Beyond the Desk: Community, Connection and Black British Creativity - Ep 38

[00:00:13] Everyone, welcome to Talking Tech With Creatives, where creativity, technology and human experience meet. I'm your host, Stella Oni. I'm an author, a technologist and someone who is endlessly curious about how people think, create and tell stories. On this podcast, I have conversations with people from different creative and professional backgrounds.

[00:00:40] We explore their journeys, what inspires them, the challenges they face and how technology is changing the way we work and create. But it's not just about technology. It's about the people behind the ideas, the experiences, their imagination and the stories that shape what they do.

[00:01:04] Because I believe creativity exists in all of us. And sometimes the most fascinating stories come from the most unexpected places. Today, I want to talk about something that has been on my mind over the last few days. This is a solo episode, by the way, and I've called it Community, Connection and Black British Creativity.

[00:01:29] And coincidentally, we're in October and it's Black History Month in the UK. So this solo episode is actually well placed. What happens when you get out of your house, away from your desk and show up? Because recently, I attended two events that reminded me just how important that is.

[00:01:57] The first event was the Black Writers Guild and the second was the Black British Book Festival or BBBF 26 at the Barbican Centre in London. And although they were very different events, I came away from both thinking about the same thing. We need community more than ever. As writers and creators, so much of what we do is solitary.

[00:02:25] We write alone. We create alone. Not all the time. So creativity has community. Lucky them. We post on social media and sometimes convince ourselves that we are connecting with people. But there's something different about being in a room with people. So the first thing I want to talk about is the Black Writers Guild, which was formed in 2020.

[00:02:57] One of the things I love about the event was simply seeing friends. I felt happy and connected. There were people I knew, those I haven't seen in a long time. And people I was just meeting for the first time. But something has happened that I hadn't expected. I discovered just how much is happening in a Black audio space. I attended an audio panel.

[00:03:25] We consisted of Serene Jones, Mugabe Turia and Bernard Achampong. Serene talked about her project, The Missing Sister, which I definitely need to watch, which looks at the murder of Joy Morgan. And listening to that conversation made me realize how much I didn't know about what was happening in audio. I'm a podcaster.

[00:03:51] I've been doing Talking Tech With Creatives for two years now, over two years. I've interviewed people from different creative industries. I was sitting there thinking, there's this whole community of people working in audio, telling stories, making documentaries, making podcasts. And I haven't really tapped into it. And I became quite emotional. Because I realized something.

[00:04:21] There's knowledge in community. You don't have to know everything yourself. Sometimes the knowledge you need is sitting in the room with you. I've been trying to understand. I've never felt. I'm very lucky. I've been the lead to the black audio network platform that he had created. And I opened the door into another community. And I have joined happily.

[00:04:45] I'm also connected with another podcaster who, like me, has a strong corporate background, alongside her creative work. And I was so pleased to meet somebody whose journey had some similarities to mine. So blessed. so I came away thinking this is why we need to show up not because you go into a room thinking what can I get from this but because conversations happen and connections

[00:05:15] and you discover things and sometimes you discover a community you didn't even realize was there so I have joined a new community of audio podcasters and I'm really looking forward to learning more from them the people that formed data found that they are quite experienced

[00:05:40] yes very happy to learn so very happy I know I said happy so many times I am happy and then I want to talk about BBBF 26 so that was completely different that blew my mind the first thing I noticed was the energy at the Barbican Center it was palpable thousands of

[00:06:08] black people coming together around books writings and stories think about that for a moment we have so much discussion about whether people are reading whether people buy books or even whether there's audience for particular stories and then you walk into a place at the barbican and there are people everywhere readers writers publishers books everywhere and people

[00:06:37] buying them I took videos of photographs as I came in because I wanted to capture some of that the atmosphere and I have to give credit to the barbican and the festival organizers because the barbican can be a little bit difficult to navigate if you don't know your way around but there were volunteers everywhere giving directions which made a huge difference

[00:07:02] I was a guest of the festival and a lovely volunteer took me to the green room where there were nice refreshments to have and after that I wandered around and this was probably one of my favorite parts of the day I kept meeting people I knew there was laughter conversation lots and lots of hugs I love hugs

[00:07:29] hi there was something joyful about being surrounded by so many people who love books and stories I also attended a session called how to take over the internet and I enjoyed hearing how the content creators that were on the stage who were so good it was such a good conversation they talked about their experiences of building an audience online and the realities

[00:08:00] they talked about the pros and cons of going viral we often talk about going viral a lot of content creators want to go viral because it can it is automatically the goal to go viral but what happens when you do what happens to the creator to your work to the audience you suddenly acquired let's say you go from

[00:08:23] having 1000 followers to suddenly having 20 000 overnight in a few days those conversations were fascinating because it came from lived experience and I got a bit hungry so I went to search for some food thinking there was rice and peas but I missed it all so I had some fruits I was okay I had fruits

[00:08:49] not quite a festival feast I'd imagined what I survived and I'm glad I did because see my main thing for coming to the festival was a poetry shutdown and that brought the house down it was the last performance and it was incredible I always loved performance poetry but I came away thinking I need to go

[00:09:15] more to more of this I need to there's something about hearing poetry performed by the person who wrote it or by someone just you're not hearing the words you're hearing the rhythm memories culture pain humor history my friend had the character says say took us into an incredibly raw experience of childhood and

[00:09:41] fostering the experience of African children being fostered an arrangement that was common amongst some African families a lot of African families coming to Britain in the 60s and 70s it was like a necessity for those parents in order to either be students or to work at one moment I felt as though I'd been taken to the

[00:10:05] traumatic experience of a 10 year old this was Khadija and then somehow the next poem I was craving apple pie this was what extraordinary storytelling can do it can move you from pain to humor from memory to food from childhood to adulthood then there was Malika Buka her poems about her Guyanese origins

[00:10:35] the experience went straight to my heart and the male poets gave us something different again raw her next experience of being black male and British told in their different voices and styles I found myself thinking about how much can be communicated through performance that simply isn't captured in the same way on the page

[00:10:59] yes even though I'm an author I'm a writer but performing man it's it's so good so what did I take away from these two events three things again that community matters whether you're a writer podcaster poet creative of different kinds you cannot build everything alone showing up matters not every event needs to result in a business opportunity

[00:11:29] you don't have to walk into every room armed with a strategy and I'm not telling anyone off just save it out there sometimes you go because you want to learn or to support somebody or because you want to see your friends and somewhere in those conversations something unexpected happens we made make connections get ideas go into collaboration or make new friends and third

[00:11:59] there's an audience for our stories walking around BBBF 26 and seeing thousands of black people gathered around books was powerful they were traditionally published writers independent and self-published writers poets content creators readers and many came to listen to them so powerful that for me was one of the most

[00:12:27] encouraging things about that day so maybe the lesson from the last few days is very simple

[00:12:33] every time and again close the laptop leave the desk and show up you never quite know what or who is waiting in the room thank you for listening to the podcast before I go I've got a little gift for you I've put together a free resource called the creative money list featuring 20 podcasts to help support your ideas creativity and expertise

[00:13:05] into income it's my way of saying thank you for listening and being part of the creative community you can get your free copy through the link in the show notes just sign up and I'll send it straight to you I also got photographs and videos from the festival which I'll share on social media

[00:13:28] I'll add it maybe I'll add it maybe I'll find a way to add it to the show notes as well so that you can see it or add it to the website either way there will be a link for you to select so that I can see there if I can I might even do an extra article but I doubt it I think this is it this I really wanted to talk about

[00:13:50] a podcast at the festivals and the black writers guild and I've done so here so thank you for listening to me until next time bye