Black History Month Round Up

I always knew October was going be a busy month for me.  Mom said it late last year “Lo, make sure you don’t book anything in October, cos we’re gonna launch your website!”  And launch it I did.  It felt right to launch on the first day of celebrating Black History Month 2020.  Thanks to Big Light Digital, who helped me plan and design a website that really encompasses who I am and what I’m about. 

Black is My Happy Colour My biggest achievement (to date) is having one of my designs available in GAP stores across the UK.  Many of you would have seen my initial reaction of seeing my design in-store at Resortsworld, Birmingham.  The staff were amazing and came over and congratulated me and allowed me to have a photo opportunity, I was so gassed!  I was also interviewed for a Meet the Artist session where I gave the inspiration behind my design to members of GAP teams across the UK.

Shutterstock Collab

On the back of this, another great opportunity arose with Shutterstock, a USA based stock image company.  They contacted me and asked if I would like to take part in a photoshoot for images to be included on their editorial page at Shutterstock.com.  Well, I couldn’t say no could I? What an opportunity.  Also thanks to @simplyamazyn who caught the behind the scenes footage of my photoshoot and @legacycoe for allowing me to use their venue.
 

School Inspiration

In early October I was contacted by teaching staff at Fryent Primary School, Brent, London to take part in a Q&A session with their year 5 pupils who were creating their own designs for t-shirts to celebrate Black History Month.  Their designs were absolutely fantastic and so creative and having given feedback and chosen my favourite design, I will be recreating an ‘inspired by’ design for my website, with 100% of all proceeds from sales being donated directly to Fryent school.  I’m really excited about this project as I’m very passionate about bringing black history into schools.

Roy Anthony Reid Foundation - Black Heroes Hall of Fame

In 2019 I was lucky enough to win the Roy Anthony Reid Award for Creative Ability.  Sadly, due to COVID their 2020 awards ceremony was cancelled and their Cultural Day usually held in October took the form of a Zoom event, giving young people the opportunity to present on their Hall of Fame Black Heroes.  Three incredible young people gave a presentation about Martin Luthur King, Rosa Parks and Desmond Tutu.  It was great to see and hear them being inspirational through being inspired by those who had done great things before us.  They each received a £50 gift for their efforts.  Thank you to Sonia Moore, the Founder of the Roy Anthony Reid Foundation for inviting me along.

Interview for Legacy TV I rounded off the month with an interview to be shown on Legacy TV, bigging up Black Pound Day and talking about some of my designs!  Although the BPD Event at Legacy was cancelled on the 7th November due to the lockdown, make sure you look out for details of the next one due to be held on 5th December.

With Christmas just around the corner, look out for my promotional discounts for those stocking fillers and Secret Santa gifts.

Lo x