Derek Owusu & Kehinde Andrews
30th Nov 2023 6:30pm - 7:30pm
Greenwich Mean Time
Greenwich Mean Time
at The Heath Bookshop
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We are absolutely delighted to announce that we have Derek Owusu & Kehinde Andrews joining us here at The Heath Bookshop. They will be in conversation, talking about their books, 'Losing the Plot' and 'The Psychosis of Whiteness'.
Derek and Kehinde will be in conversation for around an hour. There will then be a book signing afterwards.
Derek Owusu is an award-winning writer and poet from North London. He has written for the BBC, ITV, Granta, Esquire, GQ and Tate Britain. In 2019, Owusu collated, edited and contributed to SAFE: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space, an anthology exploring the experiences of Black men in Britain. His first novel, That Reminds Me, won the Desmond Elliott Prize for best debut novel published in the UK and Ireland. In 2023, he was selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.
NAMED GRANTA'S BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTS 2023.
LONGLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2023.
SHORTLISTED FOR PEOPLE'S BOOK PRIZE - FICTION 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS 2023
LOSING THE PLOT: Driven by a deep-seated desire to understand his mother’s life before he was born, Derek Owusu offers a powerful imagining of her journey. As she moves from Ghana to the UK and navigates parenthood in a strange and often lonely environment, the effects of her displacement are felt across generations. Told through the eyes of both mother and son, Losing the Plot is at once emotionally raw and playful as Owusu experiments with form to piece together the immigrant experience and explore how the stories we share and tell ourselves are just as vital as the ones we don’t.
@DerekVsOwusu
Kehinde Andrews is a British academic and author specializing in Black Studies. Kehinde Andrews is a British academic and author specializing in Black Studies. He is a Professor of Black Studies in the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham City University. He is also the director of the Centre for Critical Social Research, founder of the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity, and co-chair of the UK Black Studies Association. Andrews is the first Black Studies professor in the UK and led the establishment of the first Black Studies programme in Europe at Birmingham City University. Andrews has authored several other books, including, The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World. He regularly appears in the media discussing issues of race and racism, colonialism and slavery, and British nationalism. He contributes to The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman, CNN, Open Democracy, and often appears as a guest on the BBC and Good Morning Britain
THE PSYCHOSIS OF WHITENESS: Take a step through the looking-glass to a strange land, one where Piers Morgan is a voice worth listening to about race, where white people buy self-help books to help them cope with their whiteness, where Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are seen by the majority of the population as 'the right (white) man for the job'. Perhaps you know it. All the inhabitants seem to be afflicted by serious delusions, for example that racism doesn't exist and if it does it can be cured with a one-hour inclusion seminar, and bizarre collective hallucinations, like the widely held idea that Britain's only role in slavery was to abolish it.
But there is a serious side too. Society cannot face up to the racism at its heart and in its history, so the delusions, irrationalities and hallucinations it conjures up to avoid doing so can only best be described as a psychosis, with the costs being borne by the sons and daughters of that racist history. Living in a racist world is like living in a world that bears no resemblance to reality. Black and brown people suffer from a greater number of mental health difficulties too, caused in no small part by trying to survive a racist society.
Kehinde Andrews is your piercing, wry and not a little funny guide back to sanity, unpicking the absurd and outrageous lies society tells to keep up the status quo. The Psychosis of Whiteness is your lifeboat out of this topsy-turvy world.
@kehindeandrews
This event will take place at The Heath Bookshop and tickets are on sale now.
See you soon!
Catherine & Claire
Derek Owusu is an award-winning writer and poet from North London. He has written for the BBC, ITV, Granta, Esquire, GQ and Tate Britain. In 2019, Owusu collated, edited and contributed to SAFE: On Black British Men Reclaiming Space, an anthology exploring the experiences of Black men in Britain. His first novel, That Reminds Me, won the Desmond Elliott Prize for best debut novel published in the UK and Ireland. In 2023, he was selected as one of Granta's Best of Young British Novelists.
NAMED GRANTA'S BEST OF YOUNG BRITISH NOVELISTS 2023.
LONGLISTED FOR THE JHALAK PRIZE 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE DYLAN THOMAS PRIZE 2023.
SHORTLISTED FOR PEOPLE'S BOOK PRIZE - FICTION 2023
LONGLISTED FOR THE DIVERSE BOOK AWARDS 2023
LOSING THE PLOT: Driven by a deep-seated desire to understand his mother’s life before he was born, Derek Owusu offers a powerful imagining of her journey. As she moves from Ghana to the UK and navigates parenthood in a strange and often lonely environment, the effects of her displacement are felt across generations. Told through the eyes of both mother and son, Losing the Plot is at once emotionally raw and playful as Owusu experiments with form to piece together the immigrant experience and explore how the stories we share and tell ourselves are just as vital as the ones we don’t.
@DerekVsOwusu
Kehinde Andrews is a British academic and author specializing in Black Studies. Kehinde Andrews is a British academic and author specializing in Black Studies. He is a Professor of Black Studies in the School of Social Sciences at Birmingham City University. He is also the director of the Centre for Critical Social Research, founder of the Harambee Organisation of Black Unity, and co-chair of the UK Black Studies Association. Andrews is the first Black Studies professor in the UK and led the establishment of the first Black Studies programme in Europe at Birmingham City University. Andrews has authored several other books, including, The New Age of Empire: How Racism and Colonialism Still Rule the World. He regularly appears in the media discussing issues of race and racism, colonialism and slavery, and British nationalism. He contributes to The Guardian, The Independent, New Statesman, CNN, Open Democracy, and often appears as a guest on the BBC and Good Morning Britain
THE PSYCHOSIS OF WHITENESS: Take a step through the looking-glass to a strange land, one where Piers Morgan is a voice worth listening to about race, where white people buy self-help books to help them cope with their whiteness, where Boris Johnson and Donald Trump are seen by the majority of the population as 'the right (white) man for the job'. Perhaps you know it. All the inhabitants seem to be afflicted by serious delusions, for example that racism doesn't exist and if it does it can be cured with a one-hour inclusion seminar, and bizarre collective hallucinations, like the widely held idea that Britain's only role in slavery was to abolish it.
But there is a serious side too. Society cannot face up to the racism at its heart and in its history, so the delusions, irrationalities and hallucinations it conjures up to avoid doing so can only best be described as a psychosis, with the costs being borne by the sons and daughters of that racist history. Living in a racist world is like living in a world that bears no resemblance to reality. Black and brown people suffer from a greater number of mental health difficulties too, caused in no small part by trying to survive a racist society.
Kehinde Andrews is your piercing, wry and not a little funny guide back to sanity, unpicking the absurd and outrageous lies society tells to keep up the status quo. The Psychosis of Whiteness is your lifeboat out of this topsy-turvy world.
@kehindeandrews
This event will take place at The Heath Bookshop and tickets are on sale now.
See you soon!
Catherine & Claire