Join BlackFest to celebrate the launch of Malik Al Nasir’s ‘Letters to Gil, A Memoir’, held Downstairs at the Everyman.
Letters to Gil is Malik Al Nasir’s profound coming of age memoir – the story of surviving physical and racial abuse and discovering a sense of self-worth under the wing of the great artist, poet and civil rights activist Gil Scott-Heron.
The event is held Downstairs at the Everyman, 29 September, 7pm. See here for tickets.
Born in Liverpool, Malik was taken into care at the age of nine after his seafaring father became paralysed. He would spend his adolescence in a system that proved violent, neglectful, exploitative, traumatising and mired in abuse and racism.
Aged eighteen, he emerged semi-literate and penniless with no connections or sense of where he was going – until a chance meeting with Gil Scott-Heron turned everything around.
2021 marks the 10th anniversary since Gil’s passing, and in honour of his legacy, Malik Al Nasir releases Letters to Gil, a frank and moving memoir, which tells the story of Malik’s empowerment and awakening while mentored by Gil; from his introduction to black history, to the development of his voice through poetry and music.
Written with lyricism and power, it highlights how physical abuse and institutional racism can debilitate and disadvantage a child, but also how mentoring, creativity, self-expression and solidarity can help unleash a person’s full potential, despite the odds being stacked against them.