Zita Holbourne FRSA is a multi-award winning multidisciplinary artist, author, educator, community activist, equality and human rights campaigner and trade union leader.
Her creative practice includes work as a visual artist, performance poet, writer and vocalist. She has exhibited art, performed and spoken around the globe. She is the author of the book of poetry, Striving for Equality Freedom and Justice and is currently working on a memoir of her lifetime as an activist, to be published by Aurora Metro Books in 2026. Zita has contributed to over 50 books. Her globe sculpture, commissioned by The World Reimagined is permanently located at the Black Cultural Archives.
She regularly facilitates creative writing, history, visual art, equality, campaigning and other workshops for adults and children.
Zita co- founded Black Activists Rising Against Cuts ( BARAC) UK in 2010 to campaign against the disproportionate impact of austerity measures on Black and Brown communities and for race equality, justice and migrant rights. She has played an instrumental role in exposing and campaigning against the Windrush Scandal and raised thousands of pounds for Humanitarian Aid, leading numerous aidvand solidarity missions to support refugees overseas.
She is a founding member of an array of campaigns / groups including African Caribbean and Asian Lawyers for Justice BAME Lawyers for Grenfell and Movement Against Xenophobia. She founded and curated the TUC Roots Culture Identity Art Exhibition from 2013 to 2023, in memory of Stephen Lawrence, in order to provide a platform for young Black and Brown artists.
Zita is a lifelong trade unionist, she is the Joint National Chair of Artists’ Union England, Chair of Public Services International Education Support and Culture Workers Network, elected to the General Federation of Trade Unions Executive Committee. Zita world on a freelance basis for two UK trade unions, as the National Campaigns Officer for the Psychotherapy and Counselling Union and on the National Reps Committee, dealing with complex cases for the National Probation Service Union. She is the former National Vice President of the Public and Commercial Services Union, was elected to both the Trades Union Congress Race Relations and Women’s Committees and elected to the European Public Sector Unions Federation National and European Committee, she is a skilled negotiator having negotiated with UK, European Governments and the European Commission on workers rights, specialising in equality.
Zita is an Honorary Fellow of the University of Wales Trinity Saint David, part of the Unesco Coalition of Artists for the General History of Africa.
In 2023 she was listed on the Global Diversity List as an Inspirational Role Model. Other awards and recognitions include Caribbean Global Awards, Outstanding Global Arts and Culture Award, Caribbean Global Awards Best Global Community Influencer, the Olive Morris Award, 100 Black Women who have made a mark, Ethnicity Awards 100 List, Diversity Awards Positive Role Model for Race, Legacy Awards Lifetime Achievement Award for Equality Champion, BLAC Award Community Special Recognition Award, Artist in Residence, Santa Fe Art Institute, New Mexico, 2024, Artist in Residence, Boutcher School, London, 2025, amongst others.