Pages of Hackney

Dan Hicks in Conversation with Errol Francis (11 November 2021)

Dan Hicks discusses his book THE BRUTISH MUSEUMS with Errol Francis as part of the Knowledge is Power programme at BSix College, recorded live on 21 November 2021. 
Walk into any Western museum today and you will see the curated spoils of Empire. They sit behind plate glass: dignified, tastefully lit. Accompanying pieces of card offer a name, date and place of origin. They do not mention that the objects are all stolen.
Few artefacts embody this history of rapacious and extractive colonialism better than the Benin Bronzes – a collection of thousands of metal plaques and sculptures depicting the history of the Royal Court of the Obas of Benin City, Nigeria. Pillaged during a British naval attack in 1897, the loot was passed on to Queen Victoria, the British Museum and countless private collections.
THE BRUTISH MUSEUMS sits at the heart of a heated debate about cultural restitution, repatriation and the decolonisation of museums. Since its first publication, museums across the western world have begun to return their Bronzes to Nigeria, heralding a new era in the way we understand the collections of empire we once took for granted.
Order a copy of THE BRUTISH MUSEUMS: https://bit.ly/3O5HHWa
View forthcoming events from Pages of Hackney: https://bit.ly/3lx2vto

Sheena Patel in Conversation with Sophie Heawood (23 June 2022)

Sheena Patel of 4 BROWN GIRLS WHO WRITE discusses her phenomenal debut novel I'M A FAN with Sophie Heawood. 
In I'M A FAN a single speaker uses the story of their experience in a seemingly unequal, unfaithful relationship as a prism through which to examine the complicated hold we each have on one another. With a clear and unforgiving eye, the narrator unpicks the behaviour of all involved, herself included, and makes startling connections between the power struggles at the heart of human relationships and those of the wider world, in turn offering a devastating critique of access, social media, patriarchal heteronormative relationships, and our cultural obsession with status and how that status is conveyed.
Order a copy of I'M A FAN: https://bit.ly/3RdJR8Q
View forthcoming events from Pages of Hackney: https://bit.ly/3lx2vto

Tice Cin in Conversation with Lola Olufemi (7 September 2021)

Tice Cin discusses her remarkable debut novel, KEEPING THE HOUSE, with Lola Olufemi at St. Thomas's Chuch, Clapton Common on 7 September 2021.
'The Turkish variety are prized for their enlarged leaf bud, that’s where we put the heroin . . .'
Ayla has a plan. There’s a stash of heroin, just waiting to be imported. No one seems sure what to do with it, but Ayla’s a gardener, and she knows.
From secretive men’s clubs to spotless living rooms, Keeping the House is an electrifying debut that lifts the lid on a covert world. But just as it offers a fresh take on the London drug trade and its machinery, it tells the story of three women in one house: a grandmother, a mother, and the daughter, each dealing with the intricacies and reverberations of community, migration and love.
Order a copy of KEEPING THE HOUSE: https://bit.ly/3tT3DeQ
View forthcoming events from Pages of Hackney: https://bit.ly/3lx2vto
With thanks to:
Tice Cin
Lola Olufemi
Nichola Smalley (And Other Stories)
Father William Taylor (St. Thomas' Church, Clapton Common)
Martine Sobey (Clapton Commons)
Lou Palmer (recording and production)

Candice Carty-Williams in conversation with Sareeta Domingo (7 February 2020)

Candice Carty-Williams discusses her bestselling novel, Queenie, with Sareeta Domingo at The Round Chapel Old School Rooms in Hackney, London.

Paul Beatty in conversation with Sunny Singh (2 June 2017)

Paul Beatty discusses his 2016 Man Booker Prize-winning novel, The Sellout, with Sunny Singh and a sold out crowd at Sutton House in Hackney, London.
Huge thanks to Admas Habteslasie for the recording.