Dr Yana Johnson MBE
106 & Park, Sunday Gospel and The Monique Show and Wendy Williams are the successes on BET Networks in the UK contributed by the expertise of Mr Glen Yearwood, Founder of Soul Marketing. Glen and the team are still celebrating the fact that they are the 1st UK Company to be awarded 1st prize for the NAMAIC Multicultural Marketing Awards for 2011.
Soul Marketing’s work in the UK and Africa over the last 4 years has been internationally recognised as trail blazing. Glen has the ability and reputation to deliver solutions that are unapologetically culturally based around the Diasporic Black experience. His capacity to influence along with the support of his London based team convinced Dr Maya Angelou with a phone call to give exclusive interview with the Guardian newspaper in the run up to the BET Honours on the 18th February 2012.
I first met Glen when he masterminded the sell-out event, ‘WINNERS’, at the British Library. The event was awesome as there was so much appreciation for culture delivered in a venue representing English Heritage and information, The British Library. A very daring selection of both venue and subject but the mix worked. Glen, so passionate about his work, he should be an activist, with impeccable speech and diction there is not a hint of his cultural background. But his words intentions and content are so precise; he would probably measure up to EMINEM if he rapped.
I cried when he delivered a Keynote speech while representing the British delegation which I was part of in Virginia, USA. Glen connected with the audience and brought a unity in the room which is very rare, even in business Americans can’t help asking about the Royals or the fog, but Glen bridged the Gap, presenting the delegation as the finest Black entrepreneurs in Britain and we were part of a dream team, ushered in and out of meetings, receptions and dinners.
It was awesome. Not just because we were representing the UK, but because we were representing ourselves.At the heart of Glen’s life is his family, his dog Ella a prize winning Staffordshire bull terrier and his love of Jamaican Studio1 music. Glen also a musician, has a strong appreciation for old school music of his time.With BET as his prime client, Glen pushes the boundaries of the International time zone, being abreast of everything media and by the time his colleagues in the US had called him to share of the death of the late Whitney Houston, Glen was already aware. Living the dream between the US and UK, Glen is often literally seeing the best of both worlds in any given week.Glen in North Carolina University
I have great admiration for a man who knows his roots, does the work and holds down commitment to building a long legacy few people have done in his position.
I was able to grab Glen for a very quick chat;
Comparing to your upbringing in Georgetown, St Vincent to the UK, what lessons can be learnt in terms of education and respect of our youth?
Simply put: ones’ capacity to bask in the glory of our (African) regal history. If you feel like a King then that imposes a lifetime behavioural pattern that is mostly fearless in pursuit of Glory matched only by my childlike curiosity for asking questions and seeking answers.
There will be a generation of young people who do not know the original great artists; will our music legacy be as strong in years to come with Media channels that include our diversity such as BET?
Difficult one; as a parent I pretend to care about what my teenage children are playing on their IPod’s. As an individual, I start with Louis Armstrong 1932 and finish somewhere between Studio 1 and Sparrow. As strategist behind a global media network such as BET Networks, I’m very interested on who makes the money and helps pay my cheque.
When you travel, do you find that many other Americans know of studio 1 music?
Only the ones that have a relationship with Jamaicans.
Who is your hero?
Marcus Garvey and Fanny Lou Hamer
If you could have relived any moment in time and actually been there where would it be and when?
Probably Harlem in the 1920’s and at the final whistle when Tottenham Hotspur won the double in 1961/62
Did the American’s understand our riots? Do you think as a society we did?
Americans are familiar with inner-city riots. Whether they understood it is quite another matter. Frankly, I’m not sure I understood it.
