Leigh-Anne Pinnock, Black British Book Festival, Gesbeen Mohammad
Woman's Hour
BBC
4.1 • 3K Ratings
🗓️ 27 October 2023
⏱️ 57 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
Leigh-Anne Pinnock has embarked on her own solo career, almost two years after her band, Little Mix, called a hiatus - and has already released two songs. Now she's got a new book out, Believe, all about her life growing up, what it was really like going through the X Factor and how she found her voice. She joins Anita Rani to discuss it all.
The Black British Book Festival is now in its third year. It aims to celebrate new and emerging Black British authors across all genres of literature. To find out more, Anita speaks to author and events producer Selina Brown, who launched the festival, and Margaret Busby, Britain’s first black woman publisher, who is also currently President of English PEN, one of the world's oldest human rights organisations that campaigns for freedom of expression.
Gesbeen Mohammad is the producer and director of Inside Iran: The Fight For Freedom, a new documentary that has taken more than a year to make. It’s a story told through the eyes of ordinary Iranian women who took to the streets when Mahsa Amini died in September 2022. Gesbeen tells Anita about why these women chose to tell their stories, and what the current situation is in Iran.
Presenter: Anita Rani Producer: Lottie Garton
Transcript
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| 0:25.6 | To get you ready for today's conversations, newscast, |
| 0:29.4 | listen on BBC Sounds. |
| 0:37.4 | Hello, I'm Anita Rani and welcome to Woman's Hour from BBC Radio 4. |
| 0:42.4 | Little Mix's Leanne Pinnock has been talking to me about her new memoir, Believe, |
| 0:47.6 | and she shares an anecdote in the book and also during the interview about the first time she |
| 0:54.1 | felt really, really seen when she was in the band and it wasn't until 2018. |
| 0:58.7 | I'm paraphrasing here but she was performing on stage in Brazil to the crowd, |
| 1:03.4 | a lot of who were black and for the first time they were chanting her name and it was the first time |
| 1:09.0 | that this had ever happened to her. |
| 1:11.0 | So this morning, I'd like to hear from you about the first time you felt truly seen. |
| 1:17.6 | The moment maybe you found an inner strength or confidence when something inside you felt |
| 1:23.6 | stronger, the moment you started caring less about what other people felt about you because |
| 1:28.8 | you realised who you are when you found your own conviction. |
| 1:33.0 | Was it walking into secondary school and clocking eyes on the person who would become your best |
| 1:37.0 | mate for life because their nerdy obsession was just as strange as yours? |
... |
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