What are the Mainstream Media Representations of Black People Today? w/Graham Mort, Season Butler, Joy Francis, Irenosen Okojie (Day of Questions #1)
Saturday 6th Feb, 3.30 pm
The Lecture Theatre, The Storey
Download 'Festival of Questions' Programme here
Race, ethnicity, colour and cultural identity have all been use to describe human diversity in terms of difference. Such descriptions have often failed to engage with the subtleties of human diversity, maintaining invidious perceptions and representations. What role does the mainstream media play in such profiling, and what are the current trends compared to twenty or thirty years ago? Are mainstream media tackling the relationship between perception and prejudice?
Season Butler is a writer, performer, academic and activist. She was an autodidact studying with shamans, off-duty academics, alone in libraries and sneaking into university lectures before undertaking an MA in Creative Writing at Bath Spa University in 2007. She is currently reading a PhD in Creative Writing at Goldsmiths College. Her writing, research and performance practices centre around intersectionality and narratives of otherness, isolation and the end of the world. She recently convened the Artists’ Assembly Against Austerity to help mobilise the creative community to defend the public sector, and is an Associate Producer of I’m With You, a collective of artists and performers looking at notions of queerness and domesticity.
Joy Francis is executive director of Words of Colour Productions and is the co-founder and head of Digital Women UK. An experienced journalist, editor, lecturer and communications strategist, Joy is a longstanding campaigner for media diversity, both here and abroad. In 2000, she launched the UK’s first national newspaper internship programme for black, Asian and minority ethnic journalism students with partners such as the FT, The Times and The Big Issue. The three year programme was recognised as a leading media diversity initiative by the Society of Editors, as a top 30 Europe-wide media diversity programme by the European Commission and was adapted in partnership with Joy by Transport for London's press office, leading it to win a national award. In 2011 Joy helped to establish and launch the innovative Diversity and the Media MA at the University of Westminster, the first of its kind internationally, in partnership with the Media Diversity Institute.
Irenosen Okojie is a writer and Arts Project Manager. She has worked with the Royal Shakespeare Company, Apples & Snakes, The Southbank Centre and The Caine Prize. Her work has been featured in The Observer and The Guardian amongst other publications. Her short stories have been published internationally. She was presented at the London Short Story Festival by Ben Okri as an exciting talent to watch and was featured in the Evening Standard Magazine as one of London’s most exciting new authors. Her debut novel Butterfly Fish is published by Jacaranda Books. Her short story collection will be published in 2016.
Graham Mort
#myquestionis and #FestQ
This panel discussion is part of Day of Questions #1.
Presented by Lancaster Arts in partnership with Modern Culture, & Faculty of Arts & Social Sciences at Lancaster University, with venue partners The Storey and The Dukes
