How do we have more nuanced conversations about being mixed race that account for more than an internal struggle with the binary Black and white? Chantelle Lewis is an activist, researcher, sociologist and podcaster based at Goldsmiths – and this her beat. Chantelle’s work is focused on structural racism, accountability, and class inequality and her doctoral research explores Black mixed race families in a predominantly white town in the Midlands. She takes us through some of the initial finding...
Feb 08, 2020•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 45
Liv Little is the founder and tour-de-force behind gal-dem, an online and print magazine written by women of colour and non-binary people of colour for all to explore. Today we’re in conversation to discuss the genesis of gal-dem and how she’s learned to separate herself from the business she’s built. We explore how gal-dem is helping women and non-binary people of colour navigate our fraught political moment, and why she and the team at gal-dem published I Will Not Be Erased, a project offering...
Jan 25, 2020•50 min•Ep. 44
Today’s conversation with Rav Bansal is a beautiful exploration of the private and public considerations we make on our journeys of self-acceptance and self-love, and what it can mean for ourselves and the communities we represent if we decide to come out. Rav is a baker and broadcaster who rose to fame as a contestant on Great British Bake Off in 2016. In June of this year, he came out publicly, after years of questioning and exploring who he is, what he believes and what he wants to achieve in...
Nov 23, 2019•57 min•Ep. 43
PJ Samuels is a poet, educator and LGBTQ human rights activist whose work interrogates issues of race, gender, patriarchy, identity and belonging. I first encountered her searing, moving and beautiful poetry in the Sista! Anthology, a collection of essays and poetry from women-loving-women of African and Caribbean descent. She is an emotional and intellectual force. Today, we discuss her relationship to God and with Christianity and the way both religion and Blackness have historically been weap...
Nov 04, 2019•1 hr•Ep. 42
Few people have touched my soul as tenderly as Jeffrey Williams. From late-night cross-continental FaceTimes to voice notes full of support and encouragement, the friendship Jeffrey and I have cultivated is a testament to the very real connections that can form across cyberspace. Jeffrey Williams is a designer, stylist and creative director whose visions of beauty are made manifest most regularly on the bodies of musical duo Lion Babe. We begin our conversation with Jeffrey’s memories of childho...
Oct 19, 2019•50 min•Ep. 41
Hip-hop is a cultural touchstone both misunderstood and rightly held to task for misogyny, homophobia and sexism, but are the problems of hip-hop reflective of issues in society at large and what space is there for queerness in hip-hop? Today, I’m joined by Peter “PJ” Johnson, more widely known as the Repeat Beat Poet, for a discussion exploring hip-hop’s radical roots, the queering of the genre and how hip-hop has allowed, in the past and the present, a confrontation with expressions of Blackne...
Oct 12, 2019•58 min•Ep. 40
In this conversation recorded at London Podcast Festival 2019, Busy Being Black's creator and host, Josh Rivers, is interviewed by celebrated filmmaker Campbell X. Together they explore nationhood, identity, diaspora, masculinity, Josh's short-lived role as the first Black editor of Gay Times, calling out and calling in, healing, love and joy. — — @_busybeingblack is the podcast exploring how we live in the fullness of our queer Black lives. If you like what you hear, please take a moment to rat...
Oct 05, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 39
It was my encounter with Hello Mr in 2016, the magazine about men who date men, that inspired me to throw my hat into the LGBTQ media ring; for the first time, I saw what was possible and I was hooked. I turned to the masthead, saw Fran Tirado’s name and emailed him. We connected, we bonded and he’s since become one of my friends and queeroes. In this conversation, Fran and I discuss the ever-evolving landscape of LGBTQ media, the end of white twink idolatry, enjoying your own company, working i...
Sep 28, 2019•52 min•Ep. 38
It was her love of blogging about Scandal that led my guest today into a rabbit hole of doctoral research in “Black women’s fandoms and the intersectionality of TV discourse.” Kadian Pow is a student, teacher, intellectual and entrepreneur born in Jamaica, raised in the US and transplanted to the UK, whose life has been one of seeking out and exploring community both online and off. Her research and teaching interests include intersectionality, the sociology of Blackness, Black feminism and pop ...
Aug 03, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 37
From her beginnings in Ghana to coming of age in south London, Linda Devo’s life has been one of encountering, exploring and constantly creating who she is. Alongside being a mother, artist and an out and proud dyke (her word), she’s also the founder of Kiki, a club night and conversation for QTIPOC in Bristol. We explore the positive results of owning your intentions and desires, expressing her identity through her art practice and the assertiveness that comes in middle-life. We also discuss he...
Jun 22, 2019•59 min•Ep. 36
I was on a bustling street in Soho, hugging my friend Liam as he cried with joy after hearing that Trinidad and Tobago’s highest court had just ruled that sections of the Sexual Offences Act were unconstitutional. For Liam, it was a moment that couldn’t come soon enough. Like many, his family encouraged him to move away from Trinidad so he could live as himself. Today, I’m in conversation with Jason Jones, the intrepid activist who filed the historic lawsuit in the High Court of Trinidad and Tob...
Jun 08, 2019•1 hr 5 min•Ep. 35
Seyi Newell is the effervescent and dynamic founder of Tribe, an organisation dedicated to helping Black women explore, excel and thrive in everything they put their minds to. She founded Tribe because she was angry at the very visible lack of inclusion in the spaces she was invited to and after her mentor told her she should do something about it. Seyi is a delight. We discuss imposter syndrome, defining success for ourselves and understanding the role we each play in what she calls the ecosyst...
May 18, 2019•51 min•Ep. 34
This episode contains strong and suggestive language. — — Sandy Pianim is the brand director of Recon, a platform for men and their fetishes, and he’s been on a journey over the past five years to help make Recon a more representative and inclusive platform for men of colour. We discuss the moment the ball-gag dropped and he realised the impact of his work, cleansing his sexual aura and fetish as an opportunity to connect socially with other men in ways that don't always end up with sex. We talk...
May 03, 2019•1 hr 3 min•Ep. 33
Research conducted by the European Women’s Lobby to better understand online abuse uncovered some startling, if not entirely unsurprising, statistics: In Europe, 9 million girls have experienced some kind of cyber violence by the time they are 15 years old; and despite the rapidly growing number of women experiencing online violence, only 26 percent of law enforcement agencies in the 86 countries surveyed are taking appropriate action. Seyi Akiwowo is working hard to change that. She first came ...
Apr 24, 2019•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 32
Alexander Leon is a rising star in the community and his new YouTube channel is a Godsend. His searing yet bubbly takes on LGBTQ life are a welcome counter to the often toxic conversations we hear in the media and he is such a fabulous example of what happens when we lean into ourselves. Today, we explore how he navigates his mixed-race identity, what he feels is his role as a mediator between cultures, ideas and beliefs and how he’d like the conversation around the mental health crisis in the L...
Apr 20, 2019•54 min•Ep. 31
When the city of Philadelphia announced in 2017 that they'd adopted a rainbow flag that included black and brown stripes, they ignited a global debate. Many of us finally felt seen. Others felt the international symbol of pride had somehow been ruined. But the adoption of this flag is the result of what my guest today calls a 30 year conversation. Amber Hikes is the executive director of the Mayor’s Office of LGBT Affairs for the City of Philadelphia and she leads the team that initiated the mov...
Apr 07, 2019•1 hr 4 min•Ep. 30
Media Diversified was established in 2013 to help change the conversation in the media and foreground the voices of writers of colour. Media Diversified is a powerhouse: two books, Bare Lit Festival, the Jhalak Prize and a newly appointed editor-in-chief, Marcus Daniel. Marcus joins me in conversation today to discuss combating the overwhelming negativity of the British media, creating space to amplify Black voices and reclaiming our time from racism. We also touch upon his view of what it does ...
Mar 09, 2019•55 min•Ep. 29
Poet and singer Dylema says she became aware very early on that she would be unhappy trying to live up to the patriarchal expectations put upon her. She’s since been on a journey in pursuit of her freedom. From changing her name to coming out to her mother, Dylema says that finding herself, understanding who she is and what she wants has been the key to finding peace and living fully in her truth. We explore why changing her name allowed her to imprint herself on Igbo culture, how she helps othe...
Feb 09, 2019•50 min•Ep. 28
Today’s conversation will be triggering for some. What follows is a candid discussion which touches upon mental health, suicide, sexual violence and conversion therapy. Please listen with care. Included in this episode’s show notes are links to UK-based charities and services for each of the sensitive topics discussed. Ben Ellis describes himself as a belligerent queer Black man. He's a poet who writes about survival, Blackness, Queerness, fuck boys and the layers of our identity, layers that he...
Feb 02, 2019•49 min•Ep. 27
When it comes to British national treasures, Patrick Vernon OBE is high up on the list. An activist, historian, former politician and cultural curator whose work spans decades, he’s one of the Black Britons who has been instrumental in uncovering a Black British identity. From fighting against systemic and societal inequalities to his Afrofuturistic exploration aboard the SS Sankofa on his podcast Museum of Grooves, Patrick’s continuing impact is felt wide and far. Today, we discuss his formativ...
Jan 26, 2019•51 min•Ep. 26
Today, I’m in conversation with Alex Reads, host of the award-winning podcast Mostly Lit and of his own and new show, What Matters. In all of his work, Alex demonstrates his capacity for a deep and searching self-reflection, that most vital of exercises in living a good and fulsome life. What I perhaps love most about Alex is his ability to help us in holding up a mirror to ourselves, to understand better who we are, what we want and where we’re going. In a searching and probing conversation, we...
Jan 20, 2019•51 min•Ep. 25
We all have those voices in our head that hold us back. The voices that tell us our past precludes our future, that too much has happened or that we can’t make a difference. But we all have those voices that dream and imagine the impossible and that provoke and encourage us to create the world we want to live in. Jean Lloyd, the communications provocateur, invites us to focus on and nurture those positive voices and to remember that language is a tool used to create, not destroy. The conversatio...
Jan 01, 2019•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 24
John Amaechi OBE is a respected organisational psychologist, best-selling New York Times author and CEO of Amaechi Performance Systems a consultancy that partners with organisations to help leaders move from being transactional to transformational — he’s also an openly gay Black man. Praise be! Today, we talk about his love of libraries, why the LGBTQ community isn’t really a community after all, the attendant anger that comes with any awakening, his take on the Golden Rule, why it's a good thin...
Dec 09, 2018•59 min•Ep. 23
I’ve said it before and I’ll say it again because I believe it, Otamere Guobadia is the James Baldwin of our generation. His writing is searing, prescient and beautiful, striking at the heart of issues we battle with everyday. He’s also a friend and confidant and I hold him in high esteem and so understand my estimations of him may sound grandiose. We discuss the taxonomies of magic, the violence of compromise, misremembering our pasts, hypermasculinity, the boundaries of our queerness and hope,...
Nov 10, 2018•51 min•Ep. 22
Today, I’m in conversation with another of our queer Black icons, Campbell X. He’s an award-winning filmmaker whose work often explores queer masculinity and desire, and our conversation covers everything from understanding ourselves away from the white gaze (and gays) to the importance of exploring our own desires, the dominant lenses through which we see the world and ourselves, and the never-ending importance of seeking out intergenerational connections. Our conversation takes place at the ta...
Oct 28, 2018•1 hr 18 min•Ep. 21
Kelechi Okafor is a fitness guru, a personal trainer, womanist, twerk innovator and pole dance instructor whose podcast Say Your Mind is one of the most hilarious, delightful and enlightening podcasts I listen to. I came into our conversation thinking I’d get the Kelechi we see on social media. The Kelechi who tells people to get a straw to suck their mum, the one who calls out caucasity when she sees it and who’s built a following and a brand not giving two sh*ts if people think she’s an angry ...
Oct 06, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 20
Today, I’m in conversation with Christania, the editor and chief of queer Black online magazine AZ Mag. Together with a small group of queer Black women, Christania set up AZ mag because she didn’t see herself reflected in mainstream LGBTQ media. AZ Mag is a triumph and what Christania has helped create is a much-needed and remarkable platform that is bringing together the queer Black community in the UK. Like so many of us, though, this isn’t the only thing she does. Christania is launching Qmm...
Sep 22, 2018•1 hr 1 min•Ep. 19
FKA is a globe-trotting drag superstar. Raised in the cradle of boarding schools in middle England, their subsequent education in the ways of the world, and how their race informs their work, has been a source of considerable growth and introspection. From understanding their Blackness in its proximity to whiteness, to the role mixed race kids play at the intersection of colliding cultures, FKA’s life and work is one of straddling two often opposing sides. Alongside drag as art and how FKA has l...
Sep 08, 2018•59 min•Ep. 18
Shahmir Sanni was thrust into the international spotlight after blowing the whistle on Vote Leave’s law-breaking during the EU referendum. Shortly after the story broke in the Guardian, he was outed by Number 10 — thus putting in jeopardy the lives of his family back in Pakistan, his own mental and emotional health and his future. But like so many queer people of colour, Shahmir is resilient and brave. And while he’s been wounded and bruised, he’s certainly not been deterred. Today, we discuss h...
Aug 25, 2018•56 min•Ep. 17
As I tore through Dr Kehinde Andrew’s new book, Back to Black, scribbling in the margins and highlighting passage after passage, I felt within me the fire I first felt reading Malcolm X and James Baldwin. In Back to Black, Dr Andrews calls us to revisit and reimagine the Black radicalism of yesteryear -- a Black radicalism that is too often conflated with cultural nationalism. My main question after reading the book was this: how do queer Black people adopt a Black radicalism that was historical...
Aug 18, 2018•1 hr 2 min•Ep. 16
