Bernardine Anne Mobolaji Evaristo Becomes President of Rose Brufold College

Booker Prize winner, Bernardine Evaristo, has become the first black woman to be appointed as the President of Rose Brufold College. Bernardine Evaristo, who graduated from Rose Bruford in1982, said, “I think it’s really good to have a black woman as the head of a drama school, because it makes a very powerful statement. It’s really important that it should be Rose Brufold where I am the president, because 40 years ago I was there as a student and in many ways that college was the making of me.” Evaristo also spoke on the historical exclusion of people of colour at British drama schools. She noted that this appointment would make drama schools more accessible for people from minority backgrounds. In her words, “If they see a black person in a position of power in an organisation, that makes it more attractive to students of colour, and, not just somebody who’s in a position of power, but somebody who is an outspoken activist as I am.” Recently, Evaristo was also appointed as Vice President of the Royal Society of Literature in Britain. She also became an honorary fellow at St Anne’s College, Oxford.