Testament – 'Black Men Walking'
- Dates
- Thursday 17 December 2020 (14:00-15:00)
The Centre for Contemporary Literature and Culture/AMD Hughes Lecture 2020-21
The Centre for Contemporary Literature and Culture at the University of Birmingham is delighted to hosting the rapper, theatre-maker and world record-breaking beatboxer Testament to give the annual CCLC/AMD Hughes Lecture in conversation with Dr Asha Rogers (English Literature).
The conversation will focus on Testament's 2018 play Black Men Walking, which was nominated for the UK Theatre Awards' Best New Play and Writer's Guild's Best Play, and is currently being studied on the BA English. We'll turn to what it means to centre black-as-British history, walking as a political statement, whether literature can be an alternative space in which to archive neglected experiences and histories, and the role of William Blake on Testament's practice as a hip hop artist.
And after the event we have David, one of our current BA English students, who is happy to speak to anyone interested in studying English at the University of Birmingham! You just need to stay in the Zoom room to listen to him speak about his experiences as a student and ask him questions.
All welcome! Attendance is free, please register here to be sent a Zoom link for the event Email your questions in advance to a.rogers.1@bham.ac.uk
About Black Men Walking
"We walk. Though we are written into the landscape you don't see us. We walked England before the English"
Thomas, Matthew and Richard walk.
They walk the first Saturday of every month. Walking and talking.
But this walk…
Maybe they should have cancelled, but they needed the walk today. Out in the Peaks, they find themselves forced to walk backwards through two thousand years before they can move forwards.