The Founder of Obsidian Nick Makoha is a Ugandan poet and playwright and based in London. His debut Kingdom of Gravity was shortlisted for the Felix Dennis Prize and nominated by The Guardian as one of the best books of 2017. A Cave Canem Graduate Fellow and Complete Works Alumni. He won the 2015 Brunel prize and 2016 Derricotte & Eady Prize for his pamphlet Resurrection Man. He was the 2019 Writer-in-Residence for The Wordsworth Trust and Wasafiri.

His play The Dark was directed by JMK award-winner Roy Alexander and shortlisted for the 2019 Alfred Fagon Award. He was one of the 2019 T.S Eliot Prize Judges looking for the best new poetry collection written in English and published in 2019 (This was the first time that a Black British poet; Roger Robinson has won the prize in its 26-year history). He was a judge for Young Poet Laureate for London for 5 years and mentored four young laureates Caleb Femi, Selina Nwulu, Aisling Fahey and Warsan Shire. He has guest lectured at the universities of Suffolk, Greenwich, Goldsmiths and Roehampton. He has been involved in TV marketing campaigns for Voices Nationwide: Celebrating Fatherhood and the Gillette, Being A Man digital campaign for The Southbank Centre. His poems appeared in The New York Times, Poetry Review, Rialto, Poetry London, Triquarterly Review, Boston Review, Callaloo, and Wasafiri.

He has an MA in creative writing from Goldsmiths University where he was Creative Entrepreneur-in-Residence. working to create an in depth online digital archive of the Metic experiences of Black British Writers. The term ‘Metic’, first used by T S Eliot, translates as foreigners or resident aliens whose allegiances are split between their homeland and their new country. Makoha is exploring how the metic experience of Black poets can develop our writing and career in a hope to de-homogenize the Black Metic experience.

Carol Rumens’s best poetry books of 2017 Nick Makoha’s first full-length collection, Kingdom of Gravity (Peepal Tree £8.99), was the 2017 debut which most excited me. Focused on Uganda during the Idi Amin dictatorship, his poetry is charged with ethical sensibility. The lines protest as they sing “the song disturbed by helicopter blades…” but they don’t simplify things: they explore, and complicate. Personal witness and artistry are one. - Carol Rumens - The Guardian

Theresa Lola is a British Nigerian poet and writer. She graduated with a first-class degree in Accounting and Finance from the University of Hertfordshire. After university, Lola took part in the Barbican Young Poets programme. Shortly after she was shortlisted for the 2016 Bridport Poetry Prize, and later won the 2017 Hammer and Tongue National Poetry Slam. In 2018, she was joint winner of the 2018 Brunel International African Poetry Prize.

In that same year she was commissioned by the Mayor of London's Office to write and read a poem at the unveiling of Millicent Fawcett's statue at Parliament Square. A year later, in April 2019, she was announced as the 2019 Young People's Laureate for London. In 2019 Lola's debut full-length poetry collection In Search of Equilibrium was published by Nine Arches Press, described by Pascale Petit as a "glorious hymn to being alive and wounded".

My name is Tobi Kyeremateng, or Tobes if we're mates. I am a freelance award-winning cultural producer and social entrepreneur with a focus on creating rich cultural experiences and sustainable social change through film, live public events and community-led programmes.

Recent credits include: The Future Is Near (Tate Modern), Sonic Transmissions Series (Roundhouse & The Institute of Contemporary Art), J'Ouvert (Theatre503), International Women's Weekender (gal-dem), BABYLON Festival (Bush Theatre), AFRO-CITY Festival (Roundhouse), Pagans (Old Vic Theatre). Film credits include: Wishbone (NOWNESS, 2020 International Shorts at Screen Dance International Festival) and Secret Life of Gs by Caleb Femi, and Roots For A Crown (NOWNESS, 180 The Strand: Prada Mode) by Julianknxx.

With 9 years’ experience in cultural production, strategy, consultancy and project management, I have worked with organisations such as AFROPUNK, Goldsmiths University, Nike, Oxford University and Samsung, and have won several awards including: ‘Inspiration of the Year’ (Stylist Magazine’s inaugural Remarkable Women Awards 2019), ‘Best Producer’ (inaugural Black British Theatre Awards 2019), the ‘Arts & Culture’ Award (Women Of The Future Awards 2019) and 'Special Award: Producer' (OffWestEnd Theatre Awards 2020).

I am currently the Creative Civic Producer at Brixton House (formerly known as Ovalhouse) project managing Let’s Build - an offsite community project working with twenty Brixton-based primary school children and architects MATT+FIONA to co-design and self-build a temporary community space in Brixton.

I am one of 25 civic leaders selected as part of the first Civic Futures Programme in partnership with the Greater London Authority. I am the founder of award-winning initiative Black Ticket Project, a company creating cultural access points for Black young people,, and am currently writing my debut non-fiction book, ‘THEATRE SH*T’, to be published by Jacaranda Books in 2021.

I am a Senior Artistic Associate at the Bush Theatre, Board Trustee for Peckham Platform and the Diversity School Initiative and mentor for Sour Lemons.