Shades of Noir has welcomed many students and recent graduates into our team. They have contributed to our work in significant and meaningful ways and in return have often felt and benefited from the impact Shades of Noir has on community. We have preserved some of these testimonies below, with many more in our archive.
Please reach out to us if you are interested in reading more student pieces for research purposes.
The past few months have been very eventful. I’m now a third of the way through my final year and I have been working at Shades of Noir as a Creative Database Developer for over 6 months now. When I first began I was a bit jaded from the retail job I had, and at…
By Ndzalama Rodney Sihlangu Working at Shades of Noir as a member of the social and content team has provided me with a unique working environment that I didn’t expect when I first arrived at UAL. I remember working on a project on the urban regeneration of Brixton and my tutor recommending a Safe Space…
By Jess Wan Shades of Noir is like a family. I never imagined that I could be part of a team where everyone is so kind and genuinely supportive of one another. When I first learned of the opportunity to work with SoN, I was delighted because its goal and values are much in line…
By Aarony Bailey Working at Shades of Noir (SoN) has been one of the best things to come out of this year, for me. When I joined the programme, I was a first-year student undergoing university online at the height of the COVID-19 pandemic. It was (and still is, eight months later) a stressful time.…
For the most part, I feel that I’m able to keep my emotions in check and maintain a calm exterior, but the realisation that my time with Shades of Noir is ending always causes me to well up. It happens instantly, in a way I’ve never experienced before; I’m overcome with a flash of emotion…
I am very grateful to have had the opportunity to work with Shade of Noir. I have learnt a lot from the team and also discovered a lot about myself which has helped me in my understanding about where I see myself in the future. Before starting Shades my goal was to work in a…
It’s never easy to say goodbye… What does creating legacy sound like? How do you describe a phenomenon? What can I possibly say about Shades of Noir that hasn’t already been said? I like to start with, thank you. I can honestly say I have been through a transformation of sorts that couldn’t have been…
My time at Shades of Noir is almost hitting the 18 month mark, and as I look back on my time spent as part of the team, I can’t help but appreciate the challenges that have helped my development and growth, but most importantly, how much further I can still go. Words by Kerian Magloire…
The ‘Final Salute’ by recent Shades Grad. Patricia Petersen (Media Developer)
Shades of Noir has given me security and confidence in my understanding of self as a young Women of Colour. The consistent opportunity to reflect on what I have achieved and learnt throughout my journey with Shades, has deeply supported my growth both as a successful communicator in practise based social justice and as a…
By Hsuan Wan For all the silent fighters in our society, thank you. “無知者無畏, 無畏者無懼” The ones that know nothing cannot be frightened. The ones that cannot be frightened will have no fear Reflecting on my time in higher education, coming to London and being a student of UAL is one of the smartest and…
By Rayvenn Shaleigha D’Clark What a year it has been. Tears. Tantrums. Growth. The idea of leaving shades scares me. Scares me in a way I have never had to consider until now. Because when I think of Shades, I think of family; I think of community, I think of legacy, all of which is…
Tamara James-Dickson I didn’t acknowledge that I needed a safe space until i discovered one. Soldiering on with my head down, I was carrying a huge weight. Trying to power through and finish my work during the peak of racial tensions within my course, I felt exhausted and I reached out to Shades of Noir…
Words by Tabitha Austin I am sitting on the Gate D1, Terminal B floor of the LaGuardia airport, legs crossed forehead furrowed. Over the past half year since I left the Shades team, I have sat myself in front of this blinking cursor in attempts to articulate and externalize my experience with Shades of Noir…
My Final Salute Shades has been a place I’ve called home for just over a year now. However, within that year I feel I’ve grown and aged so much that It often feels like much longer. I’ve made friends. I’ve made connections. I’ve made memories; ones that I don’t think I can ever forget. When…
Reflecting on my time at Shades of Noir Shades of Noir is the Voice of The Marginalised Becoming a UAL graduate, that no longer has the safety net of education and student finance to fall back on, is a reality shock to the system that many graduates can relate to. Yet, I felt a lot…
I started working for Shades of Noir in November, as I’m writing this now it is now the end of May. My times at Shades of Noir has introduced me to new important terms, new groups of people, new ways of life and new ways of looking at things. Before my time at Shades of…
I’ve never had a stranger just starting touching my hair on the subway. Or my skin. No one’s ever asked me why my art is about my whiteness. Or to justify why I’m concerned with my family history. A fellow student has never said she can’t look at me while I’m talking because of my…
In this piece, I’ve chosen to share my shades experience so far, in the format of a diary.November 27th – January 24th.Dear Diary, It’s been two months since I started my role as a content developer for Shades of Noir. That may seem like nothing to most people but in this short amount of time, I…
I began working at Shades of Noir in June 2016, I joined the team during my first year of university after having heard about our organisation through an event that took place at my college. This was the Race, Religion & Free Speech event that covered ‘representation in the media’, the perfect topic for a…
At this point in time, I’m in my final year of BA Sculpture at Camberwell College. My journey with Shades of Noir officially started back in July 2016. I discovered Shades of Noir during Diversity Matters Awareness week back in April 2016, at the time I was supporting some of the events for Diversity Matters…
About three years ago, I went to an event called Pale Male Stale. The panellists included three admirable women that I still inspire to this day: Aisha Richards, Malia Bouattia, and Shelly Asquith. Aisha Richards introduced Shades Of Noir at the event and talked about the work they were doing around diversity. It was probably…
I applied for the job at shades empathising but not completely understanding the core reasons behind why it was an essential platform to have at UAL. I realised, through the process of preparation for the interview, how little I knew about the issues people of colour face not only within our institution but also in…
