Nigrescence

'Adekola's voice refuses to settle in a simple picture of identity that is palatable or transferable. The multiplicity of selves that speak in his poems reflect but also create a myriad of ways to be Muslim, to be Black, to just be. There is a powerful undercurrent of hope throughout this that leaves you with the sense that despite it all, people have always and will continue to persevere' Suhaiymah Manzoor-Khan Nigrescence is the breakthrough debut collection of poems by northern poet Abdullah Adekola. The word 'nigrescence' means to develop a racial identity which Adekola unpicks through language that tugs and pulls through his own blackness, searching for ways to heal in a increasingly fractured world.