Esther Armah is a British-born

playwright A playwright or dramatist is a person who writes plays. Etymology The word "play" is from Middle English pleye, from Old English plæġ, pleġa, plæġa ("play, exercise; sport, game; drama, applause"). The word "wright" is an archaic English ...

, radio host and political commentator living in

Brooklyn, New York Brooklyn () is a borough of New York City, coextensive with Kings County, in the U.S. state of New York. Kings County is the most populous county in the State of New York, and the second-most densely populated county in the United States, be ...

. She currently hosts ''The Spin'', a talk show, for the African-American Public Radio Consortium.

Biography

Armah was born in

London, England London is the capital and largest city of England and the United Kingdom, with a population of just under 9 million. It stands on the River Thames in south-east England at the head of a estuary down to the North Sea, and has been a major s ...

, to Kwesi Armah, a

Ghana Ghana (; tw, Gaana, ee, Gana), officially the Republic of Ghana, is a country in West Africa. It abuts the Gulf of Guinea and the Atlantic Ocean to the south, sharing borders with Ivory Coast in the west, Burkina Faso in the north, and To ...

ian politician and ambassador to the United Kingdom, and his wife, Esther Yaa Agyemang Armah. She was raised in both England and her homeland. She was in Ghana during the 1966 Ghana military coup while her father was on a diplomatic mission to

Vietnam Vietnam or Viet Nam ( vi, Việt Nam, ), officially the Socialist Republic of Vietnam,., group="n" is a country in Southeast Asia, at the eastern edge of mainland Southeast Asia, with an area of and population of 96 million, making i ...

. She and the rest of her family were attacked by soldiers soon after the coup began, and her mother was nearly murdered. They spent two years under

house arrest In justice and law, house arrest (also called home confinement, home detention, or, in modern times, electronic monitoring) is a measure by which a person is confined by the authorities to their residence. Travel is usually restricted, if all ...

before being allowed to return to England. In London, Armah hosted the current affairs radio program ''Talking Africa'' before becoming a researcher and reporter for BBC Radio and

BBC World Service The BBC World Service is an international broadcasting, international broadcaster owned and operated by the BBC, with funding from the Government of the United Kingdom, British Government through the Foreign Secretary, Foreign Secretary's o ...

. She was a contributor to ''

Crossing Continents ''Crossing Continents'' is a half-hour BBC Radio 4 documentary strand focusing on foreign affairs issues. It takes listeners right to the heart of story through its on-location reporting and feature making. The programmes are character driven an ...

'' and ''Law in Action''. She was also a presenter for the BBC television series ''Black Britain'' and ''

Panorama A panorama (formed from Greek πᾶν "all" + ὅραμα "view") is any wide-angle view or representation of a physical space, whether in painting, drawing, photography, film, seismic images, or 3D modeling. The word was originally coined in ...

''. At ''Panorama'', she produced a program investigating the

death of Damilola Taylor On 27 November 2000, ten-year-old Nigerian schoolboy Damilola Taylor was killed in London, in what became one of the United Kingdom's most high-profile killings. Two brothers who were 12 and 13 at the time of the killing were convicted of mansla ...

. In

New York City New York, often called New York City or NYC, is the List of United States cities by population, most populous city in the United States. With a 2020 population of 8,804,190 distributed over , New York City is also the L ...

, she hosted

WBAI WBAI (99.5 FM) is a non-commercial, listener-supported radio station licensed to New York, New York. Its programming is a mixture of political news, talk and opinion from a left-leaning, liberal or progressive viewpoint, and eclectic music. ...

's morning drive time program, ''

Wakeup Call ''Wakeup Call'' was a morning radio program produced in New York City by the WBAI station of the Pacifica Radio Network. Until its cancellation in August 2013, its final hosts were Esther Armah Monday to Thursday and Felipe Luciano Felipe Lucia ...

'' Mondays through Thursdays until August 2013. Previously she hosted that station's program ''Connections''. She is also an occasional guest on the

MSNBC MSNBC (originally the Microsoft National Broadcasting Company) is an American news-based pay television cable channel. It is owned by NBCUniversala subsidiary of Comcast. Headquartered in New York City, it provides news coverage and political ...

weekend shows ''

Up with Chris Hayes ''Up'', branded in its final incarnation as ''Up with David Gura'', was a news and opinion television program that aired weekends on MSNBC. The program debuted September 17, 2011, as ''Up with Chris Hayes'', and was hosted by Hayes until March 2 ...

'' and ''

Melissa Harris-Perry Melissa Victoria Harris-Perry (born October 2, 1973), formerly known as Melissa Victoria Harris-Lacewell, is an American writer, professor, television host, and political commentator with a focus on African-American politics. Harris-Perry hoste ...

''. Armah has written an autobiography, ''Can I Be Me?'' (2006), as well as three plays: ''Forgive Me?'', ''Entitled!'' and ''Saviour?''. She has also written pieces for ''

The Guardian ''The Guardian'' is a British daily newspaper. It was founded in 1821 as ''The Manchester Guardian'', and changed its name in 1959. Along with its sister papers ''The Observer'' and ''The Guardian Weekly'', ''The Guardian'' is part of the Gu ...

'' and for '' Essence'' magazine. Armah's works and radio programs explore issues of

social justice Social justice is justice in terms of the distribution of wealth, opportunities, and privileges within a society. In Western and Asian cultures, the concept of social justice has often referred to the process of ensuring that individuals fu ...

, race and

gender Gender is the range of characteristics pertaining to femininity and masculinity and differentiating between them. Depending on the context, this may include sex-based social structures (i.e. gender roles) and gender identity. Most cultures u ...

, especially regarding the

African diaspora The African diaspora is the worldwide collection of communities descended from native Africans or people from Africa, predominantly in the Americas. The term most commonly refers to the descendants of the West and Central Africans who were e ...

in England and the United States.

Notes

References

* {{DEFAULTSORT:Armah, Esther Year of birth missing (living people) Living people English people of Ghanaian descent English emigrants to the United States English dramatists and playwrights English radio presenters English political journalists Writers from London