In Conversation with Lanre Bakare

By Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka

In this podcast, Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka talks to the Guardian journalist Lanre Bakare about his new book, 'We Were There: How Black Culture, Resistance and Community Shaped Modern Britain'.

Lanre Bakare was born in Bradford, West Yorkshire. He is a correspondent covering arts and culture for the Guardian, where his writing focuses on the intersection of art, race and culture across multiple disciplines. He was senior correspondent on the award-winning Cotton Capital project and has worked in New York and Los Angeles as part of the Pulitzer Prize-winning Guardian US team. Lanre is the author of the book We Were There: How Black culture, resistance and community shaped modern Britain. This book explores a Black Britain that for too long has been unknown and unexplored – and crucially, the one that exists beyond London.

Dr Clive Chijioke Nwonka is Associate Professor in Film, Culture and Society at UCL, and a Faculty Associate of the Sarah Parker Remond Centre for the Study of Racism and Racialisation.

This conversation was recorded in August 2025