgotten stories back into focus. Football references connect these historical figures to African footballers in Europe today, showing how admiration and exclusion can exist side by side.
This series is part of the exhibition All Directions.
Image: Titia Hahne