Guernsey-born artist Mura Masa went against the curve yesterday, by remaining active on his social media platforms while many artists remained silent or posted black tiles on their feeds in observance of #BlackOutTuesday. A blackout of social media activity in solidarity with the killing of unarmed Black man George Floyd at the hands of white police officers, multiple record labels and major figures within the music industry took part in a show of support with the Black community.

Publishing groups such as Warner, Universal and Dirty Hit outlined plans to “disconnect from work and reconnect with our community” for the day, as quoted in NME - yet the event was instead utilised by Masa, aka Alex Crossan, to platform black women within the live music industry. Asking the industry to think against remaining silent, asserting that “silence is not what’s needed,” he called upon others to “share resources, allow space for others,” to educate themselves as to the ordeals of other minority groups.

As Masa proposed yesterday, in a tweet posted on his official Twitter page, @muru_masa_, the 24-year-old artist is assembling his management and touring to crew to organise “a free, 12-week weekend course for 10 black women to train in live music roles (specifically crew roles like front of house/mixing/monitor engineering, lighting technician).”

link is here: https://t.co/rr0HaZ85zc

please don’t be silent today music industry, silence is not what’s needed. Share resources, allow space for voices that need it, educate yourself and those around you. Love x pic.twitter.com/aXGfK7AvCP

— Mura Masa (@mura_masa_) June 2, 2020

Underlining the decision for this new initiative, Masa said it was due to the “serious, serious lack of women of colour occupying these roles,” an anomaly that he and his team “would love to have … change.” Within the post he shared a link to Native Management, the platform through which prospective applicants can submit their interest. Stating that he has “personally committed to funding for this project and can’t wait to commit my time and any help that I can give to this,” he urges his peers within the industry to similarly “investigate how they can put weight and funding into creating or assisting programmes like this.”