Takara Small and Workhaus Present Black Women in Media For Black History Month With Twitter

Last week, Workhaus partnered with Takara Small and Twitter to discuss Black women’s experiences in Canadian media. We felt this was an important topic to highlight during Black History Month as it’s one that is not being talked about, but should be. 

Takara hosted a panelist of extraordinary women in media to get into the nitty gritty on the challenges faced in today’s landscape. 

Our first panel guest was Kathleen Newman-Bremang of Refinery29 Canada. Kathleen discussed her career trajectory in media, beginning with her time working at BellMedia for MuchMusic to her groundbreaking article with Refinery29 on how Canadian media isn’t as culturally diverse as we think. 

Takara brought up the question on how difficult it has been as a black woman to break out into this industry, outlining how it’s not for the faint of heart. A point that Kathleen, understandably, agreed with. Stating that she has experienced not just sexism in the industry, but racism as well. 

The second panelist guests were Vicky Mochama, host of the Safe Space podcast and Rookz, CEO of Sandbox Studios. Together, they discussed how the conversation around black media has changed, arguing that the first step to building up black media is through positive support of the community. Both ladies have built their careers from the ground up, and continue to do so with the support of their community. 

Hosted in Twitter Canada’s event space, we provided our guests with auction items to bid on, courtesy of Adelaide Club, Chotto Matte, Beautie by Ullie, Terroni, Productive Formula  and Steam Whistle. 

SIPBAR took care of refreshments throughout the night while food was catered by Street Shark. 

Workhaus was honoured to take part in this discussion of our panelist speakers and our guests. We were able to open the floor to everyone during our Q&A where guests outlined their own experiences working in Canadian media. We had the opportunity to hear from the likes of Tracy Moore from CityLine as she discussed the importance of thinking of your own mental health when you’re faced with the negatives of working in the media. 

Our guests enjoyed a networking portion of the evening to get to know one another while listening to our curated Black female Canadian musicians playlist!

Thank you to our panelists, thank you to our guests, thank you to Twitter, and a special thank you to host Takara Small for making this event a reality.