An OWN IT! curated playlist released on the first Friday of every month.
Exploring the themes from within USE WORDS FIRST: identity, connectivity and mobilisation. This months playlist brings together eclectic styles and people all exploring humanity in their own unique ways. Like the book, this playlist is a snapshot of some of the struggles, inspirations and muses of young Britain today.
BBC Radio 1Xtra and Asian Network have teamed up with BBC Contains Strong Language for Words First, a scheme aimed at finding the best emerging spoken word talent in the UK. USE WORDS FIRST is a collection of 12 poets from Words First brought together in this brilliant anthology edited by Jude Yawson, co-writer of Stormzy’s Rise Up: The Story So far and contributor to the SAFE anthology edited by Derek Owusu.
We are so excited to be publishing SASHA KNIGHT, the debut novel from Sean Godfrey, in SPRING 2022.
Alternating between past and present, shifting back and forth from Jamaica and the United States, SASHA KNIGHT picks apart the puzzle left behind when 11-year-old Sasha disappears. Everyone seems convinced that she has simply run away. Sometimes, on the good days, when she isn’t talking to him, her 9-year-old best friend Matthew believes it too…
A coming-of-age tale, portraying the perils of toxic masculinity and the damaging effects of emotional trauma.It also touches on the deep-seated class and colour divide in Jamaican society during the late 70’s and 80’s. A genre bending mashup that shakes the senses and tears at your heart.
Inspired by Jill Johnson’s THE TIME BEFORE THE TIME TO COME and influenced by Māori culture, this month’s #FirstFriday’s Playlist takes you on a journey of revelations and self-discovery, exploring the significance of holding onto your heritage as a way of not letting go of yourself.
Get you copy of The Time Before The Time To Come by Jill Johnson at WWW.OWNIT.LONDON/SHOP
THE 392 BY ASHLEY HICKSON-LOVENCE
NOW AVAILABLE AS AN AUDIOBOOK
THE 392 – the debut novel from Ashley Hickson-Lovence – is now available as an Audiobook via Audible.
Featuring 9 narrators and set entirely on a London bus travelling from Hoxton to Highbury, taking place over just 36 minutes, the events of The 392 unfold through a cast of charismatic characters coming from very different worlds. These Londoners share two things: a bus journey and a threat. A threat which is ready to blow apart everything they know.
A captivating journey from the formidable Ify Adenuga, mother of Skepta, Jme, Julie and Jason Adenuga.
Part historical, part political but most of all hugely inspirational, Endless Fortune tells the life story of Ify Adenuga: A fighter, a thinker, a feminist and a parent. Born in Lagos, Ify’s life was uprooted by the Nigerian civil war, which ravaged the country in the mid-1960s, forcing her family to flee. In 1980, she headed to London in search of a better life where, a year later, she met her husband Joseph Senior at their workplace – a bingo hall in east London.
In the tough working-class area of Tottenham, the couple raised their four children, Skepta, Jme, Julie and Jason Adenuga and encouraged them to explore their artistic instincts, narrowly avoiding a violent situation that threatened to tear the family apart…
Set entirely on a London bus travelling from Hoxton to Highbury and taking place over just 36 minutes, the events of The 392 unfold through a cast of charismatic characters coming from very different worlds. On the 392 are all the familiar faces you might expect to see on any bus ride through inner-city London in the grip of gentrification; delinquent school kids, the high-flyers, the weird, the wonderful and the homeless. These Londoners share two things: a bus journey and a threat. A threat which is ready to blow apart everything they know. Now available as an audiobook with 9 narrators.
Golden Globe and SAG winning Idris Elba captivates audiences as an actor, producer and director, and continually secures his position as the one to watch in Hollywood. He is the first actor to receive dual SAG awards in one evening.
Idris’s career skyrocketed on the small screen in some of the UK’s top-rated shows. Soon after, he landed the role of Stringer Bell in HBO’s critically acclaimed series The Wire (NAACP Image Award nomination). In 2010, Idris landed the title role on the BBC mini-series Luther, which earned him a Golden Globe, SAG Award and four Emmy nominations. In 2005, he began his film career; his credits include American Gangster (Golden Globe nomination), Mandela: The Long Walk to Freedom (Golden Globe nomination), Beasts of No Nation (SAG Award, Golden Globe nomination) and the Oscar-nominated film Molly’s Game. He can be seen this April in the Netflix film Concrete Cowboy, which he also produced, and this summer will be starring in The Suicide Squad 2. Other upcoming films include The Harder They Fall and Three Thousand Years of Longing.
Behind the camera, Idris made his feature-film directorial debut at the 2018 Sundance Film Festival with Yardie. In 2013, he founded his production company, Green Door Pictures, to champion diversity of thought. With Green Door, Idris released the documentary Mandela, My Dad and Me, produced the TV mini-series Guerrilla for Showtime and created, produced and appears in the Sky comedy series In the Long Run. He also created, produced and starred in the Netflix comedy series Turn Up Charlie.
An OWN IT! curated playlist released on the first Friday of every month.
Inspired by The Time Before The Time To Come by Jill Johnson and influenced by Māori culture – this months playlist takes you on a journey of revelations, self-discovery and the significance of holding onto your heritage as a way of not letting go of yourself.
The Time Before The Time To Come beautifully encapsulates the family ties that exist from one generation to the next and explores the significance of holding on to your heritage as a way of not letting go of yourself. With strong women, epic journeys and heartbreaking revelations this is at its heart a book of hope and love.
Set between London and New Zealand and intertwining past and present, The Time Before The Time To Come follows Victoria’s journey as she rediscovers her Maori heritage and embarks on a path of self-discovery, unwrapping layers of her past to try to make sense of her present.
