Diversity is a word that evokes richness of experience, particularly when we’re talking about listening to or taking part in music. The world is that much more delicious simply because of the variety within it. We believe this holds true for the musical world too.

Yorkshire Youth and Music is an organisation committed to introducing the young people we work with to as many musical voices and genres as we can. We employ the services of a range of musicians from different backgrounds and / or with different cultural knowledge and experience, and we facilitate these professionals to share their musical voices in the projects we deliver. We don’t claim to be the experts ourselves; we seek out talented and professional partners and individuals and ask them to help us deliver our work with challenged young people in the region.

That being said, we’re not ignorant to the fact that music – and access to music making or to the music industry – is not a level playing field. We have a huge amount of experience working with children in challenging circumstances, but we also know that we don’t know everything!

We have all (no doubt) seen the latest call to action for equal rights for Black people the world over in the news in recent weeks. The thing Yorkshire Youth and Music thought we could do in support of this incredibly important movement was to do what we do best: share information / resources and make sure that the voices of the people who know better than us are heard. So. Without further ado, here is a list of resources to educate yourselves about what it means to be part of the BAME community and what we can all do to support those who have been fighting for equality their whole lives (see below).

It’s our issue, folks. Let’s start talking, have the difficult, uncomfortable conversations and make changes for the better…

• Arts Council England's creative case for Diversity and supporting resources along with ACE's CEO Darren Henley's blog on the Black Lives Matter movement
  
  
• The Musician's Union publish a list of anti-racism resources (as detailed by the Music:ed online magazine)
  
  
• Music:ed also pose the very pertinent question: #BlackoutTuesday is over - now what?
  
  
• Black Lives Matter has its own set of important resources
  
  
• An older article from Vox on why you should stop saying all lives matter
  
  
• A list of resources for the Creative Industries from It's Nice That detailing places to support equality for the BAME community
  
  
• UK Youth is running a #YoungandBlack campaign, to support children and young people from Black and BAME communities
  
  
• It is well worth a look into the work of Black Minds Matter UK
  
  
• Last but not least... an open source starter guide on how to be a more effective ally (from the Guide to Allyship)