Words of Colour

On Wednesday 22nd November 2023 Word of Colour and Libreria, in association with Footnote Press hosted A Bollywood State of Mind - On film, fandom and the rise of modern India - an in-person conversation event featuring author and academic Sunny Singh, in front of an audience.

Moderated by Words of Colour's Executive Director Joy Francis, the conversation traversed the indefinable nature of Bollywood, the impact of colonialism and the genre's impact in unlikely countries from China and Greece to the former Soviet Union. 

Listen to our exclusive mobile recorded interview between Words of Colour's guest interviewer, 17 year old Asia Quidley, and award-winning documentary Dutch-Caribbean director/filmmaker Shamira Raphaëla about her latest film SHABU before its BFI preview.

SHABU is a documentary film set among the architecturally striking, working-class Rotterdam neighbourhood of De Peperklip (The Paperclip) and its culturally diverse community - is powered by the charm and optimism of the emotionally intelligent and enterprising 14-year-old Sharonio, also known as SHABU who dreams of making it big as a musician.

Quidley says: “SHABU is such a joyous film which is amazing as black boys are often dehumanised in society, media and in movies with stories of pain. But SHABU is a story of happiness, realness and love. It allows young people to see themselves in SHABU and feel positively represented.”

SHABU is released by T A P E and is showing in selected cinemas nationwide.

Founder and Creative Director of Renaissance One Melanie Abrahams discusses the value of resistance, the Windrush generation's resilience, their contribution to the social and cultural fabric of Britain and impact on subsequent generations of Caribbean people.

Accompanied by a montage of sentimental images, artist and Black Inc Publishing Collective co-founder Desrie Thomson-George shares her thoughts on the energy and creativity the Windrush generation contributed to British society and how their legacy has influenced her own creative practice. 

The 22nd June 2023 marks Windrush's 75th anniversary. In honour of preserving memories we spoke with Alfonso Lynch who moved from Jamaica to London in 1953 about what it was like transitioning to a new country, bonds he created whilst here and the challenges along the way.

Words of Colour collaborators were invited to offer their brief thoughts on the essence of collaboration for a presentation for Fifteen Seconds Festival in Graz. This extract is by Dr Angela Martinez Dy, Senior Lecturer in Entrepreneurship, Loughborough University London.

Words of Colour collaborators were invited to offer their brief thoughts on the essence of collaboration for a presentation for Fifteen Seconds Festival in Graz. This extract is by Becky Swain, Director, Manchester Poetry Library, at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Words of Colour collaborators were invited to offer their brief thoughts on the essence of collaboration for a presentation for Fifteen Seconds Festival in Graz. This extract is by Ahsan Khan, Co-Founder, Climate Labs.

Reshma Ruia is a writer and poet. She has a PhD and Master’s in Creative Writing from Manchester University. Her first novel, Something Black in the Lentil Soup, was described in the Sunday Times as ‘a gem of straight-faced comedy’. She has published a poetry collection, A Dinner Party in the Home Counties, and a short story collection, Mrs Pinto Drives to Happiness. Her work has appeared in international anthologies and journals, and commissioned by the BBC, among others. Reshma is the co-founder of The Whole Kahani – a writers’ collective of British South Asian writers. Her latest novel is Still Lives.

In this podcast, she shares with Joy Francis what excites her about the short story genre, reads from her latest novel Still Lives and explains her passion for centring the narratives of 'othered' communities from migrants to immigrants - 'everyday heroes on the margins of history'.

Award-winning poet, educator, performer and vocalist Roger Robinson (A Portable Paradise) talks empathy in literature, art as spiritual technologies and his exciting collaboration with Johny Pitts (Afropean) with Words of Colour's Joy Francis.

#BreaktheBias is the theme for International Women's Day 2022 with a focus on a gender equal world, free of bias, stereotypes, and discrimination. 

Joy Francis, Executive Director, Words of colour Productions, uses the theme to explore the impact of the racism facing black and brown women, alongside men, living and studying in Ukraine, during a time of war. Women like 19 year old Racheal Diyaolu, a black medic from Ireland, trapped in Sumy. The black and brown mothers pleading for the safe return of their children who are among hundreds of black students and students of colour from Nigerian, Ghana, Ethiopia, Angola, Tanzania, Rwanda, India, Lebanon and Turkey. A former practising journalist, Joy draws attention to the devastating impact media bias has on people's lives and argues why a major overhaul of news reporting is necessary to break the bias.