Skip to main content

Keisha the Sket by Jade LB review – ‘the literary version of the Black nod’

A viral sensation in the early 00s and now in print, this raw, groundbreaking tale of a teenager’s sex life revels in the language of Black Londoners

In 2005, the then 13-year-old Jade LB wrote Keisha the Sket (originally called Keisha Da Sket) – a sprawling narrative about a 17-year-old girl from inner London whose life consists of sex, predatory men, parties and tragedies. LB uploaded the tale on to a blog site called Piczo and the story spread around London schools before social media was really available on phones. Its appearance was a definitive moment in Black British history. According to lifestyle platform Black Ballad, it “accidentally decolonised literature”.

A raw portrayal of teenage lust, the story, now in print with new chapters, starts with Keisha excitedly planning to meet up with a boy for sex. “Dat sexc bwoi ramel iz invitin me 2 his yard 4 a lash init,” she beams. On her way there, she collects her friend Shanice, whose older brother, Ricardo, flirts with Keisha. They have sex, which LB describes in vivid but unromantic detail: “I took his warm dick and placed it in ma mouf.” Soon, Ricardo and Keisha confess their love for each other, but Keisha’s sexual past haunts her and some local boys spread rumours about her having several abortions. Things turn grotesquely dark when, later, Keisha is brutally gang-raped by the same group. Seemingly, she quickly recovers and she and Ricardo get engaged. But on her 18th birthday, she is kidnapped and raped by college friend Malachi, who becomes violent after she rejects him.

Continue reading...

from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/3CLa2fP

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

Knives Out review – Daniel Craig goes Columbo in Cluedo whodunnit

Craig grills an all-star lineup of suspects when a wealthy novelist is found dead in Rian Johnson’s sharp, country-house murder mystery R ian Johnson unsheathes an entertainingly nasty, if insubstantial detective mystery with his new film, Knives Out. Back in 2005, his debut movie Brick (a high-school thriller) paid tribute to the hardboiled noir genre. Now he does the same thing for cosy crime, although there is nothing that cosy about it. Knives Out has a country house full of frowning suspects, deadpan servants and smirking ne’er-do-wells and an amusing performance from Daniel Craig as Benoît Blanc, the brilliant amateur sleuth from Louisiana who annoys the hell out of one and all by smiling enigmatically, occasionally plinking a jarring high note on the piano during the drawing-room interrogation and pronouncing in his southern burr: “Ah suh-spect far-wuhl play!” Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2L0NKO4

Thirty Years of Adonis film review: sexually explicit gay drama mixes porn and pomposity

1/5 stars The line between soft-core porn and pompous art-house cinema grows ever finer in the seventh feature by writer, director and producer Danny Cheng Wan-cheung, also known as Scud. Intended as a philosophical statement about the meaninglessness of life, Thirty Years of Adonis instead comes across as a badly misjudged piece of sensationalist filmmaking. God’s Own Country review: gay love story set in the Yorkshire countryside The film revolves around aspiring gay actor Adonis Yang... from South China Morning Post - Culture feed https://ift.tt/2qgQkop

Tracey Emin decorates Regent's Park and a celebration of Islamic creativity – the week in art

Emin and others survey the state of sculpture, Glenn Brown takes his decadent imagination to Newcastle and artists offer northern exposure – all in your weekly dispatch Frieze Sculpture Park Tracey Emin, Barry Flanagan and John Baldessari are among the artists decorating Regent’s Park with a free survey of the state of sculpture. • Regent’s Park, London , 4 July until 7 October. Continue reading... from Culture | The Guardian https://ift.tt/2IDCpPV