'Being Poor is Expensive' Conference

Bashy’s Being Poor is Expensive is a powerful and urgent exploration of economic hardship, social injustice, and resilience in contemporary Britain. Through sharp lyricism and evocative storytelling, the album exposes the hidden costs of poverty, from systemic barriers to personal struggles. Bashy masterfully blends grime, hip-hop, and soul with narratives of resistance, place, and overcoming.

Join academics and artists for a one-day conference exploring the cultural, social-political and theological dimensions of this seminal album. The event will critically engage with the albums theses through academic analysis, artistic responses, and pedagogical explorations, providing a space for interdisciplinary dialogue.

Full Event Schedule 

10-10:20am – Registration & Welcome

10:20-11am – Keynote Address (Monique Charles and James F. Broad)

11-11:15am – Morning Break

1:20-2:10pm – Lunch with Film Options

4:40-4:50pm – Afternoon Break

5:40-6pm – Discussion & Announcements (Members of Sacred Cyphers UK)

Studio Theatre 

11:15-12-35pm – Papers (Education)

• Abiola Odunro – Pecha Kucha on ‘Black male school experience in British schools.’ 
• Beth Hayden – Living in a next man’s world: British education policy, the body and music in ‘How Black men Lose Their Smile’ (5)
• Jason Selormey – (20) How Black Men Lose Their Smile’ explores themes relevant to the experiences of young black boys within the education and SEND 
• Frances Akinde – How can we ensure that Black boys grow into Black Men who keep their smiles? (38)

12:35-1:20pm – Performance & Responses 

• Spoken word Performance by Nicole Campbell (9)
• Poem by Lisa (42) From black boys to a solid black man.
• Performance by A Gent Orange (32)
• Performance by Hillarynx and Nualoe (54)

2:10-3pm- – Papers (Place)

• Ashley Holmes – That’s The Legacy: An analysis of the cultural significance and embodied relational knowledges of Being Poor Is Expensive (27)
• Avokser – Being Poor is Expensive: A Three-Body Problem (29)

3-4:40pm – Performance & Responses 

• Spoken Word Performance by Fuad (60)
• The Cost of Being Seen: A Live Session by Trybe House Theatre (62)

4:50-5:40pm – Papers (Lesson Plans)

• Rachel Huggins (23)  A scheme of work with accompanying workbook which explores the themes raised in Bashy’s Being Poor is Expensive.
• Maureen Blissett (44) “Made In Britain” Cross-curricular potential across History, English, PSHE, and Geography, particularly within a primary education setting.

Roundhouse Bar & Cafe (RBC)

11:15-12-35pm – Papers (Theology)

• Clement Akran – Poverty, Theodicy, and Social Injustice in Bashy’s ‘Being Poor is Expensive’ (4)
• Lewis Beresford – The Hermeneutic of Spins: Interpreting Sacred Enterprise in Being Poor is Expensive (10)
• Baker and N. Brewer All Things Work Together (61)

2:10-3pm- – Papers (Feminist/Womanist Responses)

• Nathania Atkinson – Embodied Listening Between the Bars: Black Feminist Recalibrations of Bashy’s “Being Poor Is Expensive” (34)
• Sewa Olukoga – A Voice in the Wilderness: Black Women’s Voices as Intercession in Bashy’s Being Poor is Expensive (56)

4:50-5:40pm – Papers (Tools)

• Sasha McKoy – In what ways do Inner-London Communities enable or disable Black boys trajectories towards “success” through their constructions of what constitutes knowledge? (11)
• Shyronie Davis – “How Black Men Lose Their Smile: A Psychodynamic Reflection on Grief, Resistance, and the Unseen Self”

 This event is part of Roundhouse Studio Theatre Season 2025.