iya babs - I'm an aspiring author, and occasional writer for news publications — alongside two odd day jobs in Soho, London.

LATEST:

Father’s Day: fathering as a teen and forgiveness

Featured articles — I call it: "Have I peaked too early?"

I'm A Young Bi Dad. Here's What People Get Wrong About Me

Let's start with the easiest misunderstanding of being bisexual: Stereotypically, people assume that bisexual men are softening the blow that leads to 'accepting' the reality that you're a gay man. If only it were that easy; bisexuality is not a binary journey in a vessel to binary homosexuality. I'm still attracted to women and had a child with one. While, validly, there are often gay men who sometimes embrace a bisexual front before segueing into exclusive homosexuality on the journey of self-

I'm an Orphan. Please Stop Being So Awkward About It

Another Mother’s Day, come and gone. Scented candles, chocolates and Cliff Richard calendars, as though all mothers have a thirst for Jasmine scents, diabetes and creepy-looking men. Like every year, I admired the festivity of it all, but the occasion didn’t really apply to my life. A bit like how my close friend describes celebrating Christmas as a British Muslim.

I’m 24. Mum died 23 years ago, a week before my first birthday. And Dad, when I was 18. They were teens when I was born prematurely

Review: Florence + The Machine play transcendent set at Genting Arena

Opened by Wet, Florence + The Machine return to Birmingham and the Genting Arena on Friday November 16, after 3 years away. A flitting contrast between bombastic and delicate, the show delighted much of the audience.

Dramatic build ups and an ethereal opening with ‘June’ re-introduce Florence Welch, and her sprawling band, back to Birmingham. Fresh from touring High As Hope (UK #2), the band’s fourth album in the U.S and Canada, the second night of the UK leg brings energy, intricate moments an

An ode to Digbeth: Birmingham's gritty creative quarter

The first record of Dyghbath can be traced back to 1533, when the area was Birmingham’s first industrial district, and the high street was the main thoroughfare for trading visitors from neighbouring towns to the east. Then, after the industry packed up and left, the neighbourhood went with it, leaving it undesirable and unused, save for sparse garages, empty warehouses and construction.

The new millennium brought change to Digbeth and Deritend – which are now seen as an amalgamation of the sam