Blog 

You may have already heard some of the tracks: ‘Worthy’, ‘Little Songbird’, ‘Like Family’ and ‘Shades of Yellow’ were released as singles and I’ve been so happy with reception so far. But now the album is released, I’ve been reflecting on what it means to me as whole piece.

As a whole, the album explores the stories from my family history to weave together themes of dual heritage identity, intergenerational healing and ecological justice. 

On a personal level, I’ve had to understand myself and my story, that of my life and the generations before me, to really author the legacy that I leave for the next generation, to do the work on intergenerational healing, to give the gifts and break the cycles. 

In the run up to the release of the first single from my album, ‘Ancestry’ - funded by Arts Council England, the MOBO awards and Help Musicians UK - I wanted to write and explain what the album is about and what started me on the journey of writing it. 

Speaking from a mixed race perspective, straddling experience and identities, I have been talking about issues of racial justice for a decade. Nitelife magazine describes how I ‘weave poetry, spoken word and beautiful lyricism’ through my songs, ‘presenting some very real and raw issues of love, life and the human condition’. I hope this new track ‘Lights Go Out’, which brings together my music and activism, is no exception.

I don’t know about you, but I’ve almost forgotten what it is to come together in total abandon and have a good old party. I hadn’t realised how much I’ve missed it.

Last week I curated, spoke & performed at ‘Climate & Colour’, an event reflecting on white privilege, a history of institutionalised racism and the racial lens through which we view climate change, feel grief and plan action. It was a journey into further understanding how these things are deeply intertwined & dismantling pervasive racism to create a more just world & a diverse & united movement for change. You can read the full text of my talk & watch the full event below.

I wrote this poem in February. I started this blog after the murder of Ahmaud Arbery and the lack of justice around his death and now I’m finishing it as protests surge all over the US around the death of George Floyd as a result of police brutality. At this moment, this could not be more relevant.

‘Underside’ is a song about a lot of things: honesty, vulnerability, mental health, friendship, hope, intimacy and the joy of letting your mask down. Audiences have often said that they love hearing about the stories behind my songs, so it’s a real pleasure to be able to introduce some of the people that feature in them.

As Greta Thunburg, the female teenage activist takes the world by storm, ‘Lips’ is centred around a spontaneous moment of feminine non-violent resistance to the destruction of our earth.