Girl by Kenya Hunt

I was going to buy it anyway, however, I was lucky enough to meet Kenya Hunt and buy a signed copy of her timely and intimate book, Girl. Kenya was the guest at a special event around the book organised by The Trouble Club, hosted at the divine Ned in London.

It was the first real life event I attended since lockdown lifted. That evening, after a lovely day, the clouds broke and London experienced flash flooding all over the city, however, nothing was keeping me from attending so I stuck on my Pop London off shoulder floral midi dress, black ballet flats, grabbed a brolly and went, rain wasn’t going to put me off. The audience was a mix of women (and one man) from mostly creative walks of life and everyone was in a mood of relief and friendship. We were in a bar! and sipping a glass of wine! the novelty…the small talk… it was a delight.

On to the book. Kenya presented the book as a collection of essays and invited contributions from other Black women who are public figures. The essays were intimate, considered, thoughtful and reflective with an outlook towards the future. If your skin colour is anything but white, your race and racism is never far from you, no matter your profile or achievements in life. At the event, Kenya added more detail around some of the experiences included in the book. I really liked reading about Kenya’s time at university, her joyful memories from that time leap from the page amongst her recounting an almost segregated student culture so alien to a Brit. She is incredibly brave to write about her personal life, loss and refections in her industry (also my industry from a different perspective) and I really appreciated it.

You can buy the book here.