A stimulating platform discussion at a packed National Theatre last night, hosted by Kenan Malik.
There was much insight from Hanif on the challenges of adapting his 1995 novel The Black Album for the stage and advocacy for Salmon Rushdie's The Satanic Verses. Given the duplicitous responses and dissembling from politicians in 1989 when the fatwa was imposed on Rushdie, I'm glad that Kureishi's novel and now stage play have such an important role in the continuing debate around censorship, faith and race today.
Jatinder's thoughtful commentry on multi-racial Britain and the focus of current political and cultural policy makers on 'celebrating diversity' was revealing. I appreciated his compelling summary of the British political class take on migration and immigrant communities and their tendency to focus on roots, i.e. the past and homeland rather than routes i.e. the distance travelled along an ongoing journey.
Policy makes, please take note, multi-racial Britain as I see it should be about ongoing dialogues and connections between communities and not harking back to the past and those characteristics which mark people out as different.
It would be good to continue the debate around The Black Album, please make your comments on this blog. You can check out Jatinder's blog through http://www.tara-arts.com/
No comments:
Post a Comment