BlackFest Festival 2021: Book Launch - Letters To Gil by Malik Al Nasir
Wed 29 Sep 2021
DOWNSTAIRS AT THE EVERYMAN
£5 (Plus 98p booking fee)
BlackFest Festival 2021 Presents Letters To Gil (A Memoir) by Malik Al Nasir w/Foreword by Lemn Sissay. Book Launch Event
Join BlackFest to celebrate the launch of Malik Al Nasir’s 'Letters to Gil, A Memoir' Downstairs at the Everyman.
Letters to Gil is Malik Al Nasir’s profound coming of age memoir – the story of surviving physical and racial abuse and discovering a sense of self-worth under the wing of the great artist, poet and civil rights activist Gil Scott-Heron.
Born in Liverpool, Malik was taken into care at the age of nine after his seafaring father became paralysed. He would spend his adolescence in a system that proved violent, neglectful, exploitative, traumatising and mired in abuse and racism. Aged eighteen, he emerged semi-literate and penniless with no connections or sense of where he was going – until a chance meeting with Gil Scott-Heron turned everything around.
2021 marks the 10th anniversary since Gil’s passing, and in honour of his legacy, Malik Al Nasir releases Letters to Gil, a frank and moving memoir, which tells the story of Malik’s empowerment and awakening while mentored by Gil; from his introduction to black history, to the development of his voice through poetry and music. Written with lyricism and power, it highlights how physical abuse and institutional racism can debilitate and disadvantage a child, but also how mentoring, creativity, self-expression and solidarity can help unleash a person’s full potential, despite the odds being stacked against them.
ABOUT THE AUTHOR Malik Al Nasir is an author, performance poet and filmmaker from Liverpool. He has produced and appeared in several documentaries with artists such as Gil Scott-Heron, The Last Poets, Benjamin Zephaniah and Public Enemy, as well as footballer Mark Walters and many other luminaries. Malik started tracing his roots back through slavery over 15 years ago and his pioneering research has been recognised by Sir Hilary Beckles (Chair CARICOM Commission for slavery reparations), historian David Olusoga, and The University of Cambridge, where Malik is reading a PhD in history with a full scholarship in recognition of the significance of his research. His band Malik & The O.G’s will perform some exclusive UK shows of ‘The Revolution Will Be Live!’ - a 10th anniversary celebration of Gil’s musical influence - in honour of Gil Scott-Heron’s memory, to coincide with the release of Letters To Gil.