Black Girl Gamers

What a month! As UK Black History Month draws to a close, I am incredibly proud of how Tapestry celebrated and recognized Black Talent, Pioneers, and Changemakers. We showed up & showed out! ✨ Internally, we hosted a panel featuring inspiring changemakers who have paved paths in Fashion, Beauty, Media & Medicine. A huge thank you to Jamelia Donaldson, Bianca Saunders, Dr. Joan L. & Selma Nicholls for sharing their experiences and engaging in an important conversation centered around self-expression, inclusion, and mental health. The panel delved into topics such as overcoming industry barriers and strategies for fostering a more inclusive environment. Each speaker brought unique perspectives from their respective fields, making it a truly enriching experience for all attendees. ✨ Externally, we partnered with the UK Black Business Show & proudly sponsored the Black Fashion Talks! I had the honor of sitting on the panel alongside my colleague Gemma Barfi & Ebony Quow , (Associate CIPD, Bsc, Msc) The discussion, “Finding Your Career Path in the Fashion Industry,” was moderated by the dynamic Jay-Ann Lopez visionary leader in the gaming industry & founder of Black Girl Gamers who has previously partnered with Coach! We also collaborated with Bola Sol host of The Bola Sol Show, Financial Advisor & Author. Her mission is to build a community where women are equipped & encouraged to engage in financial conversations, making her a powerful advocated for financial empowerment. It was a pleasure to style her in amazing pieces from our kate spade new york & Stuart Weitzman collections. ✨The UK Black Business Show concluded a week of events, from an amazing networking party to inspirational talks on entrepreneurship, real estate, law, fashion & media. It was fantastic to connect with hundreds of future potential talent at our career fair pop-up booth. Shout out to all who participated in giveaways & took time to learn about all Tapestry has to offer! A huge thank you to Dr. Raphael Sofoluke, CEO & Founder of The UK Black Business Show and UK Black Business Week! He’s a visionary entrepreneur whose work has significantly impacted the Black business community. The UK Black Business Show, founded in 2017, highlights achievements & contributions of Black businesses to the economy and provides invaluable insights on entrepreneurship, leadership & business from some of the UK’s leading Black professionals. We are honored to partner with you & look forward to what’s next! ✨ Throughout the month, we shared posts internally celebrating UK Black Culture & wrapped up BHM with catering from 2NigerianBoys. The jollof was delicious & the vibes were immaculate! Special thank you to Trinicia Perch & Fiona Maher for making UK Black History Month a success! And thank you to Emma Jones, Natassja Etherington (Assoc CIPD), Phoebe Lightfoot, Paige M., Lauren Doffman, Anita Bhalsod, Susie Dewey and Matteo De Bortoli for your partnership & support throughout the month!

As UK Black History Month comes to a close, I want to take a moment to reflect on the incredible experiences celebrating Black excellence, creativity, and entrepreneurship. I am so proud to be part of a team at Tapestry where we get to host and participate in such amazing events. Throughout the month, we shared posts internally celebrating Black UK culture, including curated book lists, must-watch movies and TV shows, and an interview with the amazing authors Dr. Raphael Sofoluke and Opeyemi Sofoluke taking about their latest book, Together We Thrive. We closed the month with a lunch from 2 Nigerian Boys, and I was definitely jealous I couldn't be there for the jollof! Fiona Maher, great call and thank you far all you did to make this month a success. There were a few highlights that really stood out: Internally, we hosted an inspiring panel discussion with four Changemakers – Bianca Saunders, Jamelia Donaldson, Dr. Joan L. and Selma Nicholls – moderated by Tapestry’s Rondette Amoy Smith, PHR. These amazing women are changing the narrative and paving paths in fashion, beauty, medicine, and media. They each brought unique perspectives to an important conversation centered around inclusion, self-expression, and mental health. Externally, we partnered with the UK Black Business Week | UK Black Business Show to sponsor Fashion Talks. The highlight was having my team members, Rondette and Gemma Barfi, sit on a panel alongside Ebony Quow, moderated by the amazing Jay-Ann Lopez of Black Girl Gamers. They shared insights on navigating career paths in the fashion industry during the discussion “Finding Your Career Path in the Fashion Industry.” I was deeply honored when Rondette gave me a shout-out, recognizing my tenure at Tapestry. 23 years y’all! 😀 Lastly, participating in the UK Black Business Show with a Tapestry pop-up both was a wonderful experience. It was great to connect with potential talent as they stopped by to learn more about us. Thank you to everyone who stopped by to listen to us talk about Tapestry and our brands, Coach, kate spade new york, and Stuart Weitzman. Moments like these reaffirm the importance of the work we do at Tapestry to foster inclusion, creativity, and elevate diverse voices across industries. Special thanks to Phoebe Lightfoot, Paige Makun, Natassja Etherington (Assoc CIPD), Emma Jones, Lauren Doffman. and Anita Bhalsod for your support.

It's been a super busy summer over here, we were grateful to have teamed up with YouTube and Black Girls Anime — BGA to bring our communities together and host a Women@ Mixer at Dream Con this year. In line with our focus on bringing our community together IRL, we partnered with Youtube to create an empowering and eventful mixer for the women at Dreamcon. Our events always generate great vibes (if we say so ourselves) and so of course there had to be a viral performance of Megan Thee Stallion's Mamushi Challenge. Thank you to Alana G. and Adam McFarland for their support of our community and creators in general. Alana has championed and advocated for Dream Con for many years and has been the authentic connector for many creators, leading to YouTube's first ever presence at the con. It was fantastic to partner with you both.

“I think this is a huge mask-off moment for the games industry in terms of seeing the massive difference in priorities between the people who are running these companies versus the workers themselves.” Chris Bratt said it best. There IS a need for unionization in the gaming industry and it should be more common practice, especially during these times of studio acquisitions If you missed our #BGGOnlineSummit, this panel “Where Do We Go From Here?” featuring our panelists Chris Bratt from People Make Games and Iron Galaxy Studios’ Katherine Sánchez and Rejess Marshall, MBA is out now on our YouTube channel. Watch the full panel: https://lnkd.in/e3uM7mvv

Day 1 at our first devcom complete! Shoutout to all the Black In Gaming panelists today, the gems were dropped! If you're in town for gamescom we'd love to meet IRL! Game makers/studios, brands, creators, BGGs or if you just fancy a chat send Akua Harris 🔜 Devcom/Gamescom a DM here or in the app to schedule a meeting!

During our ‘Women in Leadership & the Glass Ceiling’ panel, we spoke to former leaders at Niantic, Riot Games, and Warner Bros about their experiences being Black Women Leaders in the corporate gaming space. Big thank you to Laura Teclemariam, Trinidad Black, and Angela Roseboro for dropping gems and shedding light on your experiences with our moderator Jay-Ann Lopez. If you missed our #BGGOnlineSummit, we highly recommend checking out all of our panels on our YouTube Channel. Watch more of this panel here: https://lnkd.in/e879eYjd

Let’s talk about the Power of Nostalgia within the entertainment industry because these video game IPs are making their rounds in TV and Film! Our panelists Tongayi Chirisa and Laya Deleon Hayes’ provided their POV on the topic as actors and actresses to our moderator Victoria Brown. Our panel ‘To the Silver Screen and Back Again’ from our #BGGOnlineSummit 2024 is out now on our YouTube channel! Watch the full panel: https://lnkd.in/eJxzaVXR

During our ‘Is the Price Right panel’ Charlotte Stavrou (née Williams), Founder/CEO of SevenSix Agency, spoke with our moderator StoryModeBae about the content creator pay gap, negotiating rates, and more. We highly recommend you watch this panel and the other panels from our #BGGOnlineSummit on our YouTube channel! Watch the panel: https://lnkd.in/eqFpsiWx #creatorpay #equity #negotiations #contentcreators

Thank you Intuit Mailchimp for featuring our Founder and CEO Jay-Ann Lopez in an episode of Subcultural! Jay discusses her journey of founding Black Girl Gamers and what it means to amplify Black Girl Voices in Gaming. Catch the full episode here: https://lnkd.in/e4__Zb5A

I had a very bizarre and unsettling weekend. I woke up to the sound of sirens, helicopters, and an anti-immigration protest right outside my home in Liverpool. This was just a few hours before I was scheduled to attend the Black Girl Gamers online summit. As you can imagine, the day was a whirlwind of emotions. Despite the chaotic start to my day, I am extremely grateful for the dedicated time and space that the team at Black Girl Gamers created. Before I logged on to the summit, I found myself trapped in a mindset where I felt that my work, my art, and my very existence were constantly up for debate. I feel like the term "safe space" is thrown around a lot these days, but when leaving your house means jeopardizing your safety, you can't help but be grateful for all the hard work that people put into creating a space where you are reminded that your value shouldn't be questioned. I learned from people who were infinitely smarter than me, I was in awe of the creators who reminded me that I'm allowed to be perceived, and as a marketing girlie, I was thoroughly impressed by the entire production. So, thank you to the team at Black Girl Gamers and everyone who made the event happen 🥂