What a fitting end to this season's podcast- this week's guest is non-other than Mr Mark De-Lisser!

Mark is a renowned arranger, choral director, vocal coach and presenter.

Mark’s musical journey started in his local church in Brixton where he went from teaching himself piano to leading the youth choir by age 15!

Mark went on to formalise his musical education when he studied Vocal Music at the colchester institute, followed by an MA in vocal studies from The Central School of Speech and Drama AND a PCGE in Musical Education from the Institute of Education. This King 👑 is qualified and has taught at a number of institutions including The Brit School.

Mark has coached a number of well known artists and he was also the master arranger behind the delightful rendition of “Stand by Me” sung by the Kingdom Choir at the 2018 wedding of the Duke and Duchess of Sussex.

Always committed to improving the world through singing, Mark established choirs such as community choir Singologychoir in 2003 and the award-winning ACM gospel choir in 2008. His 2019 “Meet the Street at Christmas” show gave us a glimpse into his work and how community singing can be a powerful force against the scourge of loneliness. This passion has continued throughout the lockdowns- tune in to find out more!

This week we have been honoured by the company of barrister, youtube sensation and author, Christian Weaver.

Hailing from Nottingham, this King has kept his eye on the prize from a young age. After studying for his Law degree (LLB) and then went onto study the BPTC (the course to qualify as a Barrister). Christian was called to the bar aged just 22 and he is a barrister Garden Court North Chambers.

Christian is passionate about law being accessible to all and providing strong representation to those most vulnerable in society (we love to hear it)!!!

This passion led for him to create – 60 second bite sized legal videos on YouTube giving the audience powerful and useful insight and education in the UK legal system.

‘The Law in 60 seconds, know your rights’ is soon to be launched in paper back – pre-order yours today! https://www.waterstones.com/book/know-your-rights/christian-weaver/9781788166492.

Prepare to be educated and inspired by this incredible rising star!

Instagram: @thelawin60seconds

Twitter: @ChristianKamali

This week we are joined by Chrissy Patrick, founder of Ara and Obi.

Ara and Obi specialise in bamboo bedding, blankets and towels, and evangelise the benefits of using bamboo based products for bedroom and bathroom linen. Through this brand we have learnt that bamboo has incredible rewards not just for the environment but also as a fabric. It’s been great to educate ourselves whilst supporting the business.

Chrissy started the business in 2020 building on research undertaken when her eldest child had bad eczema which was really distressing for both mother and baby. When her son was born with similar skin sensitivities, she didn’t want to repeat the same process and frustrations. She decided to take matters into her own hands and create a brand she knew would work not only for her family, but for families everywhere.

We loved meeting and finding out more about this Queen, her background, her family, and what’s next for her and the brand and we are sure you will too!

This week we are blessed with the presence of Instagram sensation, the fabulous and talented Kazvare!

For those who haven’t seen her work, where have you been? You are missing out on a combination of witty and playful influences mixed with popular culture and current affairs!

@Kazvaremadeit’s art and illustrative talents focus on Black culture, celebrate the Black experience and really share her sense of humour.

What we love about her work, is that whether the message and illustration is a comical observation or more serious topic, the combination of her creative talent and her love of words can be seen and felt by her followers. #blackgirlmagic – each and EVERY time!

We are big fans, love seeing her fanbase grow and along with many, we eagerly await each of her posts!

This week’s guest is Neal Gruer aka The Scotch Bonnet - an incredible photographer with an exceptional ability to focus on people. His amazing style and skill of using both analogue and digital cameras to portray both “philosophical intrigue and visual poetry” is insane! We feel privileged to shine a light on his sophisticated, educated and melanated journey!

Born in Scotland to a Ghanaian mother and an Aberdonian father, he was raised in the suburbs of Glasgow’s Southside. He went on to study law at Edinburgh University. Following 7 years of study, he took a year-long break to travel around the world and take photographs. It was on these travels that his passion for photography firmly took hold.

When he returned to the UK, he qualified as a solicitor in London and went on to practice for two years...knowing he wasn’t satisfied he searched for more and left law in 2015 to pursue photography and writing.

It was soon afterwards that, in 2016 that he reached the quarter-final of Sky One Arts TV talent competition, “Master of Photography” and this King found his calling ...and has been glued to his camera ever since.

In 2019, he featured in the Black & Scottish documentary by Stewart Kyasimire.

Today we are joined by the founder of Black Aristocrat Art – Glory Samjolly, a graduate of the University of the Arts London.

Her brand, Black Aristocrat Art, aims to decolonise myths within art history. She also showcases her wonderful artworks on @glorysamjollyart.

What we resonated with instantly, was that Black Aristocrat Art aims to remove the misconception that Black history started with the transatlantic slave trade. It paints a more accurate picture of the nobility that have been white washed and silenced through history.

We also love the narrative that Black Aristocrat Art brings – that of not just highlighting beautiful art, but showing the rich stories and lives that these individuals led.

What an honour to have this talented Queen on the podcast!

This week we are blessed by the presence of Jumoke Abdullahi, one half of the fabulous “Triple Cripples” – a brand and platform created by two Queens who want to represent and shine a light on disabled Black Women & Non-Binary people of colour living with disabilities.

Jumoke is of Nigerian-British heritage, and an accomplished writer, speaker, expert lecturer, consultant and someone that has a great passion for social justice. She has lived experience of the intersectionality of being Black and disabled.

We are truly inspired by Jumoke’s instagram travel blog @JayonLife – where you can keep up to date with her travels, recommendations and perspectives on how accessible her chosen destinations are – we definitely recommend you follow!

Jumoke also is an ambassador for a charity called Star Children Initiative that works to enable and advocate for disabled youths and women in her home nation of Nigeria, as well as providing support for parents here in the UK.

Listen in to get to know more about this Queen!

Needing some #movementmotivation? Look no further than this week's guest, Mr Darryl Edwards aka the fitness explorer!!!

Darryl is a certified personal trainer, nutritionist, international speaker, award-winning best-selling author and movement and health coach.

Darryl has developed his holistic approach to health through making lifestyle changes to improve his own health. In doing so, he discovered the joy of movement and play and has developed unique ways to inspire people “regardless of age, ability or disability to transform their health by making physical activity fun and engaging” and part of the everyday.

Darryl shares his philosophy through his books such as "Paleo Fitness", "Paleo from A to Z" and "Animal moves". There are also handy card decks for home, office and kids as the fitness explorer is “on a mission to change lives through the power of primal movement and active play.

"Primal Play" is the platform through which Mr Edwards has brought “a focus on fun, functional and challenging movement” that can be adapted for all, AND encourages adults to give themselves “permission” to play - check out the website!!! https://www.primalplay.com/

The first guest of season 3 is the incredible Gemma Cairney!

This Queen is a multi-award winning broadcaster, author and founder of the Boomshakalaka production company.

We have admired her career starting as a radio broadcaster on BBC radio 1 and Radio 6 music and also as she has broadcast on a variety of TV programmes. Gemma Cairney has written for a number of prestigious publications and of course published her book: "Open - a toolkit for how magic and messed up life can be" in 2017.

Tune in to listen how this wonderful and generous "joy activist" shares more about her journey to date and mission in life.

A very warm welcome back to Season Three of our podcast! . To start things off, we look back and reflect on our fabulous guests from Season Two. . Enjoy! . Artwork by @leanne_creative Music by @antoinekiim 🎥 and podcast production by @kofi_smiles .