Small town Keisha Moves to the Big Apple.
From a small town in Surrey in the United Kingdom, Keisha Faye Frimpong, a 22-year-old moved to New York City in September 2024 to start her new life.
Growing up she always felt different. As a British black girl, she was one of four students in her primary school to be a person of colour. Keisha then attended Woldingham School, a boarding school in a small village on the outskirts of Surrey, where she was one of nine black students, out of 101 students in her year. She stated, “Sometimes I was the only black person in my classroom.” Surrey, only an hour's drive from London, a city known for its diversity and multi-cultural background is no easier for a black woman than the small village she grew up in. She recalled travelling on the underground and thinking “In this massive city why am I still the only one that looks like me…it was so maddening to me”.
After finishing school, Keisha attended Edinburgh University in Scotland which she said was “very similar” to her hometown. She spoke of a game where she would guess how many people of colour, she would see on her way home from university (sometimes a 40-minute walk), and explained how sometimes she didn’t see anyone like her for days.
However, this didn’t stop Keisha from making the changes necessary to her university to make it a more inclusive space. As well as the President of the Contemporary Art Society at Edinburgh University, she was also the Deputy Editor In-Chief for The Student. The Student is the oldest student newspaper in Europe, founded in 1887, and awarded the best student newspaper in Scotland. Keisha started as a writer for the feature column, and shortly after in January 2022 she was then voted as the Art Editor. By August she was the Editor for the Fringe Festival and in December 2022 she was awarded Deputy Editor In-Chief. She was one of two black students on The Student team and the first black Senior Editor, who also published the first black history month issue for the newspaper. She explained that due to the lack of diversity, the team had got away with often making racist and sexist jokes, particularly on the editors group chats, and therefore to help students in the future she helped put together an Equality Agreement to prevent discrimination of minority students in the workplace.
Since moving to New York City Keisha has stated that she oddly feels more comfortable as a woman of colour. She understands that the politics in the UK and US are similar, however, since starting her job at Resnicow and Associates, it had been the first time she had seen senior positions filled by people of colour. The decision to uproot her life in Britian came as a complete surprise when she applied for a summer internship after graduation and was offered a full-time job as an Assistant Account Executive for the public relations firm- Resnicow and Associates. Keisha graduated in July 2024 with a bachelor’s degree in history of art. Her job intertwines art and politics which she stated were always two interests of hers she never thought would work together.
As well as the diverse cultures that makeup New York, she explained that she loved the energy of the city and how anything feels possible in New York City. Keisha currently plans to stay in New York for at least five years to grow within Resnicow and Associates, but also to become a true New Yorker.