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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