Alex Wheatle and Colin Grant – HYBRID EVENT
Sat 27 Apr, 2:30 pm–3:30 pm
About the event
A chance to hear from the acclaimed authors of two important memoirs: Alex Wheatle’s Sufferah: Memoir of a Brixton Reggae Head and Colin Grant’s I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be.
Abandoned as a baby to the British care system, writer Alex Wheatle grew up with no knowledge of his Jamaican parentage or family history. Later, he is inexorably drawn to reggae, his lifeline through disrupted teenage years, the challenges of living as a young Black man in 1980s Britain and his imprisonment for protesting against systemic racism and police brutality.
Writer Colin Grant’s memoir is told through a series of intimate and unforgettable intergenerational portraits. Born in Britain to Jamaican parents, he was told that if he worked hard and became a doctor, his race would become invisible; he would shake off the burden he believed his parents’ generation had carried. The reality turned out to be very different.
About the authors
Alex Wheatle spent most of his youth in the notorious Shirley Oaks children’s home and his youth was portrayed in Oscar Award-winning director Steve McQueen’s Small Axe series. His first novel, Brixton Rock, was published in 1999 to critical acclaim and was followed by further YA and adult novels and memoirs. He has won several awards and in 2008 was awarded MBE for services to literature. His latest book is the memoir: Sufferah: Memoir of a Brixton Reggae Head.
Colin Grant is the author of six books. They include: Negro with a Hat: The Rise and Fall of Marcus Garvey, and a group biography of the Wailers, I & I, The Natural Mystics. His memoir, Bageye at the Wheel, was shortlisted for the Pen/Ackerley Prize, 2013. Grant’s history of epilepsy, A Smell of Burning, was a Sunday Times Book of the Year 2016. Grant’s Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation, was a BBC radio 4 Book of the Week. Grant is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and Director of WritersMosaic.
HYBRID EVENT – this is a Hybrid event, which can be attended in person at the venue or accessed online. Simply select the Live or Online ticket link for your preferred event viewing. For online access a link will be sent to you the day before the event takes place.
Access and Covid safety measures: if you have specific access needs or queries and/or prefer to be seated away from other audience members as a Covid safety measure, please contact our Admin at: [email protected] with your request.
Date: Saturday 27 April
Time: 2.30pm-3.30pm
Venue: Small Seeds, Castlegate (New Street junction), Huddersfield HD1 2UD
Tickets: £5, online tickets: £2
Age Guidance: 16+
Access Guide: https://www.accessable.co.uk/huddersfield-literature-festival/access-guides/small-seeds
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