When my nursery teacher slapped me on the back of my legs I was so envious by her righteous power that I knew there and then that I wanted to become a teacher. This I suppose was that heritage gene the strong combination of being the Nigerian daughter of a Liverpool mother. This dream was my only one until I reached the 5th year. But suddenly I was attractive and by this I mean that after being a designated a wallflower by virtue of race only a change was coming and Black really was beautiful. So I ignored my studies for a career on the catwalk. Born a Libran I exist in the middle; not really academic not really thin or sufficiently tall for a model but model I was for a couple of years. I had been dancing since I was two years of age my mother having spent all her (so-called) extra cash on classes including elocution (which I would wag). Dancing was my forte in modelling and a source of extra income when I stared the first Jazz Ballet classes at Withington Town Hall.

Though I did go to college I left on a whim and joined the rag trade working periodically at boutiques or as a house model. When my love of food got the better of me I turned my hand to the catering industry and was soon the manager of a leading dinery, the famous gourmet restaurant, Beaujolais. From there I went to work in St Moritz for three years before returning to Manchester.

My childhood desire to teach was now long behind me but I had also favoured a similar career as a social worker. I had been advised to go and get a life during an interview in my late teens. I now not only had a life but also had lost my mother and this time I was successful and joined National Children's Homes as a Residential Social Worker. I would later move on to Stockport Social Services and then Manchester.

It was whilst at Manchester that friends asked me to put together a fashion show to support a poetry reading and book launch. I watched in awe as each in turn took to the stage. I had always liked poetry. I love to talk and getting paid to do the two seemed a brilliant way of earning an income.

I had already become to write my mother's life for prosperity. I was on the first rung of the arts and I have never looked back.

In 1985 I coordinated Revelations of Black for the Black Arts Alliance at the Royal Exchange Theatre for the Manchester Festival. Once again the Libran trait was evident, balancing my own writing and performing with leading a growing, and in so many ways revolutionary, organisation founded by a group of committed community artists who, unlike myself knew that paper work drains creativity and were happy to hand over the steering.

Twenty years later I am still with BAA making it the longest surviving Black-led organisation in the country. And though I may not be in such demand as a poet and performer as I was in those early years I do still write and perform. I have toured across the British Isles, Central and Eastern Europe, India, Brazil, Africa, Canada, and British Columbia, and return annually to work in the USA.

At the helm of BAA www.blackartists.org.uk I coordinated the first Black-led
forum on Live Art artBlacklive, with three commissions in 1992 followed by a Training weekend in 1993. The success of these two events led to artBlacklive-Two in Leicester and artBlacklive -Rite, a second training weekend. I lead BAA's initiatives, which includes project fund raising. Major successes have been NCLB 3- year funding for working with young Black men and Dfee for work with Asian Women suffering marital abuse

As a workshops facilitator I have worked in education and the community: museums, galleries and on training courses. I have been delighted to be invited as a Keynote Speaker and on panel at national and international conferences. I also undertake research and strategy consultations.

My publications include a number of anthologies, and collections of work, including Four For More. As a live artist, the production Story of M is still wowing audiences.

In 2000, my libretto for Mary Seacole the opera, sold to an 80% Covent Garden audience over six nights and in 2003 received a standing ovation at Bridgewater Hall Manchester. One person came out at the end saying, “Well its the first time I've come out of an Opera humming the final song.” In October 2005, I will write the libretto for the BBC Philharmonic Orchestra for composer Tunde Jedge.

Awards and accreditations include the NESTA Dream Time Fellowship in 2005; Big Issue in the North Individual Inspirational Award finalist in 2004, Windrush Inspirational Awardm in 2003; Order of the British Empire (OBE) in 1999; and the Winston Churchill fellowship for USA research in 1996.

SuAndi