Celebrating Black History Month 2020
As we are in the middle of Black History Month and now at the end of National Hate Crime Awareness Week, we couldn’t think of a better way to share the love than to spotlight our amazing friend Holly Wilson-Morgan.
Holly has been singing professionally for many years, but Covid-19 has meant that she isn’t able to entertain the crowds as she once did. So, we thought we would help to shine a light on her fantastic talents.
Holly identifies as a mixed-race, gay, welsh woman who lives in the heart of the Rhondda valleys of South Wales.
A wife and a mother, she has been married to Lindsay for over 4 years and they have a beautiful daughter together.
Growing up, Holly experienced prejudice and hate simply because of the colour of her skin. These experiences have also followed her into adulthood. She’s also experienced homophobia since coming out over 7 years ago, but particularly when she moved to Rhondda. As a ‘Cardiff girl, she wasn’t used to the valleys, and found it difficult to adjust to the stares, comments and questions.
Holly told us that it’s the assumptions that still shock her the most.
She still receives comments and questions about her ‘husband’ when she tells people she’s married, and more interesting, she says, is the assumption that the husband she doesn’t have is black.
Holly says she always corrects people because she’s not ashamed of who she is but feels that the assumptions are rarely made out of malice.
She says she’s had her fair share of abuse from people over her lifetime and recognises that there is a difference between people “just not thinking” and those who “go out of their way to be offensive”.
Holly has been moved by the solidarity shown through the recent Black Lives Matter demonstrations, and supports all efforts being made to include POC in education, media, and the arts (an area she is passionate about).
Holly’s message is that although there is much still to be done for this to be a fair, inclusive, non-judgmental world where hate doesn’t exist, she is celebrating black heritage, culture and history through her weekly covers of some of her favourite black artists.
Holly is very happy with her beautiful family and wonderful life but says she will never regret or forget the negative experiences she’s had and says they have made her who she is today.
Well Holly, we love who you are today and want to thank you for your rendition of the classic by Sam Cooke to celebrate Black History Month with us here at Umbrella Cymru.
We are working hard to support as many people as we can and believe that prejudice, hate and intolerance has no place in society. We agree with you (and Sam), “a change is gonna come”.
Click for more information about the support we offer, or to report a hate crime to us, the police, or anonymously.