BLF: The Big Payback

BLF: The Big Payback
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025
Date and time
12 Oct 2025 7.30pm - 8.30pm
Location

Recital Hall, Royal Birmingham Conservatoire

200 Jennens Road, B4 7XR

Price

£10
£8 concessions

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Marcus Ryder

Birmingham Literature Festival: The Big Payback with Marcus Ryder

When slavery was abolished two centuries ago the British government paid huge amounts of compensation to slave-owners; a debt British taxpayers only stopped paying off in 2015. In The Big Payback, Lenny Henry and Marcus Ryder investigate what is owed to the descendants of the slave trade, who continue to be subject to inequality and racism across the world.

Their book asks questions about how and why slave traders were compensated, but the enslaved and their families were not and whether the descendants of slaveowners should continue to benefit from inherited wealth.

Join us for a conversation with Marcus Ryder about how reparations could work and how we could make them happen.

Running time approx. one hour

Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

Events include:

BLF: Poetry on Demand

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 12pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Workshop - Life Writing

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 10.30am
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Workshop - Smoke and Mirrors

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 10.30am
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: The Quiet Lives of Working-Class Men

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 12pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Workshop - Creative Non-Fiction

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 1.30pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Workshop - Writing Grief

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 1.30pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Boater with Jo Bell

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 1.30pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Falling Through the Cracks

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 2pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Searching for my Slave Roots

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 3.30pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Art Under Capitalism

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 4pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Rethinking the Nuclear Family

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 5.30pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: Verve Open Door x BLF

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 6pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025

BLF: A Guided Journey through The Infernal Garden

Sun 12 Oct 2025 - 8pm
Birmingham Literature Festival 2025