On the Couch with Biscoes
On the Couch with Biscoes is your home for honest, unscripted conversations with the people who help our local community thrive. Brought to you by Biscoes Solicitors, this podcast steps away from the legal world and into the stories, values, and experiences of the businesses, organisations, and individuals we collaborate with every day.
Each episode invites you to settle into a cosy, comforting space where real people share what keeps them moving, lessons learned, challenges overcome, and the passions that drive their work. If you’re searching for heavy legal talk, this isn’t the place. But if you want heartfelt, open conversations with the voices shaping our community, you’re in exactly the right spot.
So grab a cuppa, get comfy, and join us on the couch. There’s always room for one more.
On the Couch with Biscoes
On the Couch with Roni Edwards
Use Left/Right to seek, Home/End to jump to start or end. Hold shift to jump forward or backward.
In this episode of On the Couch with Biscoes, Alison is joined by Roni Edwards, founder of Pamodzi Creatives, to explore the power of community, storytelling, and celebrating inspirational people across Portsmouth.
Roni shares how the Inspirational Women of Portsmouth Awards began as a passion project and grew into a powerful platform recognising those who quietly make a difference. Rather than focusing on “winners,” the awards celebrate recipients. individuals uplifted by their communities and recognised for their impact.
Rooted in values like Ubuntu, “I am because we are”, Roni’s work is all about connection, inclusion, and creating spaces where people feel seen and heard. The conversation explores her wider initiatives, including Kambani events (“come, let us talk”), Girls Night In, and Black History Month celebrations, all designed to bring people together through culture, food, and conversation.
They also discuss an exciting storytelling project bringing local role models into schools through children’s books, helping young people connect with real, living inspiration from their own city.
A warm, uplifting episode about togetherness, celebrating everyday impact, and building a stronger, more connected community.
Biscoes, great service, every client, every time. Welcome to On the Couch with Bisco's, your home for honest, unscripted business and community chats brought to you by Bisco's solicitors. We work with all kinds of businesses and organisations through our local community, and we've learned so much from the people behind them. So now we want you to hear from them too, to understand the values, lessons, and experiences that kept them moving. If you're looking for hard-hitting legal content, this isn't the podcast for you. This is a cozy, comfortable space for local people and our best collaborators to have a voice. So grab a cupper and come and join us on the couch.
SPEAKER_00So I wear many hats. My bread and butter is a dance practitioner in schools, but I also run um an organization called Pamodzi Creatives.
SPEAKER_01Pamodzi.
SPEAKER_00Pamodzi. Tell me what that means. Pamodzi means together. Okay. And the heart of it is to basically celebrate inspirational stories in the city and create spaces where that can happen.
SPEAKER_01Brilliant. Okay. So I first met you, I think, because you were looking for uh support and sponsors for an awards ceremony that you um created um as a as an event in the Portsmouth calendar. Uh, and that's the Inspirational Women of Portsmouth Awards. For sure, yes. Um tell me a little bit about that. How did that start?
SPEAKER_00So it wasn't shouldn't this doesn't sound very professional, but it was a passion project project in an accident that basically escalated and um happened because uh I was kind of experiencing a lot of people who were not being positive at the time about women generally, but women from the city. Yeah, and I remember feeling really frustrated that um I personally knew so many inspirational people in the city um who define themselves as female. So I started a podcast and then I was like, and that and now I want to celebrate them. And yeah. Okay.
SPEAKER_01So you you started an event um that celebrated um a variety of different award recipients. You don't call them award winners, they're recipients um in different categories. So can you kind of tell us a little bit about the the types of people who who've been award recipients?
SPEAKER_00For sure. So that that all needs to have me go back to explaining why we don't have award winners. Um for me, um the the clues and the title of the event, Inspirational Women of Portsmouth, and um I kind of wanted to build values within the award event itself that um kind of express that you can't be inspirational in a vacuum. So somebody needs to see you to be inspirational. Um Miss Lang doesn't get to walk into a room and be like, do you know what? I think I'm quite inspirational. And that's not how that's not how it happens. So um I wanted it to be a space where people are celebrated because they're seen, and people are elevated because they are part of something.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so you're actually wearing a t-shirt today, sure. Which is part of the Pomodzi collection of merchandise. Sure. Um, very much promoted by our lovely Debbie Smith. Yes. Um and on that t-shirt is the word Ubuntu. Yes. So what does Ubuntu mean?
SPEAKER_00So Ubuntu literally means I am because we are. And um, I don't know about you, Alison, but I want to live in a world where we elevate and celebrate each other for the small and the and the large. Yep. And we're not tearing each other apart and we're not trying to promote ourselves at the cost of something else. Absolutely. So the women who end up being nominated a lot of the time are being nominated because they are doing stuff and seem to be doing stuff.
SPEAKER_01Quietly getting on and supporting their community or supporting a an aspect of community. Yeah.
SPEAKER_00And why not try and create a space where people like that are being celebrated as well as the big mega fabulous ones? Let's celebrate that lollipop lady, yeah, you know, who has made the difference in those children's lives because she smiles at them all the time.
SPEAKER_01Absolutely. So the last couple of years, those awards have been hosted at Portsmouth Guild Hall.
SPEAKER_00For sure. Um and that was all thanks to you as well.
SPEAKER_01Oh never, but uh very generously, the Guild Hall Trust allow us to have that spiritual.
SPEAKER_00Very generously, yes.
SPEAKER_01Um for the awards. We are there there have been no awards, and normally they're around International Women's Day.
SPEAKER_00For sure. Yes.
SPEAKER_01Um, there have been no awards this year, we've had a fallow year.
SPEAKER_00We're having a rest and reset year and giving space for um the centenary. Am I saying the right centenary? You are indeed centenary. That one because because um there's so many amazing things going on. Yeah, and they're all about, I hope, celebrating, right? Celebrating the city. Um, so we just thought we would kind of create hold space for everyone else to just do that and tap into and support things going on. Um and actually, it doesn't hurt to have a fallow year when something is growing so beautifully and when something is all-consuming, it doesn't hurt to pause and just reset.
SPEAKER_01Okay, so the next uh awards will be in March 2020. March 2027, yeah. 14th.
SPEAKER_00And we've already started funding for it.
SPEAKER_01So the rest, it's gonna have some air quotes to it.
SPEAKER_00But yeah.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay. So um, in terms of those awards, when when do you launch the sort of nomination process? When can people start thinking about if they wanted to nominate somebody?
SPEAKER_00It depends on how organized I am. Am I allowed to say that? I know you I know you evolved, Ronnie. Uh um, I think we're looking at July. Okay. Um, to s to have a launch event.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Because she likes the party. So we think we're looking hoping to kind of um launch the nomination process in July as a soft launch and then have a a big push from the autumn. Okay.
SPEAKER_01So if anybody knows any uh inspirational stories, those those sort of quiet people who are just getting on and and supporting people in their community, that would be a time that they could um have a look at the website, work out how they nominate and get a nomination in.
SPEAKER_00For sure. And we're starting to celebrate, or we're still celebrating women and people in the city in different ways anyway. So we've got a publication, children's storybook publication. I was gonna ask you about that. Tell me a little bit about the storybook. Wow, Alison, in my spare time. I thought. Um I am a dance practitioner working in schools, love it. Um, but I got fed up of walking to schools and seeing their books about inspirational people and and picking them up and being like, oh, look at this dead American person. That's awesome. Oh, look, another dead American person. Oh, this person's English, but they're also dead. And I thought, how about like a live one? Kind of, yeah, kind of explore bringing into the space, into our space, Portsmouth, an opportunity for young people to hear about inspirational people from the city.
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00How rock and roll would that be?
SPEAKER_01And you're basing that on previous award recipients being able to um broadly speaking, for sure. Yeah, potentially promoted in a in a publicised format so that children can learn from those stories. Sure.
SPEAKER_00So we're about to in the summer we'll have three storybooks um celebrating three inspirational people from the city. Um, and we are hoping um to have that coincide with some storytelling projects around some communities um in Buckland, I think, in Summerstown. Okay. Um, just to kind of again celebrate them as well as school assemblies, etc. etc. But yeah, we've got storybooks about inspirational people as well.
SPEAKER_01And in terms of just just talking about inspirational stories, um next week you have an event going on as well. Tell me a bit about that.
SPEAKER_00I don't know when this is going out, but and I think the ticket's not all is sold out actually. But we um I had an idea, and it will either really work or not. But I just thought um I would love to create a space where we eat because yeah, and we also celebrate inspirational people who are not originally from Portsmouth, but have really contributed to the city, uh, and then share a bit of their culture, uh culinary culture. So we're doing three inspirational stories um and three inspirational meals from different cultures.
SPEAKER_01Brilliant. And what's that called?
SPEAKER_00Kambani.
SPEAKER_01And tell me what that means.
SPEAKER_00African, she keeps bringing these words. So Kambani, uh, as well as Ubuntu, as well as Pamotti, are Zambian in their origin. Yep. And Kambani means come, let us talk.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, okay.
SPEAKER_00Because we need more of that. We need spaces where we have eye contact, we interact, we celebrate, we um create um inspirational spaces, and we come against a lot of things that are not so positive. Yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_01So that's that that Kambani event um might may have happened by the time that this is aired, but it's an event that you plan to repeat, modularly plan to repeat.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, we basically do Kambani twice, two, three times a year. Yeah. Um, and same with we have we've got a similar version for girls called Girls Night In, um where we have inspirational people from the city, just interact with young people, um, so that they kind of share their thoughts as well, as hear from the inspirational older people.
SPEAKER_01Uh so a chance to listen and and learn from other people's experiences, um, get a bit more understanding of other people's culture as well, so that we can feel a bit more tolerant for sure um around that.
SPEAKER_00For sure. But also, because we do it in a way for the girls night in, we do it in a way where the young people can also feed into the conversation, right? Because we don't do that enough as well. We don't hear from our young people. They've got so much to teach us. My eight-year-old daughter, every week I'm like, oh, okay, so that was humbling. She's constantly teaching me something about myself. Yeah, yeah. So that's that's the heart of the city.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, I've and I've I've heard your your lovely daughter, uh, she's um she she read a letter recently at an event that you that you um you hosted, um, and she's very clear about what what young people want from their adults. For sure.
SPEAKER_00She read a letter to all the women in the room telling them what what she needed from them to grow. So yeah, it was I was very proud of her.
SPEAKER_01Yeah. And a lot of a lot of what you do is is is about listening as much as it is about storytelling, isn't it?
SPEAKER_00Because we can things a bit eight. We can talk. We do so much talking, but we lose so much because we don't hear each other. Did you see the interview with Trump? I'm digressing a little bit. Uh which one, right? Which one? The Japanese Prime Minister, um sweet baby giraffe. He just sat there like telling her all these things, and she was just like, she just checked out, she was like, I'm not engaging. And here we are.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, indeed. Indeed. But yeah um, so uh coming back just sucking right back to the awards, the other thing I wanted to say was um there are going to be opportunities for businesses potentially to sponsor the awards for next year. So, how how would somebody get in touch with you to to offer to do that?
SPEAKER_00Um so just to say about the sponsorship, for for me, the events don't happen without that sponsor support because I feel really strongly that an event that's created to celebrate people needs to be accessible to everyone. Yeah. So we make it a point to um donate um a handful of tickets to people from the marginalised community and and make it as inclusive as possible in that way. And that only happens because we heavily subsidise the event. Yeah.
SPEAKER_01So the Guild Hall, the Guild Hall are particularly generous in giving us the venue uh for nothing. Um but obviously we have to still pay for food and pay for everything that goes on, um, which requires you to have sponsors. So there will be sponsor packages available for sure for the event.
SPEAKER_00Yeah, I think that's just about to be launched um next week. Um, I'm not the person in charge, but I'm pretty sure from next week on our website you'll be able to access a sponsorship package that has three options. We've got a legacy, um, we've got an award tool, and we've got just an award recipient package, and that um those three tiers have different levels of engagement with it with the organisation.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, brilliant. And and the other events that you put on, so Girls Night In and um Kambani, again, Kambani this time being sponsored by Port Smith Water. Thank you, Port Smith Water. So yeah, big thanks to them. For sure. Um, and um the other thing I know that you did last year, which I'm sure you're planning to do, repeat this year, was um you did a Black History Month event.
SPEAKER_00Loved it. Yeah, loved it. Yeah, so basically, a couple of years ago, see this is a problem. Don't let make eye contact with me because I get really excited and I rope you into these things. But a couple of years ago, I went to Africa Fashion Week in in London and I loved it. And I was like, why aren't we doing this here in Portsmouth? And I went up, you know, overenthusiastically, went up to the organizers, like, excuse me, I'm from Portsmouth and I'd love to do this in Portsmouth if that's okay, because it's really good. And he went, pretty much went, yeah, okay. That's nice for you. But who are you? And I was like, okay, fine, we'll just do it ourselves. So that was inspiration. Like, how do we kind of bring some fabulous fashion and celebrate it into the space? But also, right, how do we again create a space where we can have a conversation about celebrating and building on Black Legacy in Portsmouth?
SPEAKER_01Yeah.
SPEAKER_00Um, so there's a symposium that's latched onto the fashion show that's latched onto food. Because there's always food. There's always food. Everyone is involved. So we're having that happen on the 4th of October. Um, again, I think we're we're gonna have a uh fashion show celebrating local inspirational designers of colour. Um, that was fabulous last year, really enjoyed it, as well as the symposium. I think we're gonna have the same theme again. Yeah, and we had about six, seven amazing trailblazers from the city, people of colour, who just kind of threw into their their thoughts into that into that theme.
SPEAKER_01Brilliant. So lots of stuff that people can engage with for sure. For sure. Um come together.
SPEAKER_00Um it means together.
SPEAKER_01Yeah, yeah, absolutely.
SPEAKER_00Um, thank you, Ronnie. That's been really great. Really appreciate being on the podcast. Thank you, Alison.