Starting over
On this International Women’s Day 2022 we watch over a million women and children fleeing their country to run from Russia’s tanks and missiles, leaving behind their menfolk, homes and security.
This is set to be Europe’s biggest refugee crisis since the Second World War.
Those women are like us, except they have lost everything. As they head into an unknown future, they have no idea what ‘starting over’ will look like.
But as we’ve seen with the Pandemic and now the war in Ukraine, the old order of things isn’t working.
And so maybe we all need to rethink everything and start over, so that our people and planet have a future worth saving.
Rip it up to start again
My Brave New Girl podcast guest this week Bunmi Akintonwa is helping to create the new world order in which freedom, equality and inclusion are the core values.
Bunmi Akintonwa is a Producer, Writer, Exec Producer and CEO of the little black book co (lbbc) a UK production and distribution company backed by Impact X Studios, a fund created by a group of inspirational black investors to support underrepresented entrepreneurs with potential to make a significant difference.
The last couple of years has meant certain projects went hold, which also meant the income from them ceased, and the investors' money was impacted. Bunmi's writing partner died too, and so she was left trying to pick up the pieces and push for new opportunities.
Always resilient and go-getting Bunmi started out as the life style editor of the Voice and contributed to a number of other Youth style mags. Then she became a TV reporter on 2nd series of a cult youth series called Network 7. Everyone working there was young, hungry and up for doing whatever was needed to get the show in the road. It was all hands on deck and everyone had a chance to test their mettle.
But when it came time to progress her career through the usual channels with a large broadcaster, reflecting her experience, Bunmi came face to face with sexism and racism, first hand. She wasn't imagining it; the producer told her straight up, they'd fulfilled their quota for black women.
Undaunted, she accepted another job, that took her to Rome and her career bloomed until she got pregnant and found that the company didn't want women who were mothers in their midst. By the time she came back from maternity leave, her job had 'changed'.
So out of the ashes she created her own TV production and Distribution company LBBC, and eventually returned to the UK armed with her international experience. But the pandemic put a stick in her spokes.
Only now she knew that her work was bigger than anything that could get in her way. Black Lives Matter was the catalyst to start working to help diversify organisations especially within TV industry. After realising the extent of underrepresentation at Cannes Film & TV Festival she founded & became a jury member of DiversifyTV Excellence Awards in partnership with MipCom.
She defines courage as taking risks , pushing boundaries, pushing open doors (for yourself or others) having them slammed in your face, getting up again taking risks again. She believes that when things aren't working you've to rip it all up and start again.
Thank you so much Bunmi for being a driving force for the underrepresented and for producing sustainable and inclusive content that leads the way for a more equal playing field across the board.
Thanks also for showing us that even in the zig zag of life, when we have our eye on the end goal, we can get to where we want to be.
You can find out more about Bunmi on http://lbbc.eu/ and follow her on Linkedin @Bunmi Akintonwa
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