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Access All Areas / Black British Lives Matter: Marcus Ryder & Karen Gabay

Saturday 13 November 2021

We’re absolutely delighted to welcome Marcus Ryder and Karen Gabay to Louder 2021, celebrating both f Marcus’ recent publications and most importantly to have the chance to engage in this most topical, pertinent and necessary conversation…

 

When Sir Lenny Henry rang up the Office for National Statistics to confirm something he’d been thinking about for a long time, they told him that only 29.5% of the United Kingdom’s population is made up of white, heterosexual, able-bodied men; so, he wonders, why do they still make up the vast majority of people we see in our media?

Access All Areas draws on decades of experience to reveal why recent efforts to diversify media have been thus far ineffective, and why they are simply not enough. With wit, humour and unflinching gravitas Marcus and Karen will freflect on the flaws of current diversity initiatives, point out the structural and financial imbalances working against the cause, and suggest and dscuss clear solutions to get the media industry back on track.

In addition:

British Black Lives Matter was commissioned by Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder in response to the international outcry at George Floyd’s death. This collection of essays discuss how and why we need to fight for Black lives to matter – not just for Black people but for society as a whole.

Recognising Black British experience within the Black Lives Matter movement, nineteen prominent Black figures explain why Black lives should be celebrated when too often they are undervalued. Drawing from personal experience, they stress how Black British people have unique perspectives and experiences that enrich British society and the world; how Black lives are far more interesting and important than the forces that try to limit it

“We achieve everything not because we are superhuman. We achieve the things we achieve because we are human. Our strength does not come from not having any weaknesses, our strength comes from overcoming them” Doreen Lawrence.

“I always presumed racism would always be here, that it was a given. But the truth is, it was not always here, it was invented.” David Olusoga

“Our identity and experience will shape every story, bleed into every poem, inform every essay whether it’s about Black ‘issues’ or not” Kit de Waal

Copies of both books will be available to purchase from our Festival bookstore at the Innside

Marcus Ryder has spent over 25 years working in the media across the world including the UK, China and Malaysia; and eight years as a senior executive at the BBC, winning numerous industry awards. He is the Chair of RADA, the UK’s leading academy of dramatic arts, and he has previously held the position of Chair of the Royal Television Society Diversity Committee, and is also currently a trustee at the Press Pad Charitable Foundation and Head of External Consultancies at the Sir Lenny Henry Centre for Media Diversity.

A keen amateur runner and has completed 20 marathons on every continent except Antarctica.

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