Tues 14 May
6:30-9pm
Join Jassa Ahluwalia in conversation with Laila Woozeer for an exclusive first look at his debut book, Both Not Half: A Radical New Approach to Mixed Heritage Identity.
'Full of warmth, humour, optimism and sometimes painful honesty' WILLIAM DALRYMPLE
'Anyone who's ever struggled to make sense of who they are and where they belong should read this book' NADIA WHITTOME MP
'An important voice of our generation' PARMINDER NAGRA
For over twenty-five years, actor Jassa Ahluwalia described himself as ‘half Indian, half English’. His fluent Punjabi always prompted bewilderment, medical staff questioned the legitimacy of his name, and the world of casting taught him he wasn’t ‘the right kind of mixed race’. Feeling caught between two worlds, it wasn’t long before Jassa embarked on a call to action: we need to change how we think and talk about mixed identity.
Both Not Half is a rallying cry for a new and inclusive future. It’s a journey of self-discovery that unearths the historical roots of modern mixed identity as we know it, braving to deconstruct the binaries we have inherited and the narratives we passively accept. Part-memoir, part-manifesto: this is a campaign for belonging in a divided world.
Jassa Ahluwalia is a British actor, writer, filmmaker and trade unionist. Born in Coventry to a white English mum and a brown Punjabi dad in 1990, he attended school in Leicester and was raised in an extended family environment. He spoke English in the playground, Punjabi with his grandparents, and spent various summer holidays in India. He came to prominence as Rocky in the hit BBC Three series Some Girls, followed by starring roles in Unforgotten, Ripper Street, and Peaky Blinders.
Laila Woozeer is a musician, composer, performer and author of Not Quite White, a magical realist memoir about being mixed race.