The Pleasures and Perils of Fandom

**Vanessa Kisuule** is a big Michael Jackson fan. This fixation once gave her great joy, but now it keeps her up at night. In this talk, she explores the fall-out from that fandom and how, or if, we can hold people to account whilst loving them at the same time. Why do famous musicians mean so much to us? How does the pop culture machine both mirror and magnify the worst aspects of human nature? Why is it so hard to accept that the people we love, famous or not, are capable of doing terrible things?

As debates rage on about abusive public figures, Kisuule asks not just if we should separate the art from the artist, but how this moral conundrum informs the way we shape our relationships, families and notions of social justice. This is both an ardent love letter to the music we love and an unflinching look at the costs of hero worship.

**Vanessa Kisuule** is a writer, performer and facilitator based in Bristol. She has won over ten poetry slam titles and performed nationally and internationally. She has worked with the BBC, British Library, Tate, Royal Academy of Arts, Bristol Old Vic and Glastonbury Festival. She was the Bristol City Poet for 2018-2020, wrote and presented The Poetry Detective for Radio 4 and has two poetry collections with Burning Eye Books. She is the co-tutor for the Southbank New Poets Collective alongside Will Harris. *Neverland: The Pleasures and Perils of Fandom* is her debut non-fiction book.

Presented by Conway Hall.

This is an all ages event. Under 16's must be accompanied by an adult.