In this panel discussion, broadcaster and Sunday Business Post Arts Editor Nadine O’Regan will be joined by three writers and performers — Darren McGarvey, Emmet Kirwan and Mango — who use their roots as inspiration for their creative work, writing about hard-hitting issues and difficult truths.
Scottish rapper and writer Darren McGarvey (aka Loki The Scottish Rapper) recently won the prestigious Orwell Prize for his memoir Poverty Safari, a blistering study of deprivation. A rapper-in-residence at Police Scotland’s Violence Reduction Unit, McGarvey is described by Irvine Welsh as “an intellectual and spiritual rehab manual for the progressive left”.
Irish rapper and poet Mango, meanwhile, has played to rapturous receptions at festivals from Forbidden Fruit to Electric Picnic alongside his producer/collaborator Mathman. Having first come to prominence as a member of hip-hop group The Animators, Mango is a rapidly rising artist praised for his machine gun vocal delivery, biting lyrics and proudly strong Dublin accent.
Emmet Kirwan is an Irish performance poet, actor and writer, whose phrase ‘Stand in Awe of All Mna’ became a touchstone for the Repeal the Eighth movement, and whose film Dublin Oldschool — a moving depiction of family relationships and drug use in Dublin — opened to major acclaim in Ireland earlier this year.
Together, the panel will discuss how their backgrounds have influenced their work and tell the audience about the issues that resonate most with them in the Ireland and Britain of today. This panel discussion will be recorded for the My Roots are Showing podcast with Nadine O’Regan.
part of the Festival of Politics
