Creating Collaborations with Consciousness and Compassion – ‘Rest is a form of resistance’ Tricia Hersey

Diane Louise Jordan, Making Black Britain

Diane Louise Jordan opened the Sustainable Enterprise London Festival with so much energy and inspiration. Taking as her inspiration the 1948 Nationality Act, Making of Black Britain is an oral history project that she leads, recording lives and understanding what it is to be part of Black Britain.

She talked about the impacts of being “the first” – and the different experiences of being a minority while part of the global majority. Her approach to the creation of the archive is one of deep listening and encouraging people to tell their stories to reveal the complex realities of lives to encourage new perspectives and connections. It comes from a place of compassion, listening to try to understand.

Diane Louise Jordan spoke of the joy she has in listening and recording people’s experiences. The archive will be placed in the British Library, and she has developed collaborations with the London Transport Museum and National Portrait Gallery.

Alice Whiteley, YAWN

In the afternoon we were joined (in person) by Alice Whiteley, who spoke of her curiosity and passion for creating a business.

In conversation she spoke of ethics, her early influences of Anita Roddick, founder of the Body Shop, and how she was able to combine, ‘her strong sense of ethics, with a strong passion for business.’

The founder of Yawn, an organic cotton, hand printed pyjama brand, is a business with deep seated values. Alice spoke about how she created her company for her customers, encouraging people to risk making new connections for expertise and to build the brand.

Through dialogue, Alice and Siân also spoke of perseverance and resilience. Alice spoke of spikes in business, and of how to get through the bad times that can happen, as well as all the good times; an anecdote of realising the global potential when an article in the Financial Times made a manufacturer believe that Alice had been cyber attacked, when in actuality there was a large number of orders from around the globe.

Alice brought her passion and determination to the first afternoon session of our festival. It was a pleasure to see how she inspired our audience with her achievements and inspiration.