ABOUT

Tell us who you are!

My Name is Titilola Dawudu. I am the Company Director at Sour Lemons. Sour Lemons works with art and cultural organisations supporting them to practice being anti-racist.

I am a writer and producer. I co-created Hear Me Now Audition Monologues for Actors of Colour. Volume 2 will be published in Spring 2022.

I am a member of Black Womxn in Theatre which celebrates the achievements and contributions of theatre and the arts in the UK.

So what do you actually do?

As one of the Director at Sour Lemons, I lead Making LEMONADE which is a programme for Young Adults. It is designed to level the playing field for young talent, harness the power of their lived experience and creating spaces so they can build their own opportunities.

I am also leading on a new programme that interrogates storytelling in the arts and cultural sector. This means gathering people from the sector to dream and ideate what an anti-racist sector could look like and moving forward with these ideas to create a bigger programme of work.

What has your career path been?

My career path has not been linear. I've known that I've wanted to tell stories since Primary School. I thought this would be through journalism so I worked for a TV morning breakfast show. Then made documentaries with young people. Then wrote and produced theatre for young people. Then moved into theatre.

Along the way I've been a apart of exciting work, But also have felt ignored, erased and doubted my self.

What is the best part of your job?

The best part of what I do is knowing that I can show up to work and be myself and do my job.

As a Black woman in some organisations I have worked in, the culture did not enable to show up to work authentically. My hair was touched. My name was mispronounced (over and over again).

I have been passed over for promotion, ignored, my work not credited, etc. Here - I am me.

Why do you do your job?

I do my job because I am a storyteller at heart and I get to tell stories about how we - Black and Global Majority people are incredible and have contributed for decades upon decades upon decades to the arts and cultural sector.

Our work may be erased at times, but we are thriving and creative and evolving all the time.

One piece of advice for someone starting in your role?

I don't believe there is one true course to most jobs / roles. I have worked across the media, charity and art sectors. Along the way, learning, listening and evolving. My advice, find ways to do what you're passionate about and hold onto your personal values. They will steer you right every time.

Any parting words?

If not now then when, if not me then who?' is a quote by Malcolm X that I am currently living by. To me that means do that thing that you've been afraid to do. Step out of your comfort zone. Be bold and take risks. Because you never know what amazing things will happen on the other side of fear!

In short, keep on dreaming, learn to believe in yourself and surround yourself with amazing people. The people around you should be championing you and supporting you, and you them.

Check out Titilola’s socials below!

DAY IN THE LIFE

Emails, emails, emails! I have to go through these first at the beginning of my day after I've taken my son to school. He's not long started school and loves it, so it's nice to spend time with him before work. It always puts me in a good mood.
I am a list maker and need to do a 'To Do' list.

There's such satisfaction ticking things off the list! So I also do that at the start of the day.
I live in Coventry and most of our work is in London. We are working in a hybrid way (online and in person), there's either Zoom meetings to attend or train tickets to book!

A typical day currently is planning Making LEMONADE and this new piece of work around storytelling. So that is scheduling meetings with facilitators, writing briefs about different aspects of the programme. Going through budgets to make sure we can do what we say we're going to do and pay people properly.

It means having meetings with potential partners on the programmes, exciting people who are doing amazing work in the sector. Even if nothing comes from some of these meetings, I've found a lot of them to be really inspirational.

I may meet a potential funder who we've identified could support our work. It's always good to talk to funders (where you can) before putting in a funding bid. Especially if it's for a large amount of money. Funding applications can take weeks sometimes.

I have check ins with the rest of the team in the afternoon, usually after lunch. It's good to know what other people are doing even if Im not working on their programme, but a lot of time we feed into each others work to support each other.

I do a lot of the social media, so when we are launching new programmes such as Zesting, our short-term intensive anti-racism course, I will do the socials for it and possibly put together a newsletter.

I make sure I have a break to stretch my legs, take a walk or as Sour Lemons' founder has encouraged us to do - have a dance break. So I'll put on some music and dance around to change up the dynamics of the day.

I end the day with a lighter 'To Do' list (hopefully), a last check in with the team, usually just on Slack and then either I pick up my son from school or my husband does, and then start dinner.

After putting my son to bed, I spend time with my husband then usually do more work later at night - something like scheduling or planning. It's not a good habit, but I like working when everything in my home is quiet. Everyone is asleep and I can get on with a bit more work.