Keziah Joseph is an actress based in London. She is a member of Equity and a founding member of the Race Equality Core Team at Kings Cross Church.
On Friday 16th October, she joined us in the Library to lead some discussions about identity informed by Jeffrey Boakye’s Black, Listed : Black British Culture Explored. In preparation for this event, members of the Lower and Upper Fifth had read the opening chapters of the book and listened to a radio interview between Jeffrey Boakye and Michael Rosen for the BBC’S Word of Mouth.
Keziah began by describing Boakye’s book as “provocative rather than conclusive”, highlighting that it opened a conversation about racialised language that allows its readers to reflect on how they self-identify and identify others without prescribing solutions. She then held a dialogue with the students, inviting them to share their own stories and reactions to what they had read – including when they first became aware of ethnicity and which words they would chose to identify themselves. She encouraged the students to own their identities and stories, and to make the most of the opportunity to learn more about cultural histories.
Keziah’s visit rounded up our fortnight of events marking Black History Month 2020, which also featured dance workshops, a lecture from Detective Inspector Ahenkora Bediako, and a screening of Marvel’s Black Panther for Upper Fourth students.
A huge thank you to Keziah for visiting us and we look forward to continuing the conversations that she helped us to begin.
