Royal Holloway hosted its first ever Black Creative Awards on 13 February 2023, at its Egham campus which encouraged young people of Black and Mixed Black heritage to create art work with the theme of Black History Month’s, Time for Change: Action Not Words.

Winners, runners up and judges

The awards are about shining a light on and celebrating Black talent and creativity and submissions were sent in from nine schools from London and the South East. There were 10 entries shortlisted, with the winners for Key Stage 3 (KS3) and Key Stage 4/5 (KS4/5) categories being announced during the occasion.

The first winner was Lexy Musa who entered for KS3 category, who won for her poem entitled ‘foreign’ which explored the challenges and pressure of trying to fit in to different cultures and embracing her Shona heritage.

The KS4/5 winner was Aisha Neita for her spoken word poem ‘Ashley’, which was inspired by her friend who was struggling with their mental health. Aisha hopes her poem can reach people and begin a dialogue around mental health in the Black community.

Entries could be in the format of art, digital media, music and writing.

There were four judges who chose the winning entry:

• Princess Ashilokun, a brand strategist and spoken word poet who has performed commissioned pieces at the Lyric Hammersmith, Black Cultural Archives, The Huntley Archives, The Roundhouse, Powerful Media’s gala for the Top 100 African and Caribbean influencers in the UK, and Dream Nation.
• Fabiola Bonnot, who is a French editor/translator for Net-A-Porter and photographer specialising in portraiture, red carpet events and concert photography.
• Timoni Longe, who graduated from Royal Holloway with a Criminology and Psychology degree in 2018. Timoni is a professional dancer and movement artist. Her recent work includes being an official 2022 Afronation dancer. She is passionate about using dance as a form of self-expression.
• Sophia Oshodin is a self-taught figurative painter living in London. Her paintings are notable for their bold colours and patterns and are often featured in solo exhibitions, group exhibitions and Art Fair. Her works are in many private collections around the world including the National Arts Club New York. In 2021, she was shortlisted for the Kate Bryan Art prize. Her work has been featured in various publications and Vanityfair UK. Her work is currently being featured on Amazon Harlem TV show season two and UK TV show Champion for BBC/Netflix.”

Fole Fowowe, Widening Access Officer at Royal Holloway, said: “We received so many original pieces of creative work for our first ever Black Creative Awards, it was hard for our judges to choose.

“We wanted to be able to give young people of Black and Mixed Black heritage a platform to express their thoughts and emotions and we certainly were not disappointed.

“We would like to thank everyone for submitting their work and also to congratulate the winners and runners up and also to our judges, who took time out of the busy schedule to be part of this fantastic event.”

Winners and runners up received:

KS3 (11 to 14 years of age) winner

• £200 worth of vouchers to support your creative pursuits
• Two x tickets for Black History Walks tour (worth £30)
• Goody bag including Dark Sugars products
• Invitation to creative workshops at Royal Holloway, University of London

KS4/5 (15 to 18 years of age) winner

• £200 worth of vouchers to support your creative pursuits
• Two x tickets to Black History Walks tour (worth £30)
• Goody bag including Dark Sugars products
• Invitation to creative workshops at Royal Holloway, University of London

All runners up received:

• £25 worth of vouchers to support your creative pursuits
• A goody bag including Dark Sugars products
• An invitation to creative workshops at Royal Holloway, University of London
• All short-listed finalists will receive:
• An invitation to creative workshops at Royal Holloway, University of London