Reflecting on the MOBOs

In February 2025 Newcastle and Gateshead hosted the MOBO Awards. This is the first time that the North East has hosted the awards, and as part of the hosting there was a significant Fringe Programme, which showcased a significant amount of the local talent in the North East. 

The usual rhetoric around Global Majority creatives, artists and cultural leaders in the North East, is that they are few and far between. However, at NECF we know that isn't true! We have some of the most amazing Black creatives in the North East, across all art forms. This was a wonderful opportunity to see that talent shine, through the showcase concerts, the schools workshops and the Black Music Summit. The Music artists of the North East took centre stage, but Dance Artists, Visual Artists, Videographers, Film Makers, Photographers, marketers and many more showed what talent the North East has to offer. 

Some of the brilliant people involved in the MOBOs Fringe programme

I was heavily involved in the programme through my work with Northern Roots, and also through my advocacy and mentoring of many artists and creatives. My observations are that it is amazing that we have had the MOBOs in the North East, and the positives of the profile for the artists involved cannot be downplayed - however we have a long way to go in the investment models, power structures and profile of Black and Global majority artists and leaders in the creative and cultural sector. I have talked about this a lot in the past. Many organisations and individuals talk about the region’s workforce as if there is no way to engage with Global Majority creatives, both within organisations or across the freelance workforce. There is also a lack of understanding of the barriers many artists have to entering and sustaining within the workforce - whether that is to do with tangible barriers like finance and education, cultural barriers like family understanding of the sector or ability for the sector to understand the stories and approaches of Global Majority creatives, or structural inequities like representation in the sector and feelings of othering and racism. 

So like many others, I want to celebrate the North East Black creatives involved in the MOBOs, and I want to remind the sector overall that we need to do more to develop equity in a world that feels like it is becoming more inequitable. This isn't just about Global Majority Creatives, but also links to workclass, LGBTQIA+, and Disabled voices and representation within the sector. We are stronger together and we all have a level of privelege and agency - even when it sometimes feel like we don't. So please, Freelancers, understand the moments when you could lift others up, hold the door open and create or share opportunities with other people who might struggle otherwise. 

And for organisations and institutions, please think about how you engage with our Global Majority colleagues! One of the most important things to say is - share the power you hold and please don't just work with people who agree with you! Change only comes when we work with people who challenge our perceptions and points of view.

We can't wait to work on the legacy programme of the MOBOs, understanding that the MOBOs was a moment in time, and the creatives who were profiled were here before and are still here now! With many more across the whole of our region.