48-51 Broad St
Oxford OX1 3BQ
UK
Blackwell’s Bookshop Oxford Broad Street is delighted to welcome to the bookshop Afua Hirsch, who will be discussing her extraordinary book ‘Brit(ish)’. Voted by our booksellers as our championed Book of the Month on it’s publication, ‘Brit(ish)’ explores race, identity and belonging in Britain.
Brit (ish)
Where are you really from?
You’re British. Your parents are British. You were raised in Britain. Your partner, your children and most of your friends are British.
So why do people keep asking you where you are from?
‘Brit(ish)’ is about a search for identity. It is about the everyday racism that plagues British society. It is about our awkward, troubled relationship with our history. It is about why liberal attempts to be ‘colour-blind’ have caused more problems than they have solved. It is about why we continue to avoid talking about race.
In this personal and provocative investigation, Afua Hirsch explores a very British crisis of identity. We are a nation in denial about our past and our present. We believe we are the nation of abolition, but forget we are the nation of slavery. We are convinced that fairness is one of our values, but that immigration is one of our problems. ‘Brit(ish)’ is the story of how and why this came to be, and an urgent call for change.
Afua Hirsch is a writer and broadcaster. She has worked as a barrister, as the West Africa correspondent for the Guardian, and as social affairs editor for Sky News. ‘Brit(ish)’ is her first book and was awarded a RSL Jerwood Prize for Non-Fiction.
Entry to the event is at 6:45pm, a selection of drinks will be available to purchase at our till point before the talk starts at 7pm. Tickets cost £5. For all enquiries, please email [email protected] .
The Blackwell’s Every Woman Series
From February 2018, Blackwell’s Broad Street will launch a year-long series of events in conjunction with the Centenary of Women’s Suffrage in the UK.
The 1918 Representation of the People Act gave women of property over the age of 30 the right to vote – not all women, therefore, could vote. It was a step, but it was not the whole journey. And many would argue that we are still a long way from stepping the journey’s full distance towards gender equality in this country and worldwide. Blackwell’s Centenary events programme will focus around the following questions:
1) How much does the vote mean today?
2) How far are we still from achieving gender equality?
3) How can we recognise intersectional privilege and oppression, and platform those demographics of women who weren’t acknowledged by this achievement 100 years ago, and are still under-represented and undervalued today?