A day has gone by, this is the 1st of February and I am reflecting on Caught You a lie, the performance. Not the book, but the performance.
Wow, I feel so overwhelmed. I have actually just come back from doing a gig, and my voice is terrible at the moment. I feel absolutely exhausted, but I love what I do—and even more, I love inspiring people. I’m just so happy, I’m so proud of myself, I’m going to say openly I am proud of me. I am proud of myself for taking a bet on me and walking in bravery, that’s being brave in action, that’s what bravery is and through this action I have created and curated a play, a musical play, a one-woman show.
The Feedback…
The feedback has been absolutely incredible and overwhelming at the same time.
So I just want to again thank everyone who supported and came out, those of you sent me messages. You know who you are and yes, yes and yes again we are taking this on the road.
How are we going to do it?
God knows!! He knows and He will make the provision. But there’s no turning back now. It’s all good and it’s all love.
What now…
And I just want to encourage somebody, if you are out there and you’re listening to this and you want to do something, you desire to change your life, to live your life differently but you don’t know how then I am running the empowered woman sessions, actually it’s 12 sessions and it will help you to move forward in your life, get out of your way, become unstuck and really live your life on purpose, because that’s what this is about, purpose is calling.
So if you are interested I’m going to put a link below there will be a link and click on the link and book, the course actually starts on February 26th. The course is going to be delivered by me personally. So if you were inspired, if you’ve been inspired by just looking at my social media, you didn’t attend and you want to find your voice, you want to create a different life then click the link and join me for the empowered women hybrid. It’s a hybrid course, here’s live events, there’s three live sessions and the rest are online.
If you want to join the waitlist for Caught You In A Lie just follow this link – you’ll be the first to know when I have news about dates and tickets.
This Windrush Wednesday I’m not going to say very much, I’m going to leave it all to Professor Laura Serrant OBE and her Poem You Called and We Came.
Her words are incredibly powerful.
Whilst I’m talking about Windrush, ITV have a programme on tomorrow night at 9pm made by Pride of Britain celebrating the 75th Anniversary of Windrush, I don’t know if it’s any good I haven’t seen it, but if you don’t know much about Windrush and why I talk about it a lot then it might be worth having a look, I’ll give it a look and pray that they do justice to our amazing Windrush generation.
There are still a few tickets left for the Hope Gala Ball, as part of the ball we will be hosting an exhibition of the forgotten Windrush men and women who were a crucial part of World War II.
Just head to The Hope Gala Ball page if you’d like to know more about that’s happening on the day and to purchase tickets.
Valerie’s law is a proposal to tackle domestic abuse specifically among black communities, through a process of cultural competency training for the UK police force and it’s related bodies.
It’s named Valerie’s law after Valerie Forde who was murdered together with her 23 month old daughter Jahzara by her ex partner in 2014.
A few weeks before the murders took place Valerie had reported his threats to the police but they has been recorded as a threat to property rather than live. The police had come to the home after Valerie called 999 but left after allegedly knocking and hearing no answer. Entry to the home is said to have taken 40 minutes, during which time the murders took place.
What happened to Valerie and her daughter highlighted a severe knowledge gap when it comes to the black community and it’s domestic violence victims by the police force and related services such as hospitals.
The campaign aims to see specialist training introduced as standard practice for service providers, in order to help them better navigate domestic abuse within black communities, to better understand the cultural nuances and barriers, colloquialisms, languages and customs that make up the diverse black community.
The law still hasn’t been passed through parliament yet, but there is building pressure to make sure that it WILL happen eventually.
If you need help reporting or recovering from domestic abuse then please take a look at http://gemcic.co.uk, or drop me a message, help is out there.
Last week for throwback Thursday I shared me singing at last years Hope Gala Ball (tickets for this years ball are available at this link).
This week I thought I’d share a quick bit of inspiration that I first shared in December 2020, it’s about being the bigger person.
This is about knowing you are right but being able to maybe walk away from a situation, or maybe agreeing to disagree, it’s about taking a stance that brings you peace by being the bigger person and not causing an argument just to be right.
Let me know what you think in the comments are you good at being the bigger person?
The heartbreaking story of Logan Mwangi got more press coverage than the story I shared of Denise last week, however still not enough.
Logan was only 5 when he was murdered sometime in late July 2021, he was beaten to death by his mother, stepfather and his stepfathers stepson, the young defendant was only 13 at the time of the crime. After they had disposed of his body in a nearby river, cleaned the crime scene and then filed a missing person report.
The stepfather already had a series of criminal convictions from his time as a member of the national front, the convictions were for violent crimes, he was well known for being a racist and often made racial slurs to Logan about his ethnicity, having a father with Kenyan descent.
In August 2020 Logan broke his arm falling down the stairs, they didn’t initially seek medical help and tried popping the bone back by themselves, this incident was referred to the police. When Logan returned to school in September teachers noticed a dramatic decline in him. In January 2021 he was placed on the child protection register which meant that social workers would visit the family every ten days. These visits began in March 2021 and continued until shortly before his murder.
When passing sentence on the trio the judge stated that Logan was physically and emotionally vulnerable at the time of death, particularly those days leading up to his death when he had covid and was isolated in his room.
Both adult defendants were in position of trust, these are the people Logan should have been able to trust.
The murderous assault on Logan involved extreme and forceful impact to cause internal injuries of those expected in a high velocity car collision or a fall from a great height. He would have survived his injuries for several hours, had medical assistance been sought Logan would have had an 80% chance of survival, instead the defendants left him to die and then worked together to dispose of his body like fly tipped rubbish.
All three of them have been found guilty and sentenced to life for what the Crown said was a brutal and sustained assault prior to his death.
In the aftermath an inspection of local child protection services in Bridgend and in particular a review of events leading up to Logans death took place. The young age of one of the defendants was was 13 at the time, 14 when he went on trial received some attention, especially as he was known to child services and had only recently been placed in the care of his stepfather even though he had expressed extreme hostility to Logan.
This is another case where I feel the victim has been let down by the systems that should have been protecting him.
If you love music, inspiration, positivity and good energy …
You won’t want to miss the The Hope Gala Ball – The Masquerade Edition, along with “FORGOTTEN BLACK WOMEN HEROES” past and present. Bringing the community together, celebrating the ’75’ Platinum years of Windrush. It’s a Black tie dinner and dance
Fundraising for survivors of domestic abuse to empower them to take their power back and reclaim their lives!
Every ticket you buy helps & supports this cause!!
The funds from the ball, as mentioned above will go to help survivors of domestic abuse, this is all. done via GEM – The Global Empowerment Movement. GEM is a not for profit organisation that helps and supports women and girls to find practical solutions to overcome emotional challenges and provides life skills and tools to increase confidence and self-esteem, therefore allowing them to rebuild their lives and have a sense of wellbeing.
