BPM | Black Professionals in Music is a program through Manitoba Music that supports Black music professionals. BPM offers capacity-building professional development opportunities, quarterly networking mixers, and artist performance showcases. By recognizing the need for Black music professionals to have their own specific spaces within the industry, we can begin to dismantle the barriers and discrimination they face. All BPM participants are encouraged to bring their ideas, experiences, and share their professional needs and barriers, ultimately influencing the program’s future direction.
What is success for your organization in the coming year?
Growth. This could mean doing more events, having more attendees, or even more partners to collaborate with on programming. Success for BPM this year will look like growing in some capacity.
What are you currently excited about in the music industry?
The future: all the new music to enjoy and all the new artists to become fans of. BPM wants to support it all.
What is the greatest challenge you face currently, and how can other industry and artists partners help?
I believe the greatest challenge for BPM is raising public awareness. We’re here and we want to help. Right now, we already provide professional development, showcasing, and networking opportunities, but we’re hoping to do more in the future.
The simplest way for industry partners to help us with this is to refer anyone who might benefit from connecting with us.
Can you give a shout out to an artist or industry member who is also doing great things?
Alan Greyeyes is always working on new important projects and finding ways to bring more exposure and opportunities to artists and the community. He’s a rare example of someone who genuinely wants to leave the world better off than it was when he found it. Alan is an amazing music industry member, a wonderful community member, and a fantastic human being.