Ciaran Thapar, youth worker and author of Cut Short: Youth Violence, Loss and Hope in the City, chooses five things for you to read, watch and listen to.
Recommendations for reading
Poor by Caleb Femi (2020, Penguin) - An anatomy of a south London neighbourhood, expertly explored through poetry and photography.
The Last Shot: City Streets, Basketball Dreams by Darcy Frey (1994, HMH Books) - A thrilling account chronicling a year in the lives of four Brooklyn college basketball players.
Inner City Pressure: The Story of Grime by Dan Hancox (2018, William Collins) - Grime’s pairing of ‘beats and bars’ set against the backdrop of political and social change in the capital.
Pedagogy of the Oppressed by Paulo Freire (1968, Penguin) - A critique of the relationship between teacher, student and society, helping us to understand sources of oppression.
Behind the Beautiful Forevers: Life, Death, and Hope in a Mumbai Undercity by Katherine Boo (2012, Random House) - An intimate look at life in Annawadi during an era of globalization and inequality.
Recommendations for watching
The Wire (2002) - David Simon’s celebrated Baltimore crime drama shines a light on institutional failure and corruption.
This is Us (2016) - Television series written by Dan Fogelman using flashbacks to inspect intergenerational family dynamics.
When They See Us (2019) - Ava DuVernay’s miniseries looking at the 1989 case of the falsely-accused Central Park Five.
Capernaum (2018) - Lebanese film, directed by Nadine Labaki, following a 12 year old boy, Zain El Hajj, navigating the streets of Beirut.
Rewind 4Ever: The History of UK Garage (2013) - Documentary directed by Alex Lawton charting Garage culture’s progression from house parties to the club scene.
Recommendations for reading
Philosophy Bites - Long-running series interrogating the history of ideas with contemporary philosophers.
Longform podcast - Interviews helping to uncover ways of storytelling in news journalism.
Three Pounds in My Pocket - Kavita Puri’s BBC Radio 4 oral history of Asian migration to Britain from the 1950s onwards.
Changes with Annie MacManus - DJ Annie Mac chats to guests about the biggest changes they’ve faced in their lives.
Have You Heard George’s Podcast? - George The Poet’s reflections innovatively fuse together soundscape and social commentary.
Ciaran Thapar is a writer, youth worker, and founder of RoadWorks. His book Cut Short: Youth Violence, Loss and Hope in the City is out now on Viking.