Lemn Sissay at the BBC

Contact: Tel: 0161 244 4255

Invitation to a live recording for BBC Radio 4 at Contact. This is a one-off version of Lemn’s stage show with specially created new material for an invited audience. For one night only.

He didn’t know a black person until he was eighteen. It wasn’t his fault. They just thought it was better that way. He spent most of his adult life searching for his family who were black like him. It’s a story explored in his previous award-winning play Something Dark.

In Why I Don’t Hate White People Lemn continues the journey, not for family this time but for something more evasive – race. This is a whirlwind tour of race as seen from one man’s unique and intensely personal perspective as he seeks a truth, trying to find if there is something he is missing in the quagmire of race relations.
Exploring this contentious area with humour and originality, Lemn depicts some unexpected race-related situations, from an anti-slavery workshop where he chains up his students and leaves them in the classroom, to the launch of a new Richard Pryor Centre for Equality, which implodes at the opening ceremony. The result of Lemn’s journey into race is his discovery of the many reasons why he doesn’t, in fact, hate white people.

For tickets please call 0161 244 4255 and leave a contact name, telephone number and details of how many seats you would like. This event may be over-subscribed so book early.

Entry: Free

Time: 6:30pm