We are the global majority

A collaboration between Anna, Asma, Di'mond, Lorna, Tinuke, Tope, Salma, Sangita, Sarah, Raabia,

RIOT SOUP 

RIOT SOUP (est. 2019) is a collective made up of Black and Brown women artists in London whose general aim is to champion the visibility and voices of women artists “of colour” in the UK. Through exhibitions, workshops and talks, our creative sisterhood strives to open up discussion to the issues that surround us most as people of colour, women and artists. We hope that by drawing our respective narratives from the peripheral to the centre, that we pull ourselves and those like us out of the invisible/hypervisible state we find ourselves in. We also aspire to encourage the growth and bond of genuine community, motivate actionable racial allyship and inspire the empowerment of other global majority women and non binary creatives in taking charge of their representation within the arts and beyond.

How do you know each other?

We are all members of Riot Soup; A collective of Black and Brown women artists based in London

How did you interpret 'Connection'?

One of the factors that connects us as a group is our shared gripe of being classed as "BAME" in the UK. We find this blanket term to be incredibly flattening and disempowering in the way that it erases our distinct ethnicities and cultures, lumping us all into one homogenous group devoid of any kind of difference. We reject this term and the notion that our existence should be classified in relation to whiteness. Of late we have started to use a much more inclusive, affirming and liberating one which makes space for our diversity and range of identities whilst reminding us of our true position in the world. We are not The Other; we are not less than, and we refuse to be reduced to an acronym. We are the global majority and we hope that if you haven't already you will consider swapping this term in to replace the other. Lean in, language matters.

How did you approach your design together?

It took several weeks of meetings and messages to finalise our copy and design. At first all 10 of us came together to create a common vision before we split into teams to work in smaller groups. We had a copy team and illustration team who worked both separately and together. Eventually we narrowed our design down to four t-shirts and took a poll to our friends and online followers to vote on before deciding on the final product.