Colin Grant

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A report on the 50th anniversary of the Leeds West Indian Carnival.

Lanre Bakare, Pauline Black, Malika Booker, Colin Grant and Daudi Matsiko - Hay Festival The <em>WritersMosaic </em>director hosts this Salon reflecting on the under-reported cultural impact of Black people who have lived outside of London.

At @hayfestival.bsky.social? Don't miss @colincraiggrant.bsky.social hosting We Were There Salon ‪@lanre-bakare.bsky.social Pauline Black OBE, and Malika Booker will be reflecting on the under-reported cultural impact of Black people who have lived outside of London with Daudi Matsiko bit.ly/4mP9RHN

Ekow Eshun, Colin Grant, Bonnie Greer, Vanessa Kisuule, Tony Njoku - Hay Festival On the centenary of Malcolm X’s birth, <em>WritersMosaic </em>brings together writers and performers to explore his global legacy as a resistance leader.

Heading to @hayfestival.bsky.social? Don't miss Ekow Eshun @colincraiggrant.bsky.social, Bonnie Greer, Vanessa Kisuule on Weds 28 May as they discuss the legacy of Malcolm X with music from Tony Njoku bit.ly/3HaRjBb

Kit De Waal in conversation with Colin Grant | WritersMosaic Magazine Colin Grant talks with novelist, short story writer and essayist Kit De Waal about her latest novel The Best of Everything (Tinder Press 2025)

'"The maxim I live by is if I let something out into the world I have to love it."' @kitdewaal.com speaks to @colincraiggrant.bsky.social #InConversation bit.ly/44XXD9h

Malcolm X, by any means necessary | WritersMosaic Magazine WritersMosaic Guest Edition Malcolm X by any means necessary, edited by Colin Grant with Bonnie Greer, Vayu Naidu, Vanessa Kisuule, Ella Sinclair, John Siddique, Max Farrar, Franklin Nelson and Ekow E...

'Malcolm X - By Any Means Necessary' @writersmosaic.bsky.social

Edited by @colincraiggrant.bsky.social & featuring texts by Bonnie Greer, Vayu Naidu, Vanessa Kisuule, Ekow Eshun, Max Farrar, Ella Sinclair, Franklin Nelson, and myself.

writersmosaic.org.uk/content/malc...

#malcolmx #books

Photo of a Black woman in a white shirt and black trousers. She has cropped blonde hair and sits on a wooden crate. In the background is a painting of a Black man in a green top.

‘[Johnson’s] soulful portraits insist on the radical humanity of their subjects and subvert portraiture’s traditional lines of sight. Johnson has re-entered the spotlight during a period in which curators and critics have been revisiting the artistic ferment of the 1980s, reassessing the role of art in political struggles after the raft of protests that took hold globally after the killing of George Floyd in 2020.’

Painting of a figure facing away from the viewer but looking back. Painting is in brown on a white background.

‘I’m trying to give space to Black people and to explore a range of ways that we can look ... I feel that as a first-generation Black person in Britain, I had to create myself. Lots of artists, lots of Black artists, have this experience of initially not being able to find peers who are Black, whether historic ones or even contemporary ... I do see those empty spaces as somehow reflecting that experience of “having to make myself.”’

Each issue of Wasafiri has a special art feature on a trailblazing visual artist; in our latest, Wasafiri 121, scholar Phoebe Braithwaite interviews Turner Prize-nominated painter Claudette Johnson. They discuss figuration, Toni Morrison, and more...

To read the full interview, order Wasafiri 121.

Fiction: Ignite the spark and fire up your fiction

Discover how to transform your will-to-write into compelling fiction during this immersive and energising writing week.

📅Monday April 28th - Saturday May 3rd 2025
📍The Hurst, Shropshire
✅Book now: www.arvon.org/writing-cour...

@sharonduggal.bsky.social

Join us if you can for a creative week in a magical Arvon setting nestled in the beautiful Shropshire countryside. Expect craft-enhancing tools, strategies, top tips & practical exercises to support your writing journey, plus bags of inspiration to keep you going along the way. Bursaries available.

Met one of my all time heroes last night! At @writersmosaic.bsky.social organised by #GabrielGbadamosi

#GaryYounge #Legend
Was in conversation with Bonnie Greer, Colin Grant, Vanessa Kisuule re: #MalcolmX

Falle Nioke sang us 4 Mandinke songs in at least 5 languages @britishlibrary.bsky.social

Malcolm X: By any means necessary | WritersMosaic Magazine WritersMosaic @ British Library celebrates Malcolm X as a resistance leader with Bonnie Greer, Gary Younge, Vanessa Kisuule and Fallé Nioke

For the centenary of Malcolm X’s birth, in collaboration with @britishlibrary.bsky.social and the Eccles Institute, we gathered writers and performers to explore Malcolm X's legacy as a resistance leader, missed it? You can watch again here bit.ly/4hxSRSP

Bella Denise’s cultural highlights | WritersMosaic Magazine Bella Denise resides in London, where she grew up and has lived most of her life. She identifies as a Londoner of African heritage. As an interdisciplinary artist primarily focused on video installati...

Bella Denise shares her cultural highlights on #MyHitList: the band The Smile, Chinua Achebe’s Things Fall Apart, Mike Leigh’s film Naked, Shane Meadow’s TV series This is England, and Steve McQueen's remembrance of the tragedy of the Grenfell Tower bit.ly/43Ye84r

Joanna Surowiec | WritersMosaic Magazine In episode 32 of What We Leave We Carry, the series that tells the true-life stories of migration to the UK, Joanna Surowiec describes how she found that performing stand-up comedy led her to create a...

In episode 32 of #WhatWeLeaveWeCarry, the series that tells the true-life stories of migration to the UK, Joanna Surowiec found that performing stand-up comedy led her to create a deeper understanding of British culture and a closer connection to people bit.ly/4kRd0FM

Alex Wheatle remembered | WritersMosaic Magazine Alex Wheatle has died. A much admired and prolific writer, known fondly as the Brixton Bard, Alex’s books included his first novel, Brixton Rock and Sufferah: Memoir of a Brixton Reggae Head. In 2020,...

The #BrixtonBard remembered. Writer Alex Wheatle has died. We pay tribute to Alex with a remembrance of his appearance at the 2023 @ilkleylitfest with Susan Pitter and Colin Grant bit.ly/4iq2nIw

Renu Arora in conversation with Sita Brahmachari | WritersMosaic Magazine Renu Arora (The Burgundy Book) and Sita Brahmachari on the writing, stage work and collaborations inspired by Renu's life-changing accident.

The actor, singer and writer Renu Arora talks to Sita Brahmachari about her creative life, her connection with Frida Kahlo, and the creation of The Burgundy Book #InConversation bit.ly/3Ylkffr

Shamshad Khan in conversation with John Siddique | WritersMosaic Magazine

Shamshad Khan talks to John Siddique about her journey as a poet, as well as poetry as the art of silence
 and about the word and how it relates to the truth of our bodies. #InConversation bit.ly/3G9TzIh

Ruvani Ranasinha & Mohammed Hanif in conversation with Chitra Ramaswamy | WritersMosaic Magazine Chitra Ramaswamy talks to Ruvani Ranashinha, biographer of Hanif Kureishi, and novelist Mohammed Hanif about Kureishi’s writing and career.

In 2022 Hanif Kureishi, best known for his novel the Buddha of Suburbia, suffered a terrible accident which left him with paralysing spinal injuries. Chitra Ramaswamy talks to Ruvani Ranasinha and Mohammed Hanif about his extraordinary career bit.ly/4jqE3qa

Ruvani Ranasinha & Mohammed Hanif in conversation with Chitra Ramaswamy WritersMosaic - In conversation · Episode

Loved chairing and participating in this discussion of the great Hanif Kureishi with his official biographer @ruvaniranasinha.bsky.social and Mohammed Hanif for @writersmosaic.bsky.social introduced by @colincraiggrant.bsky.social listen here: open.spotify.com/episode/75lx...

A living archive for migration stories What We Leave We Carry is a podcast series from WritersMosaic magazine that tells the true-life stories of migration to the UK. It delves into hidden and diverse communities across the country, explor...

A living archive for migration stories - @colincraiggrant.bsky.social speaks to journalist Ella Sinclair about complicating ‘the dominant picture that we have of Britain’ and challenging pervasive anti-immigration rhetoric for @runnymedetrust.bsky.social bit.ly/4co10YG

Ruvani Ranasinha & Mohammed Hanif in conversation with Chitra Ramaswamy WritersMosaic - In conversation · Episode

Enjoyed speaking about my biography of Hanif Kureishi with Mohammed Hanif and @chitgrrl.bsky.social @writersmosaic.bsky.social @colincraiggrant.bsky.social @manchesterup.bsky.social open.spotify.com/episode/75lx...

Great to see @hayfestival.bsky.social programme now live, if you scroll down you can find us in the past re-imagined: @ekoweshun.bsky.social, @colincraiggrant.bsky.social, Bonnie Greer and Vanessa Kisuule will explore the global legacy of Malcolm X as a resistance leader, story here bit.ly/41HOe24

Malcolm X: By any means necessary | WritersMosaic Magazine WritersMosaic @ British Library celebrates Malcolm X as a resistance leader with Bonnie Greer, Gary Younge, Vanessa Kisuule and Fallé Nioke

For the centenary of his birth, in a collab with @britishlibrary.bsky.social, we gathered writers Bonnie Greer, Gary Younge, Vanessa Kisuule, Fallé Nioke & @colincraiggrant.bsky.social to explore the global legacy of Malcolm X as a resistance leader bit.ly/4hxSRSP - video highlights coming soon

Hiding in the Front Room | Colin Grant The BBC series Mr Loverman, about a closeted West Indian grandfather and his family, explores the submerged emotional lives of the Windrush generation in Britain.

“If my parents’ generation...did not attend to their children’s emotional needs, neither did they attend to, or interrogate, their own emotional needs.” — @colincraiggrant.bsky.social on the Windrush generation of Caribbeans in England

Hiding in the Front Room | Colin Grant The BBC series Mr Loverman, about a closeted West Indian grandfather and his family, explores the submerged emotional lives of the Windrush generation in Britain.

Colin Grant (@colincraiggrant.bsky.social) on the BBC series Mr Loverman and the lives of the Windrush generation

Marcus Garvey's redemption song - Writers Mosaic The black nationalist leader Marcus Garvey was a disrupter who delighted black people and terrified the authorities who schemed to neuter his power and eventually imprison him in 1925. After his death...

A treat for you -
The prologue from Negro with a Hat (read by me), a celebration of an extraordinary man whose death was prematurely announced and whose obituaries killed him.

writersmosaic.org.uk/content/marc...

Joe Biden was right to pardon Marcus Garvey In the 1920s, Marcus Mosiah Garvey was the most famous black man on the planet. The Jamaican-born black nationalist led the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), a mass movement of…

Garvey’s incarceration was a travesty which, as intended by Hoover, destroyed the UNIA. 

✍️ Colin Grant

Joe Biden was right to pardon Marcus Garvey In the 1920s, Marcus Mosiah Garvey was the most famous black man on the planet. The Jamaican-born black nationalist led the Universal Negro Improvement Association (UNIA), a mass movement of working-c...

At last! Marcus Garvey is pardoned. My take in the @thespectator1828.bsky.social on removing the stigma from Marcus Garvey's name. I hoped Obama would have done so but he bottled it. This week Joe Biden did the right thing!

www.spectator.co.uk/article/joe-...

Oh it's PLR day. The day when writers in UK get a little something meaningful for their books being borrowed by #library readers. Thank you everyone who has borrowed a #book of mine this year
Most borrowed book...

Writers Mosaic, Retreat in Italy, May 2025, Six writers chosen for the second retreat in collaboration with the Hawthornden Foundation, a two week long retreat for writers to make progress on new work - pictures of Jo Clement, Vanessa Kissule, Zebib K. Abraham, Ming Ho, Nichole Rachelle Moore, Damian La Bas

Incredibly happy! I was selected, amongst six writers, for a two-week retreat in Italy; May 2025, with Writers Mosaic/The Royal Literary Fund, in partnership with the Hawthornden Foundation!

This was a great event - loved hearing from @jaseokundaye.bsky.social and Colin Grant. Thank you Jason for reminding us about what Baldwin had to say about Palestine. For those interested in how Baldwin's opinions about the state of Israel evolved, check out this pod: www.npr.org/2024/08/28/1...