Category Archives: Life writing, Creative writing and Performance

Critical Race Studies and Global Englishes, Life writing, Creative writing and Performance, Long Read

An Interview with Anthony Joseph: Afrofuturism, Black Surrealism, Sonic Revolution

By Samridhi Aggarwal, Esther de Bruijn and Anthony Joseph

The following interview with Anthony Joseph was conducted by Samridhi Aggarwal (Joint PhD Scholar with the National University of Singapore) on 5 December, 2022 in a seminar for the module Afrofuturism.[1]

The conversation covers several topics, which we’ve divided into sections for those who’d like to dip in and collect gems of insights on Afrofuturism, black surrealism, black stealth, the revolutionary force of music, and practicing writing into being. Anthony talks about his album The Rich Are Only Defeated When Running for Their Lives (2021) and his novel The African Origins of UFOs (2006), and we’ve reproduced the excerpts of the novel that he read on the day. Continue reading An Interview with Anthony Joseph: Afrofuturism, Black Surrealism, Sonic Revolution →

Insights, Life writing, Creative writing and Performance

Psychosis: Brief Memoir of a PhD Student

By Nell Prince

Previous Creative Writing PhD student Nell Prince reflects on her experience in her first and second year at King’s College London.

I recently read Leonora Carrington’s harrowing account of her descent into madness, Down Below. It made me relive my own bout of psychosis during the second year of a PhD.

Continue reading Psychosis: Brief Memoir of a PhD Student →

Contemporary, Life writing, Creative writing and Performance, Long Read

‘The Normal Heart’ and the Morality of Being Gay

By Goh Wei Hao

Written during a different time, when the world was consumed by another virus, the themes of The Normal Heart remain extraordinarily relevant in today’s world.

The play is set in New York City, and takes place over a span four years in the 1980s — during the early days of the HIV epidemic when the virus did not yet have a name. It is centred around the writer Ned Weeks and the gay health advocacy group that he helped to establish along with closeted banker Bruce Niles, the free love advocate Mickey Marcus, and the self-described “Southern bitch,” Tommy Boatwright. Also part of this ragtag group is Dr Emma Brookner who pushes the group to campaign harder for their voices and her advice to be heard by the community.

After watching the 2021-revival of Larry Kramer’s largely autobiographical play, a question lingers in my mind: What does it mean to be a moral gay man?

Continue reading ‘The Normal Heart’ and the Morality of Being Gay →

Life writing, Creative writing and Performance, Long Read

Sipping in London

By Louise Usher

During my creative writing MA, we were given a writing prompt, encouraging us to take a seat in a coffee shop and write what we could hear. The piece that followed from my mind gave me reason to believe that sounds are subjective. Not only am I hearing impaired, since my mastoidectomy in the year 2000, but an active imagination saw me writing stories within the coffee shop sounds.

Continue reading Sipping in London →

Interviews, Life writing, Creative writing and Performance, Long Read

“attracting black poets and increasing the volume of those that are seen in the world”: An Interview with Nick Makoha on the Obsidian Foundation

By George Kowalik (editor)

I sat down with Nick Makoha, second year PhD student in the English department here at King’s. We mainly talked about Nick’s work with the Obsidian Foundation, but also moved on to his creative work generally. Below is a transcript of our discussion of the Obsidian Foundation. See the attached audio file for the full interview…

Continue reading “attracting black poets and increasing the volume of those that are seen in the world”: An Interview with Nick Makoha on the Obsidian Foundation →