What would I alter: Nicole Crentsil, Black Woman Competition
At just 28 years old, Nicole Crentsil built an impressive career as a speaker, curator and festival director and used the safe event space to fight the injustices that she and her community experience every day. In 2016, she founded her first event, Unmasked Women, an art exhibition, and a series of lectures and workshops to serve as a catalyst for the black community to discuss mental health.
Crentsil continued to work with art institutions such as V&A, Tate Britain, ICA and Southbank Center before co-founding the Black Girl Festival in 2017 – the UK's first festival to celebrate black British women and girls. The team behind the event has so far produced a takeover of TimeOut London magazine along with two annual festivals and built a growing community of over 30,000 people online and IRL. More recently, Crentsil also launched Big Sis, a platform to support the personal development of women in the creative industry.
Lockdown was a steep learning curve for Crentsil. Having just launched the Black Girl Fest Academy, a seven-month program sponsored by the Mayor of London and Today at Apple and aimed at young black women who wanted to enter the event industry, she was quickly forced to enter the academy redefine in virtual form. Experience has given her food for thought when it comes to imagining what events will look like after the corona virus, but this time of thinking has also made her think about how the industry should change.
Here, Crentsil discusses the need for both physical and digital post-closure events, as well as her recent experience offering payment for speaking at the D&AD Festival, while other black speakers did not highlight what was wrong with the event industry and why it was Diversity gives panel at your next event it just won't cut it.