Events

the RACE COUNCIL

Jessica was invited to participate within The Race Council’s ‘Being Human: A Festival of the Humanities’ event.

Alongside other creatives, she discussed the implications of using the Jamaican language within her poetry and the importance of writing the world in our own voices.

ANNUAL CONFERENCE ON WEST INDIAN LITERATURE

Jessica was invited to present her paper 'Colonization in Reverse: Writing Caribbean London' at the 34th Annual Conference on West Indian Literature.

Her work focussed upon Zadie Smith, Hanif Kureishi and Sam Selvon's re-appropriation of the post-colonial capital and concluded writers must be become cartographers, manipulating time, language and space to reflect their new experiences and redraw the landscape of the British novel.

The School Library Association

Jessica participated within The School Library Association’s Meet the Creator event where she spoke alongside, Isabel Thomas - Amelia Earhart (Laurence King), Meg Rosoff - The Great Godden (Bloomsbury) and Sophie Deen - Agent Asha: Mission Shark Bytes (Walker Books).

Jessica expounded on the messages behind the book and her reasons for writing, saying:

“I wrote this story because it is essential for everyone to see themselves positively reflected in the world, particularly children and there continues to be an under representation of black children in literature and aching lack of black history taught at schools. I want young people to know how important it is to celebrate their uniqueness, the significance of their cultural heritage and how essential it is to love oneself and each other.”