Persuasive rather than polarising . Kwame kwei armah, welcome to hardtalk. Thank you so much for having me. It is a great pleasure to have you. Now, youve been in the Theatre Business as an actor, a writer and a director for the best part of three decades. Ijust used that phrase, some would call it a cliche, about the culture wars. Does it feel to you that today there is a somewhat toxic culture war . I think youve framed it beautifully. It is toxic, but most importantly, its disingenuous. In my humble opinion. Its used to kind of create political fear. And ourjob as artists is, i think, fundamentally to take away that fear, to take away the binaries that i think this farce of the culture wars are. You know, i often hear politicians and im not one to diss politicians, but i also often hear politicians use race or class or immigration or use history as a Battering Ram to get themselves into the hearts of the populist. But those issues youve just outlined race, immigration they are centr
Ijust used that phrase, some would call it a cliche, about the culture wars. Does it feel to you that today there is a somewhat toxic culture war . I think youve framed it beautifully. It is toxic, but most importantly, its disingenuous. In my humble opinion. Its used to kind of create political fear. And ourjob as artists is, i think, fundamentally to take away that fear, to take away the binaries that i think this farce of the culture wars are. You know, i often hear politicians and im not one to diss politicians, but i also often hear politicians use race or class or immigration or use history as a Battering Ram to get themselves into the hearts of the populist. But those issues youve just outlined race, immigration they are central to your work, because theyre central to your own life story. Yeah, totally and utterly. But. And have you been frightened off entering this territory at times . Again, i think its framed brilliantly. Fortunately for me, or unfortunately, when im afraid o
but it has to be fair and almost democratic. kwame, you call yourself. i know. ..and of course you are kwame. but you were, as a kid, raised as ian ian roberts in west london, in southall a racially, ethnically very mixed part of london, which at the time, in the 70s and 80s, was the scene of racist violence. yes. ..of real racial tension. to what extent has that shaped you? very much so. it hasn t defined me, i hope, but it has shaped me. i remember my father taking me to the top of our street at the time i think it was in 1979 and a pub called the hamborough tavern was aflame. and it was because the skinheads, or a skinhead group, had performed and then they had attacked the black and brown people close to it. and as my father took me to the top of the street and as i saw the pub burning and i would have been about 12
hamborough tavern was aflame. and it was because the skinheads, or a skinhead group, had performed and then they had attacked the black and brown people close to it. and as my father took me to the top of the street and as i saw the pub burning and i would have been about 12 he said, this is your country, remember that. and i watched the police chase us down the street that i lived. and i saw skinheads armed with truncheons and shields. i didn t read this i saw this. that completely and utterly shaped the way that i saw the world. you said earlier that when you are frightened, you tend to run to what frightens you rather than away from it. did you run toward trouble in those days? no. did you fight back? 0h. i mean, it depends on how