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The Empire Cafe

Allegra McIlroy

Kei Miller

The Empire Cafe: Episode 1: The Business of Tea

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Episode 1

Episode 1: The Business of Tea

The Business of Tea

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Kei Miller's clever and multilayered story explores Glasgow's empire past in Jamaica.

Kei Miller's clever and multilayered story draws together themes of slavery, Glasgow's empire past in Jamaica and the most traditional of British drinks, tea.

The first of three brand new stories to mark the Commonwealth Games in Glasgow, from writers taking part in the city's Empire Cafe. Writers Kei Miller, Jackie Kay, and Fred D'Aguiar turn their attention to some of the products of Empire and the Atlantic slave trade. The Empire Cafe is a commonwealth themed cafe and literary venue opening specially for the Games period, run by award-winning thriller writer Louise Welsh.

Each story will focus on one product of Empire -

Kei Miller kicks off our series with a clever and multilayered story drawing together themes of slavery, Glasgow's Empire past in Jamaica and the most traditional of British drinks, tea. Kei Miller is a Jamaican poet and fiction writer based in Glasgow. He was nominated for the Commonwealth Writers Prize for Best First book. His recent poetry collection The Cartographer Tries to Map a Way to Zion is shortlisted for the 2014 Forward Prize for Best Collection.

The series will continue with Jackie Kay who has chosen ginger, playfully weaving in connections between Scotland and the Caribbean in a story set in Saint Kitts. Finally Fred D'Aguiar's 'Black Gold' brings us back to Glasgow with a slave brought back to Scotland in a story that looks to sugar.

The authors will be reading at the Empire Cafe in the Briggait in Glasgow's Merchant City (where the merchants would have kept look out for their ships docking with goods from the commonwealth and sent an assistant running to greet them).


Produced by Allegra McIlroy.

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Three stories that trace Glasgow's connections to empire and the products of slavery.

As the Commonwealth Games come to Glasgow, three stories trace the city's connections to empire and the products of slavery. Recorded in front of an audience at the Empire Cafe in Glasgow.

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