Malik Al Nasir signs book deal

The publisher Williams Collins has announced a two book deal with performance poet Malik Al Nasir of Malik and The O.G's. The deal is for Letters to Gil and Searching for my Slave Roots. Letters to Gil is a coming of age memoir by the Liverpool …

Published: 3 Nov 2020. Updated: 3 years.

The publisher Williams Collins has announced a two book deal with performance poet Malik Al Nasir of Malik and The O.G's. The deal is for Letters to Gil and Searching for my Slave Roots.

Letters to Gil is a coming of age memoir by the Liverpool born poet who at 9 was taken into care and who later had his life turned around by a chance meeting with the great poet and singer Gil Scott-Heron. The book tells a story of empowerment and awakening in the highlighting of how institutional racism can debilitate and disadvantage a child.

In the second book searching for his roots Malik uncovers a lineage linking slave holdings to high sheriffs, mayors, a late Prime Minister and bankers whose companies formed major modern-day financial institutions.

Now researching for a PhD in history at Cambridge University Malik comments: ''These two titles are my way of giving voice to the voiceless, whilst unpicking some historical injustices that persist today, as a legacy of slavery and colonialism, rooted in racist ideologies.”

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Harry Belafonte in today's New York Times

If you only read one article today on the American elections let it be by Harry Belafonte in today's New York Times. 'In his ignorance or his indifference, or perhaps in his contempt, Mr. Trump does not seem to understand the difference between …

Published: 3 Nov 2020. Updated: 3 years.

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If you only read one article today on the American elections let it be by Harry Belafonte in today's New York Times.

'In his ignorance or his indifference, or perhaps in his contempt, Mr. Trump does not seem to understand the difference between promises made and promises kept. Another Republican president, Ulysses S. Grant, first suppressed the Klan 150 years ago (and notable by its absence is any Trump promise to suppress the right-wing “militias” of Michigan, the Proud Boys or any of the others). The United States — finally, belatedly — made lynching a federal crime in the civil rights era, almost 60 years ago. Peaceful neighborhoods with affordable homes, good schools, a police force interested in protecting its citizens instead of treating them as an occupied people; safety from domestic terrorists and mob violence, economic opportunity, the celebration of our heritage, and impartial and merciful treatment under the law — these are the rights that most white people in America have long taken for granted, not some sort of concession to be offered as if we were indeed another nation.' Read the full article.