Author: Akua Gyamfi

Back in the 80s as a child, I used to like scaring myself by watching VHS vids of all the now classic horror films. Nightmare on Elm Street parts 1 (excellent and most scary), 2 (ridiculous), 3 (the coolest); Poltergeist 1&2 (avoided tiny old ladies & little blond girl for a few years); everything by Stephen King – Salem’s Lot and Pet Semetary especially (had me EFFED UP for nights). Now as an adult, I find modern horror stories mostly idiotic. Don’t run in there. Don’t have go on the dusty Ouija board you found in the loft. Don’t speak...

Watching James Baldwin on screen you see a funny looking man. His cartoonish eyes, his animated face, his teeth… so many teeth in an almost gaunt face. Equally his personality is witty; in your face, droll, and he’s funny. He tells it like it is with a sarcasm hard to rebel against. Baldwin the novelist, essayist, playwright, poet, and social critic was a tiny square in the quilt of my upbringing. During my childhood my mum wasn’t vocal about politics, art and most definitely didn’t show interest in the boho queer life of the black male Baldwin represented. My dad has always been politically...

I’m not sure where to start with this film. But, okay, first a vital piece of information is being missed from the discussion around Fences, and that’s the actor who plays Cory Maxson is British born raised in America, Jovan Adepo (The Leftovers). That’s it. For his outstanding performance alone, we’d like to claim him back thank you. Not quite part of the British talent drain, but if his family had kept him here, who knows if he’d ever have been cast in this role. We thank you Adepo family. So, after successfully starring in the 2010 award-winning Broadway version, Denzel Washington...