What’s Race Got To Do With It

Please note: this event is now fully booked! If you would like to join the waiting list, please email [email protected]

How is ‘light skin privilege’ impacting young black people today? How do representations of black people in the media impact everyday life? This year’s Young, Black & Present panel explores colourism, media representation and what is to be part of a young diaspora community in the UK today.

Chaired by actress and social commentator Kelechi Okafor, with Magid Magid, Sheffield’s youngest ever Lord Mayor; local dancer Taiwo Bamiduro; activist and vlogger Ola Awosika; painter Joy Labinjo; and All Black Connect member Tami Okoye.

 

Chair: Kelechi Okafor is an actor, dance innovator and social commentator.
Her interests are in race, class and pop culture.

Twitter: @kelechnekoff
Instagram:@ kelechnekoff
Website: www.kelechiofajar.com

 

Ola Awosika identifies as an intersectional and veritable crossroads of identities who is knowledgeable about a large constellation of world issues, including global feminism, war, racism, Black liberation, LGBTQ+ issues, global hunger, and the rights of the Indigenous. A social media agitator and self-proclaimed big mouth, Ola is not afraid to use his various social platforms to speak out about racism, transphobia and homophobia. Ola discusses the intersections of living as a gay black man under the alias ‘Your Token Black Friend’, commenting on racism and exclusionary practices in the gay community, whilst also using using humour and skincare to challenge social issues through his self-produced Youtube series. A regular contributor to Noctis Magazine Ola has interviewed musicians such as Mnek and Mahalia.

Instagram: Olaoncécarey
Youtube: Olaoncécarey
Blog: Your Token Black Friend http://your-token-black-friend.tumblr.com/

 

Taiwo Bamiduro. Information to follow.

 

Joy Labinjo is a painter living and working in Newcastle. Joy’s paintings draw on her British-Nigerian heritage and examine the complex relationship between identity, race and culture. In 2018, Labinjo was awarded with the Woon Foundation Art Prize, considered to be one of most generous prizes in the art world.

 

Magid Magid, also known as Magid Mah a British-Somali activist and politician who has served as the Lord Mayor of Sheffield since May 2018. His appointment has attracted significant media attention, as he is the first Somali, the youngest-ever, and the first Green Party councillor to hold the role.
Born in Northern Somalia, Magid came as a child refugee to Britain in 1994. He grew up in Burngreave, Sheffield, and studied aquatic zoology at the University of Hull where he was elected president of Hull University Union. He has worked in digital marketing and was elected as a Green Party councillor on Sheffield City Council in 2016. From 2017 to 2018, he served as Deputy Lord Mayor, and during this period he participated in the third series of the reality show Hunted. In 2018, he was chosen by the council to serve the one-year term as Lord Mayor.

Tami Okoye is a student at Birmingham City University, studying photograph, previously studying Fine Art at Nottingham Trent University. During her time in Nottingham Tami became a founding member of ABC (All Black Connect), a group of young adults of black origin living in Nottingham and formed in response to the inaugural Young, Black & Present event that took place in 2017. ABC aims to create to a safe space to discuss the contemporary Black-British experience, relax and have fun together. ABC is currently working on a podcast called ‘Pass the Plantain’, that discusses issues on and around the black-British experience over plantain.

All Black Connect:

Twitter: A B C @allblackconnect

Facebook: @allblackconnected

 

This event is part of Young, Black & Present 2018

Young, Black & Present is NAE’s annual programme of events shaped by our young people’s collective, All Black Connect. The group meet regularly to design projects that explore issues impacting young black people in the UK today. For more info: [email protected]

FREE
All ages