Words of Colour’s Joy Francis and Mesha McNeil (centre) with the guest speakers at Making your Mark.
When Words of Colour Productions produced a survey for young creatives to tell us what they needed to get their careers kick started we were lucky enough to meet nearly 100 of them in person at special event at the Tricycle Cinema. Mesha McNeil who launched the survey, explains why she is now inspired to make a difference.
Back in January 2013, we produced a London-based survey to find out what young people aspired to in terms of a creative career and what they needed in place to make it happen.
The feedback from our youth engagement survey led to Making Your Mark – Getting a Career in the Creative Arts and Media held at the Tricycle Cinema in Kilburn on 31 October 2013.
An audience of young actors, writers, musicians, students, youth workers, parents, teachers and representatives from different creative industries listened to successful young creatives.
BBC3 Some Girls lead actress Adelayo Adedayo offered an insight into the auditioning process. Daniel Fajemisin-Duncan, one half of the successful writing duo (the other being Marlon Smith) behind the acclaimed three part drama Run on Channel 4, explained the show’s journey from script to screen. Screenwriter and film director Destiny Ekaragha, who brought playwright Bola Agbaje’s award-winning play Gone Too Far to the big screen, talked casting and shed light on the role of a director.
A panel consisting of a photographer (Adrianne McKenzie), female DJ (Lady TT), social entrepreneur (Ashley Wylie), advertising creative (Akwasi Poku) and music video director (Labi Odebunmi) gave great advice on securing work experience and how best to get – and keep – your foot on that career ladder.
From top left: DJ Lady TT offers some advice. Actress Adelayo Adedayo poses with a fan. The work experience panel. Photos by Oliver Barrett.
Their words were both inspiring and practical. Adedayo explained how she pursued her acting dreams and made the audience feel that they too could do the same. It appears to be working as she has joined the cast of Law and Order: UK. Wyllie revealed how he started out solo by setting up his own website, learning how to take photographs and make films along the way to get his start in business and helping his community.
By the end the place was buzzing. Guest speakers mingled and took photographs with the audience members. The event, which also had useful materials donated by V Inspired and the National Union of Journalists, books from Malorie Blackman courtesy of Random House children’s division and refreshments courtesy of the local Tesco, Iceland stores, allowed everyone to leave with valuable information on how to proceed with their creative career aspirations.
Not only did Making Your Mark … serve the purpose of engaging young people, it provided Words of Colour Productions with the opportunity to strike a direct conversation with them on what programmes we should offer, particularly the ‘how to …’ approach to their careers and having access to those who can answer their questions.
The three main points generated from the guest speakers were create, learn and collaborate. Create in the absence of opportunities and employment by using available resources and skills to produce original work. Learn new and vital skills, and build on existing ones. Collaborate by networking, meeting mentors and peers to learn from and collaborate with, to create new content.
With this short but important list in hand, we are planning another Making Your Mark event, and will be running a series of workshops to allow young people to create, learn and collaborate with others. The positive reaction on the feedback forms has let us know that engagement events are needed, and wanted, for creative young people to learn more about the industry and to meet like-minded individuals.
Who knows, we may help to inspire the next Adelayo Adedayo, Naomi Harris, Steve McQueen or Idris Elba.
Mesha McNeil is Words of Colour Production’s youth engagement lead.