Maybe I Don't Belong Here: A Memoir of Race, Identity, Breakdown and Recovery

Product Information

His parents are originally from Barbados in the Caribbean and they moved to England in the 50s and 60s. I'd originally believed Harewood to be American from the roles I'd seen him play in some excellent TV (I didn't know previously of his extensive theatre repertoire). Describing his daily lived experience, it's easy to see how an intelligent and thoughtful young man came to feel split in two, to the extent of having a complete breakdown.

But reading the book, this question kept jumping out at me, and that question is What does being Black mean to you? I think having had some success in America, being recognised the way that I have been recognised, and rewarded for the talent that I have, has greatly benefitted me as an individual. This is another one but does not have the power or erudition that I have noticed in my consumption of recent reads.How he managed to get back out there in a community that has so much trouble with accepting black people is astonishing. The Migration Museum explores how the movement of people to and from Britain across the ages has made us who we are – as individuals and as a nation. In New York, he even meets Maya Angelou, who would “slip into poetry mid-conversation if something caught in her mind”.

And there are issues within my journey to America that haven't quite been straightforward and simple. Brutally honest, brave and enlightening, David Harewood's memoir and account of his breakdown is a fascinating read.Incredibly sad to read of the double bind he found trying to define his identity between being black and British. And perhaps it's not - these last 10 days haven't been the time to express it and dig into it, because people are obviously upset and very emotional. In the book you spoke about feeling a sense of not belonging in the white space, but also that when you moved out of Birmingham and to London, out of drama school, you also felt that a little bit in the Black space.