Festival of Ideas: Caleb Femi and Vanessa Kisuule

What is it like to grow up in a place where the same police officer who told your primary school class they were special stops and searches you at 13 because ‘you fit the description of a man’ – and where it is possible to walk two and a half miles through an estate of 1,444 homes without ever touching the ground?

In his new book of poetry and photography, Caleb Femi explores the trials, tribulations, dreams and joys of young black boys in twenty-first century Peckham. He contemplates the ways in which they are informed by the built environment of concrete walls and gentrifying neighbourhoods that form their stage; talks about the personalities and sagas of his South London youth; and pays tribute to the rappers and artists who spoke to their lives. He will be in conversation with Vanessa Kisuule, poet and playwright and Bristol City Poet 2018-2020.

Pooris published by Penguin Books.In association with Lyra Poetry Festival.