Podcast appearances and mentions of paul mendez

In one of the most eagerly anticipated debuts of 2023, LRB editor Tom Crewe presents a fictionalised account of the lives and loves of John Addington Symonds and Henry Havelock Ellis. The New Life charts their collaboration on a revolutionary work that set out to transform our understanding of sexual ethics. Tom Crewe was in conversation with Paul Mendez, author of another ground-breaking debut Rainbow Milk.Find more events at the Bookshop: lrb.me/eventspod Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

We welcome Scottish DJ, producer Mendexx back to the Bonzai Basik Beats guest spot with a top-notch set to get you in the mood for the weekend ahead. Mendexx aka Paul Mendez remains a popular figure on the scene who has amassed a plethora of tracks across several genres with a solid rep amongst his peers. In the mix tonight, expect to hear quality cuts from Mike Rush, D-Nox, Equinox, Saycet, OT Quartet, Smorphya, Quivver, Weekend Heroes, Lucca Loggia and more. 1. Mike Rish - Tunnel People (Original Mix) 2. Stone Van Brooken - Millenium (Original Mix) 3. D-Nox Beckers - Control (Original Mix) 4. Lucca Loggia - I Could Fly (Organic Function Remix) 5. Equinox - Mesmerize (Extended Mix) 6. NOIYSE PROJECT - The Groove Child (Original Mix) 7. Weekend Heroes - Faceless (Original Mix) 8. Saycet - Layers (Chloe¥ Remix) 9. OT Quartet - Hold That Sucker Down (Quivver & Blades Extended Mix) 10. Halishan & Maxx Owen - Atom (Original Mix) 11. Smorphya - That's Right (Original Mix) 12. fran&co - Met Her On Tinder (Original Mix) This show is syndicated & distributed exclusively by Syndicast. If you are a radio station interested in airing the show or would like to distribute your podcast / radio show please register here: https://syndicast.co.uk/distribution/registration

Claude McKay's Harlem Shadows was published in 1922 and is only now beginning to receive its due. The collection stands alongside the better-known masterpieces of that year in its distillation of the spirit of the age and its outsize influence.Writer, researcher, and LRB contributor Kevin Okoth joined poet Raymond Antrobus and author Paul Mendez to discuss McKay's extraordinary life and work. Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

1. Stone Van Brooken & Kim Sane - Ethereal (Extended Mix) 2. Mathew Jonson - Marionette (Stephan Bodzin Remix) 3. PCP (BE) - Not Enough (HD_Remix) 4. Jeremy Olander - Murphy (Original Mix) 5. Stan Kolev, Santiablo - Tikuna (Original Mix) 6. Solomon - Home (Boys Noize Remix) 7. Vito Natoli - Still Love You (Original Mix) 8. Seelo - Beirut (Extended Mix) 9. Deadmau5 - XYZ (NERO Remix) 10. Bursa - Dramatic Combo (Original Mix) 11. Kooku - Hummingbird (Original Mix) 12. My Friend - Balvernie Beans (Extended Mix) 13. Ginchy - Tulum Secrets (Original Mix)Bonzai Basik Beats is a weekly radio show airing on FM and Webradio for over 5 years, where top DJ's showcase a wide range of music including the best in Progressive House, Tech House, Techno and D... Download

Paul Mendez joins us on Bonzai Basik Beats once again taking control of the decks for an hour of purely upfront vibes that will get the weekend started in style. Expect to hear tracks and remixes from the likes of PCP, Stan Kolev, Seelo, Deadmau5, Kooku, Nero, Boyz Noize, Stephan Bodzin, Jeremy Orlander, Ginchy, Bursa and many more. 1. Stone Van Brooken & Kim Sane - Ethereal (Extended Mix) 2. Mathew Jonson - Marionette (Stephan Bodzin Remix) 3. PCP (BE) - Not Enough (HD_Remix) 4. Jeremy Olander - Murphy (Original Mix) 5. Stan Kolev, Santiablo - Tikuna (Original Mix) 6. Solomon - Home (Boys Noize Remix) 7. Vito Natoli - Still Love You (Original Mix) 8. Seelo - Beirut (Extended Mix) 9. Deadmau5 - XYZ (NERO Remix) 10. Bursa - Dramatic Combo (Original Mix) 11. Kooku - Hummingbird (Original Mix) 12. My Friend - Balvernie Beans (Extended Mix) 13. Ginchy - Tulum Secrets (Original Mix) This show is syndicated & distributed exclusively by Syndicast. If you are a radio station interested in airing the show or would like to distribute your podcast / radio show please register here: https://syndicast.co.uk/distribution/registration

A prince who was lost for words A sister who worried far too much A brother who walked differently through the world A girl who had to be seen to be believed Join Krish and Miriam Kandiah on another adventure through 10 retellings of stories from the Bible! While many people with disabilities, differences and disadvantages are often under-valued in our society, under-acknowledged in history and under-represented, Krish and Miriam Kandiah team up again to show how God gives people with disabilities a special mention, special honour and very special jobs. Sometimes we can focus on the stories of miraculous healing in the Bible, but this can make people with disabilities and differences feel like they have nothing to offer the world. But Krish and Miriam introduce us to people in the Bible of all shapes and sizes who go on incredible adventures with God! It's time to remember all the characters in the Bible who do amazing world-changing things—especially those who dare to be different.

Hi hunnies. It's Sarah and Paul. How have you been coping without us? We presume life hasn't been nearly the same since our sensual tones left your hairy ear canals. But you're in luck because Reading for Attention is BACK.In the sensational launch eppy of series two (which is nothing short of a masterpiece and that's a fact fact fact) we start off with a big ol' catch up. Paul updates us on his Yank honeymoon, Sarah fills us in on Scottish life and we both try to make sense of Kanye West.THEN we move onto fan-recommended Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez. It's themes include but are not limited to: race, London, Windrush, drugs, Jehovah's Witnesses, queerness, 90s R'n'B, family estrangement and lots and lots of SEX. Stunnin'.Strap in bitchez cos we're about to get even more internationally famous.Lots of snugs and humps xxxxxxP.S. We're both extremely coughy and sneezy in this ep so apologies for that.  Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

A global history of free speech, from the ancient world to today. Hailed as the 'first freedom', free speech is the bedrock of democracy. But it is a challenging principle, subject to erosion in times of upheaval. Today, in democracies and authoritarian states around the world, it is on the retreat. In Free Speech, Jacob Mchangama traces the riveting legal, political and cultural history of this idea. Through captivating stories of free speech's many defenders - from the ancient Athenian orator Demosthenes and the ninth-century freethinker al-Razi, to Mary Wollstonecraft, Mahatma Gandhi, Nelson Mandela and modern-day digital activists - Mchangama demonstrates how the free exchange of ideas underlies all intellectual achievement and has enabled the advancement of both freedom and equality worldwide. Yet the desire to restrict speech is also a constant, and he explores how even its champions can be led down this path when the rise of new and contrarian voices challenge power and privilege of all kinds. Meticulously researched, deeply humane and provocative, Free Speech challenges us all to recognise how much we have gained from this principle - and how much we stand to lose without it.

Well hunnies, this is it. Big fat hankies at the ready because series one of Reading for Attention has come to an end. We encourage you to take a couple of days off work to deal with the trauma. The final eppy is all about Sarah and Paul's top 3 books of the series, tales from Sazzy's birthday and Paul's upcoming trip to the US of A, the main goal of which is to stalk as many Real Housewives as poss. Thank you for being our fans - we love and fantasise about you daily. Join us for series 2 on April 8th, and make sure you've read Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez. Our Paul read half of it on the plane to Vegas Baby and can confirm it's fabulous. All the biggest kissy cheeks and nippy tweaks xxxxx Hosted on Acast. See acast.com/privacy for more information.

Paul Mendez is a London-based novelist, essayist and screenwriter. Born in 1982 and raised in the Black Country, the eldest of four children by Jehovah's Witness parents of second-generation Jamaican heritage, Mendez disassociated himself from the Witnesses while still a teenager, before moving to Kent to study automotive engineering, then London to study acting, leaving both courses before the end of the first year. After reading James Baldwin's 1968 novel Tell Me How Long the Train's Been Gone in the summer of 2002, Mendez began keeping a journal, maintaining it while occupied variously as a sex worker, waiter and sometime journalist. Mendez has contributed to Glass, Esquire, The Face, British Vogue, the Times Literary Supplement and the Brixton Review of Books, and his work has been included in anthologies by Goldsboro Books and Daunt Books. In 2020, Dialogue Books published Mendez's debut novel Rainbow Milk – examining queer, Black British lives from the Windrush generation to the aftermath of the Brexit vote – to critical acclaim, featuring in the Observer's prestigious Top Ten Debut Novels list for 2020, before being shortlisted for the Gordon Burn Prize. 5x15 brings together five outstanding individuals to tell of their lives, passions and inspirations. There are only two rules - no scripts and only 15 minutes each. Learn more about 5x15 events: 5x15stories.com Twitter: www.twitter.com/5x15stories Facebook: www.facebook.com/5x15stories Instagram: www.instagram.com/5x15stories

Take a chance...on a debut novel and a new author. Corene, Liz, and Virginia share some fantastic debuts in today's episode. Books mentioned: The Boy with a Bird in His Chest by Emme Lund, The Korean Vegan Cookbook by Joanne Lee Molinaro, and Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/keepitfictional/message

Paul Mendez joins Yvonne Battle Felton in conversation to examine his semi-autobiographical novel Rainbow Milk and the significance of the point of view of the main characters with this work. Point of view includes who the narrator is and how (and when) the story will be told. Mendez explains the decisions he felt he had to make when developing the main characters of Norman and Jesse. Write Your Novel is an innovative write-along podcast series - written and devised by Dr Yvonne Battle-Felton. A writing exercise at the end of each conversation supports the listener to help them proactively work through the techniques in their own work. A transcript for this episode is available here: https://newwritingnorth.com/projects/write-your-novel/Presenter: Yvonne Battle-FeltonProducer: Candace WilsonMusic: Joe GardnerA Sonderbug Production funded by Arts Council England and supported by New Writing North.

This session presents two very exciting debut novels from writers who have each been fearless in rattling family skeletons or using elements of autobiography to come up with something fresh and startling. Eleanor Anstruther's A Perfect Explanation was inspired by her discovery that her grandmother, the granddaughter of the 8th Duke of Argyll, sold her father to her aunt for £500 to raise him as her own. Paul Mendez worked as an actor before settling into a writing career. His Rainbow Milk draws, in its portrayal of a boy's search for his true, Jamaican father, on his own troubled early life as an “unfellowshipped” gay son of Jehovah's Witnesses in the Black Country. Eleanor and Paul were in conversation with Colin Midson, director of Bookshaped and artistic director of the Falmouth Book Festival. We apologise for the slight audio issues in this recording caused by technical problems at the live event.

Arriving in Britain as part of the Windrush Generation, Andrew Salkey made vital contributions to the BBC's Caribbean Voices programme as a presenter, writer and reader of others work. But author of Rainbow Milk, Paul Mendez, knew little about him before coming across a striking image of man at the centre of the mid-20th century's black literary scene. Here he draws on that picture, following Salkey's journey from reading the work of other authors on air, to penning his own forgotten queer classic, Escape to an Autumn. 75 years ago, the revolutionary Caribbean Voices strand was established on the BBC's Overseas Service by trailblazing Jamaican broadcaster Una Marson. Every week for over a decade, it gave exposure on radio to emerging writers from the region such as Sam Selvon, Derek Walcott and VS Naipaul - many for the first time. Delving into the BBC's Written Archives, five writers go in search of five important figures who contributed to the programme throughout the 1940s and 50s, each of whom changed the literary landscape in a different way. The result is part archival treasure hunt, part cultural history and part personal reflection on the people behind a landmark institution. Producer: Ciaran Bermingham

Art Trahan & Paul Mendez join the crew for a father-son special. Join us each week Sundays at 10 am live! --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/matttrahan/message

Sam explains the dangers of reading while goat herding, Lori admits to liking the Twilight books, and Paul Mendez talks about his extraordinary debut novel, Rainbow Milk.

PAUL MENDEZ was born and raised in the Black Country. He now lives in London and is studying for an M.A. in Black British Writing at Goldsmiths, University of London. He has been a performing member of two theatre companies, and worked as a voice actor, appearing on audiobooks by Andrea Levy, Paul Theroux and Ben Okri, most recently recording Ian Wright's A Life in Football for Hachette Audio. As a writer, he has contributed to the Times Literary Supplement and the Brixton Review of Books. Rainbow Milk is his debut novel. About Rainbow Milk An essential and revelatory coming-of-age narrative from a thrilling new voice, Rainbow Milk follows nineteen-year-old Jesse McCarthy as he grapples with his racial and sexual identities against the backdrop of his Jehovah's Witness upbringing. In the 1950s, ex-boxer Norman Alonso is a determined and humble Jamaican who has immigrated to Britain with his wife and children to secure a brighter future. Blighted with unexpected illness and racism, Norman and his family are resilient, but are all too aware that their family will need more than just hope to survive in their new country. At the turn of the millennium, Jesse seeks a fresh start in London, escaping a broken immediate family, a repressive religious community and his depressed hometown in the industrial Black Country. But once he arrives he finds himself at a loss for a new center of gravity, and turns to sex work, music and art to create his own notions of love, masculinity and spirituality. A wholly original novel as tender as it is visceral, Rainbow Milk is a bold reckoning with race, class, sexuality, freedom and religion across generations, time and cultures.

Rainbow Milk author Paul Mendez sits down with Zibby to discuss how his “story of overcoming indoctrination” came to be. He details the role method acting played in his character creation, the story's parallels to his own life, and the Windrush generation that served as the novel's inspiration. Purchase on Amazon or Bookshop.Amazon: https://amzn.to/3oZocUwBookshop: https://bit.ly/3chSGfl See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

From the appeal of trickster gods Anansi and Loki to the joy of comics and fantasy: Booker prize winner Marlon James and Neil Gaiman, author of the book American Gods which has been turned into a TV series, talk writing and reading with Matthew Sweet in a conversation organised in partnership with the Royal Society of Literature and the British Library. Neil Gaiman is an author of books for children and adults whose titles include Norse Mythology, American Gods, The Graveyard Book, Good Omens (with Terry Pratchett), Coraline, and the Sandman graphic novels. He also writes children's books and poetry, has written and adapted for radio, TV and film and for DC Comics. Marlon James is the author of the Booker Prize winning and New York Times bestseller A Brief History of Seven Killings, The Book of Night Women, John Crow's Devil and his most recent - Black Leopard, Red Wolf - which is the first in The Dark Star Trilogy in which he plans to tell the same story from different perspectives. Producer: Torquil MacLeod. You can find a playlist called Prose and Poetry featuring a range of authors including Ian Rankin, Nadifa Mohamed, Paul Mendez, Ali Smith, Helen Mort, Max Porter, Hermione Lee, Derek Owusu, Jay Bernard, Ben Okri on the Free Thinking website https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p047v6vh

Here are some books coming out in May-August 2021 we're excited to read. What books caught your eye? Books mentioned in this episode: The Reading List by Sara Nisha Adams, Pumpkin by Julie Murphy, Ranbow Milk by Paul Mendez, The Missing Sister by Lucinda Riley, The Blacktongue Thief by Christopher Buehlman, The Decagon House Murders by Yukito Ayatsuji, The Secret to Superhuman Strength by Alison Bechdel, The Woman in the Purple Skirt by Natsuko Imamura, Bad Witch Burning by Jessica Lewis, The Witch King by H.E. Edgmon, Somebody's Daughter by Ashley C. Ford, Turtle in Paradise by Jennifer L. Holm, A Boring Wife Settles the Score by Marie-Renee Lavoie, The Box in the Woods by Maureen Johnson, and Sorrowland by Rivers Solomon. --- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/keepitfictional/message

Paul Mendez is a British writer, Beyoncé superfan and once devout Jehovah's Witness. Growing up in the Midlands, where his Jamaican grandparents settled, Paul was all about preaching, paradise and playing Monopoly with elderly ladies. But at 17, he was cast out from his congregation. Alone and looking for new friends, life took an unexpected and dangerous turn – but help was to come in an unlikely form. A story of sin, sexual awakening, and the salvation of 90s RnB. (Radio listeners, if you are searching for the combined podcast version of Paul’s interview with Jo Fidgen - this is it!) Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Maryam Maruf Picture: Paul Mendez Credit: Christa Holka Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Paul Mendez is a British writer, Beyoncé superfan and once devout Jehovah's Witness. Growing up in the Midlands, where his Jamaican grandparents settled, Paul was all about preaching, paradise and playing Monopoly with elderly ladies. But at 17, he was cast out from his congregation. Alone and looking for new friends, life took an unexpected and dangerous turn – but help was to come in an unlikely form. A story of sin, sexual awakening, and the salvation of 90s RnB. (Radio listeners, if you are searching for the combined podcast version of Paul's interview with Jo Fidgen - this is it!) Presenter: Jo Fidgen Producer: Maryam Maruf Picture: Paul Mendez Credit: Christa Holka Get in touch: outlook@bbc.com

Rapper and writer Testament discusses his new work Orpheus in the Record Shop which fuses spoken word and beatboxing with players from the Orchestra of Opera North in an new collaboration that gives the Greek myth of Orpheus a contemporary Yorkshire twist. Festivals this summer are still in doubt as organisers can't secure insurance commercially. Jamie Njoku-Goodwin, CEO of UK Music, discusses how likely it will be that the government will step in to provide an indemnity. British nature writing remains overwhelmingly white, despite its continuing popularity. With the recent establishment of new prizes and literary journals for diversity in nature writing things are starting to change - but slowly. John talks to two authors bucking the trend: Anita Sethi, author of a new memoir called I Belong Here about reclaiming the countryside for people of colour and Paul Mendez, who contributed an essay to the new collection, In the Garden, about the gardens of his Windrush grandparents. Presenter: John Wilson Producer: Sarah Johnson Studio Manager: Bob Nettles and Donald McDonald Main image: Testament in Orpheus in the Record Shop Image credit: Anthony Robling

This week, I am speaking to Paul Mendez. We discuss all things Jamaica, growing up Jehovah's witness in the Black Country and his debut novel Rainbow Milk. Rainbow Milk is a beautiful novel about love, belonging and the Black, Queer experience that we don't often see from Black men.Dive in, it's a beautiful conversation with an icon.Catch me on:Vero: Vero.co/alexholmesWebsite: alexholmes.coInstagram: @byalexholmesEmail: alex@alexholmes.coProduction, Music and Edit: Pure Creation Media/Ryan Nile (@ryan.nile.show)Executive Produced: Alex Holmes--- Send in a voice message: https://anchor.fm/timetotalkwithalexholmes/message See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Hanif Abdurraqib, the American poet and essayist, has written a book in praise of black performance challenging stereotypes and recovering figures including the magician Ellen Armstrong who performed along the Atlantic seaboard in the 1900s, the dancer William Henry Lane described by Dickens and Merry Clayton, the gospel singer who performed on the Rolling Stones song Gimme Shelter. He joins New Generation Thinker Adjoa Osei and Dawn Walton, founder of Eclipse Theatre Company for a conversation with Matthew Sweet looking at how attitudes towards black performance have changed - or not. Hanif Abdurraqib's book is called A Little Devil in America: In Praise of Black Performance. Dawn Walton is directing The Death of a Black Man by Alfred Fagon at the Hampstead Theatre 28 May – 10 July. It premiered at that theatre in 1975. Adjoa Osei is a 2021 New Generation Thinker on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the Arts and Humanities Research Council to make radio from academic research. She researches at the University of Liverpool and her postcard looks at the Brazilian TV series on Netflix Coisa Mais Linda or Girls from Ipanema. You can find a playlist on the Free Thinking website exploring identity from speakers including Eddie Glaude Jr and Nadia Owusu on James Baldwin; the writers JJ Bola and Derek Owusu in an episode about masculinity; novelist Paul Mendez in a discussion about Queer Bloomsbury; a quartet of artists on the Black British Art movement, Le Gateau Chocolat in a discussion about the subversion of Cabaret and Suzan-Lori Parks on her play Father Comes Home from the Wars https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p06jngzt and a second playlist offers other discussions exploring Black History https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p08t2qbp The Lights Up festival of performance is running across BBC Radio 3 and 4 and BBC TV. The opening drama Giles Terera's The Meaning of Zong is available now on BBC Sounds https://www.bbc.co.uk/sounds/play/m000tdk4 Producer: Caitlin Benedict

Our guest this week is the author Paul Mendez, who released his debut novel, Rainbow Milk, to huge critical acclaim. The often autobiographical novel tells the story of Jesse, a runaway sex worker who finds love and lust in unexpected places. Paul talks about identity – of blackness, queerness, creativity and connection. This is an explicit conversation that features adult themes and adult language. If you enjoy this episode, we hope you’ll enjoy Daisy’s novel Insatiable: A Love Story For Greedy Girls, published by Sphere and available from all retailers including Waterstones. https://www.waterstones.com/book/insatiable/daisy-buchanan/9780751582314 See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

There is a pair of lemon trees outside the Desperate Literature multilingual bookshop in Madrid and you could say that if God gave them lemons, owners Terry and Charlotte made a damn good lemonade with this literary haven. In their own words, Desperate Literature sells books. Real books. Desperate ones. Paper and glue. But actually, Desperate Literature is also a community, event space, a publishing house, and a home. That's right, self-diagnosed book fanatics Terry Craven and Charlotte Delattre live above and in the vicinity of the bookshop. They both worked at the world-famous Paris bookshop Shakespeare and Company for a few years before opening Desperate Literature, inviting Madrilenos, travelers and unidentified walk-ins to write a poem on their vintage typewriter or take a shot of whiskey with a book purchase. We chat with Terry and Charlotte today to find out about the joys and despairs of their lives as booksellers. Find us on social media @gotbookspodcast Books recommended by Charlotte and Terry: Rinko Kawauchi: Illuminance; The Savage Detectives, by Roberto Bolano; Conversations With Friends, by Sally Rooney; Room to Dream, by David Lynch; Rainbow Milk, by Paul Mendez; The Argonauts, by Maggie Nelson; On the Road, by Jack Kerouac; Selected Poems of Sylvia Plath; The Great Gatsby, by F. Scott Fitzgerald --- Send in a voice message: https://podcasters.spotify.com/pod/show/gotbooks/message

You're Booked is very proud to present Daisy's brand new podcast: Daisy is Insatiable. Daisy is Insatiable is an intimate look at love, lust, life, and everything that makes sex fascinating. Why do we yearn for romance? How can we feel confident when it comes to our body image hang ups? What is the difference between sex and love? What happens when money gets involved? Each week, Daisy will be sharing a revealing conversation with a different guest - it's going to be fun, it's going to be explicit, and no-one is getting left in the dark. The first episode features a frank and funny conversation with writer and broadcaster Dolly Alderton. Listen out for future episodes with Paul Mendez, Andi Osho, Shahroo Izadi and many more...Subscribe to Daisy is Insatiable on Acast: https://play.acast.com/s/daisy-is-insatiableApple: https://podcasts.apple.com/gb/podcast/daisy-is-insatiable/id1553249128Spotify: https://open.spotify.com/show/5Pa0NFh4WPud2bI8xIdkys?si=Rxe6wjhLSsqynx2xA7xbHgAmazon: https://music.amazon.co.uk/podcasts/f6f4db3c-25df-4d00-8816-af691da9154f/Daisy-is-InsatiableThe podcast accompanies the launch of Daisy’s debut novel – Insatiable, which has been receiving rave reviews. See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

How do you get the upper hand on a world you don’t yet understand? That’s the burning question at the heart of two striking debuts that scrape away the coming-of-age clichés, breathing through the aches and pains of growing up. With echoes of early Baldwin, Paul Mendez’s Rainbow Milk, one of the Observer’s top 10 debuts of 2020, mines the author’s upbringing as a lapsed Jehovah's Witness and, later, sex worker, to tell an intergenerational story of two men stalled at an impossible intersection of sexuality, spirituality and race. Derek Owusu’s ‘virtuosic debut’ That Reminds Me — the first novel to be released on Stormzy’s new imprint #Merky Books — pieces together the fragments of K’s short life, as memories of addiction, racism and trauma threaten to flatline an already faltering recovery. In this event recorded live at the 2020 Book Festival, join Owusu and Mendez as they interrogate the forces that seek to cast a shadow over the blossoming of young Black men in the UK today with former Lord Mayor of Sheffield Magid Magid - and fall in love with two writers soon to be on the tip of everyone’s tongue.

Jamila Rizvi and Astrid Edwards are back for the third season of Anonymous of a Woman. Chapter 1: Jamila and Astrid consider what it means to feel like you belong. Chapter 2: Jamila introduces Top End Girl, Miranda Tapsell's 2020 memoir. Chapter 3: Astrid discusses The Loudness of Unsaid Things, the debut novel by Hilde Hinton. Recommendations: Jamila recommends Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez. Astrid recommends Growing Up Disabled in Australia, which is edited by Carly Findlay. CHAT WITH US Join our discussion using hashtag #AnonymousWasAWomanPod and don't forget to follow Jamila (on Instagram and Twitter) and Astrid (also on Instagram and Twitter) to continue the conversation. This podcast is sponsored by Hachette Publishing and is brought to you by Future Women. The podcast is produced by Bad Producer Productions. See omnystudio.com/listener for privacy information.

Welcome back GEECASTERS!!! As always we keep our BLINDS OPEN to sounds we may not hear on a day to day basis!! And as ever pushing this concept.. we have one of the UKs finest Techno & Hard Trance Djs & Producers..... The one and only  LOUK!! As ever you have me playing some of my fav stuff!! This time im playing some classic 90s in one take from 170 upto 230ish! !!! as always I dont believe in sanitised nicely edited DJ sets. I press record and lets go!!! And in hour 2 we have the one and only!! LOUK!!! Now then LOUK!! How are we doing on this weird year?! Haha that's fantastic going from 170 to 230 in one take.  Top man.  Mate weird is an understatement and a half, in February all was good and I happily travelling to Reykjavik and planning what to do in the Summer etc and some forthcoming gigs we wanted to go to and then the whole lockdown happened a couple weeks later.  Never expected it in the slightest, but I don't think anyone did for that matter.  Anyway, aside from a global pandemic yeah all good cheers!     Hows you.. Missus and the new addition!?! Ah absolutely lovely thanks, the past fifteen months have flown by and one good thing of lockdown was I got to see much more of my daughter growing up.  My wife is working hard in her final year of Uni studying a degree in biomedical science that I haven't got a fucking clue what the majority of it means but she is doing very well at it and my stepdaughter had her sixth Birthday today and is as usual very happy and full of the joys of life!     So of course many people know you from playing Techno & Hard Trance all over Europe!  But were did this all begin for you?? What were your earliest memories of the rave scene?  I grew up listening to dance tracks on compilations and enjoying them and learned to make music on an Amiga 500 with an old issue of CU Amiga magazine.  From there there were tracks on CDs I really liked.  Cheesy to admit it but Now 26 switched me on to a lot of dance music as my parents had it and I remember stuff like Capella, Leftfield and The Good Men were on there.  There was another compilation with Atlantic Ocean - Waterfall on that escapes me but I listened to that a lot.  My cousin was going to a lot of raves in the early 90s and told me about some tapes to check out.  I actually wrote to the author of the article in CU Amiga mag a few years back and looked him up on Facebook, said about the huge thanks I have to him for how my life turned out and he's very humble and still making music.  He did a belting live version of Greece 2000 and Stella by Jam & Spoon.  (https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nlGZ8WXS6_Q) Didn't start going out properly till I was 16 in early 2002, where I ventured from a pub that never ID'd me that I still occasionally drink in now, to a club called Dance Academy where my friends were running nights.  Again, was spoiled rotten really as they did decent harder nights on a Fri (though I also went to a lot of wicked Drum N Bass ones too there) and on the Sat they had Mark EG and M-Zone down on a pretty much bi-monthly basis and a whole host of other decent DJs and locals.  Most the time the locals played harder and darker than the guest DJs and I loved the fact there was a right mash up of music in there from house through to hardstyle on a weekly basis.     Can you remember the first rave tape you bought?  Who was it? To be fair I can't really, as I actually remember getting a tape pack after getting a CD pack and downloading mixes from DJs leaving a modem on all night in the late 90s.  That was back in the days it'd take about 8 hours to download 1 mix.  I remember getting a bollocking for us having a huge phone bill one month.  Was worth it for the music to be fair!  A year later IC24 came along and stupidly gave away 0800 internet subscriptions for something like £10 a month, they changed their policy after.  I think I was partly to blame downloading as many mixes as I could and fair use went well and truly out the window.  I listened to Radio 1 quite a lot and Beat 106 online in Scotland and I was into Paul Mendez from Jacob & Mendez's tunes and he did a show on there, locally there was a radio station called Plymouth Sound that had a belting dance show.  I taped shitloads of them and met quite a few of the DJs on there over the years as they worked in record shops and the like or I DJ'd on same line ups as them.   They had a strong influence on me too as well as the local nights as I was too young to be going out.  Though not for that much longer as stated above thanks to very very lapse IDing going on, especially as I looked about 14 when I was 16.  Many thanks to everyone who knew and didn't say anything as those years were fucking amazing!!!      The Techno & Hard Trance scene has big roots in the UK from events like North, Uprising, Helterkelters Technodrome, Vibelite Tommorows World, Club Kinetic Digital & Djs like Mzone & Mark EG. Can you remember hearing them for the first time? Yep, mates raved about Mark EG and M-Zone and I used to listen to their mixes on the german trance website and Mark's blackout audio website in real audio format.  That takes me back.  A year later mark was playing here every month and so was Mick and not just at Dance Academy but other awesome nights like Premonition, Hindsight in Exeter and others.  So I saw them shitloads!  Both have been not just hugely influential but highly supportive over the years.  I was a bit jaded with how everything was going in 2014 musically and took a much needed break and rethink, Mick very kindly rang up to see if all was OK.  Nearly everybody who plays hard trance in the south west owes inspiration to these two.  How mark mixes it up starting with techno hugely influenced too as I've always been into it as much as I have hard trance.  Mark and Mick often played at the Country Club here, and I had a lift ready for me to go to the last night but went to a small prog night in Plym instead, I did have school on Monday and thought a hangover the size of sussex miles from home wasn't a good idea.  Country Club reunions are always a decent laugh though!   Who is the most savage Hardcore Dj you have heard?  HMS for me haha!?! Pure brutal!! RIP HMS!! Haha heard a few.  I DJ'd after The Speed Freak in Scunthorpe for Hard Drive once.  Thought I'd be clever dropping more purist techno after a gabber DJ and crowd parted like the red sea when I put my first tune on.  S.W Cooperation - Get To Your Place.  Everyone's place was to fuck off of the dancefloor that night DJing after Gabber.  Found out he was behind Biochip C though and he did some mental slower tracks as well under that guise, very talented.       Whats the best gig youve ever played and why? Had some absolutely mental ones but easily my first ever international gig, that fell on the date of my 24th birthday and was for Q Dance for Defqon 1.  Everyone was really supportive and I had lots of new material to play, and was nice to drop Shogun 1 to the Dutch.  What a birthday.     Whats the strangest thing youve ever seen at a rave? Someone on the dancefloor at The Grove in Seaton turning their keys with their eyes closed thinking they were unlocking their front door.  I asked "You alright mate?" to get a reply of "Fuck me mate I thought I was unlocking my front door".  That has to be up there.  Also my (lack of) attempts at mixing in the early days were pretty strange as well... least I can admit it.      What is the rave scene like down on the south coast?(pre covid).. There's loads of music enthusiasts, very talented producers and DJs here so there's still some nights, but sadly there aren't that many venues that can hold the capacity so like anywhere sadly the scene is a fraction of what it was when I started going out.  Even more so now post covid!     Your well known for your collabs with Nick the Kid... How did this come about? Met Nick at a free party near Exeter in 2002 called Lunatech, liked the set he played and then went on my own to his Hindsight night in Exeter that Dec.  Got the coach up and it finished at 1 so I went to dance academy after when I got back to plym at 2.  Really enjoyed the music, so went up with some mates from Plym often to Hindsights, met nick a few times, gave him some of my very early really ropey tunes and we liked a lot of the same music and were both cubase users so worked with each other.  Dreams was made, and somehow ended up getting signed to Drizzly one of our fav labels so we were mega stoked.  This was actually before I started mixing as that came after Production he was one of the first to book me.  I worked with Nick lots over years and we've played a lot of sets b2b and had a hell of a lot of fun in doing so.  Every time we meet up we always have a laugh.  His HTE label is going strong and fair play he works his socks off.      So your quite a well known and skilled producer... When you go into the studio.. can you talk us through your process? Do you have ideas down before? or is it a more organic scenario? Ah thank you, It varies on my mood that day.  Sometimes I listen to music before I go in, but then find I end up taking influence from what I listen to and go 'ah what can I do to sound like track X today' works.  When I engineer for others I ask them to bring 4/5 tracks that they like so I can get a similar vibe and listen to their ideas.  For my own stuff it could also be I buy a sample pack and cut up some loops and play with some synths. I try to get the best out of very limited equipment and some very bodged set ups.  You should have seen the laptop I made some of my biggest tunes on that make me cringe now.  It would take 30 mins to export a track then i'd forget to unmute a synth.  Everyone here took the piss out of me for about 4 years for making tracks with some decent synths on a monitor that had a cone that was bent and a monitor screen that was so small.  You'd be surprised at the tunes that somehow come out of it but all I can say is many thanks to Jon Doe for turning my premaster WAVs into something amazing.  He's saved the day a good 300 times now.     Many people know you in the Hardcore scene, even though you dont produce straight 170+ bpm stuff.....  what draws you to this side of things? Probably how pitched up I play things, I used to tweak my decks to go to +16, also enthusiasm and how fast I talk.  I'd say it's more likely the latter.     So whats going off in the world of LOUK? I suppose you have 100s of tracks ready to go since lockdown has hit right?! I did produce a lot during the first lockdown but now my daughter has my studio room and old office as her bedroom I haven't hardly made anything at all.  I bought a Polyend Tracker recently and made some techno jams but after making about 200 tracks in the past 5 years I'm glad of the break. The last question was abit of a joke tbh... covid has probably hit the scene hard in that people aint meeting up and sharing ideas and concepts.  But we must take the positives yeah?! tell us a positive thing from the last 6 months!?! Hearing Daisy say 'Dada' for the first time is up there.         So how healthy is the Techno/Hard Trance scene at the moment? Aside from the lack of venues, both are very healthy.  I'm sending out lots at work from both genres.  Quite funny actually as some EPs have crossed over and I've sent techno to hard trance DJs and vice versa.  I spoke to Justin from German Trance this week who's setting up his labels again, that's welcome news.  I'm still pressing vinyl on my Syntax Error label (albeit techno) but from some old hard trance producers.  Release 001 had a track from Michael Wells/Technohead/GTO and 002 had a track from Andreas Kraemer.  There's one on 003 by two friends from Rotterdam called Erik Pijl and Stephanie Noordermeer that everyone likes in the feedback because it's proper trancey.  Check it out!     Further on that tip - which producers are doing it for you at the moment? I've got my crossover head on here so from the techno world Surgeon, Dax J, Stranger/TAFKAMP, SHDW & Obscure Shape and in the trance world Renegade System, Scot Project, Stoneface & Terminal, Tasso.  JK Walker is back producing stuff again which is amazing news too!!     Also to new producers... what tips and advice would you give them? I have 3 1) Don't be afraid to take inspiration from others, as everyone does and if you are stuck for an idea and want to learn your Sequencer (I hate the term DAW).  I spent hours in the early days copying Out Of The Blue by System F, and Junk Project - Beats Bring Silence, Pablo Gargano - Everyone's Future etc to learn from for my own tracks. 2) Also there are a bunch of free plug ins that I use on nearly every tune, have done for years.  You don't need to spend thousands!  When lockdown happened I linked to a load of resources for producers, here you go: http://www.louk.co.uk/selfisolation/ 3) If you are having a day where what you are doing sounds shit, take a break or even return at another day.  I've done it many times.  You'll thank yourself.    If your were stranded on a desert island and could only choose 5 records to take... which would these be? Can you explain why and provide links for our listeners? Depeche Mode - The Singles 81-85 - Huge fan of Depeche Mode but most importantly their early work.   Madness - It Must Be Love.  Mine and my wife's first dance, and plus what a band.  Sunbeam - Outside World - A track that's brought happiness to so many people, next level.   Vapourspace - The Cold Air / Gravitational Arch Of 10 - everyone loves Gravitational Arch Of 10 (even though it was meant to be called Gravitational Arc Of Io), and it's a belter and a half but I love the ambient tracks on the other side, especially this one.  Synths are unreal! Aphex Twin - Selected Ambient Works 85-92 - I'm stuck on a desert island may as well enjoy the weather and chill out!! Putting all those in youtube will provide links to listen.     Of course up North (dj sets wise) we know you from Uprising... Can you remember the first time you heard an Uprising set? Of course the mid 90s sets from Kenny Sharp must have made an impression? Yep.  I did my foundation year at Bradford Uni, but spent nearly every weekend in Leeds going to nights like Cypher, Tekfresh, Northern Lights etc and for various other reasons as Leeds was 100000x better and like a fiver to get to.  Sadly I just went there the year The Orbit closed which was a fucker.   The record shop there The Disc sold Uprising CD packs and I bought one with M-Zone and Frantic on it and another with Topgroove and Jon Doe.  Listened to those lots and got more over the years.  Kenny is someone I heard a bit later on but he's played some absolute beasts over the years, and made some gems and is again another legend!     Your good mates with Uprising resident Jake Nicholls.... How did this develop? A mutual friend (DJ Invader) told me years ago I play similarly to Jake, and in the days of Myspace I looked him up and followed him.  We sent each other many mixes.  He put me onto Brian and very kindly sorted out a booking and that was the first of many.  Still remember my first set at Uprising in 2008, where my mate Ralph drove up to Sheffield in his 106 and it took about 6 hours from Plymouth.  Made it just in time.  Jake is without a doubt one of the nicest people in this whole scene I've met, he is ridiculously knowledgeable about the music scene and I love his influence from many genres.  He DJ'd with me in Holland and at Nature One oozes enthusiasm.  He's become a really good friend coming to my stag do in Berlin and also we went to each other's Weddings and I mished all the way to Doncaster to play at his 40th.  Wouldn't do that for many people.  His mrs always says she gets lost when we talk to each other as we both speak 1,000,000 miles an hour about music.       Alot of people say an Uprising crowd is abit... shall we say... rough... Is this true compared to other events you have been too? Haha no not in the slightest, i've been to moody raves at Slammin Vinyl where in the DnB arena knives were being pulled and people were being mugged, And when I lived in Birmingham people were getting shot outside nightclubs.  What the fuck is that about on both counts?!  Plus I've played in the Ukraine, don't think that will happen again in a hurry.  I will say this the Uprising crowd know their music far better than most in Europe.  I remember playing there once and someone asked me if I was going to drop my new tune I had made and uploaded to soundcloud that afternoon that night, and said they listened to a mix of mine and could ID the really rare tracks.       So what equipment are you using these days? what djing and studio gear do you use? Of course!  My studio equipment is currently at a few friends houses as I've let them borrow synths and speakers as they are learning to make tunes while I take a much needed break from engineering.  But it was an Access Virus Ti Snow, A Roland JV2080 I borrowed off my mate, An SSL2+ Audio Interface, A Behringer Pro-1, Behringer TD-3, An M-Audio Oxygen 49 Controller Keyboard, Alesis M1 MK1 Monitors, A TC Electronic June 60 and a Midas DM:16 Desk.  That and a PC running both Cubase 9.5 and Renoise.  That's all I used for production really.  DJ wise both my wife and I mix and we have a pair of 1210s and a Behringer Mixer.  When I play out I mix on CDJs though.     What are your thoughts on vinyl vs cd/mp3? I love having hard copys of tracks but you cant beat having a stick full of tracks verses lugging a crate of vinyl around yeah? Mate i'm still pressing vinyl and still buying records on discogs when I send out pretty much everything on MP3/WAV and probably will never play a vinyl out again except for at home.  You can't beat it.  Like both formats to be fair but agree I can pick up a record and tell you pretty much where I was when I first heard it/bought it and something about it.  Hard pressed to do that with an MP3!     So can you talk us through your mix? why did you pick these tracks? Yep, many tracks on here greatly influenced me but quite a few of them I haven't put on mixes.  Or they were tracks that were on tapes/sets I donwloaded and listened to repeatedly the last 20 years and only recently found names.  One was from a Mauro Picotto mix from 1998 that got ID'd the other week.  Also I put the last track of my first ever Uprising set on there (High Voltage - Bombs Away), and I tried to do a mix of various tracks in the hard trance world that just blew me away, it includes early productions from M.I.K.E/Push and Vincent De Moor under other names.  Plus Sunbeam still sounds great the 908,000,000th time I listen to it.  Hope you all enjoy!     Awesome dude!! Many thanks for your mix!  Shout outs here please?!  Yeah of course, to yourself for doing this interview!  To Sammy, Darcie and Daisy for always being there, to Jake & Hannah, Mark and Mick, Nick and Flick, Tony Horgan, Bri, Kenny, Ben Invader and to all my friends and family, to Tom, Ian and all the promoters who first gave me a chance and anyone who has taken the time to get in touch over the years, who've let me release their music and/or put up with my dodgy mixing.     LOUKS Trance & Techno mix from 90s to present!! Kai Tracid - Tiefenrausch (A.S.Y.S Remix) [Tracid Traxxx] Ricky Le Roy - One Day (Big Bass Mix) [BXR] Marco V - Tolerance [Free For All] 2 Emme - Colours [Underground] V-One - Dead Cities [Bonzai Trance Progressive] Lars Hohler - Dreamland [Planet Earth Tunes] Sidewalk - Oasis [Funny Vinyl] Repulsor - Double Action [Drizzly] Mr Hyde & Joe-X - Oxygene [4th Dimension] Oliver Lieb - Subraumstimulation [Data] Dual Mount - Touch Me [Tesseract] CJ Bolland - See Saw [Mole] Next Generation - The Earthquake [Ipnotika] Marcos & Jay Walker - Night Finder [Active Media] Zombie Squad - A New Decade [Zombie] Sunbeam - Outside World [Suck Me Plasma] Maurizio Braccagni - Megamix Maranza [Brainstorm] High Voltage - Bombs Away [Sys-X] Les Diaboliques - Querelle [Lunatec] Quick Reverse - God's Reason [Bonzai]   Kev Gees 90s Tehcnodrome 2 fingered salute tracklist!! Negative Burn - Gates Of Hell The Raven - A New Hope! Don Diablo Vs The Raven - The Arrival The Brutalist - The Voice Of Your Conscious Mastervibe - Friday Matrix & Wargroover - Neutron Bomb Tieum - You LMA Mastervibe - Alienz The Outside Agency - Break It Down Mastervibe - Power Of The Herb Tieum - HP Hellfish - Techno City Tieum - K1000 Vs Ner Clarkee - I Am God Here Diplomat - Cool & Deadly Technological terror Crew - The Ripper (Remix) Men In Black - Guitar Man Overcast - Attack

“It was a cool evening in late summer when Wallace, his father dead for several weeks, decided that he would meet his friends at the pier after all.” – Brandon Taylor “Jesse's alarm went off at seven, but he'd barely slept. He was excited, if nervous; he'd been scared of London all his life but he was a man now and after a few months saving up, he was ready to do it. He'd found a hostel on the Internet, in Earl's Court, for twelve pounds a night. He had three hundred pounds in his bank account and no responsibilities to anyone; he packed only what he absolutely needed – his best clothes, some under- wear, ten or so CDs, his Discman, the James Baldwin novel Another Country. He left his key and bible on his pillow” - Paul Mendez Shortlisted for 2020 Booker Prize, Real Life is Brandon Taylor's debut. It explores the life of Wallace, a Black queer PhD student in a white institution. The novel takes place over a weekend. Hauntingly intimate, it puts a spotlight on violence - physically, emotional and structurally. In doing so, it enables us to question (toxic) masculinity. Rainbow Milk is an intersectional coming-of-age story, following nineteen-year-old Jesse McCarthy as he grapples with his racial and sexual identities against the backdrop of a Jehovah's Witness upbringing and the legacies of the Windrush generation. It allows us to imagine what freedom may look like for Black queer people. This episode is in search of tenderness for Black queer people. In this conversation, the writers speak about the place of location in their novels, how location is used as a literary device – a break from a past. It touches on the shame that is often experienced by Black queer people and how it influences the way that they date. The writers also touches on the pervasiveness of religion and how it adds to the self-loathing. In many ways, this episode is a gathering of Black queer people around the world holding space for each other to live more fuller. It is a conversation that pulls at the heart strings.

Poet Daljit Nagra and crime writer Val McDermid discuss capturing different forms of speech, a sense of place, and politics - in a conversation organised with the Royal Society of Literature and Durham Book Festival, and hosted by presenter Shahidha Bari. Plus, how the medieval fable of Reynard the Fox has lessons for us all today. As a new translation and retelling by Anne Louise Avery is published, she joins Shahidha to discuss the book with Noreen Masud - a BBC/AHRC New Generation Thinker from Durham University. Based on William Caxton's translation of the medieval Flemish folk tale, this is the story of a wily fox - a subversive, dashing, and anarchic character - summoned to the court of King Noble the Lion. But is he the character you want to emulate, or does Bruin the Bear offer us a better template? Reynard the Fox, a new version with illustrations, is published by the Bodleian Library, and is translated and retold by Anne Louise Avery. Daljit Nagra is the author of British Museum; Ramayana - A Retelling; Tippoo Sultan's Incredible White-Man-Eating Tiger Toy-Machine!!!; and, Look We Have Coming to Dover. Val McDermid is the author of several crime fiction series: Lindsay Gordon; Kate Brannigan; DCI Karen Pirie; and, beginning in 1995, the Tony Hill and Carol Jordan series, which was televised as Wire in the Blood. Her latest book - a Karen Pirie thriller - was published in August 2020 and is called Still Life. Details of events for Durham Book Festival https://durhambookfestival.com/ One of the events features Durham academic Emily Thomas talking about travel and philosophy - you can hear her in a Free Thinking episode called Maths and philosophy puzzles https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000fws2 Crime writer Ian Rankin compared notes on writing about place with Bangladeshi born British author Tahmima Anam in an RSL conversation linked to the Bradford Literature Festival https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000khk6 You can find more book talk on the website of the Royal Society of Literature https://rsliterature.org/ There are more book interviews on the Free Thinking playlist Prose and Poetry https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p047v6vh This includes: Anne Fine with Romesh Gunesekara; Irenosen Okojie with Nadifa Mohamed; and Paul Mendez with Francesca Wade. Producer: Emma Wallace

Ralph McAllister reviews Rainbow Milk by Paul Mendez, published by Dialogue Books.

On this episode of the Brighton Book Club, Anna speaks to five local authors: Gill Thompson, Heidi James, Nick Raistrick, Sharon Duggal and Mark Radcliffe. She discusses Paul Mendez' RAINBOW MILK and announces a LIVE event in October with comedian and author of THE OTHER MOTHER, Jen Brister. Gill Thompson: https://www.wordkindling.co.uk/welcome Heidi James: https://heidijames.me/about/ Nick Raistrick: https://nickraistrick.com/ Sharon Duggal: http://sharonduggal.com/about/ Mark Radcliffe: https://www.valleypressuk.com/author/111/mark_a_radcliffe Rainbow Milk: https://www.hachette.co.uk/titles/paul-mendez-2/rainbow-milk/9780349700571/ Music from Atom Collection: https://soundcloud.com/atomcollection2 and Sarah Vian: www.saravianmusic.com (http://www.saravianmusic.com/)

My name is Nicole and I'm a very proud member of the 'Rainbow Milk' fan club. Everyone is welcome and there is only one rule: you must love this stunning debut novel with your whole heart, soul and mind. In this episode, I have the incredible privilege of chatting with Paul Mendez, the author of 'Rainbow Milk.' Published in April by the amazing team at Dialogue Books, this book - an Observer 2020 Top 10 Debut - is one of the most beautiful books ever written and my favourite of 2020. Oh, and it's just been longlisted for the 2020 Gordon Burn Prize. If you've read Paul's stunning novel, you'll definitely understand why there are countless glowing reviews, from readers, writers and journalists, and why 'Rainbow Milk' is THE book of the year. 'Rainbow Milk' has two central characters: Norman Alonso and Jesse McCarthy. The first section - set in the Black Country in the 1950s - features Norman and his wife, Claudette, who moved to Britain from Jamaica with the Windrush Generation, excited at the prospect of a new life in Britain. Three years later, now with two young children, Norman and Claudette face unexpected racism and heartbreaking illness while working incredibly hard to build the life they dreamed of and so deserve. Fast forward to 2001 and the book continues with Jesse who is hoping and searching for answers outside of his repressive family and Jehovah's Witness upbringing. And these answers might just be in London, where Jesse moves in the hope of starting over. As a young Black queer man in London, Jesse welcomes his new sexual and emotional freedoms, but through exploration and experience, sometimes finds himself at a loss for balance and stability. The unexpected challenges and often heartbreaking surprises that Jesse faces on the road to true connection and love are so beautifully written that you'll ache in places you never knew existed. This book is everything and an absolute masterpiece written by an extraordinary Black queer author. I loved chatting with Paul about his own experiences, the importance of honest and raw sex scenes, the book's beautiful characters and why we must always honour the stories of the Windrush Generation. I really hope you love this episode as much as I do! Buy Paul's book here: https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/fiction-poetry/rainbow-milk-an-observer-2020-top-10,paul-mendez-9780349700595

This week: the president of the ICRC, Peter Maurer, explains the challenges facing the world’s leading nations. Plus: we review the new Netflix film, ‘Eurovision Song Contest: The Story of Fire Saga’, and meet the author Paul Mendez

Paul Mendez’s debut novel, ‘Rainbow Milk’, is a coming-of-age tale like no other, mapping the journey of a young black man with a Jehovah’s Witness upbringing who makes a fresh start in London. Semi-autobiographical and covering a range of important contemporary themes, he discussed the book and more with Georgina Godwin while on a dog walk in Hampstead Heath.

Francesca Wade and Paul Mendez talk to Shahidha Bari about Queer Bloomsbury in a conversation run in partnership with the Royal Society of Literature who set up events in mid-June to mark Dalloway Day, inspired by the 1925 novel from Virginia Woolf. Claudia Tobin from the University of Cambridge looks at Woolf's writing on art and the vogue for still lives and compares notes with 2020 New Generation Thinker Lucy Weir from the University of Edinburgh, who has written a postcard exploring dance, stillness and movement in lockdown. Claudia Tobin's book is called Still Life and Modernism: Artists, Writers, Dancers. She was awarded a Leverhulme Early Career Fellowship. Francesca Wade is the author of Square Haunting. You can hear her focusing on the academics Jane Harrison and Eileen Power in a Free Thinking episode called Pioneering women: academics and classics https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m000dj0g Paul Mendez's novel is called Rainbow Milk Lucy Weir is a Teaching Fellow, Modern and Contemporary Art, History of Art at the University of Edinburgh and is one of the 2020 New Generation Thinkers on the scheme run by BBC Radio 3 and the AHRC to select academics who can turn their research into radio. You can hear a discussion of the novel Mrs Dalloway featuring the writers Hermione Lee, Alison Light and Margaret Drabble with Philip Dodd https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b00zt79p and you can find a host of conversations for Dalloway Day on the website of the Royal Society of Literature https://rsliterature.org/ Producer: Robyn Read

Tune in to hear the story of John Paul Mendez who was just going through the motions in his day to day jobs. He felt "left behind" because he didn't love what he was doing for work and felt stuck. John Paul finally found the right balance of working to make money and doing what he loves when he established Smoke Storm Welding. Instagram | Facebook 

This week, Kieran and Ainsley are joined by Paul Mendez- writer of the acclaimed debut novel 'Rainbow Milk'. We discuss the book, the Windrush generation, Solange's 'When I Get Home', racial microaggressions etc. Plus, we take some time to give our thoughts on George Floyd's murder, racism and much more. Purchase 'Rainbow Milk' here: https://www.amazon.co.uk/Rainbow-Milk-Paul-Mendez/dp/0349700591 Follow Paul Mendez on Twitter/Instagram: https://twitter.com/pjmendez_ / https://www.instagram.com/pjmendez_/ Follow Black Boy Joy on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackboyjoypodcast/ Follow Black Boy Joy Podcast on Twitter: https://twitter.com/pjmendez_ for questions/comment/queries: blackboyjoypodcast@gmail.com

Paul Mendez, Class & Society novels, Thomas Keneally on Dickens

Paul Mendez, Class & Society novels, Thomas Keneally on Dickens

The new Netflix thriller White Lines takes the viewer to the sunshine and drug-fuelled world of 90s raves in Ibiza. A Spanish-British production, it stars Laura Haddock, Daniel Mays and Angela Griffin. For our Friday Review, Rowan Pelling and Gaylene Gould give their verdicts on that and Rainbow Milk, the debut novel by Paul Mendez, which depicts a childhood in the West Midlands where religion and family put pressure on Jesse to repress his sexuality before he escapes to London. Icelandic pianist Víkingur Ólafsson continues his weekly live performances from the empty Harpa concert hall in Reykjavík, as Front Row’s Lockdown Artist in Residence. Tonight Víkingur plays Bartók’s Three Hungarian Folksongs from Csík. Have you been to the theatre, or heard a play or watched a TV series and thought 'I could write something better than that' but didn’t know how to get started? To point you in the right direction, Deirdre O’Halloran from London’s Bush Theatre, and stage and screenwriter Vinay Patel (Murdered By My Father and Doctor Who), offer advice about where to start. Director and writer Eliza Hittman on depicting the harsh reality for a teenage girl seeking an abortion in America in her acclaimed new film drama Never Rarely Sometimes Always. Presenter Samira Ahmed Producer Jerome Weatherald Studio Manager Emma Harth

This week Ainsley and Kieran discuss two wildly popular, queers works 'A Little Life' by Hanya Yanagihara and Luca Guadagnino's 'Call Me By Your Name in forensic detail. Join us as we dissect, assess and disagree with eachother about them. This week's Spotlight is a 'Rainbow Milk' the debut novel by Paul Mendez about a young, black, gay, Jehovah Witness man from Wolverhampton who flees his community to make his way in London. Follow Black Boy Joy Podcast on Instagram: https://www.instagram.com/blackboyjoypodcast/ Our Twitter: https://twitter.com/blkboyjoypod Questions/queries should be sent to blackboyjoypodcast@gmail.com

Joe Haddow talks to novelists Naoise Dolan and Paul Mendez about their debut books Exciting Times and Rainbow Milk.They discuss their writing journeys, the diversity of publishing in 2020 and why it might be a good idea to read slower books in lockdown. In the Book Off, Banana Yoshimoto's "Asleep" goes up against Brit Bennet's "The Vanishing Half" See acast.com/privacy for privacy and opt-out information.

Paul Mendez and Kenneth The Problem Child Taylor are scheduled to appear. Paul is an impressive middleweight who is trying to get back on track and in the title picture. Kenneth is a prospect who fights on January 31st. We will also discuss the big boxing weekend where we saw a big upset, and a knockout of the year candidate. In our this date in boxing history segement, we will talk about a hall of fame heavyweight champions two major wins on this date. Boxing news. Anthony “Zute” George is your host.

Join British house DJ/Producer duo Somn3um for their weekly dose of the freshest electronic music on the planet, plus all the banter you could possibly want. Includes interviews with your favourite DJs and celebs in ‘Say Somn’thing’, plus an irreverent look at recent events in ‘Somn’thing Goin On’.Somn3um, comprising of David Newsum and Scott Forshaw have been recording together since the start of 2016 with a series of releases on their own Somn’thing Records label. ‘Somn’thing Else’ sees a return to the airwaves for Newsum who previously hosted shows on FM stations globally. 01. Chocolate Puma - Gotta Get Away (feat. Chateau) (Extended Mix) [Spinnin Records]02. James Silk - Somebody Say03. Pink Panda vs Michael Gray - The Weekend (Master)04. CID - Werk (Extended Mix)05. Drake - Gods Plan (Ben Rainey VIP Dub)06. Paul Mandez - Rock07. Mr. Sid - Drop That08. Yolanda Be Cool Feat. Kwanzaa Posse - Musika (Flash 89 Remix)09. Black Legend featuring Shyam P - Xpress Yourself (Original Mix) [Simma Black]10. BYOR Space Food - Bounce [Zulu Records]11. Faktor Feat. Hola Vano - Go Away (Bruno Motta & Guzwoo Remix)12. AU-RA & CamelPhat - Panic Room13. Mark van Rijswijk - Technology (Original mix) [Alltum (Above All Records)]

01. Paul Mendez feat. Joanna Rays - Me & U (Alex Xela & Eddy Nick Remix) 02. Vicente Roca - Friends (Original Mix) 03. Zedd,Lucky Date, Nicky Romero, Fedde Le Grand, W&W, Visionaire, Deorro - Fall Into The Thunder And The Sparks Lose It (Johnny Work Mashup) 04. Danny Tell Ft. Johnny Work - Amsterdam (Original Mix) 05. DJ Report - Dejavu (Original Mix) 06. Empire Of The Sun vs. David Guetta Vs Tom & Jame Ft. Robin Riccio - Warrior Alive (Johnny Work Mashup) 07. Carnage & Borgore vs. Steve Aoki, Chris Lake, Tujamo vs Guns N Roses, Vinai - Incredible Paradise Boneless City (Johnny Work Mashup) 08. Johnny Work - Conductor (Original Mix) 09. Ralvero vs. Showtek & Justin Prime vs. Knife Party - Rage Cannonball Internet Friends (Johnny Work Mashup) 10. Sander Van Doorn vs. Beenie Becker - Jooowyenergizer (Johnny Work Mashup) 11. Cryogenix vs. Leon Bolier vs. Sandro Silva & Quintino - Epic Fire Like Us (Johnny Work Mashup) 12. Martin Garrix vs. Milk N Cookies - Animals (Johnny Work Mashup) 13. R3hab & Bassjackers vs. Matt & Kendo & JOEYSUKI vs. Dada Life - Raise The Dada RYGH (Johnny Work Mashup)

Tracklist: INTRO 1. Paul Mendez featuring Joanna Rays - Me & U (Jimmy Onassis Remix) INWAMA RECORDS 2. Cazzette - Weapon (Vicetone Remix) 3. Yuna - Live Your Life (Jakob Liedholm & Carnage Remix) 4. Those Usual Suspects & Nordean ft. Erik Hecht - Burn Forever (Michael Brun Remix) 5. Javier Penna - Atomic Man (Original Mix) INWAMA RECORDS 6. Nervo - Are You Gonna Love Again (Richello Remix) 7. Diana Miro - Insanity (Original Mix) INWAMA RECORDS 8. Ralvero - Fuck What You Heard (Original Mix) 9. Tom Swoon & Amba Shepherd - Not Too Late (Sebjak Remix) 10. Martin Garrix & Jay Hardway - Error 404 (Original Mix) 11. Javier Penna - Rock The Music (Original Mix) INWAMA RECORDS 12. Marc Canova feat. Jennifer Tallulah - In My Dreams (Afroman Remix) INWAMA RECORDS Follow us: FB: https://www.facebook.com/inwamarecords Twitter: https://twitter.com/INWAMAIBIZA

Phace-Time Favorite: 1. 7 Minutes Dead-The Passing (Original Mix) [Monstercat] 2. Mat Zo & Porter Robinson-Easy (Modek Bright As Day Remix) [Anjunabeats] 3. Avicii-UMF (Ultra Music Festival Anthem) [Ultra] 4. Marco V feat. Doctors In Florence-Lotus (Limitless) (Vocal Mix) [Flamingo Recordings (Be Yourself Music)] 5. Denko, William A KPD feat. Mey Green-Algeria (Vocal Mix) [13 Records] 6. Paul Mendez & Duane King-Lost Vegas (Original Mix) [Spinnin Star Music] 7. Bad Boy Bill & DJ Bam Bam feat. Miss Palmer-Looking For Something (Extended Mix) [LE7ELS] 8. Maison & Dragen feat. Jeremy Carr-Never Gonna Stop (Original Mix)[Zouk Recordings (Armada Music)] 9. Henrix feat. Roland Clark-Rock This Dream (Original Mix) [Mixmash Records] 10. Rivaz & Benny Benassi feat. Heather Bright-Tell Me Twice (Ultra Festival Anthem) (Original Mix) [Ultra] 11. First State-Humanoid (Original Mix) [Magik Muzik] 12. Leslie Tonka-The Model (Original Mix) [Crunchy Munch] 13. Darwin & Blackwall & Monte Karlo-First Flight (Original Mix) [Big & Dirty (Be Yourself Music)]

01.Marcel Woods - Beautiful Mind 2008 02.4mal - Path is Clear 03.Ernesto vs Bastian - Stranger in Paradise (Nu Trance mix) 04.Ali Wilson - Shakedown 05.Cali Girl - Estrellas (MIKE remix) 06.Chris de Seed vs Messler - Control Leads 07.Armin Van Buuren vs Jochen Miller - Lost in and out of Love (Tom Neptunes bootleg) 08.Agnelli and Nelson - Just when I Think theres an Answer (Genix club mix) 09.Airwave feat. Didier Linkeng - Sunshine in your Heart (club mix) 10.Mark Sherry pres. Outburst - A Star withing a Star (Stoneface & Terminal remix) 11.Paul Mendez and Zero 3 - Tonic (Zero 3's stripped back mix) 12.Vengeance - Temptation (Denga & Manus remix) 13.Scott Mac - Installation Error

01.Gilbert Renoir pres. Dyor feat. Ken Spector - Follow me (Beverly Hills remix) 02.Element One - Guanacaste 03.Arturo Silvestre - Tektuyo 04.Gordon Coutts - Bakstabb (Gordon Coutts tech mix) 05.Paul Mendez vs Mark PVS - The Perfect Launch (Mark PVS mix) 06.Simon Patterson - Smack 07.Lexwood Feat Ferrin and Low - Chimaera 08.Gleave - Lights Out 2008 09.Mr Sam vs Human Resource - Dominator 10.Chris Corrigan pres Velvet Skies - Spectrum