Kocoa

She talks about coming to university with life experience, south London, and why everyone should follow their passions.

Being a mature student

I finished school in ’76. As a girl – and I was black – so college was barely a conversation anyone had with me. And I'd always said ‘I don't care if I'm in my 80s, I am going to uni, and I'm going to study music – I don't care, that's what I'm going to do.’

I started performing at 17 properly. I've literally been performing for years, doing live stuff.  I thought I'd really like to give myself the time to work out how this music stuff really works. All the background stuff and learning my instrument properly, and doing all of that. So, I've done it the other way around, but in a lot of ways, I'm really glad, because otherwise I would have been fixed in somebody else's perception of how I should play, and how I should be, and how I should perform.

I think I've always had this philosophy where you stay open to learning. I've got a good chunk of the growth mindset. I went in [to the degree] going – ‘show me. Teach me how do I do this better’. I think I've got that kind of curious mind. So for me, it's all about applying what I already know, throw out the things that are the bad habits and, and fill the space with how I can do it better. I see people grow older and shrink, you know, but I want to grow older and grow. 

I've worked a lot with young people, I used to be a mentor. I used to work with young people, young offenders, design programmes for them, do music stuff with them. I found that music was a great way to engage, and then before I came to uni, I was the Behaviour Manager in a school, so all the excluded, young people, I'd work with them. I'd have to corral them into this room, and then I'd have to work through stuff with them. I'd always come from that point of view of actually ‘you've got something to teach me’. My philosophy you walk through life and you've already seen this stuff, but it's changing behind you and you need to see those changes behind you. I actually say to young people: ‘It's your duty to teach me the things that I am missing. I'm not seeing it’ and so it's really nice to see that exchange. 

I got really good relationships in first year, with the younger students and they've embraced me. Working with young people and having that exchange is beautiful because that's how we stay relevant – that's how we stay vibrant, as older folks. There’s a beautiful exchange and everybody's open. 

Choosing Goldsmiths

All I knew is I wanted to be there. I just felt it was the place I needed to be. So much so I didn't apply anywhere else, I decided I'm going to Goldsmiths, and there was no other option. It was Goldsmiths or bust.

I just felt like everything I saw and everything I heard about Goldsmiths, I looked at the way people's eyes lit up when people said, 'Oh, I go to Goldsmiths.'

Back in the day, I used to do this music circuit – it's now the Royal Albert, but it used to be called the Paradise bar in Deptford on the New Cross Road. There used to be these jam sessions and music nights, and the jam session used to be, jazz, funk, soul, all that kind of stuff. A lot of Goldsmiths students used to go there and they were phenomenal musicians. It was like you'd see them on stage and I'd go up and I joined them and stuff like that. I was like, ‘I want to be in that place where you can be everything you possibly could be' because the stuff I heard about Goldsmiths was incredible. 

Bring your own experience

One of the things that was really encouraging was I plucked up the courage to just message the Music department, and just say, ‘I'd like to apply but I have no qualifications’. It was really nice – I spoke to John Harries, and he responded to me, and he asked what I had done. He was like, ‘listen, you have so much life experience’. I think that is the thing when I speak to mature students – they don't realise how valuable that is. Don't worry about what you think you don't have. Look at what you do have and you have bags full of experience, which can be cross-fertilised. You can bring what you've learned, and then learn the bits that you don't know as well.

What I loved is that most of my tutors that are teaching, actually, were at Goldsmiths before. They've gone through the experience. So, what I'm seeing is that the course is continually being updated and revamped and reworked. So, I'm finding that the teaching is really, really relevant.

I'm loving the way that they carefully consider some of the history that they are bringing forward that relates to say black history. Just pointing out some things that some of the students that are not black would take for granted. Asking ‘you've chosen this song, but do you actually have the right to choose that song? Do you understand the lyrical content of that song? Can you sing that song from that perspective?’. That was really heartening for me because I know a lot of people are talking about misappropriation. There's a lot of care taken, and I'm really grateful to the tutors that we do have because they are so mindful.

South London

It's a complete melting pot, and I think it's relevant because I think that if you come to South London, and you come to Goldsmiths, it’s so rich. The community is so rich it’s unreal – it's all nations. I loved growing up in Lewisham.

We are trying now to bring live music back in. There are so many pockets of music around, it's vibrant – there's always somebody gigging or, something kind of going on. You know there's New Cross Inn. And you've got Skehans, which is up the road in Nunhead, and every Monday night there was an acoustic jam session so you'd find me there. It’s all ages and Goldsmiths students – it's amazing. 

Women’s Officer

I decided that this year I want to run for Women's Officer because my radio show is called Aspirational Woman. It's all about women who aspire to do stuff and what's that journey like. Getting involved makes you feel great, I have my own radio show and stuff like that as well. I decided that as well as being a mature student, I really want to encourage women to just go out there and get their stuff. I always start conversations with, ‘if you weren't doing this, what would you do? If time was no object, what would you do? You already know what your passions are, you run for your passions.’ The rest finds its way and it slots into place, like a superhero.