Emmanuel Ebokosia is standing with Professor Peter John CBE, accepting an award at the UWL Alumni Awards 2023.
Emmanuel Ebokosia is standing with Professor Peter John CBE, accepting an award at the UWL Alumni Awards 2023.

Alumni Award Winner: Emmanuel Ebokosia

Intro

The UWL Recent Graduate Award honours those who have left UWL within the last five years. Fresh-faced and ready to learn, our Recent Graduate winners show just how well a degree at UWL sets you up for a successful future of chasing your dreams. Previous winners have included social-media savvy midwives and wheelchair-using care home nurses who trained their own service dogs. This year, we are pleased to announce that the UWL Recent Graduate Award winner 2023 is Emmanuel Ebokosia, who is using music management to enact social change.

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Emmanuel Ebokosia is standing with a black suit and tie on.

Emmanuel, who goes by Manny, first discovered his love of music when he came to the UK from Nigeria at just twelve years old. Before this, his father had instilled a passing love of country music, but it was education that really ignited a lifelong love of Hip Hop.

I grew up in Barking and Dagenham at a time when it was nowhere near as multicultural as it is now. Pretty much the only black person in my class, I was being bullied a lot. The racism was quite intense, and going through that I started expressing myself in song writing."

As he got more and more into hip hop, music became a way of dealing with emotions and expressing his struggles. It was a skill he honed during playground rap battles with his schoolmates.

I began learning how to rap. I started reading the dictionary every day to learn new ways of saying things. It was all self-taught, I’ve never attended a song-writing session in my life. Music has always helped me out, it even helped me overcome my speech impediment."

Manny suffered with a stutter during day-to-day conversations, so he relied on the rhythm of rap music to allow him to speak with a flow. Slowly, he reduced the rhythm of his speech and found that he was able to speak without stumbling over his words. This experience taught Manny that music could be used to support other people and improve their lives.

At this point in his life, Manny had undergone a series of personal setbacks. He left the Filipino restaurant he had established in London and applied to UWL to study for a Masters degree in music management.

I finally decided to focus on my passion. To be honest, I felt like fate bought me to UWL because at the time everything in my life was going wrong. My undergraduate was in Human Resources, so I was out looking for music courses and people are more likely to respect what you’re doing if you have a degree behind you. There was just something about UWL, it felt like exactly the place I needed to be."

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Two female singers laughing during a recording session

At the same time, Manny knew he needed to learn more about social enterprises if he wanted to do something philanthropic. He applied for a one-year course at Social Arc, which supports young changemakers by providing the knowledge to set up their own change-making businesses.

When it came to his dissertation, Manny combined his Social Arc work with his music management course and ran a project on community music and social entrepreneurship, and from this True Cadence was born.

When I’m highly motivated, it feels like nothing is impossible. I just kept going, even when lockdown happened. I did my safeguarding training and began delivering courses online to help parents keep their kids engaged while they were working from home. That’s how True Cadence started, and it wouldn’t have happened without UWL."

True Cadence started in September 2019, working with young people between 8 and 25 years old, running various music-related activities including songwriting, sound recording, music therapy, live performance, and the Music Industry masterclass program, which was inspired by Manny’s experiences at UWL.

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True Cadence is now a community interest company, offering free courses that are funded by various organisation, including longtime supporter of UWL, the Paul Hamlyn Foundation. There are big plans to grow the Music Industry masterclass into a Higher National Diploma, offered both privately and through subsidisation.

We haven’t stopped working. We’ve won a couple of awards I’ve become one of the trustees for Social Arc. Some of our young people are receiving recognition for their music, a few have been given grants towards their EP. I am proud of every single young person I work with. It’s so good to see them developing, overcoming their issues. I’m so proud of all their achievements. We still have a lot to achieve, we have a long way to go, but I’m proud of what we’ve done so far."

In recognition of the great work he is doing, Manny was nominated for the Recent Graduate Award by a UWL student who interned at True Cadence. We asked him what the award meant to him:

It’s really reignited the fire within me, in terms of building a legacy. It’s good to know that long after leaving a particular space, you can still have an impact, or leave a mark that can be recognised. Even though I’m not actively involved at UWL right now, I can look back and know my journey can inspire someone else."

London College of Music

Join the London College of Music, one of the leading music and performing arts institutions in the UK, formed over 130 years ago. We offer an impressive range of innovative courses, delivered with creativity and dedication. Discovering and nurturing new talent is our passion.

A university student at London College of Music playing on a Steinway piano

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