Founder/CEO of Afrobeats Intelligence, a weekly newsletter on African music, Joey Akpan has won a $10,000 (no strings attached) Creator Grant offered by Pallet, a New York-based organisation.
Akpan is one of the three winners of the $10,000 grant which Pallet says is to accelerate the future it wants to see.
“A world where consumers’ needs in education, media, entertainment are catered to by independents.”
Pallet is committed to building hiring tools for communities and creators. It also writes a newsletter: http://newsletter.pallet.xyz
Due to the incredible number of applicants for the grant, eight additional winners also got $1,000 each
Responding to winning the grant, Akpan Twitted “So I won a grant! $10,000 (no strings attached) to throw into my creative work. Thanks to God and thanks to @sinzubaba who saw it on his TL, tagged me to it, and the rest is news. Thanks, G!
Akpan according to his LinkedIn profile is a multi-award-winning journalist, writer, A&R and Media Consultant. He is a writer, broadcaster, host, public relations consultant and commentator on current affairs, including African music, Urban pop culture, politics, sport, race, gender and sexuality.
For over five years, he was the Music Editor of Pulse Nigeria, where he led a team of creatives at the Pulse Entertainment Desk.
His writings have appeared in The New York Times, The FADER, Quartz, The New Yorker, Mail & Guardian, DJBooth, Pulse, Guardian, OkayAfrica, Highsnobiety, CNN and other publications
Details of the winners and their work as announced by Pallet on Twitter @Pallet_HQ is as follows;
Joey Akan, a music journalist since 2014. He’s been a writer for over twenty. In 2018, he went freelance, working with some of the world’s most well-known publications: NYT, The New Yorker, Pitchfork, CNN (to name a few).
During the Pandemic, Joey took advantage by launching @Africanintelligence, a newsletter highlighting African music. With it, he wants to democratize knowledge of African music both for the local audience, and the international markets looking to do business with Africa.
Where is he trying to go? Joey wants to build an entire media ecosystem, audio, visuals, and build on socials. Creating an ever-expanding community.
@WhiteboardCryp1 started their youtube channel when they realized that a majority of crypto educational content was created by developers, for developers. To tackle this void, they created animated videos that break down complicated crypto and DeFi topics.
Where are they trying to go? The answer is simple: the #1 crypto educational resource for people around the world.
@startuptechy is a software engineer who is passionate about deconstructing overcomplicated concepts into simple, concise messages. Her fundamental belief is that everyone can be in tech. You don’t have to be a genius.
Where is she going? In the next few years, she hopes to totally demystify tech careers and create accessible paths for many more startup technologists.
Eight additional winners
@thesakshishukla is a copywriter that’s always felt internally driven to help people and professionals make their voices heard. Now, she makes content to help businesses prosper.
Where are they trying to go? Shakshi hopes to help people leverage the internet to build a fulfilling life doing the things they love. And she wants to start a science club!
@just_norm
Shortly after moving to South Africa in 2017, @just_norm felt there was so much to learn about building startups in emerging markets that he started @TheFlipAfrica
Where are they trying to go? In the future, Justin wants to make even better content and build new products that help more entrepreneurs and investors get involved in solving hard problems in Africa.
For most people, personal finance is a complicated topic — imagine trying to learn it in another language.
@juliofinance felt that pain as a Hispanic immigrant, which is why he started a podcast to provide financial literacy to his community.
Where are they trying to go? Julio plans to expand his message’s reach through other platforms and keynotes in the upcoming months.
@adamcotterill95
After working in finance for 3 years, @adamcotterill95 realized how significant a role energy plays in society. It’s the reason he started @thePlugWeekly : a newsletter and media brand focused on the intersection of energy and sustainability.
Since then it’s grown into a leading podcast and newsletter for the African tech ecosystem. Where are they trying to go? Through the Plug, Adam hopes to create accessible story-telling content to help people better understand the energy industry.
@DaleWWilkinson
On a mission to help people do work that matters, @DaleWWilkinson is the host of the GoodMaker’s podcast and creator of @goodgigsapp
Where are they trying to go? He’s building a community of purpose-driven professionals to drive social impact through meaningful work.
@lucaronin
As a founder and CTO, @lucaronin always struggled to find high-quality content that could help him at his own job. That’s when he started @refactoring, a newsletter that he would have loved to read when he first started as a manager.
Where are they going? Luca wants to build a community and engage people with the idea of “what does it mean to make great software, together.”
@femtechinsider
Kathrin developed an interest in the women’s health innovation space after being diagnosed with PCOS (Polycystic Ovary Syndrome) out of the blue. She built @femtechinsider to create awareness for the under-researched women’s health space.
Where are they going? Today Femtech Insider is the globally leading platform for women’s health innovation and plans to continuously meet the needs of its ever-growing audience.
@fintwit was created as a way to bring together the finance community on Twitter.
Where are they going? Fintwit plans to keep growing the community and continue sharing quality educational content (and memes).
*Culled from Media Career Development Network