In a few days, I’ll be performing a new, 20-minute monologue titled Dodging Bullets in Manchester, UK, and reprising it in Leeds. I am one of four Black men nationwide selected to present something on Black men and mental health – a project called #BlackBoyJoyGone: REALISE. Dodging Bullets expresses gratitude for the luck I have had in maintaining robust mental health while people close to me have not. It also recalls surviving an encounter with a New York police officer after unwittingly committing a traffic violation eleven years ago. Performances are at HOME Manchester on 7 February, and Riley Theatre, Leeds on 21 February. Apologies for the short notice: many things conspired to make this unavoidable. With any luck, there'll be more performances in the future.

Robeson @ 125
I am unable to confirm it just yet, but I am hoping, on the same trip, to be giving at least one performance of Call Mr. Robeson, in Peekskill, NY. April 9 is the 125th anniversary of Robeson’s birth, and events are being planned in a number of places in the US to commemorate this, including by the Paul Robeson House & Museum, Philadelphia; Rutgers University, New Brunswick; The Lincoln Centre, and the Black Quaker Project. There ought to be more, so I would encourage people out there to organise more. Perhaps another radio station might be persuaded to air Paul Robeson’s Love Song, which, incidentally, I will be sharing from my Zoom Room on February 12.

Parting Shots

I have often bemoaned what I believe to be too many instances of poor-quality journalism in the BBC, in terms of the suppression of important stories on one hand, and the careless and sometimes deliberate inaccuracy of reporting, on the other. I recently saw a documentary that was aired on BBC Ireland and Northern Ireland which, if my bias is justified, is unlikely to make it onto BBC in mainland UK. That Hooded Men - Britain's Torture Playbook was aired at all is something of a breakthrough. It tells the story of a decades-long fight for justice by 14 men tortured by the British Army in Ireland during the Troubles, and how a questionable 1978 court ruling led to the justification of torture by the US Army in Guantanamo Bay, Abu Ghraib and elsewhere. Top military men who are regularly wheeled out to justify ongoing wars end up looking not so impressive in this. An excellent documentary made, incidentally, by my son-in-law, Tom Besley.