Ashleigh Nugent, named Liverpool City Region’s Artist of the Year in 2022, will perform three chapters from his debut novel, LOCKS, with accompanying 90s reggae music, from DJ Rasps and abstract visuals at the Rose Theatre on Thursday 5 October at 6:30pm as part of Edge Hill University’s Black History Month celebrations. Free welcome hospitality and refreshments will be served from 6pm.
Described by Jimmy McGovern as ‘irreverent, authentic and utterly enthralling’, LOCKS is Ashleigh Nugent’s electric debut novel about growing up and finding your place in a world of opposites.
It follows Aeon, a lad from leafy suburban Liverpool, trying to find his Black identity in a very white place. Except he can’t: the only other Black people he knows are his dad and cousin. So he goes to Jamaica, and ends up in a detention centre within days, being called ‘white boy’. Aeon is a compelling character within a unique story. In the words of David Beckler, LOCKS ‘perfectly captures the sense of being between two cultures, whilst never feeling part of either’.
Nugent has written for the Everyman Theatre, Newcastle’s Live Theatre and is a special adviser for Shakespeare North Playhouse. He is also a director at RiseUP CIC, where he uses his own life experiences to support prisons, schools, the long-term unemployed and those at risk of offending within the wider community.
90 mins performance, including Q&A, suitable for age 15+.