WritersMosaic: Franz Fanon the Freedom Fighter

Ekow Eshun is a writer, curator, and broadcaster whose work stretches the span of identity, style, masculinity, art and culture. Eshun’s latest book, The Strangers, is a work of creative nonfiction exploring the inner lives of five extraordinary Black men, including Frantz Fanon. As a curator, one of his most recent exhibitions, The Time Is Always Now, has been hailed as a landmark study of the Black figure and its representation in contemporary art. Eshun’s writing has appeared in publications including the New York Times, Financial Times, Guardian, The Observer, Esquire and Wired.

Khaldoon Ahmed is a consultant psychiatrist, writer, and filmmaker. He was born in London to a Pakistani family. He studied medicine at UCL where he also completed a master’s degree in anthropology. He is deeply involved at the interface of arts and mental health. He was a trustee for the charity Mental Fight Club and was one of the founders of the Dragon Café. He is a doctor working in the NHS in East London and teaches medical students. His short films have screened in festivals around the world, and he participated as a ‘talent’ at the Berlinale.

Clementine E Burnley is a poet, writer, political scientist, and conflict mediator. Born in Cameroon, Burnley now lives and works between the UK and Germany. She holds an MSc in Applied Linguistics from Manchester University, and is studying the links between trauma, conflict mediation, and group facilitation at the Research Society for Process Oriented Psychotherapy. Her work has been published in Ink, Sweat & Tears, Magma, The Poetry Review and WritersMosaic. In 2021 her poem ‘How to Eat Frogs’ was selected by Hugh Macmillan as one of the Best Scottish Poems. She was the RSL Sky Award Winner for creative nonfiction in 2021.

Colin Grant is the Director of WritersMosaic, his books include Bageye at the Wheel, short-listed for the Pen Ackerley Prize, and Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation, a BBC Radio 4 Book of the Week. His latest book is I’m Black So You Don’t Have to Be. His oral history of migration to Britain, What We Leave We Carry will be published in 2025. Grant is a Fellow of the Royal Society of Literature and director of WritersMosaic, a division of the Royal Literary Fund. He also writes for a number of newspapers including the TLS, Guardian, Observer and New York Review of Books.

Donna Thompson is a singer-songwriter and multi-instrumentalist based in London. Thompson’s work engages with themes of self-love, community, and strength found in others. Her debut EP Something True, released in 2022 by PRAH Recordings, was described as “gripping” by the Guardian. Thompson has also collaborated with many musicians, accompanying Alabaster DePlume live on numerous occasions.

WritersMosaic, a division of the Royal Literary Fund, is a developmental resource and online magazine, celebrating and showcasing UK writers of the global majority to reflect the changing reality of contemporary Britain, from its past and into its future. It provides a platform for writers through authored talks, podcasts, creative exchanges and interviews, using images, illustrations and films. These are commissioned by the wide editorial team of RLF writers, who bring their own blend of curiosity, excitement, deep cultural knowledge and critical engagement. WritersMosaic acts as an independent, inclusive and evolving presence in the UK’s literary landscape, offering rare and in-depth insight into the lives and practices of contemporary writers.

The Eccles Institute builds, curates and preserves the Americas and Oceania collection at the Library and champions knowledge and understanding of these regions through a rich programme of fellowships and awards, cultural events, research training, guides to the collections and initiatives for schools.

For more information about the Institute and our collections, contact eccles-institute@bl.uk or visit our blog.

This is an in-person only event in the British Library Knowledge Centre. Please arrive no later than 15 minutes before the start time of this event.  If you have specific access requirements please email customer@bl.uk

There are a range of concessions available. These include discounts for British Library Members, half-price tickets for students and under 26s, free entry for carers as well as a number of other concessions.