Safe

These essays burn with passion, dismay, pride, and longing. They’re a wake-up call, a prayer, a plea, a promise. They say: this is who we are, and this is what you’ve been missing. - Stephen Kelman, author of Man Booker-shortlisted Pigeon English

This is not a book you read, but a book you witness. Derek Owusu has brought together important voices in British culture, authors you can actually feel digging deep into their experiences and sharing things that have not been written before. It’s brave and honest, and not a moment too soon. - Afua Hirsch

Black men have been reduced to stock one dimensional characters in the public imagination. This collection explodes those myths, exploring the multi-hued textures of Black British masculinity in all its strength, vulnerability and diversity, providing an intimate window into the lives beyond the statistics, the stereotypes and the headlines. Charged with the air of the confessional, I imagine these stories will be the catalyst for many long overdue, and often taboo, conversations. - Emma Dabiri

Safe is the literary equivalent of secretly watching a black British male wake up, wash his brutalised body, plaster over his wounds and, with a final grimace, wear the clothes that he will allow the world to see. There is a quality of searing honesty, a revelation of the fears and doubts that haunt the men in this collection (and their like) daily - and a confession of the utter exhaustion of walking through the world bent under the weight of stereotypes. Here, the contributors have found, as Jesse Bernard puts it, ‘a safe pocket’ to express themselves in, and in so doing, in Courttia Newland’s words to ‘walk in a straight line and to live’. Safe is a vital book of witness and validation; an important read for everyone, but for young men of certain hues, it contains islands of affirmation that may well save a life or two. - Nii Ayikwei Parkes

This is an inspiring collection of essays. There is nothing like reading the thoughts of black men speaking honestly, openly, personally and intellectually. There is nothing like this because it seldom happens. This really is where the revolution starts. Every page of this book breaks down stereotypes of what being a black man is.

It is refreshing to read the truth of men expressed as eloquently as they are in these pages. I was inspired. I found hope.

This is power stuff my people. There is no holding back here. These might be essays by black British men, but they are relevant to all of us in the diaspora. Hold this book close to you and stay Safe. - Benjamin Zephaniah