Colonising England: A Trio of Black British Memoirs

With all this talk about what it is to be British... as part of the Spoken Word series at Kings Place, three Black writers riff on straddling two cultures and, as children of immigrants, being perceived as 'outsiders' in 1970s Britain.

In an evening filled with nostalgia, literary cabaret Speaky Spokey pulls up to Kings Place for a diverse and lively event of readings, poetry, spoken word, dramatisation and music.

Salena Godden, the Mae West of poetry, slams down her wry and funny poems, laced with extracts from 'Springfield Road', her memoir of growing up in raffish Hastings with a go-go dancing mother and Jazz musician father.

Poet and playwright, Gabriel Gbadamosi unveils new poems, and reads from his autobiographical novel, 'Vauxhall' (Fay Weldon’s choice for BBC Radio 4’s A Good Read), an evocative and witty tale of Irish tinkers, rag & bone men and Nigerian immigrants, living cheek-by-jowl in a south London slum.

Actors Burt Caesar and Harley Alexander Sylvester [one half of hip-hop duo the Rizzle Kicks] dramatise Colin Grant’s memoir, 'Bageye at the Wheel' – scenes of rum-laced all-weekend poker playing amongst Luton's rambunctious Jamaicans among them.

Music by Pete Fij & Terry Bickers.