We are very excited to welcome Adèle Oliver to celebrate the London launch of her vital, erudite and exacting book ‘Deeping It: Colonialism, Culture & Criminalisation of UK Drill’. Adèle will be joined by fellow members of the Art Not Evidence group, a brand new charity launching this month.

Art Not Evidence is a new coalition comprising senior lawyers, journalists, academics, youthworkers, music industry professionals, and human rights campaigners. Their mission is to fight for a fairer criminal justice system by advocating for a restriction on the use of creative and artistic expression as evidence in criminal trials. They believe that art, including music, should be protected as a fundamental form of freedom of expression and should not be used to unfairly implicate individuals in criminal charges.

The main focus of the discussion will be Adèle’s book ‘Deeping It’ an analysis of drill’s fight against moral panic and its fraught relationship with the police and political authority in the UK, exemplified by constant censorship, racism, and moments such as when a drill duo became the first people in British legal history to receive a prison sentence for simply performing a song. Policing, policy and criminalization are the cornerstones of colonial suppression; art, self-expression and collective action are beacons of resistance. Deeping It places drill firmly in the latter category, tracing its production and criminalization across borders and eras of the British Empire, exploring drill’s artistic singularity but also its inherent threat as a Black artform in a world that prioritizes whiteness. Intervening on this discourse steeped in anti-Blackness, this Inkling ‘deeps’ how the criminalization of UK drill cannot be disentangled from histories, technologies, and realities of colonialism and consumerism.

There are free tickets available. If you are unable to pay for a ticket please contact shop@housmans.com.

If you choose book + event entry, your copy of the book will be available to collect on the evening. If you would like to collect it earlier, or have it delivered, please contact us (postage is £2.95). Telephone 020 7837 4473 or email shop@housmans.com.