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Crossing the Boundaries of Gender, Race and Class

Cultural discussion programme. Kirsty Wark explores the boundaries between gender, race and class with Thomas Page McBee, Gary Owen, Kayo Chingonyi and Penny Woolcock.

On Start the Week Kirsty Wark asks what it is to be a man, and to belong to a tribe. Thomas Page McBee has sought answers as he's transitioned from female to male, and explored how far the violent men of his youth are models of masculinity. Fatherhood and aggression take centre stage in Gary Owen's play, Killology, in which he's created a video game that allows players to live out their darkest fantasies. The poet Kayo Chingonyi moved to Britain when he was a child and in his debut collection he translates the rites of passage of his native Zambia to his new home. In the TV drama Ackley Bridge, filmmaker Penny Woolcock imagines a new school that throws together two communities, segregated along ethnic lines, in a fictional Yorkshire mill town.
Producer: Katy Hickman
Image: Missy (Poppy Lee Friar) and Nasreen (Amy Leigh Hickman) in Ackley Bridge on Channel 4 Photographer: Matt Squire.

Available now

43 minutes

Last on

Mon 12 Jun 2017 21:30
BBC Radio 4

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Thomas Page McBee

Thomas Page McBee was masculinity expert for Vice and the first trans man to box at Madison Square Garden.  His essays and reportage have appeared in the New York Times, Playboy, Glamour and Salon.


Man Alive: A True Story of Violence, Forgiveness and Becoming a Man is published by 


City Lights Books

Kayo Chingonyi

Kayo Chingonyi is a poet. He is a fellow of the Complete Works programme for diversity and quality in British Poetry. In 2012, he was awarded a Geoffrey Dearmer Prize, and was Associate Poet at the Institute of Contemporary Arts (ICA) in 2015.

His poetry collection Kumukanda is published by Chatto & Windus

Gary Owen

Gary Owen is a Welsh playwright and screenwriter. 

Killology, co-produced with Sherman Theatre, Cardiff, is at the Royal Court in London from 25th May until 24th June.

Penny Woolcock

Penny Woolcock is a writer and director working across documentary, fiction and opera.

Ackley Bridge on Channel 4 on Wednesdays at 8pm.

Credits

Presenter Kirsty Wark
Interviewed Guest Thomas Page McBee
Interviewed Guest Gary Owen
Interviewed Guest Kayo Chingonyi
Interviewed Guest Penny Woolcock
Producer Katy Hickman

Broadcasts

  • Mon 12 Jun 2017 09:00
    BBC Radio 4
  • Mon 12 Jun 2017 21:30
    BBC Radio 4

Podcast

  • Start the Week

    Weekly discussion programme, setting the cultural agenda every Monday