Meet the Writer - Akila Richards

The ‘Meet the Artist/Writer’ series showcases writers and artists from marginalised backgrounds and how they got their work ‘out there’.

Akila is a writer, poet and passionate spoken word artist. Some of her writing gives voice to the Black German experience and the multiple identities we occupy, when trying to fit in, front or simply wanting to disappear. Then comes another set of selfhoods, when setting up life abroad discovering new parts never reached, refitting culturally and setting new norms that used in different settings, depending on what’s acceptable or not, camouflaging, starting to leave bits of self out, forgetting some but not losing, adding and morphing. Writing provided a route for Akila to relive herself differently on the page through the varied characters and watch herself – sometimes in amazement – from the outside … in.

Fee: FREE
Date: Tuesday 7 June 2016
Time: 1:30 – 2:30 pm
Venue: Conference Room, Community Base, 113 Queens Rd. Brighton BN1 3XG

The writer: Akila performed and co-wrote in theatre productions as well as a one-woman show. Akila collaborated and presented internationally, last at the St. Fringe Saint Lucia Festival 2014 with a cohort of international poets and writers. Akila won an award for her poem Stifled Life in February 2015. Her short story Eleven Years was published by Penguin, her poem Red Saviour by Peepal Tree Press, followed by a national tour. She co-ordinated and co-edited an anthology project ‘Ink On My Lips’ published by Waterloo Press in 2013. Peepal Tree Press published her short fiction Secret Chamber in the Closure anthology. Akila’s writing is informed by her political, personal and spiritual perspectives, engaging in a consciousness raising process and believes that not seeing or knowing is a choice. Akila invites you to engage, question and dream. She would love to listen to your insights, enjoy a conversation and to feel free.
www.akilarichards.com

This event has been supported by New Writing South – www.newwritingsouth.com

For more information visit http://www.creativefuture.org.uk/events/meet-the-writer-akila-richards/