Q: Can you name 4 people who changed your creative life?

Ask me anything

This is a fun Q!

I’m going to go with number one being my mother Michelle McIntosh. There are multiple reasons. Obviously, she gave birth to me. But, aside from incredible parenting skills, there is a lot of cross over in the things I do now and the things she has done. I think it often takes us a long time to really get to grips with the fact our parents are not just our parents. They have very separate lives that exist over and above us. The label of mother, father or grandmother not being the only label they ever held.

Often there’s a shift when this becomes clear. I think for me it was some time in my twenties. Previously, I had failed to do a lot of reflection on the things that I was doing - and how they linked to what my mother had done. For example, my mum went to film school in her early twenties. She actually had a really tough time. It was an awful climate and racism was rife. The representation of Black people in films was often relegated to slavery and very stereotypical portrayals. She told me about quite a lot of moments where she felt she really had to push back. It was quite a hostile environment. I was thinking about how that mirrored some of my experiences in university which led to setting up gal-dem.

She was also involved in a lot of film collectives and organisations - which again mirrors my experience. I actually have a lot of these pamphlets that she saved from the nineties about Black women in film. When I was born, my mum was umming and ahhing about calling me Zora, after Zora Neale Hurston. Her love of literature and the arts was always very apparent. It was a different time then, so having a child meant she did end up taking a career pivot.

But the career pivot was again, similar. She worked at an organisation based out of The Albany in Deptford. It was a social enterprise that she ran for ten years, which helped young people set up businesses and social enterprises. She did a lot of work with the Young Mayor of Lewisham and I would spend all of my summers going to events there. Workshops and classes they were doing at The Albany which was all about supporting you and developing your skills. Anything from a CV writing workshop to fashion based stuff. I think back to all of these things that you often forget as you emerge and realise just how instrumental they are.

After ten years the amazing organisation that my mum was running really struggled to find resourcing. So there was a lot of conversation around how do you try to build something sustainable and viable. Later, when it came to initially launching gal-dem, my mum helped me a lot in the early stages. On top of that, she also did a lot of packing magazines for us!

I think it’s interesting, knowing the foundation she had within arts, social enterprise and business - and how that has informed me. But aside from these tangible things which highlight the way in which we are intrinsically tied - I also think about my mum’s strength and her heart. Her belief in the importance of love and being vulnerable has never shied away, despite the loss she has experienced. This is one of the things I find most beautiful and something I’ll never forget.

I think when you go through massive losses it could be easy to lock your heart in a box. Shut if off from everyone. But she’s always told me it’s important to put yourself out there and to love and be loved. Things might end or things might be painful, but it doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try.

Next I’m gonna pick Nikesh Shukla who has been such an instrumental guiding light and shining force in my life.

He is an incredible editor, writer, mentor. He used to run Rife Magazine, which helped young people tell their stories. I was studying at the University of Bristol and he was someone who came into my ether. He worked with a lot of cool and dynamic young people like Yero Timi-Biu and Grace Shutti.

I was doing a dissertation that was focused on gender based violence, victimhood and the asylum process in the UK. I used to work with Women for Refugee Women and different organisations. A lot of campaigning around Yarl’s Wood. Early on Nikesh helped me and connected me with relevant people. But he’s also just the warmest, kindest, most intelligent human being. I’ve done a couple of his writing courses, and as well as being a friend and a mentor, his creative brain is just incredible. I definitely feel like his belief and support has been instrumental in various stages of my life. He periodically checks in and is just a really good human. I’m eternally grateful for him.

Someone else I’d love to shout out has to be the one and only, the legend, Sharmaine Lovegrove. She has impacted my life in pretty huge ways. She runs Dialogue Books under which I am published. I met her when I was eavesdropping on her conversation on a train in Herne Hill. She was talking about diversity and the state of publishing, and me, feeling very bold and brazen, inserted myself into her conversation and introduced myself. I was becoming increasingly steadfast in my commitment to shifting things within the industry. I mean, I barely had a career then, I think I was still a student!

We just started chatting, and then we built a friendship. She is the most intelligent and also boujiest person I know. I remember early days, her coming to our tiny little gal-dem office in Peckham with Champagne and scones. She’s always been someone who has challenged me and I feel it’s important to have that in your life. She has always encouraged me to continue to learn my craft and to study. To never stop learning. That encouragement is what led me to a MA in Black British Literature which was a very pivotal part of my writing journey.

Taking that time to really learn and understand the history of a lot of Black authors within the UK, the landscape, the history behind it, the breadth of knowledge and stories, really changed things. Spending time studying authors like Jackie Kay and Bernardine Evaristo. Early works of Evaristo’s like The Emperor’s Babe. Texts and books I should have read but hadn’t. It was game-changing and I will never forget her encouragement of me to do that before I really embarked on my own writing journey. You have to continuously be curious, study and remain open to the world. Sharmaine has always inspired me to do that. She’s fierce in all the best ways.

Next, I think I would also be remiss if I didn’t shout out Miss Charlie Brinkhurst-Cuff. In terms of people that have shaped my life and writing career.

Charlie was the Head of Editorial at gal-dem. We met at the second ever gal-dem meeting, and she got involved and was just so brilliant. So smart. One of the first working journalists I met that was trained and had bylines. I remember she’d written this piece about dating as a mixed race girl in Vice and that was something we were all talking about at the time - fetishization in dating. She has to be one of the most talented, brilliant and big hearted editors I know. She is so incredibly thorough. I know that whenever I send something to Charlie, she’s gonna come back with some real concise thoughts.

I refer to her as a sister friend. It’s her love of people, her love of things, her real desire to make the world a better place. We both have parents that are identical twins which is something we continue to bond over. You know when you meet someone, and they become a part of you.

Working with her was one of the greatest joys of my life. Her friendship is something I will cherish forever. We do talk about how insane our communication used to be in terms of how frequent it was. Because it was the work mixed in with the friendship. I think we’re a lot better now, less manic, but she’s been a rock for me and someone who continuously inspires me. Her writing is just brilliant. The work that she’s doing around missing Black women in the UK and how that’s reported on is so important. She’s a trailblazer through and through. I cannot wait to see what she does next with that and also with the rest of her work. She is a little legend.