At the Bright Lights Awards Ceremony (BLAC Awards), we stand as a beacon for diversity, unity, and excellence. Our mission is deeply rooted in celebrating the multifaceted brilliance within the grassroots African Caribbean communities in the UK. By HONOURING legacies, CELEBRATING diversity, and EMBRACING futures, we showcase success stories that will inspire generations.
Join us in our journey as we unite cultures, build bridges, and proudly showcase the richness of our communities’ achievements.
Building Bridges, Honouring Diversity, Celebrating Success Stories, embracing futures.
The BLAC Awards Ceremony in partnership with the Royal Air Force, is an annual event for the UK’s grassroots African Caribbean communities (including mixed heritage). HONOURING the past, CELEBRATING the present, & EMBRACING the future by paying tribute to success stories across the many walks of life; showcasing individuals and organisations who make our communities wonderful places to live, work & play.
Testimonials
This event is long overdue and needs to be highlighted. There’s not a lot of credit going where credit is due when it comes to young people. Recognising something a young person has done goes a long way and to be able to shine a beacon of light on them is great.
Huey Vanderpuije
Judith Jacob
I feel The BLAC Awards are a brilliant and insightful way to highlight achievements of those who may not usually be identified or noticed.
Emily Lewis
David Cohen
Joy
Sheldon Thomas
So awesome to see a new fresh upcoming award that highlights individuals in the African and Caribbean communities! It is so necessary! I am looking forward to them!
Tene Alexandria
The BLAC Awards, I must first say, I love what you are doing & stand for.
Orchid Bea
I love your movement.
UK Black History
I love what I'm seeing.
Lovena Brown
Well done for this great initiative.
Ewemade Orobator
Sending my warmest regards and keep up the great work you are doing.
Paul Anderson MBE
I'm so honoured to be part of this ceremony and be around so many esteemed trailblazers who are leading the way. Good on them. God bless them and may they continue to be a beacon of light in a dark world making big and positive change.
Paul Canoville
Brilliant what you guys are doing.
Dawne B. Stewart
I think the work you are doing to recognise our unsung heroes is wonderful.
DJ Melody Kane
Choices Make Change
This is incredible spirit of excellence.
Bishop Mark Nicholson
Your guests are in for a treat. A game-changing event in our community.
Paula Powell
May the awards be a success, but beyond that, become a lasting legacy befitting of the hard work and enterprise showed by the nominees and recipients.
Mr Irish
This is a very important event which will become enshrined within the African Caribbean communities in the United Kingdom.
Dr Martin Glynn
It's really important to recognise positive role models.
Abs Haque
You and your sisters and brothers are the new light.
Sir Geoff Palmer OBE
It is critical that everyone participates in the construction of our youth in their developmental phases or else the result will end in destruction.
Chico Tillmon
It's a great job that you're doing, well done guys.
Hayley Palmer
It's going to be a phenomenal event and I'm so looking forward to it.
Dr Maria Lenn
I wish you all the best with this, it's a great initiative. Thank you for what you are doing in the community we need it, lots of love and respect.
Janet Campbell
This is great.
Trish Adudu
Absolutely love and appreciate what you're establishing through these awards. Not enough recognition is given to our people in regards to their contributions via their talents, creativity, and accomplishments. Very much looking forward to the awards.
BLK Mail TV
This really looks fantastic and has caught my heart.
Sandra Godley
A huge thank you for this beautiful initiative. It is indeed very important to shine a bright light on those inspirational role models who work tirelessly to make a positive impact in our communities.
Ellen Chiwenga
We appreciate the work you are doing and we believe that you are one of the organisations that can strategically represent Africa and it's talents.
Abel Mavura
This is awesome. Celebrating pure talent and connecting people is one thing I always look for so I'll be following closely and cheering you up.
Lietta Jacob
The BLAC Awards are going to be a really powerful affair.
Juanita Rosenoir
This is a brilliant initiative. Congratulations to the Organisers of this much needed and innovative award scheme.
George Twumasi
It’s important to showcase our people and through lived experience, grow empathy. I’m very passionate about it.
RAF Warrant Officer, Sara Catterall MBE
This is incredible what you are doing. I love the mix of people; it’s our culture wrapped in one celebration.
Cory Barrett
Thank you and well done for the work you do to empower and highlight some of the positive things in our community.
Saffron Jackson
The BLAC Awards seems like an organisation committed to making a positive impact on the African-Caribbean Community.
Sumaiya Bangura
We really appreciate the work that you're putting in to support our community.
Dawn Dublin
Your work seems very important in today’s social and political climate.
Ruth Doua
Thank you for organising such an essential event to inspire our children especially black teenage boys. Congratulations on the great work you are doing with providing a platform to recognise all the positive things that our community is doing.
Mr. Knox Daniel
What a fantastic acknowledgement of all the good work going on in the community - the people and organisations that work tirelessly to make life living as a Black person in the UK a little easier. Thank you for the much-needed BLAC Awards. So inspiring!
Fabia
I fully support this tribute to the black fraternity, long may it last, congratulations to all those who make this wonderful event possible.
Winston McKenzie
You guys are doing an amazing job.
Cheryl Phoenix
THE BLAC AWARDS (UK) CIC
Honouring the Past
Honouring the past is not merely a tribute to history; it’s a timeless acknowledgment that paves the path for our present endeavors and shapes the narrative of our collective future. It’s a testament to the resilience, wisdom, and stories of those who came before us, inspiring us to cherish their legacy, learn from their experiences, and forge ahead with reverence and purpose.
Celebrating the Present
Celebrating the present is a vibrant acknowledgment of the moments that make our lives extraordinary, a testament to embracing each triumph, lesson, and connection that enriches our journey. It’s an ode to seizing the opportunities, cherishing relationships, and reveling in the beauty of the here and now, infusing our days with gratitude, joy, and the essence of possibility.
Embracing the Future
Embracing the future is an unwavering commitment to cultivating tomorrow’s possibilities today. It’s a journey fueled by innovation, resilience, and a vision that transcends boundaries, empowering us to shape a world where potential knows no limits. It’s about anticipating change, creating growth, and nurturing dreams that illuminate the path toward a brighter, more inclusive tomorrow.
Inspirational Quotes Collection
A people without the knowledge of their past history, origin and culture is like a tree without roots.
-Marcus Garvey
We must become bigger than we have been, more courageous, greater in spirit, larger in outlook. We must become members of a new race, overcoming petty prejudice, owing our ultimate allegiance not to nations but to our fellow men within the human community.
-Haile Selassie
Truth is everybody is going to hurt you: you just gotta find the ones worth suffering for.
-Bob Marley
When people are determined, they can overcome anything.
-Nelson Mandela
Being deeply loved by someone gives you strength, while loving someone deeply gives you courage.
-Lao Tzu
It takes a village to raise a child.
-African Proverb
A child who is not embraced by the village will burn it down to feel its warmth.
-African Proverb
Success is no accident. It is hard work, perseverance, learning, studying, sacrifice and most of all, love of what you are doing or learning to do.
-Pele
It always seems impossible until it's done.
-Nelson Mandela
To err is human, to forgive, divine.
-Alexander Pope
Success is liking what you do and liking how you do it.
-Maya Angelou
When your intentions are pure you don't lose anyone...they lose you.
-Nipsey Hussle
When you start seeing your worth you'll find it harder to stay around people who don't.
-Anon
It's ok if some people don't like you; not everyone has good taste.
-Rihanna
The worst part about having a mental illness is people expect you to behave as if you don't.
-Joker
Faith is taking the first step even when you can't see the whole staircase.
-Martin Luther King
Don't let success go to your head, and failure to your heart.
-Will Smith
Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter.
-Martin Luther King Jr.
If everyone does a little, no one has to do a lot.
-Charles Harper.
When someone tells you who they are, believe them.
-Maya Angelou.
Refuse to lower your standards to accommodate those who refuse to raise theirs.
-Anonymous
Whoever is trying to bring you down is already below you.
-Anon
Don't sit down and wait for the opportunities to come; get up and make them.
-Madam C.J. Walker
A man who uses force is afraid of reasoning.
-Kenyan Proverb
I am not African because I was born in Africa but because Africa was born in me.
-Kwame Nkrumah
We are failing because we're willing to do everything for money but not willing to do anything for our people.
-Muhammad Ali
You don't become what you want, you become what you believe.
-Oprah Winfrey
Sometimes you have to make a decision that will hurt your heart but heal your soul.
-Anon
Instead of judging others' circumstances, how about asking...is there anything I can do to help?.
-The Safeguarding Agency
Develop enough courage so that you can stand up for yourself...and then stand up for someone else.
-Maya Angelou
There comes a point where we need to just stop pulling people out of the river. We need to go upstream and find out why they're falling in.
-Desmond Tutu
I am what I am because of who we all are.
-Ubuntu Philosophy
When they go low, we go high.
-Michelle Obama
If I cannot do great things, I can do small things in a great way.
-Martin Luther King Jr
If a person gets up after a fall, it is not physics but character.
-Mike Tyson
It's better to walk alone than to walk with a crowd going in the wrong direction.
-Malcolm X
Prisons do not disappear social problems, they disappear human beings.
-Angela Davis
The results come when you align yourself with positive energy.
-Anon
Failure is success in progress.
-Albert Einstein
We repeat what we don't repair.
-Anon
Life is like a bicycle, to keep your balance you have to keep moving.
-Albert Einstein
The sky has no limits, neither should you.
-Usain Bolt
If you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else.
-Toni Morrison
You never know how strong you are until being strong is the only choice you have.
-Bob Marley
When people are determined, they can overcome anything.
-Nelson Mandela
I'm no longer accepting the things I cannot change, I'm changing the things I cannot accept.
-Angela Davis
Think like a Queen. A Queen is not afraid to fail. Failure is another stepping stone to greatness.
-Oprah Winfrey
All limits are self imposed.
-Icarus
In the end, we will remember not the words of our enemies, but the silence of our friends.
-Martin Luther King Jr
Your life does not get better by chance, it gets better by change.
-Jim Rohn
If you have no confidence in self, you are twice defeated in the race of life.
-Marcus Garvey
No problem can be solved from the same level of consciousness that created it.
-Albert Einstein
If you're always trying to be normal, you'll never know how amazing you can be.
-Maya Angelou
It takes courage to grow up and become who you really are.
-Edward E. Cummings
Never try to destroy someone's life with a lie when yours could be destroyed by the truth.
-Anon
For these are our children. We will all profit by, or pay for, whatever they become.
-James Baldwin
It is easier to build strong children than to repair broken men.
-Frederick Douglas
You can't be hesitant about who you are.
-Viola Davis
Never let anyone, any person or any force, dampen, dim or diminish your light.
-Congressman John Lewis
You are allowed to be both a masterpiece and a work in progress simultaneously.
-Sophia Bush
Don't associate yourself with toxic people. It's better to be alone and love yourself than surrounded by people who make you hate yourself.
-Robin Williams
You cannot heal in the same environment where you got sick.
-Anon
If you can stay positive in a negative situation, you win.
-Anon
The art of knowledge is knowing what to ignore.
-Anon
Just because you lost me as a friend doesn't mean you gained me as an enemy. I still wanna see you eat, but just not at my table.
-Tupac Shakur
Sit with winners, the conversation will be different.
-Anon
If you run into a wall, don't run around it and give up. Figure out how to climb it, go through it or work around it.
-Michael Jordan
The successful Warrior is the average man, with a laser-like focus.
-Bruce Lee
If you are tired, keep going, if you are scared, keep going, if you are hungry, keep going, and if you want to taste freedom, keep going.
-Harriet Tubman
Not everyone will understand and see your journey. Always be yourself and focus on your path.
-Truthseeker
Success is to be measured not by the position that one has reached in life as by the obstacles which he has overcome.
-Booker T. Washington
Don't bury your thoughts, put your vision to reality.
-Bob Marley
Stand for something or you will fall for anything. Today's mighty oak is yesterday's nut that held it's ground.
-Rosa Parks
What we call our enemy may be nothing more than our teacher. Find, analyse and learn your lesson.
-Linford Sweeney
If you cannot find peace within yourself, you will never find it anywhere else.
-Marvin Gaye
You don't have to be great to get started, but you have to start to be great.
-Les Brown
Do not go where the path may lead, go instead where there is no path and leave a trail.
-Ralph Waldo Emerson
If you have an enemy, then learn and know your enemy, don't just be mad at him or her.
-Denzil Washington
The people who are crazy enough to think they can change the world are the ones who do.
-Steve Jobs
Sometimes all you can do is accept there's not much you can do, and sometimes all you can control is how well you let go of control
-Lori Deschene
You are not a victim, just a fighter with scars that few understand.
-Anon
Have the courage to be disliked.
-Ichiro Kishimi
Be a yardstick of quality. Some people aren't used to an environment where excellence is expected.
-Steve Jobs
It's not my job to be likeable. It's my job to be myself. The right people will gravitate.
-Rashaun Will
No one is more hated than he who speaks the truth.
-Plato
If you don't build your dream, someone will hire you to help build theirs.
-Dhirubhai Ambani
The world is changed by your example not by your opinion.
-Paulo Coelho
The struggles along the way are only meant to shape you for your purpose.
-Chadwick Boseman
In times of crisis, the wise build bridges while the foolish build barriers. We must find a way to look after each other as if we were one tribe.
-King T'Challa
The only thing worse than being blind is having sight and no vision.
-Helen Keller
Where there is no vision, there is no hope.
-George Washington Carver
The comeback must always be stronger than the setback.
-Anon
The hardest walk is walking alone, but it's also the walk that makes you the strongest.
-Anon
2024 BLAC AWARDS EVENT AT HSUITE
The H Suite, in the popular Birmingham suburb of Edgbaston, is a dynamic, and flexible event venue that also offers the benefit of in-house event planners, over 11,000sq ft. of quality ground floor space for creating bespoke function rooms with direct access from the 150 vehicle car park space right beside the venue.
The H Suite are also able to provide a range of catering services for any event. By offering a selection of caterers to work with or they can offer an individual approach, leaving organisers to choose their own professional caterer to suit their requirements from one of the partner organisations.
The H Suite is situated outside of the Clean Air Zone, so charges can be avoided depending on the entry route.