Articles
New York Review of Books
Grant appears less as a neutral observer than as a nonviolent combatant in his memoir, I'm Black So You Donโt Have to Be
Read MoreGuardian Review
In this article, the Guardian review Colin Grant's sharp and nuanced memoir: Iโm Black So You Donโt Have to Be
Read MoreGuardian Interview with Colin Grant
โMy father ruled through painโ: Colin Grant on the stories behind Iโm Black So You Donโt Have to Be
Read MoreGot to keep those good vibraniums
Marvelโs follow-up to the successful Black Panther Wakanda Forever suggests that the Wakandan and Talokan custodians of vibranium, similarly to subjugated native peoples whose resources were exhausted by colonialism, have most to fear from rising tides and temperatures.
Read MoreWhat Sidney Poitier stood for
A new documentary on the exemplary activist and Hollywood star Burdened by the expectations of black people around the world, the Oscar-winning actor embodied grace even under fire
Read MoreEureka Day: No one is a villain
The struggle between vaxxers and anti-vaxxers in a US school Though first staged in 2018, before the onset of the Covid-19 outbreak, this is a play that speaks to the upheaval and the ethical dilemmas, personal and public, that have arisen since 2020. Ostensibly this is a contemporary tragicomic drama about an outbreak of mumps […]
Read MoreNope: A hybrid of horror and alien invasion films
It draws on a catalogue of alien invasion and horror film tropes, but is Nope dope? Jordan Peele has established his signature as a writer/director of smart and knowing horror films such as Get Out and Us that have exposed white Americansโ fear of retribution for the litany of crimes committed against their black compatriots […]
Read MoreAnd Finally: Matters of Life and Death
Humility lessons from the retired neurosurgeon, Henry Marsh The ever candid neurosurgeon reflects on his own mortality, as well as the failings of his profession, in this enthralling third volume of memoirs
Read MoreReturn of the Glue Gun Revolutionaries
After the lost years of Covid, yes man, Carnival wheel and come again; itโs back! Carnival has too many friends to fail; it gives shape and meaning to too many lives, renewed each year; Carnival has not just proven a vital bridge between Britons, it has come, in some ways, to signify an ideal of […]
Read MoreIn the Black Fantastic
Timelines, narratives and communities reimagined by artists of the African diaspora Decades before Hollywoodโs popular Marvel movie Black Panther, the fabulously outrageous jazz musician Sun Ra set out the stalls for what would come to be called Afrofuturism in Space Is the Place.
Read MoreThe Enigma of Nonarrival
Though Roy Heath spent most of his life in Britain, he returned again and again in his fiction to Guyana. Like many of his pioneering generation, he stayed in Britain until his death in 2008; in his fiction, though, Heath returned again and again to Guyana. He hardly wrote about Britain; his focus was always […]
Read MoreโQueen as head of state beyond UK is an anachronismโ
Reflecting on the legacy of colonialism
Read MoreโThe story enraged meโ – an interview with Deborah Roberts
The US artist reflects on her Child Q collage She used to work in a shoe-shop but her work now sells for huge sums and is collected by big museums and Beyoncรฉ. The African American explains why she tackled the shocking strip-search of a 15-year-old girl in a London school
Read MoreWheel and Come Again
โWheel and come againโ is how Ethlyn once described this circular migration, back and forth from the island, from somewhere to elsewhere, to turn around and start all over again.
Read MoreJohn Akomfrah on Stuart Hall
The artist is revisiting his three-screen film about the legendary thinker and activist, which takes in jazz, Vietnam, and the family trauma that haunted Hall
Read MoreA Country Out of Control
In Wole Soyinkaโs laceratingly satirical new novel, Nigeria has lost its way and is inured to corruption and violence.
Read MoreAn Olive Grove in Ends by Moses McKenzie review – an impressive debut
A young man struggles to escape a life of violent crime in this gritty fable about love, faith and redemption
Read MoreCLR James: The black bohemian
CLR Jamesโs writings on empire and cricket were marked by moral clarity and mischievous provocation
Read MoreYou Donโt Know Us Negroes by Zora Neale Hurston review โ fearless and dazzling essays
The pioneering African American writerโs nonfiction pieces have a power, depth and courage that still resonate more than 60 years after her death
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