“Focus on those that are right there with you: watching and supporting you”
A special thanks goes to our event partners Turnt events, all the guests that came down to our first International Women’s Day event and our amazing panelists: Kelechi Okafor, actress Shanika Warren-Markland, professional dancer Nqobile Danseur & social media personality Toni. Lastly, a special thank you to our hosts Faith of Lets Talk podcast and Sia of #BKChat London.
This event focused on our panellists offering advice (all of whom have shining careers in the creative/freelancing industry) to young Black women navigating their way through the creative/freelancing industry. The first half of the event was geared towards discussions surrounding Black women & representation in the media negotiating self worth and supporting one another. Learning from Mo’nique’s outburst on social media regarding her under paid Netflix deal, the panellists offered advice on how to negotiate one’s self worth (in relation to the work) as a freelancer with pros and cons on how to freelance.
The release of Black Panther shook up the entire internet, Hollywood and truly showed the importance of representation of non-White superheroes in Western media. We touched on the presentation of Black women in the media industry after the inspirational and fierce depictions of Wakanda’s all-female warrior army the Dola Milaje which showed that there is a demand for representation of Black women in roles other than unmarried, poor women with aggressive, poorly behaved children with 0 to no literacy. The first half of the show concluded on discussing how to set up good support systems around you as you freelancer and uncovering what constitutes a good support system.
The second half of the event focused on juggling romantic dating, relationships and having a busy schedule with tips on dating someone in the same industry (i.e. a fellow freelancing/established creative with a business). The panellists also briefly touched on social media and the role it plays especially how to market onself/one’s brand.
Ofcourse we couldn’t organise an event on working in the creative industry without talking about finances and budgeting. This part of the event covered tips from how to invest in your career whilst paying off other bills/expenses. One of the memorable quotes of the event was
“Why focus on those who arent supporting you? Focus on those that are right there with you: watching and supporting you”
So many tips were offered and we hope everyone that attended the event left with a wealth of knowledge and for those that missed out, don’t worry we have more of these events in the pipeline. In the meantime watch the video highlights below and gallery here.
