Olive Morris Awards Luncheon 2025

You’re Invited to the 5th Annual Olive Morris Awards & Luncheon

Theme: Women in the Business of Liberation

Get ready for a powerful, vibrant, and deeply inspiring day as we celebrate five years of honouring the bold, visionary Black women building stronger communities across the UK.

ALL ALLIES ARE WELCOME

This year’s theme, "Women in the Business of Liberation," highlights the fierce and transformative work of Black women in community development—those driving positive change, grassroots progress, and collective care.

At the heart of the Olive Morris Awards is a commitment to uplift and spotlight Black women leaders who are not just doing the work, but doing it for the people. Inspired by the revolutionary legacy of Olive Morris and the freedom-fighting women who continue in her footsteps, we honour those who challenge systems, build networks of support, and hold space for joy, justice, and liberation.

💥 What to Expect This Year:

🎖️ Award Ceremony
Celebrating 5 phenomenal women chosen by communities across the UK, whose work embodies radical love, resilience, and community power.

WINNERS ARE;

• Jemmar Samuel's (Founder of Collective punishment & Co -Founder of Halo Collective)
• Claudine Ecceslton (Founder of Playing The Race Card Exhibition and Activist)
• Temi Mwale ( Founder of 4Front and Community Developer)
• Tianna the Writer Johnson (Writer and Community Documentator)

🎤 Power Panel: Roundtable on Global Liberation
This year’s focus expands Olive’s framework to the global stage, examining how struggles abroad are linked to our own, and how solidarity can be a tool for survival and transformation.

Featuring:

Marian Faye (The Gambia) – fighting human and sex trafficking by creating a Community Library.

Jumana Eltgani (Sudan) – her work supports women civilians and families affected by the conflict and war and explores creating positive change in the midst of battle.

Hania Tayara (U.K/Syria) – Hania is a Syrian-Palestinian co-production specialist and activist working at the intersection of health and social justice. Her prize-winning research explores the boundaries between Israeli settler colonialism and Palestinian health, arguing that there can be no meaningful healthcare solutions without Palestinian liberation.

Moderator Dr. Rita Gayle - Dr Rita Gayle is the Postdoctoral Research Fellow for the Conjunctures NOW strand of the Stuart Hall Archive Project at the University of Birmingham. Rita is a historical-cultural-geographer working at the intersection of race, gender and the city. Prior to working in the academy, Rita had worked in many industries, most extensively in Media.

🍽️ Luncheon + Joyful Gathering
Enjoy delicious food, a mini short film fest, games, prizes, and surprises that will nourish your spirit and spark new connections.

SPECIAL POP UP SHORT FILM FEST & POPCORN

Featuring *****

A STORY LEFT BEHIND (Director/ Producer : Asma Kabadeh)

Synopsis:

A researcher discovers the fragmented stories of the first Somali woman in Sheffield. Resurrecting her memory, the film questions whose stories get told and who gets to tell them.

Not to be missed doors open 12pm

Asma Kabadeh is a creative producer and filmmaker with an extensive background in collaborative arts initiatives, working across arts and heritage, community development, and documentary film. Her work focuses on under-represented voices, and she enjoys creating spaces to bring people together to discuss, experiment and create. Her debut short film, ‘A Story Left Behind’ (BFI DocSociety funded), premiered at Sheffield Docfest in 2025 - accompanied by an impact campaign which delves further into archival records, and their fragments for Somali and wider diaspora communities.

🌍 Join the Movement

We welcome you your brilliance, your heritage, your gender, your dreams. Come be part of a living, breathing celebration of freedom work and community love. Let’s build, heal, and rise together.

BUY A SEAT AND MEET SOME EXCITING AND NEW PEOPLE OR BE REALLY FUN AND BUY A TABLE SO THAT YOUR MATES MAY JOIN YOU FOR GREAT FOOD, BREAKTHROUGH KNOWLEDGE, FUN AND MEETING OTHER PEOPLE WHO ACTUALLY CARE!

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