Tributes to colonialism still litter Oxford's streets, from Oriel College's statue of the racist Cecil Rhodes to All Souls' Library – built with the profits extracted from enslaved Africans trafficked to a Barbados plantation. How do these tributes contribute to oppression today? What should we do with them? How can we decolonise Oxford's city and civic landscape?

Join us online on Thursday the 4th of February to hear answers to these questions and more, as well as about why reparatory justice for enslaved Africans is so important. We'll be joined by Cleo Lake, former Lord Mayor of Bristol, Green MEP candidate, candidate for Green Party deputy leader, and social justice activist.

When she was Lord Mayor of Bristol, Cleo caught the attention of the national press with her efforts to decolonise Bristol, a city, like Oxford, with a past rooted in colonialism. Her work hit the headlines when she removed portraits of slave traders Edward Colston and Lord Nugent, and replaced them with paintings of a lion and a Black woman. Two years later, Bristol was in the news once again when a statue of Colston was dumped in Bristol harbour.

Cleo's campaigning has also focused on countering the effects of the government's racist 'hostile environment' and the Windrush scandal, as well as fighting Tory austerity. We're really excited to be able to hear from Cleo and learn from her extensive experience in decolonisation and rooting out the remnants of the UK's shameful colonial past.

Outside of politics, Cleo works in arts and culture, as a dancer, poet, film-maker and actress, and she's currently a director for BLACK* artists on the Move, an organisation promoting Black creativity.

This online talk is open to everyone, whether you're a student at the University of Oxford or Oxford Brookes, a young person, in Oxford, or none of those things!