Last weekend I painted a mural of the amazing Cardiff singer/songwriter Saint Bernadette. Turns out the timing was pretty fortuitous because on Saturday I had the pleasure of performing alongside Saint Bernadette and some fellow Ladies of Rage (LOR) members, as part of Trishna Jaikara’s DJ set for the BBC6 Music Festival.

When the festival was announced I was very late to get on the hype-wagon… nowhere in my head was this going to be a space where I would perform, or have that performance played on the radio! The main conversation in our house was about how mean it was to bring these amazing artists to Cardiff but not to let under 18’s go to any of the gigs…

Immersed Fringe Festival (Tramshed)

I was grateful to be included on the Immersed fringe festival line-up as a visual artist. Because I was painting I didn’t catch much music, but I did see Monique B kicking off proceedings. Accompanied by her Baby Queens bandmates Cara Elise and Leroy Rahman, with some solid collabs with Reuel Elijah, Monique’s beautiful vocals and easy crowd interaction cement her as a solo artist who I look forward to seeing again.

I was gutted to have missed Miss Faithee, who smashed her set for the LOR IWD celebrations last month. This woman has an amazing stage presence and strong, catchy tracks – there is simply no reason for her name not to have been in large font alongside the other Immersed headliners.

The only other artist I did manage to catch was my Bard Picasso label-mate the Honest Poet. I’ve seen him a few times and his performances always blow me away – lush vocals, deep lyrics and an honest, poetic, heartfelt delivery.

Big up to Bard Picasso for securing a last-minute takeover and offering half of it to Ladies of Rage. Bard Picasso aspire to have gender equality on their future line-ups, and Immersed was the beginning of this. The bar area takeover was an intimate affair, where we were blessed to have two legends from Cardiff’s Hiphop scene hosting. Dregz is probably Cardiff’s most experienced Master of Ceremonies, and Cara Elise’s band Baby Queens were one of my first inspirations in the Cardiff scene. I was lucky enough last week to hear Dregz speaking on a panel discussion about black music in Wales hosted by Dionne Bennett – an overdue conversation, and one that needs to continue.

BBC6 Music Festival

Another discussion panel that Dionne was on, as chair of LOR, in conversation with Afrodeutsche. Myself, Trishna Jaikara, and Teifi joined Dionne to speak about LOR and parts of the conversation were played back on Afrodeutsche’s show with Huw Stephens (2:09). Trishna Jaikara followed up the discussion with a DJ set with live tracks, some of which was AIRED LIVE! (0:54)

The festival has definately shone a light on the Cardiff music scene – Missy G was interviewed by Mary Anne Hobbs (0:36), and I also heard Leighton Wall speaking about the Welsh Ballroom community. It was great to hear DJ Jaffa on Huw Stephens’ show (2:13), dropping some Hiphop history and playing tracks including Juice Menace, who I’m so glad I caught at Porters. Alex Jones has been absolutely smashing it at her events role for Porters, creating a lively, exciting melting pot of Cardiff’s musicians and students. In true Hiphop fashion, Juice brought on a couple of unknown artists for her set, and I am very excited to see more of Mercy Rose in particular.

A coupla gigs that would have broken me if I had tried to cram in, were The Shutdown Show’s Moon gig with Eadyth and Izzy Rabey headlining, and Sound Progression’s Fringe takeover at CultVR where I was hoping to catch a young rapper called Truth – look out for him…

I have to give props to Minty who I’m pretty sure went to every single event over the festival! He was also interviewed on Politics Wales, BBC One Wales! Please take a few minutes to have an explore of his online gig guide map, which is a stunning piece of digital art, and will only serve to enhance and grow our blossoming music scene.

I rounded off the week with a long overdue night out with my husband, where I discovered Jam Supernova – HYPE!!! Much love to BBC6Music for bringing such an eclectic mix of music and people to our city – I met people who I was surprised to hear had travelled from Liverpool and as far up as Edinburgh, how lush to show our city off in this way. Onwards and upwards – let’s keep building together!!

Catch me painting:

Her Mark launch event: April 9^th, Spit & Sawdust (also catch Missy G, Mercy Rose & Teifi here!)
(7) Her Mark launch event | Facebook

Bring The Paint, Leicester: 28-29^th May
HOME | bringthepaint

Cheltenham Paint Festival: 30-31^st July
Home | Cheltenham PaintFest (cheltenhampaintfestival.co.uk)

My solo exhibition runs at the HeARTh Gallery, Llandough Hospital until April 18th.

And performing:

Supporting Lazy Habits: 22^nd April, Tramshed, Cardiff
(4) Lazy Habits – Vermillion Sands Album Tour | Facebook

Supporting The Scribes: 29^th April, Le Pub, Newport
(4) The Scribes / Blue City CDF / Unity – Newport | Facebook

Focus Wales: May 7^th, 4pm, 7Bar, Wrexham
FOCUS Wales 2022 » Unity

Ci Annwn (Bard Picasso): 11^th June, Moon Club, Cardiff

EVENTS TO LOOK OUT FOR:

Baby Queens at Focus Wales: May 6^th, 7pm, Penny Black Room2, Focus Wales, Wrexham
FOCUS Wales 2022 » Baby Queens

Monique B at Focus Wales: May 6^th, 11.40pm, Penny Black Room1, Focus Wales, Wrexham
FOCUS Wales 2022 » Monique B

Honest Poet at Focus Wales: May 6^th, 8.45pm, Old No7, & May 6^th 11.20pm, Penny Black Room1
FOCUS Wales 2022 » The Honest Poet

Bard Picasso Presents: Barred#1: May 14^th, Moon Club
(7) Bard Picasso Presents: Barred#1 | Facebook

Cardiff Council made a promise five years ago and there has been no movement on it – please sign the petition to get them to come through on the tickbox to give permission for artists to paint on hoardings around building sites in Cardiff:

Diolch!

photo credit: @cardiffstreetart

In 2017 during discussions about the use of the Millenium Boardwalk behind the Stadium for painting, Cardiff Council offered to put a tick-box on the form that construction companies use to apply to erect hoarding in the city. The tick box would give permission for artists to paint the hoarding, paying for their own paint, and carrying out the work for free, in their own time.

5 years later, and this still hasn’t happened. This petition is to request that Cardiff Council up-hold their promise.

Painting murals is a social activity, good for physical and mental wellbeing. If artists have permission to paint, the artwork pays for itself, and provides residents with a constantly changing canvas rather than a plain, blank wall.

This petition is co-authored by Unify, who have been working hard in Cardiff Bay to commission artwork to inspire their local community. Creators of the ‘My City, My Shirt’ campaign, Unify aims to showcase the multiculturalism of Cardiff, and in particular, minority communities. They have been granted permission to paint hoardings opposite the police station in Cardiff Bay, and have been working with local artists to create pieces here.

By providing legal places for artists to develop their craft, Cardiff Council have the opportunity to contribute towards a truly inclusive, creative Cardiff.

International Womxn’s Day means that this time of year is always a busy one for me as people grab the opportunity to celebrate the achievements of women, and open discussions about why we STILL need to be fighting for equality.

Last year’s showcase for Ladies of Rage was actually the last event I went to before lockdown kicked in. It’s been a roller-coaster of a year, and I can’t quite believe we’re here in March again – I’m glad though that the winter is over as the only certainty is that the sun will soon be joining us.

When Ladies of Rage first discussed the opportunity to do a takeover at Dub Frequency, my initial personal reaction was no way it’s too short notice and I literally had no clue how it would work. But Missy G, the driving force that she is, couldn’t bear to let down the Ladies of Rage members, and so with the help of Beth Clark, the three of us managed to pull together an absolute belter of a line-up! From 12pm-10pm on Sunday, we had music, spoken word pieces, interviews, mixes, exclusive tracks and live sessions and all done remotely. Womxn were involved who had never presented before, womxn who had never had their recorded work aired, had it aired, alongside well established artists such as Wales’ very own Aleighcia Scott and Dionne Bennett. Shout outs to the chatroom crew, some of whom were in it for the whole duration! (Becky Cee, Cheryl, Stabitha & Stereoripe were just a couple of names I clocked – it got pretty messy in there towards the end of the day…)

One of the highlights for me was a live session by Daisy Green and the Warrior Babes. Daisy left for Thailand not long after she had begun sharing lyrics at our LOR jams, and she’s been documenting her musical journey on her youtube channel. She sent us an exclusive live set from the other side of the world, where she’s been hosting her own womxn only jam sessions! We had another amazing live set from Cara Elise and Missy G, and Beth Clark’s ‘International Womxn, Inspirational Sounds’ podcast sits beautifully within all the tracks and sections sent in by our Welsh Womxn, placing us all in the wider world context. We actually had so much content that we extended the takeover to host an additional three hours on Radio Cardiff on Monday evening. Trishna Jaikara and Asha Jane pulled together a wonderful first hour, presenting spoken word and music, and discussing the amazing Harddwch Du project and International Womxn’s day in general. We had exclusive play of a number of poems and tracks, including one from TBella, who went into labour to the soundtrack of our takeover, and now has a beautiful baby safe and well at home – congratulations!

Other exclusive plays that I was really excited about were from Fran B with her track ‘Turning to the pen ft. Aaliyah’ and Zannah Leah’s gorgeous ‘Special Occasion’ which is out now, with visuals on her youtube channel. Elina Lee, Nina, Demzie and Dead Man’s Trumpet, were amongst the artists for whom this was their first LOR involvement, and I’m excited for them all to get more well-deserved attention for their amazing music! Another newcomer to an LOR showcase, whose ‘isolation’ video I saw a while back and LOVED, are Foxy Roxies, who run a studio in Cardiff – I look forward to finding out more about what they are up to!

We had an amazing array of DJ mixes, including a ‘once in a 20 year opportunity’ to experience the 7inch pleasure from Lej ‘n’ Deri, a fab house mix from the legendary (see what I did there?…) DJ Precious, and a first-outing from Wildfyre, who smashed her debut set!

Trishna Jaikara’s mix for Radio Cardiff highlighted how much home-grown talent we have here in Wales, and we are developing and nurturing more through the Ladies of Rage network. We also featured a banger of a mix from 14 year old BelleBelle and an amazing hardware set from Little Eris. The showcase was rounded off by a posse cut recorded by 21 of our members, recorded with our first male ally Stagga at the time Ladies of Rage network was beginning to take shape. My section of the takeover is dedicated to Stagga’s memory, and I shared a couple of works in progress, as well as a beautiful track that he created with his lovely Nina.

Over the 7th & 8th March we showcased more than 55 womxn – blood sweat and tears went into this! Massive love to everyone who pulled together with me, Missy & Beth to make it happen – all the wonderful womxn who stepped in at really short notice to present, all our dj’s, lyricists, music makers, movers & shakers. Laura, Trishna, Teifi, Malgola, Lubi, Electra, Amethyst and Hoffman. Massive thanks to Dub Frequency & Radio Cardiff for having us!

We will be uploading all the files to the Ladies of Rage Soundcloud page as soon as we have recovered!