One of my highlights of last term was the Black History Month Hall of Fame 2025.

This year the project was led by Current Black Minority Ethnic Officer Mo Ebengho to celebrate the importance of diversity and inclusion.

It shines a light on the resilience, strength, and brilliance of the Black community at UWE, ensuring their achievements are celebrated all year round.

More than just a recognition event, the Hall of Fame is a platform for inspiring future generations. It sends a powerful message that diversity enriches the academic environment and strengthens the university community, encouraging others to strive for excellence in their own journeys.

The Hall of fame is kept up all year thanks to Precious a previous SU President who lobbied for it to be kept up rather than just for the month of October.

This is so the Hall of fame-ers can be a constant influence and encouragement to strive for a better education and better prospects for black students who walk past every day.

On the launch day, we started at the hall itself, the Hall of Famers bought friends and family admiring each other and taking photos next to theirs. Mo our BME Officer made a really inspiring speech before cutting the ribbon to officially open it.

Here is some excerpts from that wonderful speech:

‘So I want you to just take a look around, the colours, the laughter that we've had, the energy.

This right here is what we call black excellence.’

‘I want to say thank you to all the nominees.

Thank you for being you.

Thank you for showing up, standing for and shining bright, not just for yourselves, but for those who came before you and those who will come after.’

‘And every time you walk past this wall, that's what I want you to remember is “look at me now.”

‘There is a Nigerian proverb:

When the roots of the tree begin to decay, it is the strength of the branches that keep it alive.

And that is you.

Every single one of you are the branch.

You are the branches, strong, vibrant and alive, keeping our culture, our spirit and our hope growing.

So from this day forward, walk boldly, shine loudly and love deeply and never forget you are chosen.

You are chosen by history, by spirit and by destiny.

Congratulations to the Hall of Famers.’

We then all headed back to the SU building where the rest of the day took place.

All of the Hall of Famers walked into the building and were greeted by singing from a couple of members of the local choir, Solidarity in Sound, Bristols first choir for PoC that is very LGBTQ+ inclusive.

Then we had arranged to have a panel talk and chose speakers that would talk about the importance of sustainability and getting out into nature for good mental health and wellbeing, Mo is really passionate about this, especially for students from the Global Majority.

This is who we chose as speakers:

Leanne Anyinsha from Soul trail wellbeing: ABOUT US

Melissa Ogrhe from the Sunflower Collective : Sunflower Collective – Mose Rising

Lildonia Lawrence About | Move with Lildonia

Subjects that they spoke about were

‘How do you see sustainability showing up in the way that we raise and empower the next generation both environmentally and culturally?’

‘The importance of using nature and peace to help rest and look after yourself when historically people of colour have been taught to be stoic’

‘how do we make sustainability a lived practise within our communities, relationship and institutions?’

‘thinking about what it means to be a village to you and how we can not just take from the village but give back to the village.’

‘thinking that sustainability is having a commitment - finding your community and then having a commitment to enable and empower each other.’

‘What would you say to a student who wants to build a career that honours both their identity and their responsibility to the world?’

‘ change makers amongst us, you are not making change if you're doing what everybody else is doing.’

One of the Hall of famers said of the day:

‘My favourite thing was the panel discussion.

It was very insightful.

It really touched the people's hearts and I really enjoyed the conversations.’

After the talk a student recited a poem ‘the earth is a living thing ‘by Lucille Clifton we chose this poem as it was relevant to the theme of the day of nature and wellbeing in the black Community as it seems to describe the Earth in metaphors  and natural imagery that plays upon the negative stereotypes and turns them into something positive in order to empower people. 

Then we welcomed back Solidarity in Sound, this time with all the choir members - if you haven't heard Solidarity of sound, do check them out. https://www.instagram.com/solidarityinsoundchoir/

We had a local company to cater the event, Jikoni - who produce traditional and inspired dishes from East Africa. This is a small local business and they offer plenty of choice - much of the menu was vegetarian/plant based. This food was recommended by our BME Officer and was delicious.

There followed an afternoon of socialising, eating and networking. One of the attendees said of this ‘one of my favourite things about today has been actually taking the time to celebrate incredible leaders and alumni and change makers.’

And I would agree the room certainly was full of leaders and change makers.

For a final treat for the Hall of Fame-ers we hired in a photographer to take a portrait of each of them and their guests. We researched local Black photographers as we wanted to highlight local black artists and the BME officer was keen to have someone who had lots of experience taking photos of global majority skin tones, so we researched lots of local photographers. The person that we hired even more perfectly was a UWE Alumni. Jimmy Osayamwen.

https://www.instagram.com/jimmy_osa/

He took lovely portraits of each Hall of Fame-er.

And as a reminder of the day we printed out each persons favourite picture, framed it and gave them as a keepsake:

The Hall of Fame is up in the corridor in D block opposite Onezone in Frenchay Campus, so you can go and see all the inspiring Students and staff who are showcased, you can even nominate now for anyone that you think could feature in the 2026/27 Hall of Fame!

https://forms.office.com/e/neRbczsUNK