Interview: Consequences author Emeka Egbounu
Emeka Egbounu, youth worker and author. Photograph: Ena Miller
Interview: Hackney writer and gang intervention worker Emeka Egbuonu on his new book, Consequences
The sun was shining and the streets were quiet when I walked through Hackney’s De Beauvoir Estate. I didn’t need a map to find the Crib.
Amongst the high-rise flats, a little building covered in bright graffiti stood out and said ‘I’m here.’
The Crib Youth Project is where 20 something year old Emeka Egbounu has been coming since the age of 15. Now a community and anti-gang youth worker, he spends his days and nights trying to guide youngsters so they don’t make mistakes they can’t fix.
The spotlight has been focused on this East London guy for a while now. And it’s now a little brighter since the recent launch of his book Consequences. The volume contains the results, findings, outpourings and personal experiences of the Consequences program of seminars Egbounu founded at the Crib in 2009.
The hope then was to equip young people with the confidence and skills to make good choices and to avoid becoming involved in gangs, or getting out of gang cycles that trap so many kids today. The hope now is to spread the word beyond the streets of Hackney.
Consequences is not about Egbounu; instead he’s made it about everyone else. Collaborating with poets and artists, he’s managed to bring his book to life in a way that makes it feel very real.
Lots has been written about the author, so we thought we should let him speak for himself. In an exclusive audio interview available on the Citizen’s website, he talks about his love of poetry, his fighting days at school and how one teacher changed his life.
He also talks about Agnes Sina-Inakoju – his friend and an original member of his Consequences seminars – who was randomly shot dead in a fast food restaurant last year. Her death was one of the triggers that inspired him to write the book.
In his dedication there is an illustrated picture of Agnes, and above it the last Facebook status she posted before she died: “I rise in the morning torn between a desire to improve the world and a desire to enjoy the world. That makes it hard to plan the day.”
I have a little feeling that Emeku Egbuonu lives by that lasting thought too.