Dr Ajamu X explores taking responsibility for what we create, and the punk-radical necessity of tending to archives that reflect and honour the complex and pleasureful lives of queer Black folk—now and in the so-called past.

Regular Listeners have access to the full and ad-free conversation on Busy Being Black's Patreon.

This conversation was recorded at the 2025 Kinfolk Convening in Manchester.

'I think we have a reluctance to talk about pleasure for pleasure's sake; to validate it, we feel we have to attach it to something else like politics or sexuality. Sometimes it's just the thing itself. There is a reluctance to talk about what makes us feel good—what we want done with our Black bodies, with our lovers or with our friends—[because] we live in a pleasure-phobic society.'

⁠Dr Ajamu X⁠ is a darkroom and fine art photographic artist, whose practice, aesthetics and theoretical provocations privilege sensuality, and the tactile, material elements of the photographic act. Ajamu's work is held in numerous private and public collections, including the Autograph ABP, Tate Britain, the Victoria & Albert Museum and the National Portrait Gallery.

Busy Being Black's theme music was created for the show by Lazarus Lynch and Joshua Pleeter. The oceanic cellos that open the show were created for Busy Being Black by Dylan Halverson.

Cover photo of Ajamu © 2024 Henry Mills

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There is perhaps no better person to speak to about Black creative expression and excellence through art than Kadiatu Kanneh-Mason—the matriarch, mother and woman who makes possible the prodigious creativity of the seven Kanneh-Mason siblings.

In her book, To Be Young, Gifted and Black, Kadiatu shows that the key to a creatively fulfilling and purposeful life is in how we live in between the highs and the lows—the relationships we nurture, the humour we entertain and in the routines we build that honour and sustain our passions.

Part II of my conversation with Kadiatu continues on Patreon for Regular Listeners: patreon.com/busybeingblack

This conversation was recorded at Manngington Book Bash 2025, one of the UK's most cherished literary festivals.  If the interiority & craft of authors, writers & artists stir your imagination to whirling, come to Mannington Book Bash 2026.

Thank you to Henry Layte and the team at the Book Hive.

Busy Being Black's theme music was created for the show by Lazarus Lynch and Joshua Pleeter. The oceanic cellos that open the show were created for Busy Being Black by Dylan Halverson.

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.

I sat down with award-winning author Brandon Taylor live at Brixton House Theatre to mark the UK launch of his latest novel, Minor Black Figures. Our conversation explores what happens when Black artists resist the demands of the always-on attention economy to instead embrace the archives, tend to our cultural inheritances and allow ourselves—and the characters in our art—the messy complexities we are so often encouraged to hide.

06:20 How's your heart?

18:00 Real Life in a Black Square Summer

36:00 Minor Black Figures in Interminable Pandemics

43:00 It's okay to be an uppity negro

Get your copy of Minor Black Figures from your local bookshop.

This episode includes the voices of: Lorraine Hansberry and Pamela Sneed.

 If the interiority & craft of authors, writers & artists stir your imagination to whirling, come to Mannington Book Bash.

Busy Being Black is only sustainable with community support. Become a Regular Listener on Patreon ✷ patreon.com/busybeingblack

See Privacy Policy at https://art19.com/privacy and California Privacy Notice at https://art19.com/privacy#do-not-sell-my-info.