Description
Ekow Eshun’s magisterial book, The Strangers, is an intimate and revelatory portrait of five remarkable and very different Black men who have changed our culture: Ira Aldridge, Matthew Henson, Frantz Fanon, Malcolm X and Justin Fashanu.
Each person a trailblazer in his field. Each haunted by a sense of isolation and exile. Each reaching for a better future. Ekow Eshun tells their stories with breathtaking lyricism and empathy, capturing both the hostility and the beauty they experienced in the world. And he locates them within a wider landscape of Black art, culture, history and politics which stretches from Africa to Europe to North America and the Caribbean. As he moves through this landscape, he uncovers stories of exile and escape, of conflict and vulnerability, and of the totemic central figure of the stranger.
Ekow Eshun is a writer, curator and broadcaster. He is the author of the acclaimed memoir Black Gold of the Sun. He was the first Black editor of a major magazine in the UK and went on to become the first Black director of a leading British arts institution. He has created documentaries for BBC TV and radio and his writing appears in publications including the Guardian, New York Times and Financial Times.
Novelist Caleb Azumah Nelson joins Ekow in conversation. He is the author of the hugely beloved and award-winning novels Open Water and Small Worlds.
Ticket price includes a glass of wine or soft drink.