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BAFTA- and MOBO-award-winning musician and political commentator, Akala launches his searing modern polemic Natives: Race and Class In Ruins of Empire in conversation with journalist and author Reni Eddo-Lodge (Why I’m No Longer Talking To White People About Race).

Natives is a timely book that covers everything from police, education, identity, politics, sexual objectification and the far right. We are thrilled to be welcoming Akala back to the city to discuss his life and work. Akala is an iconic internationally renowned artist that innovates whilst keeping his finger firmly on the pulse of society,

Taking stories from Akala’s life – from the first time he was stopped and searched as a child, to the day he realised his mum was white, to his first encounters with racist teachers – Natives will speak directly to British denial and squeamishness when it comes to confronting issues of race and class that are at the heart of the legacy of Britain's racialised empire.

Akala is a MOBO-award winning musician, poet, activist and the founder of The Hip Hop Shakespeare Company, he has spoken and written about politics and race on Newsnight, This Week, and Frankie Boyle's Political Autopsy and in the Guardian, as well as doing TEDx and Oxford Union lectures that have clocked up over a million views on YouTube.

Reni Eddo-Lodge is a London-based, award-winning journalist. She has written for the New York Times, the Voice, Daily Telegraph, Guardian, Independent, Stylist, the Pool, Dazed and Confused, and the New Humanist. She is the winner of an MHP 30 to Watch Award and was chosen as one of the Top 30 Young People in Digital Media by the Guardian in 2014. She has also been listed in Elle’s 100 Inspirational Women list, and The Root’s 30 Black Viral Voices Under 30. She contributed to The Good Immigrant.