Lavinya Stennett

Lavinya is an author, purpose driven entrepreneur and Founder/CEO of The Black Curriculum.

She has written her first poetry collection, ‘27’.

27 and friends: a live debut performance - book now

An educational engineer, Lavinya holds a First class degree in BA African Studies and Development - SOAS.

Inspired by her early insights and learning whilst on a scholarship in New Zealand, she set up The Black Curriculum in 2019 aged 22.

During university, Lavinya was engaged in student activism as the ‘Working Class Student Officer’ and co-founded a society called Art and the African Mind. This provided African-centred campaigns and support for students, resulting in the university’s first and permanent Black Student Officer.

Continuing to engage in her love of writing, Lavinya published her dissertation which won the inaugural Walter Rodney Prize, and has since written publications and produced short films. She has written for outlets including the Guardian, Black Ballad, Quartz Africa.

Believing in the power of education, social movements and curriculum design, her work has been recognised globally from Vogue and GQ to the historic Freedom of the City of London Award in 2024.

She recently (2024) co-founded the Racial Impact Collective, an initiative supporting social entrepreneurs and seeking equity in the grant making world

The Black Curriculum

The Black Curriculum is the UK’s leading social enterprise and political movement for the teaching of Black and African histories, founded by Lavinya Stennett in 2019. The organisation supports institutions with the teaching of Black history all year round, and with a student focus, empowers young people (3-25) with a sense of identity and belonging.

Though the organisation existed before 2020, it rose to prominence and continued working primarily with young people and schools to address the lack of Black history being taught in UK. The approach of the social enterprise is based on the arts, includes campaigning the English government to embed Black British history, and giving direct education to young people and teachers via multimedia forms.

Since 2019, The Black Curriculum has worked with thousands of young people and schools. It has produced digital resources and campaigns with millions of views and downloads, with an array of partners globally such as Marks and Spencer, Spotify and Vogue, helping to educate the public.

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Recent Awards

Lavinya was recently honoured with the Freedom of The City of London 2024 by Michael Mainelli, and recognised as 40 under 40 Most Influential People of African Descent in 2024 at age 27. She was awarded Changemaker by the Limitless Awards in 2023, Future Bold Woman runner up for the 50th Veuve Cliquot Awards in 2022 and Sunday Times 50 Women of the Year in 2021.