‘f you’re talking openly about wanting to burn white supremacy to the ground having a good white person close by is evidence to other white people that you’re talking about the structures and not the individual.’

‘I’m always experimenting, so I’m always in the headspace to do it.’

‘I’ve found that a lot of music companies pride themselves on having gender diverse staff or rosters, which is obviously also important. But they don’t put this same energy into creating culturally diverse spaces.’

‘I think a power I want to hold to account or challenge is actually cultural power—where it’s about challenging an internalised view that a listener has. I think that is a really significant kind of power that largely goes unquestioned.’

‘I write, therefore I am.’

‘I get asked if I’m into abject art, which is funny because I don’t see it as disgusting at all, I actually think they’re really beautiful and peaceful works.’

‘The way that I work often starts with material play, which then progresses into lots of experimentation with form and how to install it. Sometimes I do have an image in mind that I am working towards.’

‘However much goodwill there may be for a writer of colour, this ecosystem is not built for us, and at some point in the life of a book, an FNPOC writer is going to come up against a wall of whiteness that will leave a mark. I guarantee it.’

‘If you supersaturate the world with images, you have to consider the work that these images do, which can be a work of substitution—cultural consumption as a stand-in for material change.’

‘There’s art and there’s direct, material political work to be done. Are they really so separate? Art lends complication, confrontation and possibility to our understandings of each other; it offers both critical and imaginative potential.’

‘Only recently did I realise how much my mixed background has affected my sense of identity and how I see myself.’

‘I have learnt that listening really is everything. Not only for what is said, and letting that lead and guide me, but for what is not said.’

‘I’ve always loved new digital technology and how we can tell stories with them. Learning about the advancement in 3D and realising how much of it had seeped in around me, it seemed like such a wild way to reinterpret the dreams.’

‘The most important thing I have learnt is that it’s not about providing more women with the opportunity to work in this sector—it’s about creating opportunities.’

‘Creating, to me, is therapeutic and naturally one of the only things that can bring meaning or purpose on a day to day basis.’

‘Even though I’m proud to be one of the trailblazers, I’ve never been interested in being the first—I want to be the best. So that’s how I push on. Breaking the ceiling will never be enough for me.’