Join us as we delve into literary glory through a multitude of readings in celebration of the launch of Ishaq Imruh Bakari’s incredible poetry collection, The Madman in this House, published by Smokestack Books.
Ishaq Imruh Bakari is a filmmaker, writer and creative industries consultant. From 1999-2004 he was Festival Director of Zanzibar International Film Festival (ZIFF), and is a founder/director of the Tanzania Screenwriters Forum. His film and television work include Riots and Rumours of Riots, Street Warriors, The Mark of the Hand, Blue Notes and Exiled Voices and African Tales. In 2013 he received a Lifetime Achievement Award from the Afrika Filmfestival in Leuven, Belgium for his work in African Cinema.
Along with being a giant in the realm of film and television, Ishaq Imruh Bakari, also has written an incredible collection of books. His fourth poetry collection, The Madman in this House, begins with the story of the ‘Negro of Banyoles’, whose stuffed remains were displayed in European museums for nearly 170 years, and ends with a celebration of the life and music of the Jamaican jazz-musician Coleridge Goode. In between, the book explores the histories, geographies and the ironic ‘impossibility’ of being black in our time. From Grenfell, Guantanamo and Gaza, to the monsters of empire and neoliberalism selling their ‘tar baby promises’ of freedom.
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