July 1st, 2022

BUSINESS • May & Co Activewear- May & Co Activewear is an active sports and leisure brand with a difference from mainstream apparel. As Mavis noted, “Many of the major sports brands target the same small demographic, using role models that seem so far away from an average person’s lifestyle. One of the biggest killers in society is obesity and the causes of it – with May & Co Activewear we’re reaching out to ‘every woman’. If you’re looking to step away from the sofa after many years of inactivity, looking to improve your health & wellbeing, or simply find clothing to match an active lifestyle – we’ll have a product for you.” Being active is not always about spending hours in the gym, it can simply be meeting friends for a coffee. mayandcoactivewear • From The Cold Streetware- Utility-driven streetwear. Made to last. https://www.fromthecold.com/collections/cncpt-all • Rose Chocolates - Rose Chocolates is a small black owned business that specialises in creating bespoke, artistic, luxury and divine, chocolates for gifts and events. All our chocolates are freshly handmade using fresh ingredients. We create all our chocolates by hand, and hand paint all our chocolate art. We take pleasure in creating personalised We have created chocolates for many events such as weddings and anniversaries, but also company launch events, company gifts, masterclass events and more. We believe chocolates are a luxury treat. We wanted to create chocolates that are a luxury treat to spoil yourself with whatever the occasion. Rose Chocolates is founded by Justine & Jonathon. The Founder of Rose Chocolates, Jonathon, is a pastry chef inspired by taking chocolate courses, with the passion of creating beautiful flavours and tastes of chocolate. Jonathon has worked in many places; hotels, restaurants, private member clubs such as Tom’s Kitchen, Blue Print, Charlotte Street Hotel, Hotel Cafe Royal, The Hari, and more! https://blackpoundday.uk/listing/rose-chocolates/ • Black-Owned Gin - Our Black Crowned Gin showcases a delicate infusion of Juniper, Coriander, Arrowroot, Citrus peel, Orris roots, Liquorice and Hibiscus over a classic London dry gin. Creating the ultimate British gin with an African twist. https://blackpoundday.uk/listing/black-crowned-gin/ • Melda's Daughter •Proudly created in 2020, Melda’s Daughter, produces premium artisan products in small batches in our London kitchen to traditional methods. Melda’s Daughter is a brand of condiments, spices and more. Inspired by my beloved late mothers passion for food bursting with flavour, warmth and love along with a combination of my Caribbean culture and love affair with fusing traditional and modern cooking techniques. We aim to bring you the best in traditional Caribbean flavours with a modern twist. Made with 100% natural fresh ingredients, vegan/vegetarian suitable, no preservatives, dairy Free and gluten free. https://www.etsy.com/uk/Meldasdaughter/listing/924773044/meldas-daughter-premium-spiced-sorrel?utm_campaign=Share&utm_medium=social_organic&utm_source=DSMT2&utm_term=so.smt&share_time=1610130609000 • Seamoss Rocks - Not only do we source the highest quality raw Seamoss but our method of preparation over 2.5 days ensures that the natural benefits of our seamoss are dramatically amplified when infused with Shungite and crystals in two separate charging sessions over a 48 hour window. Every level of care and attention is given to all stages of the preparation process. From the environment the product is manufactured in to all materials used during production, all are natural and have been carefully considered with the promise to never compromise the product but keep it pure! No plastics or low energy materials shall be used in any stage of production. https://seamossrocks.com/ • Coco Brown sauces Coco Browns captures a taste of Jamaica with our much loved and treasured herbs and spices – gifted from around the world- Scotch Bonnet Peppers, Pimento and earthy herbs to create our Jerk Seasoning recipe and Fi Wi Curry recipe for a true Jamaican culinary experience. Lively up yuh food with Coco Browns- perfect for grilling meats, seafood and vegetables. Coco Browns is family owned and we are Michael and Jennifer Movery. Our food journey began in 2005 with Coco Browns Coffee Bar on the eclectic James Avenue, Ocho Rios, Jamaica. In 2007 we started blending our Scotch Bonnet Spices from our kitchen to your table. https://cocobrownsauces.myshopify.com/ EVENTS • The Wife of Willesden (14 December 2022 - 28 January 2023, Kiln Theatre) - After a sold-out, critically acclaimed run in 2021, Alvita, The Wife of Willesden returns for one more round at the bar. A proper local legend. Married five times. Mother. Lover. Aunt. Friend. Alvita will tell her life story to anyone in the pub – there’s no shame in her game. The question is: are you ready to hear it? Because this woman’s got the gift of the gab: she can rewrite mistakes into triumphs, turn pain into parables, and her love life’s an epic poem. They call her The Wife of Willesden…A play that celebrates the human knack for telling elaborate tales, especially about our own lives. Critically acclaimed, multi-award winning, best-selling author Zadie Smith‘s ‘irresistably rambunctious’ (The Telegraph) The Wife of Willesden transports Chaucer’s The Wife of Bath to 21st Century North West London. https://kilntheatre.com/whats-on/the-wife-of-willesden/ •The Darkest Part of the Night - Nancy Medina directs the world premiere of Zodwa Nyoni’s gripping and heartfelt drama that explores the complexities and beauty of what it really means to care for one another. As adults, siblings Shirley and Dwight remember their upbringing in 1980s Chapeltown Leeds differently. In the height of racial discrimination, police brutality and poverty, the struggle for survival ripped through their family. Dwight was discovering what it meant to be an autistic young Black boy in a world determined never to understand him. Shirley was trying to forge her own independence away from rigid expectations at school and home. https://kilntheatre.com/whats-on/the-darkest-part-of-the-night/ •African Village Cultural Festival- Welcome to the 7th edition of the “AFRICAN VILLAGE CULTURAL FESTIVAL" 2022. This Unique Multi-Cultural Festival celebrates the vibrant African cultural diversity and the strong links between Africa and the United Kingdom, thus creating the opportunity to network with industry creatives. This festival with enable beneficiaries to participate into a weekend of community-focused multi-cultural activities. https://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/african-village-cultural-festival-london-2022-tickets-301391559267?aff=ebdssbdestsearch • Black Culture Market (06 & 07 August, Downstairs at The Department Store 248 Ferndale Road, Brixton) - We honour Grace Jones’ iconic looks with a day of high-end fashion, curated in partnership with Africa Fashion Week London and Creative Resilience International. Featuring show-stopping looks and catwalk wonders, this event also invites you to take to the floor and Rock the Runway, if you dare to dazzle the guest judges. •PROM 56: The South African Jazz Songbook (28 August, Royal Albert Hall) - Celebrated South African trumpeter, conductor and SAMA Award-winner Marcus Wyatt leads the Metropole Orkest in a showcase of the best of South African jazz – a cross-section of a vibrant and strikingly diverse scene. There will be music by artists including ‘father of South African jazz’ Hugh Masekela, Cry Freedom’s Jonas Gwangwa, genre-crossing composer Abdullah Ibrahim, the Blue Notes’ Dudu Pukwana and Johnny Dyani, and saxophonist Winston Mankunku. •In the Black Fantastic - An exhibition of 11 contemporary artists from the African diaspora, who draw on science fiction, myth and Afrofuturism to question our knowledge of the world. Myth, science fiction, spiritual traditions and the legacy of Afrofuturism are all sampled, reimagined and recontextualised in In the Black Fantastic. Encompassing painting, photography, video, sculpture and mixed-media installations, the exhibition creates immersive aesthetic experiences that bring the viewer into a new environment somewhere between the real world and a multiplicity of imagined ones. https://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whats-on/art-exhibitions/black-fantastic?eventId=901416 •Chris Rock & Dave Chappelle - An unforgettable outdoor street food experience with food from different islands of the Caribbean, live music, funfair rides and rum punch. The UK's biggest food festival dedicated to Caribbean food returns bigger and better for another amazing family day of food, drink, shopping and music. We have a brand new site located in a popular London park, with 30,000 square metres of parkland event space that can easily accommodate up to 8000 people with social distancing. This will be an unforgettable outdoor experience where you can purchase delicious cuisines from different islands of the Caribbean. Bring your picnic blankets and foldable chairs, spend the day with us, dance to reggae, the music of Motown, R&B classics, 80s, 90s and drink lots of rum punch. https://happeningnext.com/event/taste-of-the-caribbean-food-andamp-drink-festival-live-music-eid4sntn8v3ld1 B(Y8 Northumberland Ave, London WC2N 5BY BOOKS • My Monticello by Jocelyn Nicole Johnson -At a time of rolling blackouts and terrible storms battering America, the neighbourhood of First Street, Charlottesville comes under attack by violent white supremacists. A group of friends, families and strangers flee together in an abandoned bus and head for the hills above town. Led by Da'Naisha Love, they arrive at Monticello, the historic plantation home of Thomas Jefferson, deserted but for its ghosts. https://afroribooks.co.uk/collections/new-in-store/products/my-monticello-by-jocelyn-nicole-johnson-1 • Ramadan Ramsey (paperback) by Louis Edwards - The Guggenheim Fellowship and Whiting Award-winning author Louis Edwards makes his long-awaited comeback with this epic tale of a New Orleans boy whose very creation is so filled with tension that it bedevils his destiny before he is even born. Spanning from the Deep South to the Middle East, Ramadan Ramsey bridges multiple countries and cultures, entwining two families who struggle to love and survive in the face of war, natural disasters, and their equally tumultuous, private mistakes and yearnings.

• ‘Take My Hand’ by Dolen Perkins-Valdez - A fictional account of a true story, this novel follows Civil Townsend, a nurse in Montgomery, Alabama, who just finished nursing school in 1973. Working at the Montgomery Family Planning Clinic, when something horrific happens to two of her patients, it will change everything. https://www.amazon.co.uk/When-Birds-Ayanna-Lloyd-Banwo-ebook/dp/B094MGTN3M/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1655324289&sr=1-1

• The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney by Okechukwu Nzelu - Nzelu is a rising literary star – and for good reason. This tender and delicate debut featuring well-crafted characters charts protagonist Nnenna’s coming of age amid estrangement, faith, forgiveness and familial relationships (the bond between Nnenna and mum Joanie is a particular highlight). Unsurprisingly, this page-turner has garnered critical acclaim – The Private Joys of Nnenna Maloney is the winner of the 2020 Betty Trask Award and shortlisted for the prestigious the 2020 Desmond Elliott Prize. If you love Nzelu’s work, his chapter Troubles with God in the anthology SAFE: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space is a stirring and evocative insight into homophobia and the church. https://www.amazon.co.uk/Lie-Here-Rachel-Howzell-Hall-ebook/dp/B098343Q3J/ref=tmm_kin_swatch_0?_encoding=UTF8&qid=1655418463&sr=1-2 PODCASTS • The Day After TNB- TTHE DAY AFTER (TDA) is ’the home of popular culture’. The first of its kind; TDA is a UK based daily show emerging from within Black British culture dedicated to bringing you original, fresh & up-to-date content. Unfiltered, undiluted and with no holds barred! Dropping every weekday from 7pm, tune in to stay up to date with current news, trending topics and experience the very best interviews with your favourite artists, entertainers, educators, celebrities and influencers. Prepare to be entertained. https://player.fm/series/the-day-after-tnb •GM5M- The #GM5M podcast is where Scarz & Eli speak their raw and honest thoughts. Growing up Black in the UK comes with alot of unwritten rules and expectations and these are the topics they like to discuss head on every Sunday. The unique part of the podcast is that anyone can say “Give Me 5 Minutes” at any point, the timer starts and that person has 5 minutes to speak uninterrupted. https://player.fm/series/gm5m RADIO • Descendents (BBC Sounds) - Narrated by Yrsa Daley-Ward, the poet and writer introduces us to a network of lives, each one connected in one way or another through the legacy of Britain's role in slavery. In the final episode, the connections between histories bring us right back to the start - the 7th June 2020, and the day the Colston statue was toppled. Richard Pendlebury runs a charity for older people in Bristol, called The Anchor Society. In 1895 their member, J. Arrowsmith, paid for the Colston statue to be put up - 175 years after Colston's death. Alasdair was one of those who helped put it in the harbour, but he's also been looking into his own family history, and was surprised to see a very familiar name appear in his tree, back in the 17th Century. https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/p09jjsr8

FILM/TV •The Photograph (NETFLIX) -The Photograph is a 2020 American romantic drama film written and directed by Stella Meghie. It follows the estranged daughter (Issa Rae) of a famous photographer who falls in love with the journalist (Lakeith Stanfield) who is investigating her late mother's life. Chelsea Peretti, Lil Rel Howery and Courtney B. Vance also star. • Citizen Ashe (BBC Iplayer)- Tennis legend Arthur Ashe was a champion both on and off the courts. The famous athlete was also a humanitarian, devoting much of his life to making a difference for others. Iconic Albums (Channel 5/My5) - `Insightful docu-series series exploring iconic Black British Albums of the 2000s. https://www.channel5.com/show/iconic-albums WHAT AM I PAYING ATTENTION TO? • Tanzania’s Maasai appeal to the west to stop eviction for conservation plans - In Tanzania, the Maasai are evicted from their land in the name of wildlife protection and tourism. https://www.lemonde.fr/en/international/article/2022/06/23/in-tanzania-the-maasai-are-evicted-from-their-land-in-the-name-of-wildlife-protection-and-tourism_5987719_4.html •Emma Prempeh - One of the Sunday Times 5 art stars of tomorrow, Emma Prempeh b. 1996 is a British artist with Ghanaian and Vincentian heritage based in London. Her practice plays upon the notion of distant memories drawing from immediate and future evocations. Her paintings project warm, darkened earthly tones, recalling feelings of nostalgia, loss, and intimacy. https://emmaprempeh.com/ WHAT I AM PERSONALLY RECOMMENDING? 1. The Gathering Spot(Atlanta) - A cool private members club with locations across the US including Atlanta, DC and Los Angeles. If you are in the area check it out. The place to meet and be seen! https://thegatheringspot.club/ 2. Poetic Justice- Poetic Justice is a 1993 American romantic drama film written and directed by John Singleton and starring Janet Jackson and Tupac Shakur with Regina King and Joe Torry in supporting roles. Poetic Justice follows Justice (Jackson), an African-American poet mourning the loss of her boyfriend to gun violence, who goes on a road trip from South Central L.A. to Oakland on a mail truck alongside her friend (King) and a postal worker (Shakur) who she initially cannot stand but soon helps Justice deal with her depression. 3. Cutting for Stone (Abraham Verghese) - My brother, Shiva, and I came into the world in the late afternoon of the twentieth of September in the year of grace 1954. We took our first breaths in the thick air of Addis Ababa, capital city of Ethiopia.Bound by birth, we were driven apart by bitter betrayal. No surgeon can heal the would that divides two brothers. Where silk and steel fail, story must succeed. Have a great weekend!