I didn’t know at the start of 2021 that I would be sitting here writing an Editor’s Letter for Black Ballad. At the start of the year, I was stumbling through life, trying to find a space that would let me bring all of me to the table; my past, my experiences, my voice. I was just looking for a home.
I remember getting the job advert sent to me on Twitter, by Elaine McGee, a BBC Northern Ireland journalist who has given me so many opportunities to use my voice, and the message simply said, “You’d be fab!”
The job criteria said, “You just need a lived experience of being a Black woman in Northern Ireland”, and the voice in my head immediately screamed, “Finally, this accent will come in handy!”