The Art of the African Diaspora is for Everyone

Delivered by the most outstanding academics in the UK and beyond, the British Academy’s flagship Lecture Programme showcases the very best scholarship in the humanities and social sciences.

In this lecture, Booker Prize Winner and Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University Bernardine Evaristo explores some of the most exciting visual artists working in the world today. What do these artists explore? How do they communicate their ideas and passions? And how does their boundless creativity have the potential to enrich the soul and stimulate the imagination?

Speaker: Bernardine Evaristo, author and Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University

Bernardine Evaristo won the Booker Prize 2019 with her eighth book, Girl, Woman, Other (Penguin 2019), the first black woman and black British person to win it. Her latest publication is a memoir, Manifesto: On Never Giving Up (Penguin 2021). Her writing, typically experimental, spans fiction, poetry, non-fiction and drama. She has founded several arts inclusion projects since 1982 and is the literature mentor for the Rolex Mentor & Protégé Arts Initiative (2022-2024). The recipient of many honours, including two recent British Book Awards, she is Professor of Creative Writing at Brunel University London; an Honorary Fellow of St. Anne’s College, University of Oxford; an International Honorary Fellow of the American Academy of Arts and Sciences; President of Rose Bruford College of Theatre and Performance; and President of the Royal Society of Literature.

This lecture will be chaired by Prof Judith Mossman, Pro Vice-Chancellor (Arts and Humanities), Coventry University.

Free, booking required

This event includes a reception for attendees after the lecture.

This event will take place in person in partnership with Coventry University. If you have any questions about this event please email [email protected].

Image: Bernardine Evaristo. © Jennie Scott.