At the end of October 2022, the internationally acclaimed literature festival Bocas Lit Fest came to the UK for the first time. Renaissance One was Associate Producer of the tour – read all about the eventful week and the headline event at the British Library here.
Read More“Failure is part of the creative process.”
We spoke to writer and artist Maya Chowdhry ahead of her workshop on countermapping which is being held as part of our This Is Who We Are project.
What three words best describe you?
Inquisitive, passionate, empathetic
What do you most enjoy about being a writer?
How the combinations of words coming together in a poem to become a force for change.
What is a creative masterpiece you wish you had written?
The Master's Tools Will Never Dismantle the Master's House by Audre Lorde
What's an important piece of insider knowledge you have as a multidisciplinary artist?
Failure is part of the creative process.
What is the most challenging aspect of being an artist and/or writer?
Deciding when an artwork or a poem is finished.
Do you find that there are any similarities between your career as a writer and as an artist? Any differences?
Writing is more solitary than creating artworks, which I predominately create collaboratively.
Can you talk briefly about the issues your work is about?
I’m striving for a democratic and ethical creative practice exploring social justice issues, so anything from interspecies care to seed sovereignty to climate justice.
Tell us about an upcoming project that excites you.
I currently working with the National Oceanography Centre collaborating to create ‘Walk With Us’ - two self-guided walks along the sea fronts of Penzance and Dawlish, combining poetic audio with augmented reality visuals: https://walkwithus.uk.
“I practice solidarity through my curatorial projects and research where I foreground the research and practice of women of colour, and of my community and I commit to sharing opportunities and connecting people where-ever possible.”
We spoke to Nur Shkembi who is a member of the team running This Is Who We Are.
What three words best describe you?
Determined, fierce, tired
Name one woman who has inspired you and why?
Naming one woman is very difficult. If I have to choose, it would be Angela Davis. She gave us the language to understand intersectionality and so much more.
In what ways have you practiced solidarity and community?
I practice solidarity through my curatorial projects and research where I foreground the research and practice of women of colour, and of my community and I commit to sharing opportunities and connecting people where-ever possible.
From your understanding of TIWWA and its possibilities/potential, what would you most like to get out of being part of the project and being a partner with us?
I want to be in an environment where I am nourished and inspired by other women who share similar experiences, who understand the world outside the mainstream. I feel that TIWWA will reinvigorate communities and networks of women globally, as well as creating new connections. TIWWA honours the past and present and will highlight and disrupt the cycle that situates women of colour as constantly ‘emerging’ and ‘arriving’. I am very excited for that.
“TIWWA allows a platform to not only stand in my truth but also be able to teach from that truth”
We spoke to multidisciplinary creative Celeste Ramos, who is running a wellbeing workshop as part of This Is Who We Are.
What three words best describe you?
Elegant, unusual, profound
Name one woman who has inspired you and why?
Dame Shirley Bassey. She can sing about some of the grittiest stuff with a wild amount of elegance. It’s a good reminder to maintain one’s dignity no matter what.
In what ways have you practiced solidarity and community?
In acting and voiceover development classes I’ve constantly been an encouraging presence, seeing aspects of fellow artists that they themselves never noticed before, or had never made a connection to. I help others feel at ease to be themselves during projects and exercises that are usually very vulnerable experiences.
By staying connected to my close friends at home and proactively forging new friendships here, again acting as a presence of calm and support.
From your understanding of TIWWA and its possibilities/potential, what would you most like to get out of being part of the project and being a partner with us?
A sense of my life making sense...if that makes sense! I have a collection of experiences and knowledge that, until now, has always felt like a jumble. TIWWA allows a platform to not only stand in my truth but also be able to teach from that truth, which is so exciting! I really want to help people grow creatively, whether or not they consider themselves creatives.
“It’s the bigger things of being that person that young women come to when they need to understand how to make a sexual harassment claim, of being a person that holds space for the difficult conversations and is always committed to making the world more equitable. ”
We spoke to Australian-based arts consultant Kath Melbourne, who is one of the mentors for the This Is Who We Are mentoring programme.
What three words best describe you?
Curious. Optimistic. Sentimental.
Name one woman who has inspired you and why?
Lesley Hall. (VALE) a ferocious defender of human rights whom I was fortunate to work beside.
Anyone who has the courage and smarts to acknowledge the irony of a beauty pageant raising money for people with disabilities while entrenching a stereotype of what beauty is and rock up to protest is someone not afraid to walk into spaces that have never seen people like her and say ‘why not?’
https://www.afdo.org.au/beauty-quests-by-lesley-hall/
In what ways have you practiced solidarity and community?
It’s the small ways in meetings where women’s voices are side lined, working together to amplify and reiterate great ideas.
It’s maintaining and supporting great networks of women doing brilliant things and sharing what they do with others.
And it’s the bigger things of being that person that young women come to when they need to understand how to make a sexual harassment claim, of being a person that holds space for the difficult conversations and is always committed to making the world more equitable.
From your understanding of TIWWA and its possibilities/potential, what would you most like to get out of being part of the project and being a partner with us?
An interesting and smart international network of brilliant women doing brilliant things.
Helping younger women or women or those new to the industry to navigate systems and possibilities while making change and fighting old ways of doing.
Amplifying and supporting smart new ways of doing that are different to elitist or excluded ways of doing.
“That the ruthlessness of those in power to distort facts of the present and the past knows no bounds.”
We caught up with writer and journalist Victoria Brittain ahead of the ‘Exhumation’ launch.
What three words best describe you?
Kind, curious, loyal.
What do you most enjoy about being a writer?
Giving unusual voices air space.
What is a creative masterpiece you wish you had written?
Carolyn Forche’s What You Have Heard Is True.
What is an important piece of insider knowledge you have as a journalist?
That the ruthlessness of those in power to distort facts of the present and the past knows no bounds.
What is the most challenging aspect of being a journalist?
Getting published these days.
Tell us about an upcoming project that excites you.
A conference in Tunis next September, simply called Insaniya (Humanity) where I am preparing with friends two sessions, one on film and one in writing. Both include books I have written and will focus on memory.
“You can’t be a journalist unless you’re genuinely interested in the world and in other people. Nobody on the planet wants to hear a journalist talk about themselves, so don’t. ”
Bidisha answered some questions for us ahead of her appearance as a guest speaker for the launch of Leena Dhingra’s ‘Exhumation’
Photo credit: SUKI DHANDA
What three words best describe you?
At work: focused, intentional, tough
At home: eccentric, teenagerish, moody
In my dreams: beautiful and dangerous
What do you most enjoy about being a journalist?
Going out, meeting people, taking up space in the world, externalising my energy, seeing the world, listening and asking questions (and talking) for a living, being in contact with lots of different worlds and individuals, burning energy zipping around town/the world. Variety, food for thought, novelty, speed, perspective. It doesn’t feel like work.
What is a creative masterpiece you wish you had written?
Any of the big franchise novel series of the past couple of decades – Harry Potter, Twilight, The Hunger Games. Not just for the obvious reasons (££££) but I’m also a reader of these series written by women and I love the deep, immersive storylines, the commitment of the authors themselves and the way these narratives clearly spoke to readers all over the world. I admire the authors’ ability to stay the course and round out their vision. I would love to write a ‘phenomenon’ series whose storytelling is so strong that it can sustain adaptation into different formats like films, graphic novels, games and anime, focused around the journey of a well imagined central character. I’m also mad about serialised online novels in translation – there are some Chinese works which were adapted into very successful TV series like The Untamed, Word of Honour, Addicted and Advance Bravely (the latter two by the writer Chai Ji Dan) which are very addictive to read and also have a similar phenomenal, immersive quality.
What's an important piece of insider knowledge you have as a journalist?
People’s actions always show you who they are, so give them time to reveal themselves and accept the perceptions you’re receiving. When someone shows you who they are, believe them. Talk less, observe more. Simplicity and directness work better than overt flattery or force. Body language rarely lies. The timeline of events is usually very telling. Short, clear, very pointed questions are hard to avoid answering (if you’re dealing with a slippery customer) – and even if you get an answer that’s not true, the interviewee’s manner of answering the question will tell you a lot. Contacts, networks, friendships and acquaintances are there to be cultivated sincerely and joyfully as yourself – ‘networking’ as such is fake and doesn’t work. You can’t be a journalist unless you’re genuinely interested in the world and in other people. Nobody on the planet wants to hear a journalist talk about themselves, so don’t.
Photo credit: SUKI DHANDA
What is the most challenging aspect of being a journalist?
At a career level: just surviving (in my case for nearly 30 years in magazines, newspapers, radio and TV) in an environment in which things are changing very rapidly. Cultural changes, viewing and readership habit changes, financing and rates of payment, technological changes, job security… ageism, sexism and racism…all these things are real challenges and it’s easy for momentum to drop and for events to overtake individual progress. It is relatively easy to start a career. The challenge is in maintaining one, creating a body of work across decades, building a professional relationship that counts for something and creating a career that is adaptive and lasting. I’ve withstood a lot of changes and outlasted many of my peers. But we’re all ‘content creators’ now, making free stuff for the internet. You write something, it comes out and twenty minutes later it dissolves back into the Net. How is this sustainable? Economically, personally, culturally? I don’t know the answer to that.
Do you find that there are any similarities between your career as a writer and a filmmaker? Any differences?
I don’t see the various things I do as being different from each other and don’t regard myself as a polymath. Journalism, writing, broadcasting, chairing, directing, costume styling, art directing, presenting, chairing, interviewing, making stills, acting, screenwriting….they are all the same to me…they all require exactly the same professional skills. Perhaps one distinction is that I work across both words and images – spoken, written and performed words and still and moving images - but otherwise the skills required are common to everything. Timeliness, careful thought, thorough research and planning, conscientiousness, working to a deadline, light-touch and sensitive reworking, budgeting skills, talent spotting in others, working with people to commission or provide direction, diplomatic and timing skills, communication ability, intuition mixed with basic professionalism. In terms of people I choose to work with I only have one rule: no arseholes. I have a red line about that. If you act out, you get thrown out.
Tell us about an upcoming project that excites you.
I launched my ongoing AURORA series of short films in 2020 as I was fascinated by the boom in online self-appointed self-help gurus, wellness advisors and other YouTubers putting themselves forward to offer advice, healing and affirmations to strangers. There are three more films yet to come, performed by the fabulous Alessia Patregnani.
In visual art I’m working on lots of new works on paper which are beautiful and intense and time-consuming and I have absolutely no idea what to do with them.
It’s impossible to plan at the moment but in 2022 I’d like to direct my first feature film – more details to come. Generally speaking I’d like to do more screen performing in films. I just like wearing the costumes and being there.
“The first piece I wrote was called ‘The girl who couldn’t see herself’.”
We spoke to author and actor Leena Dhingra ahead of the book launch of her novel ‘Exhumation: The Life and Death of Madan Lal Dhingra’.
What three words best describe you?
I don’t know. In fact the first piece I wrote was called ‘ The girl who couldn’t see herself’.
What do you most enjoy about being a writer?
The quiet safe space I can create in which to find and listen to my voice and the magic of the images and words that reveal themselves.
Your novel, Exhumation: The Life and Death of Madan Lal Dhingra has just been published. What was the most challenging aspect of making it happen?
Everything about it was challenging. The research, the structure, rejections, the theme...
How was it to combine aspects of history and memoir to write this novel? Was it difficult/easy?
It was difficult but it felt the only way to approach it. Some people said it didn’t work, others said it did, so that too was confusing.
Do you find that there are any similarities between your career as an actor and a writer? Any differences?
Both as an actor and writer I feel ‘marginal’. At the same time both have had moments of pure transcendence; My role in Dr Who unexpectedly released me from a trauma enabling me to revisit and steer EXHUMATION to publication.
Tell us about an upcoming project that excites you.
I have written part of a monologue in my mothers voice and quirky humour , surfing through her life–of growing up in Lahore, colonial rule, partition, loss, dislocation, being a refugee and ‘getting a house without any money’ . It would be exciting to find a platform for it.
Jonathan Davidson, Chief Executive of Writing West Midlands discussed his work with us ahead of the launch of Amanda Smyth’s ‘Fortune’.
What three words best describe you?
Relentlessly optimistic reader.
Tell us how you got into what you do?
I was first of all interested in the sound of my own voice (or how it wrote) and then became more interested in other people’s voices, spoken and written. I took jobs that allowed me to support others and then made an organisation that allowed me to do that exclusively.
What do you most enjoy about being a writer and producer?
As a producer I like to see people enjoying that which they did not even know about until it was presented to them.
Tell us about a creative masterpiece you wish you'd written.
For reasons of age, geographical loyalty and an ear for phrase-making, I wish only to have written ‘Mercian Hymns’ by Geoffrey Hill.
Tell us about an upcoming project that excites you?
I am excited and unnerved by the prospect of organising our regular National Writers’ Conference in Birmingham on Saturday 4th September 2021, and bringing it back to ‘real-space’ after 18 months of being online only.
“I would like to think journalism allows us to shine the light on neglected, dark, sad corners of the world, giving people who are somehow powerless a voice.”
We spoke to journalist and writer Ira Mathur about literature and her career ahead of the launch of Amanda Smyth’s ‘Fortune’.
What three words best describe you?
Bookish, Curious, Mercurial.
Tell us how you got into what you do?
My father came to my graduation ceremony at Trent University in Canada expecting me to get the queue business degree, but I went up for the liberal arts degree in philosophy, literature and history. I had switched without telling my parents. He railed, saying he wanted me to be as a woman because he somehow knew being a man himself that men were bastards, and it was more important for me to be self-reliant than it was for my brother. Back in Tobago, I settled in very happily to work as a clerk in the ministry of culture, which was opposite the sea and full of books. But one day, after I broke my ankle on the stairs of our house, he announced I was to get my master’s in journalism at city university in London. I railed, but he took me with a cast on my leg to London and stayed a month till it came off. In that International Journalism class attended by journalists from everywhere, the world burst open, and I saw the responsibility of the fourth estate in a world that was daily punctured by war, injustice and famine.
What do you most enjoy about being a writer and journalist?
I've been doing this for 25 years, and I still feel a thrill at every interview - be it a man in a shack whose brothers are dead from gang warfare or covering an event with a Nobel laureate or sitting in a room with children with HIV/AIDS. People open their hearts and minds to journalists with the trust that their voices, silenced or obscure or helpless against injustice, will be heard. I would like to think journalism allows us to shine the light on neglected, dark, sad corners of the world, giving people who are somehow powerless a voice.
Tell us about a creative masterpiece you wish you'd written.
That would be Arundati Roy’s God of Small Things. I grew up in South India, and she somehow reaches into the kernel of things that are so close to us that we don't even name them. Roy names loss that hides in quiet things, like socks, books, food, violin cases, sores of shins. The themes are universal of pain, loss, abuse and love, and beautifully particular to a place and time. But that it's done with such exquisite language that it makes you want to put the book down, and just think of a sentence. It lingers for years, hangs around your psyche, until it becomes part of you. That’s what makes it a masterpiece. I feel the same about VS Naipaul s book Guerrillas which I think is the best novel of all time, and Dereck Walcotts final collection of poems, White Egrets.
Tell us about an upcoming project that excites you?
Peepal Tree Press is publishing a memoir I've been working for a long time next July. It's a very personal story wedged into a weekend with the late Nobel Laureate Derek Walcott in St Lucia. It's my own love story to Trinidad, and India where I was born and grew up as a child. A novel I wrote during lockdown is also shortlisted in the final 31 from 2058 novels submitted globally for the Bath Novel Award and I’m looking forward to seeing where that will land.
The mission of Unlocked Graduates which started in 2016 is to develop outstanding leaders to break cycles of reoffending in prison and throughout society. The programme was one of the key recommendations of the Coates’ Review of prison education which argued that education needs to be put at the heart of the prison service if the Government is to be serious about the rehabilitation of prisoners.
Poet and spoken word artist Michael Brome, also a prison warden with fifteen years service at HMP Leicester talks about his experience working in prisons and shaping a life through the art and craft of words, and having care for the way you treat others.
Watch his TEDx Talk here: https://www.tedxleicester.com/
Based on his new book of the same name, God Save the Teen (Burning Eye Books, 2017), Andrew Graves tours his one-person show around the UK. It is a moving and hilarious drama of gob-smackingly embarrassing first dates, imagined rock-n-roll supermarkets, divorce, disillusion, and working-class rebellion.
Expect disappearing goths, sadistic PE teachers and a search for the truth and somewhere to belong.
Watch an extract of the show here.
Review of John Agard’s The Coming of The Little Green Man Witty, poignant and characteristically mischievous: The Coming of The Little Green Man is Agard at his finest.
The collection follows the journey of an outsider as they explore the unknown and experience a world alien from their own. Our Little Green Man throws himself into a world full of social, racial and political issues, observing a whole new cultural landscape – not so much as a tourist, but rather a man on a pilgrimage. Agard writes with such humour, such a light-hearted and animated voice, that he is able to bring a graceful levity to the darker and more serious themes of the collection, without ever straying or hiding from them. The Coming of The Little Green Man is a triumph in its uncanny ability to find this balance.
Each poem is brilliantly crafted and reads well on its own, but The Coming of The Little Green Man begs to be read, cover to cover, as a story. Agard’s ability to follow this Little Green Mans incredible adventure throughout the collection, without diversion or deviation, is an impressive feat. That being said, there are a few individual poems that I personally found to be worthy of special treatment. ‘A Bonsai Moment’, ‘A Debate’ and ‘Keen to Give Blood’ are such poems. The Coming of The Little Green Man combines Agard’s trademark wit with a profound understanding of cultural issues, to tell the story of an outsider and his journey into foreign territory. It is a great collection - brilliantly balanced and genuinely funny – and definitely worth the read.
Review by Jacob Spivey
The most impactful consequence of Arts funding cuts, and one that is often ignored, is the effect of the Arts on Mental Health. With the UK in a mental health epidemic, and rates of mental illness in young people at an all time high, how do we justify cutting funding to a proven mental health aid?
I have already established how and why the Arts are being cut in my first post, now it’s important to address how this impacts day-to-day life. A recent evaluation by the National Alliance for Arts, Health and Wellbeing show that just one short art session led to an over 70% fall in levels of anxiety and depression in participants, and these results are not in a vacuum. The “All-Party Parliamentary Group on Arts, Health and Wellbeing”, explained in their Creative Health report that they had found similar results. These studies do not categorically prove that there is link between the decline in Mental Health and the defunding of the Arts, but they do purport the link between Arts programmes and improved mental health, and that gets us some of the way there.
Luckily this is an angle that is already being explored in America; with physicians from Weill Cornell Medical College warning of the dangerous consequences of defunding Arts and Music programmes at ‘The Arts + Mental Health: The Impact on the Human Spirit’ forum in New York, in 2011. Citing studies that found there was an increase in the use of mental health facilities when Arts programmes were cut, Dr Richard Kogan warned that he felt these cuts were “penny wise but pound foolish.” It seems that at least some of these warnings rang true, with the decline in Mental Health seemingly keeping pace with the decline in Arts funding in both UK and US respectively.
A 2018 study found that a quarter of 14-year-old girls had self-harmed, with similar studies suggesting one in 6 people experiences a mental health symptom every week: with statistics like these how do we reconcile the cutting of Arts Funding and the government promise to improve Mental Health facilities? I don’t think we can. As I’ve already explored, albeit briefly, there is a clear link between artistic expression and mental health, there is also a direct link between the cuts in Arts funding and austerity measures, does it not then follow that the government sanctioned austerity cuts have an indirect impact on the current Mental Health climate?
There is no obvious solution to this issue, short of a reassignment of key funding to support the Arts. Now more than ever, it is important to support artistic and Mental Health charities, to stay aware of the financial pressures facing creative industries and organisations, and to be mindful of how you choose to donate. It is also important to remember that statistics mentioned above, and find an artistic outlet should you need one.
Written by Esmé Bonner
Perhaps the most important question for this blog series is how do we know the arts are losing funding, and moreover, why are they?
In January 2018, Arts Council England announced a restructuring of their grants system, and an overall cut of £156Million to the 2018-22 budget. Explaining a number of budget reassessments, they state that the £156Million cut was due to a downturn in Lottery sales, with a national collapse leading to £41Million income deficit in 2016, and the most recent figures from 2017 revealing a further 4.7% fall in returns; making an additional £5Million shortfall inevitable. This is irrefutable proof that the Arts are losing funding in key areas, but this is hardly the last of it.
A 2015 article tracked the uptick in private Artistic tuition, citing a £4 p/hour increase in music tuition in Pembrokeshire, and a drop in school based participation. Building on this, the same article quotes the Warwick Commission’s report, which found only 8% of the population are “culturally active”. Vikki Heywood said, about the same report, that it was up to “the government and the cultural and creative industries to take a united and coherent approach that guarantees equal access for everyone to a rich cultural education.” And indeed with creative industries bringing in £76.9Billion a year in 2015, and upwards since, there remains a financial incentive for the government to maintain funding in key developmental areas.
Unfortunately, that is not the case. A number of reports from this year show an overall squeeze in schools Arts funding, with over 90% of the 1,200 participating secondary schools (that’s over 40% of secondary schools in the country) admitting to cutting their Creative Arts programmes. Three in 10 schools in this report reduced timetabled hours for the Creative Arts, four in 10 had reduced funding, and one in 10 stated they relied on parental donations to keep their Arts programmes up and running. These reports come on the back of Education Policy Institute research showing only 53.5% of children took an arts subject GCSE in 2016, a trend which is feared to continue. Cuts to school funding, as with so many other things can be tracked back to government austerity, despite then-Chancellor George Osborne promising to protect our schools in 2010 (when austerity budgets where introduced) schools have faced budget cut backs across the board, with academisation doing little to change that.
Cutting Arts funding at secondary level has a knock on effect in higher education, with UCAS reporting a 16% drop in Arts applicants this year, and some sources suggesting a particular cut back in English Literature candidates. This has two major consequences; the first is a lack of qualified applicants for positions in creative industries, from design to publishing. The second is the continuation of the teacher shortage; with cash incentives already in place to encourage Maths and STEM students to take a PGCE it may be only a matter of time before the same is necessary in English.
By Esmé Bonner
Ntozake Shange inspired so many to not be afraid of expressing their oppression. She opened the floor for taboo subjects, such as: racism, sexism, rape and the empowerment of black voices to be heard. A woman. A feminist. A game changer. A visionary. The list could go on. Her words come to mind, ‘Where there is a woman there is magic’, and she was magic.
Growing up in rural Jamaica there was no theatre apart from the nativity play at Christmas and the Passion play at Easter. So when a young teacher from Kingston took me to see For Coloured Girls it was an experience I never forgot.
Then I started touring the world with my poetry and who did I run into in Oslo Norway, but Ntozake Shange herself. What a meeting that was.
Years later we toured Britain together and i wore a different colour of the rainbow every night in celebration of the woman who opened up my young brain.
Just as I had fallen in love with Coloured Girls so she fell in love with my Madwoman Poem and we recited to each other late in the nite.
I haven’t seen you for years but Shange I shall miss your presence n the world. You brought me and all your sisters a rainbow in our skies.
The last time I saw Ntozake Shange I was playing the lead in the London West End premiere of her play Love Space Demands. That was the height of my experience as a poet and actress and she flew in to see it. So many incredible memories of Shange, so many incredible songs.
When you live inside of her words you realize the genius she was.
Written by Olivia Aroh, words taken from texts by Jean Binta Breeze
Diversifying the arts has become a hot button topic for all the main political parties, yet the question remains, how can the arts grow and diversify if they can barely afford to stay afloat? Seen as inessential by local authorities, it is arts programmes that take the hit when funding gets cut, and thus the governments support and ostensible commitment to diversifying the arts is rendered entirely pointless. When everything from local libraries, to small theatres becomes unsustainable, how do the arts continue to grow? And with the cost of music lessons, and similar artistic tuition, on the rise how do we prevent artistic expression becoming inextricably linked to personal wealth? Over the course of this short blog series, I will look at how the arts benefit mental health, how they help the development of young people, and most importantly how they survive in an age of austerity, and funding cuts.
7thMarch 1956- 14thFebruary 2019
The Jamaican British author Andrea Levy died on the 14th February 2019, aged 62, after living with cancer for several years. Praised as the “Chronicler of the Windrush generation”, Levy’s works explored the experiences of Jamaican British people, and provided a voice for millions.
Levy’s writing career began first as a hobby, before she published three novels in 1990s truly launching her career. Her fourth novel, Small Island, earned Levy a spot amongst the literary greats, and established her as one of Britain’s best-loved voices. Yet, she was familiar with her lack of recognition, like so many black writers Levy was all too aware of marginalisation, joking in 1999 that publishers simply didn’t know what to do with her writing.
Levy was born in London in 1956 to parents who were part of the boom in immigration that shaped postwar Britain, her father arriving in the UK on the Empire Windrush in 1948 and her mother following shortly afterwards. She grew up on a council estate in Highbury, north London, and went on to study Textiles at Middlesex Polytechnic. In a number of interviews with The Guardian Levy discussed the internalised racism of her youth, and the rude and sudden awakening of her own racial identity she experienced as part of her work at an Islington sex education project. This change in perspective led Levy to produce some of the most important novels for the Jamaican British identity in recent history.
Andrea Levy was deeply loved, and will be remembered for her generous, gentle and affectionate manner, as well as her raucous and playful humour; but it is her novels, and the work she did for equality that will stand the test of time.
Written by Esmé Bonner, taken from the writings of Gary Younge and Richard Lea
Renaissance One / Tilt are organisations that strives to cultivate diversity within literature. It is important that the word ‘artist’ represent a range of different areas and ways in which people are able to express themselves. The aim is to expand the limiting definition of ‘performance poetry’ and help evolve the meaning so it can be used to describe different mediums that consider themes such as, speech, satire and oratory, thus showing that there are a range of ways that can be used to express a story.
This very aim made me think of the new and different realms of artistry, especially in our postmodern society. Social media is an excellent example that has allowed the meaning of artist to expand holding the title of an artist can almost be seen as less of an occupation but more of a way of living, but most importantly, it is being able to tell a story, regardless of gender or race.
That is why in this mini-series I would like to talk about and express my interest in colourism and intersectional feminism, within the millennial era. Although times are becoming more aware of diversity [as they should] it is clear that a narrow, archaic and prejudice outlook is still prevalent. We need to understand the root of these notions and moreover continue to keep the conversation going.
“The self is something – floodgates open to the constant otherness of experience – to be overwhelmed.”
In our second interview leading up to 'This, That and The Other', Will Harris discusses his work and the theme of otherness. 'This, That and The Other' will be held at the Bronte Parsonage Museum on Saturday 28 July at 7.30pm. For more information and to book tickets click here.
What 3 words would you say best describe you?
Not very pithy.
Tell us how you got into doing what you do.
As a teenager I read a poem by Wallace Stevens about peacocks the "color of heavy hemlocks", and it was mad and incantatory and different to anything I'd studied, and though it may have had palpable designs upon me it was – shorn of character, plot, dialogue, themes, "subject matter" – more like hearing a familiar bass line through a car window or smelling fried halloumi for the first time.
What was the main impetus behind you writing your recent publication Mixed Race Superman?
I wanted to write about the confusions of a "mixed race" identity – particularly as it intersects with ideas of masculinity – as a way to write about the larger paradoxes behind race-thinking (My dad is English and my mum Indonesian; I grew up thinking of myself as English, but everyone who's ever met me has assumed I'm Asian of some kind). Not out of a need to explain or define myself, but to draw out the perniciousness of that very need to know – both for other people to know who/what you are, and for people of colour to know themselves. To channel the essay's argument I focussed on two "superheroic" mixed-race figures, Keanu Reeves and Barack Obama, who, in how they approached race, have played important roles in shaping my own (non-)sense of identity.
Can you talk a little about the otherness themes that you explore within it?
I understand otherness in two ways. There's the Other as defined by Edward Said – "a sort of surrogate or even underground self" whose role is to prop up the – white, western, active, male – Self. Then there's the otherness that Emanuel Levinas discusses in terms of the "irrecusable exigency of the other, a duty overflowing my being". In both cases, the self is something – floodgates open to the constant otherness of experience – to be overwhelmed.
What creative masterpiece do you wish you could have written?
The Brothers Karamazov, so I don't have to read it. Or hmm... wouldn't it be horrible to steal a writing credit from someone whose work you really admired? Imagine taking the Buru Quartet away from Pramoedya Ananta Toer after he spent 10 years in prison writing it! Maybe I should "have written" (a tense that comes naturally to me) something I don't admire, or admire ambivalently, like Philip Roth's The Counterlife or John Berryman's Dream Songs, or Wordsworth's Prelude. But putting aside ethics, I'd gladly have written any of Simone Weil's essays or Penelope Fitzgerald's The Gate of Angels.
What's an important piece of insider knowledge you have as a creator, writer and thinker?
No sight but hindsight. The point of work is doing it. Make notes. Read the Communist Manifesto.
Tell us about an upcoming project that excites you, and how we can find out more about it.
I'm finishing a poetry book, which is exciting. And, thanks to Jaybird Live Literature, I'm going on a poetry tour with the excellent and exciting Ella Frears and Alex MacDonald in the autumn (more details here).
‘This, That and The Other’ is the headline event for the Emily 2018 (events celebrating the 200th birthday of Emily Brontë), featuring a stunning array of poets, musicians and wordsmiths, all offering their personal response to the themes of ‘other’ and the ‘outsider’; themes central to Wuthering Heights and pertinent to Emily Brontë. Join us to experience the thrill of performance, perfectly pitched speech, rousing wordplay and the art of Trinidad-style liming. With Patience Agbabi, John Siddique, Jay Bernard, Will Harris, Tobago Crusoe and Melanie Abrahams.
The event is part of a four-part series curated by Melanie Abrahams for the Bronte Parsonage Museum as part of Brontë 200.
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