Cultivating Diasporic Futures: Uprooting Hate Open Call for Emerging Photographers Under 31


Cultivating Diasporic Futures - Uprooting Hate s a pilot mentorship programme supporting five under-31 BLK and/or diasporic intersectional photographers to envision and create transformative futures. Working alongside an established artist-mentor, selected practitioners will develop new visual projects that uproot structures of hate and cultivate new possibilities for liberation, resilience and joy.
This mentorship programme explores hate in multiple, complex, and layered forms: black/brown hate, misogyny, afroqueerphobia, homophobia, transphobia, fatphobia, disablism, classism, colonialism, and cultural or institutional violence. At the same time, centring practices of care, reparative action, resistance, and world-building. Your project may document collective action, celebrate community resilience, trace intimate stories, or imagine new ways of being and seeing. Your project could be rooted in memory work or speculation on new radical ways of being, belonging, and living otherwise. We're interested in bold, subversive, transformative, and/or imaginative lens-based work that refuses to let hate have the final word: engaging photography as a tool for witnessing, for world-building and for envisioning liberatory, diasporic futures.

For this year's Pilot project, we would like to clarify that "diasporic" means individuals and communities shaped by historical or ongoing displacement from their ancestral homelands or places of origin - including but not limited to African/Caribbean diaspora, Palestinian/Middle Eastern, South Asian, and other diasporas. This includes those who have experienced displacement, or forced/voluntary movement from ancestral homelands (recent or generations ago) who navigate relationships with multiple geographies, states of belonging and histories.

This diasporic futures season culminates in a month-long group exhibition and four programmed public events at Four Corners Gallery (October 21 - November 14 2026). The exhibition will be accompanied by a small publication booklet showcasing the work created and amplifying the artists’ voices in print.

About Youth X Mentoring CIC


Youth X Mentoring CIC supports emerging interdisciplinary artists (18-30) working across photography, creative writing, moving image, archives, sound and performance. We offer our mentee artists and/or creatives support to build a sustainable practice through the development of practical skills, relationships with professional peers, and the deepening of their knowledge base.

We create projects and platforms where artists of different generations and diverse backgrounds come together. Our programmes prioritise artists at the outset or initial stages of their careers who explore eco-social justice, world-building and community transformation.

We value deep listening, intergenerational care, and practical guidance, where experience meets new perspectives, and where artists and/or creatives can develop their critical and creative voice. Youth X Mentoring was founded in 2023 by visual-performance artist, writer, and curator Jacqueline Ennis-Cole.

Public Events 

Exhibition opening event - Wednesday, October 21, 2026. 
Youth X Close-up cinema event -  Saturday, November 7, 2026. 

Proposed Closing event 1- Saturday, November 14, 2026. 
Proposed Closing event 2 - Saturday, November 14, 2026.

About Four Corners Gallery


Four Corners is a centre for film and photography, providing a dynamic learning, production and exhibition environment where artists, photographers, filmmakers, trainees and local people work together. They partner and/or collaborate with photographers, communities, and audiences to explore socially engaged practice and champion progressive social change. They have a commitment to enabling marginalised, disadvantaged and underprivileged photographers to further develop their careers. Four Corners showcases the work of creative practitioners raising awareness and representing underrepresented voices in a valuable cultural context. Four Corners attracts large audiences through a specialist programme of gallery exhibitions, talks, and public events.

Feedback Evaluation


Thank you for your interest in this open call. Whether you applied or considered applying, your feedback helps us create more accessible and meaningful opportunities for emerging photographers.


Takes 3-5 minutes to answer

If you prefer to download a PDF and email us your answers, please complete and send the document to uprootinghate@gmail.com.

Donations


Monies raised will go towards the exhibition costs of the mentees on the Uprooting Hate programme. We are seeking donations from interested individuals. Donors will have an opportunity to leave their email address and remain informed of exhibition dates. We have set the donation at a suggested £5. However, you may alter this to less or more, depending on your circumstances. We also welcome in-kind offers of support. 

Click here to donate. A new window will open in your browser. 

Fingers to the Bone Press & Youth X Mentoring is a registered Community Interest Company: GB-COH-14689579

Youth X Mentoring extend their heartfelt gratitude to the Curatorial Advisory Circle, Mentors, Nominators, Organisations, and Universities and all applicants who participated in the Open Call, 2026.

Curatorial Advisory Circle:
Renée Mussai
Adelaide Bannerman
Taous Dahmani
Derek Wiafe Mentors:
Ingrid Pollard
Helen Cammock
Laura El-Tantawy
Silvia Rosi
Heather Agyepong Nominators:
Mark Sealy
Bindi Mehra
Max Houghton
Christiane Monarchi
Zelda Cheatle
Marie Smith
Richard (Chard) Adio
David Birkin
Rawanne Koumaira
D. Waife Organisations:
Autograph ABP
The Photographers' Gallery
INIVA
Four Corners
Photofusion
London Independent Photography
The Photography Foundation
Photoworks
The Royal Photography Society
Street Level Photoworks
Open Eye
Aspex
MACK Books
Martin Parr Foundation
Fast Forward
Shutterhub
IntoArt
198 Contemporary Arts & Learning
CVAN (Contemporary Visual Arts Network)
The Institute of Contemporary Arts

 Universities:
Bath Spa University
Birmingham City University
Cardiff Metropolitan University
Coventry University
De Montfort University
Falmouth University
Glasgow School of Art
Goldsmiths, University of London
Kingston University London
Leeds Arts University
London Metropolitan University
Manchester Metropolitan University
Middlesex University London
Norwich University of the Arts
Nottingham Trent University
Oxford Brookes University Plymouth College of Art
University College London – Slade School of Fine Art
University for the Creative Arts (UCA), Farnham
University of Brighton
University of Derby
University of East London
University of Huddersfield
University of Manchester
University of Salford
University of Westminster
University of the Arts London (UAL) – Camberwell College of Arts
University of the Arts London (UAL) – Central Saint Martins
University of the Arts London (UAL) – London College of Communication
University of the Arts London (UAL) – London College of Fashion

Add to the Communal Playlist


We invite members of the public to participate in the curation of a playlist associated with uprooting hate. We believe that music has the power and capacity to articulate, communicate and/or transform our memories of past lived experiences and their emotional impact on our lives.  We will do our utmost to locate and listen to all playlist suggestions, and a selection of the most healing and resonant tracks will be curated by a small team of young sound designers and/or sound artists and/or musicians. Approximately 180 minutes of music will be played during our Shared Listening Space event at Four Corners Gallery on 14 November 2026.

ADD YOUR SUGGESTIONS HERE

or email uprootinghate@gmail.com with three track titles

An extended list of the track titles and the names of the musicians/artists involved will be gathered and published on the Uprooting Hate website. We invite you to participate in the creation of a communal playlist that will be played live at a public event and listed here for your joy and pleasure as a collective gathering of memory; a shared archive of curated tracks that transmutes or uproots hate that we may have survived or witnessed within the intimate fabric of our lives. The playlist will include tracks that have nourished and resourced generations of BLK diasporic participants. There are no genre restrictions, nor are any explanations required. As well as the 3-hour sound event, the playlist will circulate within our lives as a living, collaborative archive.