Since then, Rachel has been shortlisted for Young People's Laureate for London and runs poetry workshops at the University of Oxford, Poetry School and the Serpentine Galleries. In 2015, she founded Octavia – "a poetry collective for women of colour" – in response to the lack of inclusivity and representation in literature and academia. Based at the Southbank Centre, Rachel describes the collective’s meetings as a special occasion. "We come together to read beyond the canon, write ourselves on our own terms, and catch the hell up over cake – meeting and writing poetry together, in our own space, on our own terms is a celebration after all."