uk - afrocultureblog.com

Paul Muhammad, the founder of Moneymob

29 Décembre 2021 , Rédigé par www.afrocultureblog.com Publié dans #ENG, #kwanzaa, #ujamaa, #blacklegacy, #paulmuhammad, #moneymob, #UK

As we reflect upon the principle of Ujamaa on Day 4 of Kwanzaa, Paul Muhammad, the founder of the Moneymob movement and community leader, is an awesome colleague we must give credit to.

Paul Muhammad is the founder of the crowd purchase movement, Money Mob. Money Mob promotes, markets and implements group economics to support Black Owned businesses. Over the last 25 years, Paul has travelled throughout the world on one business venture or another and sees it as his mission to support Black Economics, a mission that is gathering pace with others in the UK, the US and throughout the world. Click below to watch Paul interview Paulette Simpson, the Executive Director of the Top UK Black Magazine the Voice.

Click below to watch more of Paul Muhammad interviews and suscribe to the Moneymob Youtube Channel.

Money Mob 101

Money Mob is a buy black crowd purchase Movement

https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCiyuwqpP9Sek1vFHdI7bg0A

Joyful Noise Productions are taking us into a festive and unforgettable 2022 celebrating African Music

13 Décembre 2021 , Rédigé par www.afrocultureblog.com Publié dans #music, #ENG, #artist, #events, #UK

5 shows in the first 3 months of 2022 - sounds promising, doesn't it?

Continue to read on to find out more about the artists and to book your tickets.

The Yoruba Women Choir will be at the Jazz Cafe on 7th January 2021

Described as Africa’s greatest vocal ensemble and renowned as one of Nigeria’s biggest musical exports, The Yoruba Women Choir always delivers a spectacular show bursting with passion and astounding power. Boasting eleven joyful singers who together create exquisite harmonies, the group is also backed by a six piece band playing traditional Yoruba rhythms and melodies that will keep you dancing all night long.

Yoruba Music was highly influential in the development of Afrobeat, Highlife and Afro-Cuban styles, making this an unmissable show for fans of Fela Kuti, Ebo Taylor or Buena Vista Social Club. Click below to book your ticket and get a feel of who they are.

The Yoruba Women Choir - The Jazz Cafe

This show is a rescheduled show. All tickets from the previous date remain valid. Described as Africa's greatest vocal ensemble and renowned as one of Nigeria's biggest musical exports, The Yoruba ...

https://thejazzcafelondon.com/event/the-yoruba-women-choir/

Joyful Noise presents The Yoruba Women Choir on Sat 26 May 2018

Africa's greatest choir THE YORUBA WOMEN CHOIR live on Saturday 26 May in Brewhouse Arts Centre Taunton TA1 1JL.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=x6ZTYf7v33s

Afrocentrics will be a the Richmix on 25th January 2022, more info to come in the New Year.

The Hi-Life orchestra will be at the Richmix on Tuesday 22nd February 2022, more info to come in the New Year.

Osibisa will be at the RichMix on Tuesday 15th March 2022, more info to come in the New Year.

Horns Unlimited will be at the RichMix on Wednesday 23rd March 2022, more info to come in the New Year.

Stay connected for more.

The Melanin Lunchbox Project

25 Novembre 2021 , Rédigé par www.afrocultureblog.com Publié dans #ENG, #society, #UK

The Melanin Lunchbox Project

Lindon Rankin, Founder of Melanin Health & Wellness, recognised during the first lockdown that there seemed to be a lack of support for the local BME community.

Melanin Health & Wellness, a Southwark based community group supporting local ethnic diverse individuals and groups, started out of this, delivering shopping and medical prescriptions for the elderly, and then went on to provide culturally appropriate cooked meals for children receiving free school meals within the local BME communities, during the school holidays. This was the start of the Melanin Lunch Box project.

Melanin Lunchbox Volunteer sorting out boxes that will be handed out to families receiving free school meals

Lindon (see pic below) has also been running (free) Health and Wellbeing sessions, fitness classes and most recently organised community events in collaboration with other community groups, and mental health and wellness programmes, providing opportunities to local people in order to help them to engage and improve both themselves, their lives and their community at large.

Lindon’s aspiration is to empower people, to come together, celebrate diversity, and for all of us to participate in building a more robust community.

“I always seek the opportunity to work with others and I have learnt by pulling together, we achieve together”, says Lindon.

He is pleased to highlight the support received from Berkeley Foundation in partnership with some of their present projects.

Lindon, founder of Melanin Health and Wellness Project

Akyaaba Addai-Sebo - the architect of Black History Month in the UK

24 Octobre 2021 , Rédigé par www.afrocultureblog.com Publié dans #blackhistory, #akyaabaaddaisebo, #ENG, #blacklegacy, #UK

Photo Credit: CNN

As we celebrate Black History Month in the UK, have you ever wondered who was the mastermind of it. Well, his architect is Ghanaian born Akyaaba Addai-Sebo. After visiting the US in the 1970s and being inspired by the Black History Month US held in February, Akyaaba Addai-Sebo initiated Black History Month in the UK in 1987, which is celebrated in October. Its initial aim was to support Black children sense of self esteem and social construct. October was chosen because it was shortly after the UK summer vacation and was the traditional harvest period and time when African leaders gathered to settle differences and appraise the state of the community.

Akyaaba Addai-Sebo also worked to promote diversity in a variety of roles for organizations including the Greater London Council, African Refugees Housing Action Group, Notting Hill Carnival, and Organization of African Unity. In 2014, he was executive producer of "One Humanity," a documentary on the 1988 and 1990 Wembley concerts for Nelson Mandela.

For further reading: Akyaaba Addai-Sebo - Black History Month 2021

A cosy chat with Noel McKoy about the origins of Black British Music

12 Septembre 2021 , Rédigé par www.afrocultureblog.com Publié dans #noelmckoy, #carosika, #blackbritishmusic, #music, #ENG, #UK

Flashback to a special interview with Soul singer, songwriter and musician Noel McKoy where he shares with Caro Sika his earliest memories of Black British Music talking about Lovers Rock, Reggae, Soul artists and more.

Click below to watch the interview.

Noel McKoy is a British-based soul music singer. His music is a collection of soul, R&B, gospel, funk and Northern soul. Born in South London, he fronted the James Taylor Quartet in the early 1990s and has worked and duetted with several artists such as Chaka Khan, Gladys Knight, Cliff Richard, Lenny Henry, Jessie J, Mica Paris, Beverley Knight and his favourite - Stevie Wonder, as well as being known as the Dutch Pot owner, a nightclub located in London. He is currently part of the British Collective and also continues to tour and collaborate on a number of musical projects, one of the most recent being an international production with EEDB in collaboration with artists from Brazil and the US called "What are we gonna do? "

Click below to watch the video clip

Click below for more info on Noel McKoy

mackoy entertainment

Mi-Soul Soulful Sundays Season presents Noel McKoy with DJs Ronnie Herel & Gordon Mac Noel McKoy is an internationally renowned singer, songwriter and producer. With over forty years in the ...

http://mackoentertainment.com/

Meet musician and entrepreneur MIC ASSASSIN

4 Juillet 2021 , Rédigé par www.afrocultureblog.com Publié dans #micassassin, #music, #ENG, #UK, #blackoutday2021

"Music is my first love, the first thing I actually fell in love with" - Mic Assassin.

Following a 6-month Caribbean holiday which turned into an 8-year hiatus from music, Mic Assassin returns once again with more hunger, focus, and renewed vision.

Musician, Entrepreneur, Director, and Lover of life are the words, which most astutely describe this street-savvy South Londoner. Being disheartened and disillusioned with the politics of the music industry, his time away from music was productively spent setting up entrepreneurial ventures including a visual production company ‘FWD360’ under which Mic directed & edited over 100 projects for global brands, charities, and many grassroots organisations and independent artists.

But what is a man to do when his childhood dream and passion for creating music just won’t go away?

“I thought about it all the time, envisioning myself performing to massive concert venues. I wrote down everything even the thoughts I'm scared to say out loud. I’d hum melodies into voice recorders then start piecing the tracks together. Inspiration can come at any time of the day, I just have to stop everything and be on it when it does”.

From the tender age of 9 rapping in school assemblies to a 16-year-old appearing in magazines like The Face and The Fader, to an 18-year-old setting up his own record label selling CD’s hand to hand, Mic knows the true meaning of dream chasing.

Inspired by the hustle and grind of US / UK Indie labels such as Roc-a-fella, No Limit, So Solid and 57th Dynasty, Mic and his team learned and perfected the art of hand to hand selling moving units of CDs around their Lewisham college campus and outside popular music venues.

In love with the art of freestyling and eruptive crowd energy, Mic entered many "open mic" and Mc Battle competitions winning many of them and eventually being crowned Jump Off’s 2005 UK Street Battle Champion. This journey of gladiatorial words took Mic around the UK and USA where he would cross paths in combat with the likes of Professor Green, Lowkey and Iron Solomon.

The buzz around Mic Assassin grew and lead on to great coverage with live performances and Interviews on Kiss 100 FM (Shortee Blitz & Big Ted), BBC Radio (Ace & Vis, Twin B, Ras Kwame) and Dan Greenpeace (Xfm / Capital radio). His witty off the head freestyles lead Mic to feature on MTV’s Barrio 19 and host a part-time Hip Hop show “Mic Check With Mic Assassin” on BBC’s Asian Network.

Returning back with renewed focus and love for music-making, combining the visual and business skills learned within the 8-year gap period he is funnelling this new artillery into his new music.

With a more mature sound and reflective disposition Mic is open to all possibilities that may come his way.

“The most important thing this time around is having fun, travelling, connecting with people and making the best music I can. I’m legacy-building right now, building a foundation that can outlive me. I have many creative visuals, films, business ideas it’s all one, it’s all me and they intertwine with each other, but music is my first love and I’ve missed it. I am a better person when I'm making music, I feel like me again”.

Click below to download and listen to the new single release:

Mic Assassin

Home page of Mic Assassin, a hip hop artist from London. Musician + Entrepreneur + Director

https://micassassin.com/home

Click below to watch the video

Meet musician and entrepreneur MIC ASSASSIN

Meet Franck and Lucia, owner of SACO Superfoods

2 Juillet 2021 , Rédigé par www.afrocultureblog.com Publié dans #sacosuperfoods, #blackoutday2021, #business, #ENG, #UK

Franck and Lucia, owners of SACO Superfoods in Salford, UK

SACO Superfoods is run by husband and wife, Franck and Lucia. They ethically source natural and highly nutritious ingredients from West Africa while empowering small-scale men and women producers in the Ivory Coast.

Through their health food shop in Salford, they promote a healthy, ethical, and sustainable lifestyle in their community. In addition, they support other local businesses by stocking their products to strengthen the local economy and create a welcoming space where customers can learn about the health benefits of African products, do a bit of shopping and relax with a friend over a drink and a healthy snack in their sitting area.

Click on link below to shop at SACO SUPERFOODS and get your 10% Blackoutday discount using Promo Code: BOD10# on 07.07.2021.

Natural and Ethically sourced products | SACO Superfoods

Discover a selection of natural and ethically sourced products. Superfoods, Cocoa Products, Baobab jams, Chocolate bars, and gift sets. Order online!

https://www.sacosuperfoods.com/shop

Click on link below to find out more about SACO SUPERFOODS

Health Food Shop | SACO Superfoods Salford

SACO Superfoods offers you natural and highly nutritious ingredients ethically sourced from cooperatives of small-scale women producers in West Africa. Visit our shop or order online

https://www.sacosuperfoods.com

Meet Franck and Lucia, owner of SACO Superfoods

Meet Joss, the founder of JOSSY CARE

30 Juin 2021 , Rédigé par www.afrocultureblog.com Publié dans #Jossycare, #Josssimmons, #ENG, #awards, #society, #afroculturekidz, #UK, #blackoutday2021

Joss Simmons, the founder of Jossy Care

Described as the UK's leading "Super Manny", Joss Simmons grew up in a town called Hackney in London, UK and is taking modern childcare to the next level, defying the odds to give back to the next generation.

As a child, witnessing his mother suffer domestic violence had a profound effect on Joss and he knows only to well where many children, who have odds stacked against them, end up. That led him to create his own childcare service, Jossy Care.

Joss with two of his young learners

His positive approach is what is gaining him the attention of parents, practitioners, the media and as a childcare practitioner, Joss is also keen to address stereotypes in the childcare industry. Hence, Joss has spoken out on the topic of male nannies being refused jobs on the basis of their gender and the difficulty they face.

In 2017, Joss gave his first public talk about his experience and hasn't looked back ever since. Multi talented Joss is now frequently invited to deliver motivational talks on topics such as depression, domestic violence, children and the future.

Joss recently featured in Time out, Hackney Gazette and East London Radio. He has also won the National Diversity Award 2019 and is currently up for Best Social Media Nanny with Nanny UK Nanny.

Click on link below to vote for Joss Cambridge-Simmons as Best Social Media Nanny:

UK NANNY AWARDS 2021 Voting Form

https://form.123formbuilder.com/5307129/form

Our new generation of girlpreneurs

19 Juin 2021 , Rédigé par www.afrocultureblog.com Publié dans #ENG, #afroculturekidz, #author, #UK

Kemi and Kiisha, founders of Kishem

Kemi and Kiisha Oguntayo love arts and crafts, baking, playing dress up and reading! They were 4 and 6 years old when they created the brand Kishem with the support of their parents in Summer 2016. They had the idea to create the Kishem colouring book after asking their mum and dad why there weren't colouring books with all types of children who look like them or their friends in school. Their Dad said "girls, problems are meant for solving" so they decided to try making their own.

"We wanted the book to have different types of children who are all talented and unique. It was also important to make it more than just a colouring book so after creating and naming each character, we added short stories about them, what they enjoy doing and what they aspire to be so that other children reading can get inspired too" say the girlpreneurs.

The characters in Kishem's storybooks are powerful, talented, creative, entrepreneurial girls.

- Zhen is a photographer and you get to see her editing in her studio

- Mya is good at cooking

- Kishem loves karate and sports

- Eve is a great swimmer

- Ruby makes jewellery

- Amor loves technology

..... and so on and so forth!!!

To date, Kishem is well on course. Kemi and Kiisha have been able to show their books in UK schools, shipped their books to America and had requests from Africa. Their multicultural characters offer representation for every girl and ethnic group represented in Western schools nowadays.

Click below to see their interview with Elsa, Afroculturekidz presenter, couple of years back.

Author and Self-Love Advocate Tene Edwards

29 Mai 2021 , Rédigé par www.afrocultureblog.com Publié dans #poetry, #author, #afroculture, #teneedwards, #carosika, #2021, #ENG, #queenonamission, #uk

For 27-Year-Old Tene Edwards, it all started on Instagram. “I was broken, my heart was aching, and I completely lost myself. I always used to be the girl who smiled regardless of what was happening in my life but after that heartbreak, I just didn’t know how to smile anymore. I remember when I was on my way home from seeing the guy who was really hurting me and my face must have looked so distressed because a stranger said to me “smile. You are beautiful you know. You should smile.” I think this played on my mind during my train journey home and I knew from that moment that I needed to find a way to pick myself up and I can’t remember how long after, but sometime after I began to journal and I found healing in my writing as I faced my emotions.

Tene then decided to share her words with the world and created an account on Instagram called quotepotion which helped her discover that there were many other people experiencing the same emotions as she was. “I built my organic following online using my phone by engaging with people who followed and commented on the inspirational posts of accounts that had larger audiences than mine, this drew them to checking out my page and some following. I did this for hours on end to begin with and found that people were really able to resonate with my words. I then started to search via hashtags that were relevant to my writings and engaged with people there. I also asked the larger accounts to repost my words, some did this for free while other accounts charged”.

“I self-published Walk With Wings to begin with as I wanted to give my readers something that they could hold and make their own. I also saw this as an opportunity to monetise my passion of writing and was very keen to do this after reading a ton of self-help books that consistently screamed “do what you love, and you will never work a day in your life”. I wrote the content out on Word and searched for an illustrator, editor and book designer to help me with the layout of the inside of the book on the copyright pages of other books that I liked. I then uploaded the documents onto CreateSpace (now KDP).

Tene contacted The Good Quote to ask if they could share some of her words on their account and before you know it, she was having a meeting with them in Joe & The Juice about Walk With Wings and the rest is history. Walk With Wings has reached the hands of thousands and thousands of people worldwide and Tene’s words have been shared by household names and celebrities including, Kandi Burruss, Wesley Snipes, Dascha Polanco and Khloe Kardashian.

“Social media is a powerful place; I practically built my brand on there. Anybody can. I think a lot of people are underutilising it, including myself to be honest when we should really be making the most out of it, being a free platform to advertise. I don’t think advertising can get any easier and cheaper than this.”

Click below to watch one of Tene Edwards latest interview by Gin and Gist:

Home | Tene Edwards

https://www.teneedwards.com

Our cultural mediator, Caro Sika, showcasing Walk with Wings by Tene Edwards: