Page 64 - Future Leaders Magazine

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LAST YEAR’S NO. 1

W
What Happenedhat Happened

NEXT?

University of Bristol graduate Olivia (Liv) Little

started online magazine gal-dem.com because
she wanted to connect with other young women
of colour. At the time there wasn’t a platform out

there, so she lled the gap by creating one. Since
launching in 2015, it has grown from strength to
strength, becoming a global, award-winning and
much celebrated movement. Last year she was
named our No. 1 Future Leader. Here’s what she’s

been up to in the past 12 months…

his past year has been very busy for Hour, where I spoke about gal-dem, what
me. I’ve spent a lot of it working inspired the movement and the importance of
full-time as a researcher at Lion it. I was also invited to take part in a Radio 4
T Television, which I’ve been doing documentary on feminism, so it’s great that
since I graduated in 2016. Lion is a production I can now bring my views and opinions to
company which makes factual TV shows these spaces.
and documentaries. One of the shows I have In the past 12 months, gal-dem has also
worked on is First Dates, where I was part of collaborated with online fashion brand ASOS, 1
the casting team. via an audiovisual poetry exhibition exploring
But working full-time doesn’t mean that ‘what home means’ to eight women of colour
gal-dem.com [the online magazine founded from Britain. It was basically a short fi lm
by Liv in 2015, and produced by and for young series, which I directed and produced. These
women of colour] has taken a back seat. The fi lms were then projected on to the walls at a
interest and growing popularity of the website live exhibition with live music.
has allowed me to do a lot of amazing things, For the poets, we tried to get a good spread
including quite a few collaborations and of people from various backgrounds and with
projects with some cool brands, which has very diverse life experiences. Some of the poets
defi nitely intensifi ed over the past 10 months. we featured were Bridget Minamore, Anjali The event was a great success, with more than
One of the standout things I’ve done is go Barot, Rachel Long, Tania Nwachukwu and 4,000 people attending. It was also extremely
to New York in October 2016 to speak at a Raheela Suleman. historical, in that something like this had never
workshop event for young girls, which was In October 2016, gal-dem curated our fi rst happened before.
organised by the School of Doodle, an online event at the V&A Museum, after they saw our On the night we got to showcase everyone
artistic community that connects creative website, really liked what we were doing and from artists to people in politics, using
Gen Z girls with ideas, experts and each other. offered us the opportunity to bring this to mediums such as art, discussion, fi lm and live
This particular initiative was a partnership the V&A. We have been approached by quite music. This included guided tours across the
between them and the United Nations’ ‘Girl a few organisations in a similar vein but it gallery in an exploration of objects and stories
Up’ campaign. is important that any partnership we do is from the museum’s collection relating to black
I have also had the opportunity to do authentic and also the right fi t. We felt this women’s history and women in the Middle
interviews on huge platforms such as Women’s was, especially after meeting with their team. East. We also had music sets from artists and

62 FUTURE LEADERS | 2017-18