The Reckoning: Kwame Kwei-Armah and Idris Elba on the Arts and Black Lives Matter

A great reckoning is taking place in the wake of the brutal killing of George Floyd and the protests that followed his death. Companies and organisations are looking afresh at how they can do a better job of combatting institutional bias and racism. Employees are increasingly speaking out about their experiences and calling for change.

In this special event recorded on Thursday June 25 2020, Intelligence Squared brought together two leading voices from the arts, Kwame Kwei-Armah, artistic director of the Young Vic, and Idris Elba, star of The Wire and Luther, to discuss what should happen and is likely to happen in the world of culture as we move forward. Given all the promises made and broken over the years, will things be different this time? Will there be deep structural change so that we see more Black and Brown people – not just on the stage or screen – but in positions of real power and decision-making? And once lessons have been learned, what do people actually need to do?

Our chair for the evening was writer and broadcaster Yassmin Abdel-Magied.

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