A leading Liverpool artist has called for more support for creatives in the region so that they no longer feel that they have to leave Merseyside in order to succeed.
Brodie Arthur and her co-founder, Leah Watson, were awarded funding from Culture Liverpool for their open mic nights, More Than Words, that spotlight Black performers and industry professionals.
The funding was awarded to those acknowledging the black community’s talent in the city region ahead of Black History Month this October.
Brodie applied for the funding in hopes of using the money to connect black creatives with the opportunities that are here in Liverpool.
Describing them as ‘starving artists’, she says the black talent in the city is big but due to not getting the work they desire; they are forced to leave for places such as Manchester and London to be recognised in the industry.
She said: “We can’t retain black talent. So if we can’t retain black talent that tells me that we’re not nourishing the talent because if there was opportunity here, we wouldn’t leave.”
Culture Liverpool has awarded funding to a diverse-range of artists, from poetry and music to photography and dance. Each project reflects encouragement and engagement in amplifying and recognising the depth of black talent in Liverpool.
The idea for More Than Words came from a phone call where the pair helped each other polish the poems they’d written.
They put on a play in 2022 and filled the audience with black individuals by applying for funding. Venues started to become interested and now they host the event on the first Friday of every month where various black talent is celebrated.
She added: “I’m very much a person that creates the opportunities. So, I don’t care if the city region doesn’t want me, I was born here, so it’s stuck with and I will make space for myself and I will carve out a path for those coming behind me.”
The More Than Words co-founder wants to see a future that people can and will use their gifts to survive. She put emphasis on the fact that when individuals do what they’re gifted in, instead of a job that pays the bill, we seem to be happier, healthier individuals.
She stated what she hopes to accomplish with the funding she received from Culture Liverpool. She said: “I want to grow the black creative talent to a point where it swells up so bad that the city refuses to not recognise us.”
Brodie is hosting a panel to celebrate the open mic’s first birthday and Black History Month.
It will include speakers such as academic expert, Dr Leona Vaughn, the co-founders of the Black Actors Collective, Paislie Reid and Cherise Weaver and British actor, Leon Lopez.
They will speak about the work they have done with the aim to bring black artists together by emphasising the opportunities that are here in the city region.
The born and raised Liverpudlian made it clear that she did not want rejection from the city to force black creators to lose their spark and give up on their dreams. Instead she hopes to be the vehicle to help artists in the community to actualise their full potential.
