Life could have been very different for the man who started the Hip Hop Shakespeare company, rapper and writer Akala. He dreamed of becoming an astronaut, but those lofty dreams were out of reach for a mixed race child growing up in Britain of the 1980's and 90's where he says institutional racism set exceptions extremely low. His rise out of poverty and success are not proof that he's special, he says, just lucky. He writes about race and class and turning the work of Shakespeare into hip hop music in his book, Natives: Race and Class in the Ruins of Empire
Akala Photo: © nxsh 2015/ Auckland Writers Festival
Akala will be at the Auckland Writers Festival 13-19 May. He will also be a guest of the Dunedin Writers Festival and WORD Christchurch Festival
