Loreen Lawson - Seasoned UK Black Queen
May I take this opportunity to extend thanks and appreciation from a very grateful heart. Special thanks to Ms Yvonne Christie and Ms Peggy Warren for making Valentine's Day 2024 a day that I would be honoured to live all over again.
Thank you for cheering us on; even when we felt like running away from being seen in the spotlight for a brief interval of recognition of our work. Thank you.
My thanks of course reaches up to the visionary Ms Yvonne Field who so unselfishly extends and lives her God given opportunities through the lives of women like myself and many others. Thank you, Ms Field, for placing Black Women on the radar and for empowering us to feel worthy. Thanks for showing us that as well as supporting, slaving and labouring for the wellbeing of others, we are now being given the opportunity to exhale and to reflect on our lives and to see ourselves for who we are and what we do. You have allowed us to know that our lives matter too. Thank you for memorialising our efforts even in this chapter of our lives.
Yesterday, a team of women, made myself and others feel special. We had Shenice as our make-up artist and Denise Maxwell our Photographer. It was such a blessing to work with these ladies who not only had the professional and academic skills, but also the empathy and cultural understanding of our needs and we were able to relate to each other.
This initiative unlocks layers of imposed latency and gives permission for myself and all participants to take a real look at ourselves as women of colour who by socio-political design, have become society's necessary but invisible fabric of professional and skilful workers. Thank you for reminding us that we are individually and collectively phenomenal women. - Loreen Lawson.
This feature is part of the Seasoned UK Black Queens series celebrating Black women throughout March, a fantastic project led by Yvonne Christie. Read more here
