Lit Nights’ Highlights

Earlier this week I found myself sitting amongst a 90-strong audience in the beautiful Braithwaite Hall, eagerly anticipating the start of the inaugural Lit Nights – a modern-day take on the traditional Literary Salon, presented by Maddy Duxbury of East Croydon Cool and hosted by award-winning journalist (and Croydon resident) Isabella Silvers.

The format of the event is to enjoy an evening of thought-provoking conversation between the Lit Night host and a renowned writer who is pushing the cultural conversation forward (topped and tailed with music and cocktails, naturally).

Tuesday’s launch night welcomed the perfect literary guest in international best-selling author (and of course Croydon resident) Yomi Adegoke. We first chatted with Yomi back in early 2021 about her podcast and series of books she collaborated on with her friend Elizabeth Uviebinené, where the duo talked to inspirational black British women about being successful, black and female in the UK today – Slay In Your Lane is a must for any bookshelf. Since then, and between her duties at The Guardian and Elle, Yomi has written her debut novel, The List, which is currently being adapted for TV.

Although it was the cult hit of last summer, forever late to the party, I took The List off my bedside book pile earlier this month, so it felt like serendipity when I heard Yomi would be the first guest of Lit Nights.

It was a completely refreshing evening – to hear two journalists discuss so openly a variety of societal issues such as cancel culture, social media, race, generational shifts and feminism, made for a warm and intimate experience, especially as the audience were actively encouraged to get involved in the debate. (Having gin on tap, from Bone Idyll didn’t hurt either).

I caught up with Lit Nights presenter, host and guest afterwards to find out their highlights of the evening.

Maddy: For me, a highlight was reading the comments that guests left on the Zeitgeist Wall. In today’s world, with so many challenging and confusing issues, I think it’s important to create spaces that encourage people to speak about difficult topics. After the fascinating conversation between Yomi and Isabella, it was so lovely to see people feel comfortable to share their own ideas on complicated issues, both in person and on the wall.

(Oh, and the great feedback about people wanting more Lit Nights was also nice to see 😉).

Isabella: I’d say that my favourite part was being able to discuss a topic that is vital to address. The arts are forever being underfunded, but they’re the way that a lot, and I dare say most, of us engage with big issues, humanising them. With books like Yomi’s, we can jump off to the sticky realities and complexities of the situations. I’m so glad we were able to have a shared experience on tuesday evening and discuss an issue where we all felt that there was no devils advocate or contrarian in the room. We all wanted to listen and engage with good faith.

Yomi: A highlight for me was the last audience question about how being from South London has informed my work. I absolutely loved being able to talk a bit about how that influences my writing and everything from how the characters speak, eat, behave, what they listen to etc. In my book, Ola is based in Tooting and grew up in Streatham, neither of which are very far from Croydon. I very nearly set parts of The List in Croydon but felt it might be too close to home (literally!).

It was also so lovely to have an event locally, which is a rarity. It meant I got to have many conversations about interesting things happening in the borough. Speaking to so many locals, sharing experiences from our hometown; what a wonderful way to spend the evening.