Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee: February 2024

February’s guests, Nic Watts and Sakina Karimjee, introduced us to their powerful graphic novel adaptation of celebrated historian C.L.R. James' play about leader of the Haitian revolution, Toussaint Louverture

The text of this graphic novel – Toussaint Louverture: The Story of the Only Successful Slave Revolt in History – is a play by C. L. R. James that opened in London in 1936 with Paul Robeson in the title role. For the first time, black actors appeared on the British stage in a work by a black playwright. The script had been lost for almost seventy years when a draft copy was discovered among James’s archives. Now this extraordinary drama has been reimagined by artist Nic Watts and theatre designer and activist Sakina Karimjee, who joined us in a fascinating discussion with Resonance FM’s Alex Fitch.

See more on Nic’s website at www.nicwatts-illustrator.com.