How Candice Brathwaite Challenges the Status Quo with Authenticity

Candice's new book Manifest(o) is out on 5th September.  Tickets for her 2024 UK tour are available now via:  www.fane.co.uk/candice-brathwaite

The challenges I have encountered which have acted as catalysts prompting me to challenge the status quo and norm, have been too many to count. Firstly, I’m the oldest daughter of a black household. Those who get it, get it. Alongside that, I witnessed a lot of violence as a child. In my teens, we moved home eight times in three years. That lack of stability coupled with poverty for sure gave its fair share of challenges. Then there was me going out into the wider working world and just learning how much harder this would be for me. When I was 21 out of the blue my dad just dropped dead. I can’t say that these things have led me to challenge the status quo or the norm. But I have had many experiences of just how short life can be. So I don’t take shit. I just don’t have the time for it. I think people think that shows up as me being ‘challenging,’ nah it’s just me not wasting my own time. Go find someone else to play with. Candice Brathwaite ain’t a games console. 

I don’t think I go against the grain. I think what I do is show up authentically in a world that has got so used to people pretending.