JAMIE BRITTON recommends that we all buy at least two copies of a remarkable book of poems
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Still struggling after all these years
The poet starving in a garret is a well-known literary trope, but a black woman poet writing about the enduring legacies of British slavery is less so. JENNY MITCHELL explains why
AWAKENED IN AFRICA: Jenny Mitchell
[Billy Grant]
The bard joins the Carnival Against Fascism, which summer fun sends him down Memory Lane
FIONA O’CONNOR is bowled over by a stunning Welsh language drama
MARIA DUARTE and MICHAL BONCZA review Virginia Woolf’s Night & Day, Familiar Touch, Nino, and Toy Story 5
MATTHEW HAWKINS explores the initiatives proposed by HEALING ARTS SCOTLAND
ALEX HALL welcomes an analysis of how modern capitalism is deeply intertwined with emotions, and their manipulation
MY SECOND poetry collection, Map of a Plantation, examines why the contested history of transatlantic enslavement ensures a structural path or “map” that restricts black people, on the whole, to servile positions within Britain.
My starting point is my own working life and long journey to becoming a poet. Although born in Britain, I often felt unwelcome and see that my education in a “failing” Kilburn school was preparation to work in a shop or a hospital.
This path was diverted when, at 15, I was one of 10 winners in a London-wide poetry competition. My school labelled me exceptional and I was supported to get into a good university.
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