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?UESTIONS: Boog Brown

Soulful, calm and deadly, Boog Brown has a rawness that cannot be imitated. 


Down with the art of rhyming, she embodies the energy of the hip hop golden era. Suave and sophisticated yet packed with punchlines, Boog Brown poetically showcases her skills.

Boog Brown is an amazing name, can you tell us how this name came about?

Well friends used to call me El Boogie in college. Once I started rapping, one of my poet homies was like "you should call yourself 'Boog Brown' and it stuck.


As well as an emcee, you are a poet and writer, where does your inspiration come from?

The inspiration to write comes from being alive. This journey we are on is never not magical, we just need to know how to wield our own individual magic, it can sometimes be a challenge. It can seem dark but there can never be dark without light.


Can you share with us some titles of your written work?

The first book, a chap book of poetry called "Swimming against the Current State of Mind." I thought I was so clever, lol! I just was thinking differently or so I thought. Then"Black Tie Fish Fry" was when I was obsessed with duality and how much we code switch in just about everything we do as black people in America.


What is on your mind right now?

On my mind right now? Is figuring how to untie this knot of eurocentric thinking in ways that don't serve or value us in order for us to unify.


What impact do you wish to have on the world?

I pray that I am of good service to my family, my supporters and the ones who walked before me in my lineage.




C*LTURE: Gil Scott-Heron


Inspirational poet, musician, songwriter and novelist, Gil Scott-Heron.


Born in Chicago,1949, Gil Scott-Heron became a social and political messenger of the 1970s and 80s. His lyrical content focused on the turbulence and uncertainty of the times, he was committed to the liberation of Black people. 


Gil’s own term for himself was "bluesologist", he would define this as "a scientist who is concerned with the origin of the blues."His vocals are a combination of a rapping and melismatic style, which can be described as a chant like vocal. Many considered him to be the first rapper/MC ever.


Aged 13, he had written his first collection of poems, by 19 he had published his first novel, The Vulture; which themes include the devastating effects of drugs on urban black life. His second novel, The Nigger Factory is a statement on the way in which human beings are conditioned to think.


Gil has released more than 15 albums. In 1970 he released his first album, New Black Poet Small Talk at 125th and Lennox, then Pieces of Man (1971), Free Will (1972) and Winter in America (1974). The albums include legendary works such as “The Revolution Will Not be Televised,” “Home Is Where the Hatred Is,” “Lady Day and John Coltrane,” and “Whitey on the Moon.”


Gil passed in 2011 and will be remembered as a phenomenal street poet, community leader and political voice for the struggles of Black people in America. 

REW!ND: Desmond's



Starring the late, great Norman Beaton, Desmond's was a classic sitcom set in a barber shop in Peckham, London. An important part of British cultural history, the comedy features a predominantly Black British Guyanese cast, it was first shown in 1989 and ran for six years.


The hub of the community's social scene, Desmond Ambrose runs the barbershop, with his wife Shirley and children Michael, Sean and Gloria. Desmond's old friend Porkpie and Gambian student Matthew add to the family dynamics.


The character Desmond, has a dream of retiring and returning to Guyana; the actor Norman Beaton who was born in Guyana, did just that and retired to his home city of Georgetown. Sadly he collapsed at the airport as he reached Guyana, from a heart attack and later died.


Desmond’s provided a positive insight into Black family life, different from what had been seen before on British TV.



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