I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be: Colin Grant in conversation with Gary Younge
This event takes place in the Barbican Music Library and is accessed from the main library via a flight of stairs; there is also a single limited capacity lift which can only accommodate lightweight wheelchairs, one of which can be provided on request
Join Colin Grant and Gary Younge as they discuss contemporary Black lives and experience through the lens of Grant’s powerful new memoir.
A memoir told through a series of intimate intergenerational portraits, I’m Black So You Don’t Have To Be, explores Colin Grant’s own shifting sense of his identity. Collectively these stories build into poignant and insightful testimony of Black British experience. Written with the intrigue, nuance, beauty and wit of short stories, and with the veracity and painful revelation of memoir, Grant’s new book is an unforgettable exploration of family and generational change. To discuss the major themes within his memoir, Grant will be joined by award-winning writer and journalist, Gary Younge.
Colin Grant is the author of five 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 and a Daily Telegraph Book of the year 2019.
Gary Younge is an award-winning author, broadcaster and a professor of sociology at the University of Manchester in England. Formerly a columnist at The Guardian he is the author of five books, and has made several radio and television documentaries on subjects ranging from gay marriage to Brexit.
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Barbican Library
Location
The Barbican Libraries are located on Level 2 within the Barbican. They can be accessed from the main building via stairs or lifts from Level G or via Frobisher Crescent from the highwalks.
Address
Level 2, Barbican Centre
Silk Street, London
EC2Y 8DS
Public transport
The Barbican is widely accessible by bus, tube, train and by foot or bicycle. Plan your journey and find more route information in ‘Your Visit’ or book your car parking space in advance.
