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Saturday night we had the best experience sharing the stage with Ezra Collective and Jorja Smith at the 2025 Brit Awards. It was such an “Ezra” move to get invited to play and instantly ask if they could bring 25 young people with them!! If you missed it check it out here – Ezra Collective ft. Jorja Smith – Live at The BRIT Awards 2025

Femi Koleoso joined Kinetika Bloco in 2011 a year before he started Ezra Collective with his brother. And that Summer of 2011 when riots were ripping across London, Femi was trekking down daily to the Royal Festival Hall from Tottenham to join around 100 other young people to learn music and sew lights onto costumes for Notting Hill Carnival and the Thames Festival! He stayed engaged with us regularly through till 2015 doing our Leadership Programme, working in SEND schools with us and supporting other young people as a Leader on our Summer School. Returning most years after this to come speak on the leadership programme, or do an interview, or just pop into see the family.

Ife Ogunjobi joined us in 2014 from Kingsdale School and quickly became a core member going on to work with us on various projects including one trip to Oslo Mela when he lost his passport on the way to the airport. Never put your passport in your tracksuit pocket guys! He still managed to make it for the gig though, after sweettalking the Passport Office lady into fast tracking him a new one!! In the last few years he has arranged Ezra tracks for us to play at Summer School.

All of the boys, Femi, Ife, Joe, TJ and James, have such a deep understanding of how important music education is – both in and outside the classroom. They show their gratitude and respect for the support they had in their early years in a way that goes beyond words, to genuine action. Since 2023 they have been inviting us onto their platform, first at Shepherds Bush Empire and on to Glastonbury, The Royal Albert Hall and now the Brits. They share the stage giving our young people opportunities of a life time and inspiration to keep playing and finding joy in music.

The words that Femi shares in his speeches about “putting a trumpet into the hand of a young person”, “giving young people a dream, an aspiration, a goal” is a true belief that they and we hold tightly to. Over the last 25 years we have seen countless young people come through the doors at Kinetika Bloco and receive that aspiration, be encouraged towards a goal and start to see their dreams become reality. We can’t solve all of the problems that young people face in todays world, but we can keep putting tools in their hands to help them find a way through and create a supportive environment for them to learn in. Not only does the creative experience help them mentally deal with the world, but it can genuinely give them career opportunities too. Not all the young people that have been in Kinetika Bloco are on stages as big as the Brits, but many are working as musicians, teaching, writing, working in the creative industries or using the multitude of other skills music brings to lead successful lives – team work, resilience, discipline, creativity, confidence…  

So if you were inspired by Ezra Collective and want to help be part of the solution, like they are, then find a way to support a local youth club or charity. We all need money to exist, so if you can’t do anything else, give a donation to a local group. But if you have a platform, a business, a stage, or a skill, think about how you can share this with a young person to help them fulfil their dream.

Finally we just want to say a HUGE thank you to Ezra Collective for inviting us to be part of your journey and MASSIVE congratulations for winning Group of the Year! You are our group of the year, every year!!