Abstract

We will be joined by Adèle Oliver, scholar, artist, linguist, and the author of the landmark book Deeping It: Colonialism, Culture & Criminalisation of UK Drill. The book is an evidence-based call to keep rap lyrics outside of UK criminal courts steeped in British colonial history. This talk will explore some key concerns of Oliver’s book Deeping It, tracing the aesthetic, musical, and liberatory legacies behind the force that is drill. Adèle will also discuss the process of writing the book and dismantling hierarchies of knowledges as well as where the campaign Art not Evidence intervenes on the current use of rap lyrics in UK courts. Expect readings, music, movement in this exploration of Black artistic resistance, expression, and suppression.

Light refreshments provided. All are welcome! The book can be borrowed from the Homerton College Library; for electronic version of the selected reading email an564.

We will be joined by the speaker for formal dinner at Homerton New Dining Hall and there is a limited number of complimentary guest tickets for dinner for participants external to Homerton.

RSVP via this short form: https://forms.gle/jEj7p87PUFDFUXmz6 Event page: https://www.homerton.cam.ac.uk/events/anti-racist-reading-collective-2

Speaker bio: Adèle Oliver is a writer, artist and PhD researcher from Birmingham. Her book Deeping It: Colonialism, Culture and Criminalisation of UK Drill counters panic-fuelled discourse on UK drill, gang violence, and knife crime, ‘deeping’ drill as a complex Black artform, born out of generations of commentary on and resistance to technologies of colonialism, consumerism, anti-Blackness, and more. Adèle is also a core member of Art Not Evidence and works as an expert witness in cases that use Black youth culture, music, and idiomatic language as evidence of bad character, criminality and/or gang affiliation. Outside of this work, Adèle is a musician, producer, and avid capoeirista.