A Nottingham Trent University society is staging its first event of the year focusing on black excellence.
The New Black Society’s ‘Limitless Inspiration’ event takes place at 1.30pm on Friday and aims to discuss challenges facing black and ethnic minority students in society, such as the glass ceiling, microaggressions and workplace diversity.
The online panel talk will welcome guests including Community Recording Studio co-owners Trevor Rose and Nick Sterrett, who managed Nottingham hip-hop duo Young T and Bugsey to fame, as well as “We Chattin’” podcast owner Grace Okeke and NTU Senior Psychology Lecturer, Dung Jidong.
Speaking to Platform, The New Black Society President Liona Williams has said that the event aims to discuss what it means to be black in modern society.
The second year law student said: “The event is inspired by the idea of redefining what it means to be black, and what being black means in society,” she said.
“Often when people think of what this means, there are lots of negative connotations, so we wanted to put a twist on that and have a black excellence event.
“As a society we thought, why not have an event where our students and members can connect with this idea?”
The society – which was founded in 2017 – is hosting the talk after a previous event had to be postponed due to coronavirus restrictions.
The talk is free to attend, having been co-organised by The New Black, BAME Law and Afro-Caribbean societies.
But Liona has encouraged students of all backgrounds to attend the event and discuss issues important to everyone in society.
She added: “The event is open to all students because everyone needs to see that being black is an excellent thing, and that everyone is deserving of racial equality.
“We need to break down forms of systematic and institutional racism as a group, it cannot be done alone.
“I hope this year we can deliver more engaging events that a lot of students will benefit from.
It has been such a difficult year for all of us so I hope that students can connect to one another, whether this be through values, ambitions or background.”
Students interested in attending the event can register online.
By Callum Parke
Featured image: The New Black Society