I see fingerprints of Ty, Jon Daniel, and Paul Lawrence in their likes and follows on Instagram and Facebook. They are around every corner. When we go too, that may be all that's left, bar the books and the films..
Wrote the following in December 2021:
So one horrible consequence of going off socials for past 2 years and totally not being in touch with people in the fight is that every time I come back, I find that black men have died. This time, Ty and Paul Lawrence. Both terrific people. *Ty helped me out in 2018 when I was organising about missing and murdered teen Abdi Ali.
I used to go on Dotun Adebayo's BBC radio show circa 2013 with Paul. He always made me laugh. Always incisive. Cut to the real issues and knew so much of it was all ridiculous. Us, having to literally debate our right to exist as black people in this country. Very little has changed.
The last time I went and came back, it was artist Jon Daniel who had died. I had republished an excellent piece WritersofColour that he wrote, called Race, Revenue and Representation. And been in the same working group as him for the British Film Institute's Blackstars project. He designed all the visuals. I found out he died through the Stuart Hall foundation when I was working with them doing some research. I said I wanted him to be one of the people I interviewed.
In a reply to my suggestion, they told me that he had died the year before. These three men were lions. Wonderful men who worked in their own time for the benefit of all black people in the UK. I'm sad today. Their histories should be written down. Their lives should be honoured.
Beyond just condolences.
They were part of black British history. Rest in power.
If you were unaware, Journalism’s scratching backs season, erm awards season is fast approaching.
I was reminding of this when I got an email from the British Journalism Awards this week; a reminder to send entries in.
In the email were all the categories, so far so normal. Then I noticed there was a category for Interviewer of the Year, which took me down a long and winding road that ends here, with all the people I have interviewed over the past year. It's MUCH more than I had realised.
So ICYMI tthis awards calender year I have interviewed:
The UN Special Rapporteur on Torture and Other Cruel, Inhuman or Degrading Treatment
The Chief Inspector of Probation
The Acting CEO and Vice Judicial Chair of the Parole Board
Mothers, sisters, brothers and partners of IPP prisoners
IPP prisoners on license in the community, Andrew Morris, Marc Conway, Nicole, Madison, Rob
Baroness Claire Fox, Lords Daniel Moylan, Earl Attlee, David Blunkett
Simon Hattenstone
Deborah Coles, INQUEST Director,
Andrea Coomber, Chief executive officer of the Howard League for Penal Reform
Sir Bob Neil, former Chair of the cross Party Justice Committee
Elisabeth Davies, National Chair of the Independent Monitoring Boards,
IPP prisoners in Jail, Mitch, Frank
Barristers
Judges
Prison Solicitors: Dean Kingham, Andrew Sperling, Emma MClure
Criminalogists, Harry Annison, Ailbhe O'Loughlin, Sophie Ellis
Fromer Prison Psychologists
Director for Centre for Crime and Justice Studies
IPP Committee in Action and UNGRIPP
Mark Fairhurst, National Chair of the Prison Officers Association,
Nicky Padfield KC, former Master of Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge
Tom Wheatley, President of the Prison Governors Association.
Tom Fowler, Spy Cops expert
Gerry Carroll, MLA for the People Before Profit Party
Links to Trapped: The IPP Prisoner Scandal here and all other interviews I've done and articles I have written this year here.
I read this poem for the first time over the weekend. (It's part of a two part triptych published in two books, I think) And it reminded me that I have a chapter in my (still) unfinished book called Emergency Housing. And I realised nowhere in the chapter do I really explain why we went into emergency housing when I was four.
So, I have written a bit more to the chapter, inspired by this poem and the recent discourse about who and what is working class. 🙏🏾
Bit more on my (still) unfinished book here if of interest. I wrote Radical Honesty in January 2022. I thought I needed to write it as at the time I craved closure. It's only recently I realised I don't want or need closure. A doomed soul mate is forever. No one else will do. I've tried. Here's an excerpt from the introduction:
‘The Wannabe’
I was his conscience, he was my challenge, the Lyndsey Buckingham to my Stevie Nicks, without the substance abuse issues, just a little alcohol dependency on my part. A working class kid done good. Same as me. Because we were each other, but he was Brown and I was Black. We cared about everything and nothing at all. That's what made us lethal.
To all the mums from Joshua Idehen
"Making sense of the world one article of clothing at a time"
Joshua will be doing an exclusive set, reciting poetry from Songbook: Collected Works on Wednesday 🐲
Just three days to go to the UK's PREMIER AWARDS FOR BAD JOURNALISM. The Trashies!
The race is very tight for some categories..
The ONLY journalism awards ceremony of the calender year where the room won't be only white people 💃🏾💃🏾💃🏾
So I thought it quite important to highlight the above I hope Black & Brown & Asian and Muslim Journalists both at the beginning and mid career will read it. & those who have made it, such as Kenan Malik, Gary Younge & Nesrine Malik. Because as Toni Morrison taught us:
When you get these jobs that you have been so brilliantly trained for, just remember that your real job is that if you are free, you need to free somebody else. If you have some power, then your job is to empower somebody else. This is not just a grab-bag candy game
Get #TheTrashies tickets or please donate here so I can recoup the funds I spent from my meagre journalism earnings 🙏🏾
Press Enquiries: mediadiversityuk@gmail.com
Please note Symeon Brown WILL NOT be presenting at The Trashies. He wants you to know that.
Palestine and Lebanon and Syria and Sudan have been on my mind all week, month, year, two decades. I hope they are on yours too.
It's a battle…
P.S I know there is going to be some non-black women and/or middle class women who try to take my experiences and use them as their own. Trust me, I will hunt you down if you do and you will catch these hands.