Lemn Sissay reads from his new collection, Gold From the Stone, at Musicport festival in Whitby, 21-23 October, The poet talks about how his foster parents put him into care at the age of 12 and left him there, and finding his birth mother, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning, Lemn Sissay They treated me as if I was a Trojan horse sent into the family to destroy it., Lemn Sissay: My foster parents were good people who did bad things. I slowly realised I was being set up. It didnt feel like a traumatic experience at the time, but as I got older it dawned on me that an older, white, middle-class woman with seven black children in her house, beating them with a cane, was a bit strange., Author and artistic director/CEO, Bernie Grant Arts Centre, London, I think of my life in two parts: before I traced my birth family and after, says former Guardian journalist Hannah-Azieb Pool, who detailed the journey in her memoir My Fathers Daughter (republished this year). Which is interesting, because I always saw myself as white. The abuse was confusing, he says, but Im quite stubborn. His Landmark poems are visible in London, Manchester, Huddersfield and Addis Ababa. When you are told by your parents that you are something you know you are not, it is very scary. He said he now tries to put all his energy into projects that help children in care. Its an incredibly common experience. I was in care. He didnt disclose his own experience to anyone at university until he co-founded a participatory research project called The Verbatim Formula in 2015. My Name Is Why: Quick Reads 2022: Amazon.co.uk: Sissay, Lemn: 9781838854645: Books Skip to main content .co.uk Hello Select your address It was about having support and confidence, and knowing what is possible, she says, I didnt even know what an artist was.. Something pinched her features. He is also the editor of The Fire People: A Collection of Contemporary Black British Poets (1998), and his work has appeared in many anthologies. The project is the brainchild of poet and activist Lemn Sissay, himself a graduate of the system, who wanted to create an image of successful lives as an inspiration for the many thousands of children struggling in care today. Poet Lemn Sissay says he felt obliged to accept his OBE because the award honours his younger self who overcame a "dehumanising" time in care. Its listening to care-experienced young people Ive been working with that has empowered me to talk openly about it., Donna Ludford applied to become lord mayor of the City of Manchester to raise aspirations for young people in the care system. Im getting to exorcise lots of demons., Now writing a memoir about her journey from care to Cambridge University, by day Kasmira Kincaid works as a fundraiser for Shelter. Healing can hurt too. Composite: All images courtesy of contributors, Every one of us has a different story: a historic portrait of care system success, once was Christopher Goldsmith, reads a poem, neatly typed out on one side of a piece of A4 paper. This led me to the answer I thought they wanted me to get to. Now she is a lived experience consultant and the co-founder of calling4gr8ness.org, supporting care-experienced young adults in the creative industries. It made me aware that families all look different and thats absolutely fine., Carl Parsons was adopted at five weeks. Spectacularly ordinary, is how poet Paul Cookson describes his very happy childhood in Lancashire alongside three other siblings, all of them adopted. Mr and Mrs Greenwood realise there may be many problems ahead with Norman. The skies are grey. After a 31-year campaign he received them in 2015. My brother Christopher was eight. He has been made an Honorary Doctor by the universities of Manchester, Kent, Essex, Huddersfield and Brunel, and in 2019 . I took off my trousers and gave them to my brother. My grandad and foster parents and I used to go down to the bay to get salmon, trout and mussels. They include Olympic medallist Kriss Akabusi; novelist Jeanette Winterson; the comedian and Observer columnist Stewart Lee, and the Turner prize-nominated photographer and film-maker Zarina Bhimji. Before joining digital arts platfrom WhyNow as creative director last year, Janet Lee worked for the BBC, where she was the editor of programmes including Imagine and The Culture Show and a producer on Desert Island Discs. Because her care experience happened so early she was in and out of a foster home in east London until the age of five Siroun Button never really thought of herself as somebody whod been in care. My mother was a manic depressive, so I was in and out of care. It was amazing to find him and realise where I get my activism from., Social work leader, campaigner and charity trustee. He's talked before about a later meeting, but this first reunion, on London's South. Natalie Hirst, right, with a girl she met while visiting her grandmother at her caravan site. Writer and national campaigner for young people in care, Chris Wild has written two books about his experiences in care, Damaged and The State of It, and has spent the past decade campaigning to improve the care system. Lemn Sissay is a poet, author and broadcaster who was the official poet of the London Olympics in 2012. In the process of tracking down his birth parents, which is ongoing, Chris Fretwell learned that he was given up for adoption to cover up a family scandal: his parents were first cousins. Ive never used it in a serious way, and I absolutely never will, says Stewart Lee of mining his care experience for standup material he was in care for the first year of his life before being adopted by a couple in Solihull. Where they are, we have been; where we are, they can go, says Akabusi who, like several others in the room, found his way through by joining the army. Insomuch as the foster child is a cipher to the dysfunction of a family and also a seer. He asked me to yelp so it sounded like I was being punished. Ive put a great amount of my own time back into trying to improve things for other people., It destroys you as a person, the amount of anxiety you develop from always expecting something to go wrong in your life, says Tarell Mcintosh, who became homeless after two local authorities in south London failed to properly care for him. Christopher Goldsmith lived for a month, he writes, then quietly died, slipped away/ Almost never existed Christopher died so that I might have life/ and have it more abundantly.. None of us have ever looked into our birth parents, he says. Pete Turner was adopted at five months and grew up in Bury in a very liberal family that loved me, he says. They encouraged me in everything that Ive wanted to do. Which in Turners case meant becoming a musician hes a founder member of the rock band Elbow. Author and national adviser for care leavers. He learned that his real name was not Norman. Opening the evening with the epicMorning Breaks, he immediately pitched the listeners into a tale of the narrator clinging onto a branch for years before choosing to finally let go, having, throughout all his time in suspension, grown wings which enabled him to take flight. Its like, should I be receiving all of this, should I even be doing it? he says. My friends. He is in two minds about searching for his birth parents. The world of Lemn Sissay Home Tag Archives: christophergreenwood Mercy Mercy Mercy Mercy Posted on March 2, 2013 by Lemn Sissay 8 Every Ethiopian, Eritrean, American and European who has any interest in race, identity, loss, storytelling, psychology, childhood, religion, nationhood, documentary making, or intercontinental Read more [.] Every one of us has a different story, says Sissay, beaming around the room in a shirt that is playing catch-up with the sun. I dont feel like its for me to make a story out of their sacrifices and goodwill., Director of access and participation, Rada, and co-director of We Are Bridge, Its so important to celebrate the successes, says Axa Hynes of the photoshoot at the Foundling Museum, but because there were so many hurdles it can also feel uncomfortable, a distraction from the deep, systemic societal change that has to happen. Hynes went into care aged 10, fostered by a family friend who had already been giving her family emotional and practical support. Postscript: After Woodfields, Lemn Sissay was sent to two more childrens homes. Why would I think anything else? Sissay was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, has been chancellor of the University of Manchester since 2015, and joined the Foundling Museum's board of trustees two years later, having previously been appointed one of the museum's fellows. 31 December 1979: Message left after Christmas saying that the Greenwoods wanted Norman removed without further notice. Social workers report, 31 December 1979: Spoke to foster parents on telephone. It was the end of December 1979 and I was excited when I entered the front room for the family meeting. In the Baptist church, our church, we were taught to question why. The church. Just me. One of the greatest signs of my own sense of independence when I left care was the day I could ask for help when I needed it. At school I was subject to all kinds of questions about my race, which I couldnt answer. If I told someone I was in care, their handbag would move to the other side, jokes Luis De Abreu, who made his escape through acting and is now principal of the dance and music theatre conservatoire he joined after dropping out of school at 15. It was Lemn Sissay. Mum and Dad said I was like Macavity. As he moved into adulthood he was given his birth certificate and saw that his real name was Lemn Sissay and that his mother was called Yemarshet. Buy My Name Is Why: Quick Reads 2022 Main - Quick Reads by Sissay, Lemn (ISBN: 9781838854645) from Amazon's Book Store. We raced each other home from school every day and every day I got there first. He rebelled against the system and later ended up in detention centres and prisons, dealing with drug addiction. Yet in 1980, at the age of 12, young Norman was abruptly expelled from his white . Secrets are the stonesThat sink the boatTake them out, look at themThrow them out and float. I have no one to dispute or agree on the memory of me, good or bad. Seek and ye shall find. This is what they wanted to seek. It was a difficult situation, he says. None of us have ever gone back to look for our birth families. But his writing tells a subtly different story: And so, nearly half a century later/ nearer to the end of the journey/ than the beginning,/ those questions arise/ and may remain unanswered/ but arise anyway.. Its not a shameful thing any more. Hoyle went into care as a young teenager and at 18 he set up a charity for care leavers called A National Voice: We campaigned to stop children in care leaving with their belongings in bin bags. Now he works for North Yorkshire county council identifying and implementing ways that we can make life better for children in care. Now, as he approaches his 55th birthday, he's added another: children's writer. Visiting my mum in hospital, Id see people screaming in straitjackets. The upside of his experience, he says, was that he had no fear from a very young age, and he connects this to his career successes DJing at Londons Wag Club in the 1980s, starting the clothing label Duffer of St George. And in the Baptist faith a sinner must ask forgiveness for his sins. Over the next few weeks the childrens home filled up with mainly teenagers. Her experience of finding herself homeless and powerless after leaving care inspired her to start a campaign, calling4gr8ness.org to support young care leavers in the same predicament. His Landmark poems are visible in London, Manchester, Huddersfield and Addis Ababa. Best known for designing clothes for Diana, Princess of Wales, Bruce Oldfield was born in Durham and fostered at 18 months by a seamstress, Violet Masters, who taught him how to sew. Akabusi joined the British army aged 16 and later embarked on a glittering athletics career as a sprinter and hurdler. Its never really been something that had a lasting effect on me., CEO of Adoptee Futures and critical adoption studies researcher, I was fostered till the age of one and then placed with my adoptive family, says Annalisa Toccara. Sheen has made a documentary about her experience, a powerful study of cultural displacement and linguistic disenfranchisement called Abandoned Adopted Here. I am not defined by my scars but by the incredible ability to heal. Interspersing readings from his new collectionGold from the Stonewith moving and raw recollections of his childhood, Lemn transfixed the audience. He has authored collections of poetry and plays and his memoir My Name Is Why was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. It was followed bySome Things I Like, which he said he had recounted to a girlfriend after she had asked him to tell her something about himself. Or 45 years. He was badly bullied at school and his education suffered terribly, but he soldiered on and enrolled at Bird College aged 22 to study dance and musical theatre. Lemn Sissay's poem "Some Things I Like" celebrates what we might consider discardable like cold tea, ash trays, and even people. A lot of transracial adoptees talk about how racist their white families are, but actually, its racism that affects them too, and the way they see the world, says Rowe. It must be true. When my foster parents put me into care, at the age of 12, they said: Were never going to write to you, were never going to come. I could never have imagined that the people who said they were my parents for ever could do such a thing. If we spent long enough with each other, wed probably all start crying. Answering questions, he said he is still angry but now it is more defined and he does not maintain the same anger of his youth. So it didnt just have to be: this is your problem. His love will shine through me and them. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey. I believed her. Lemn Sissay: 'My younger self did not deserve what institutions did to him' In a Letter to My Younger Self, the writer-broadcaster speaks candidly with The Big Issue about a childhood in care Adrian Lobb 6 Sep 2019 The memory of my younger self is something I struggle with. Come what may, I may be knocked down, but I wont be down for long., Artist and founder member of the darkroom e5process, Tina Rowe first encountered racism when, aged six, she moved with her white adoptive family from a small Oxfordshire village to Malvern in Worcestershire. I just felt I had to hide it, says Sophie Willan, creator and star of Almas Not Normal, of her experience in care she spent much of her childhood in foster care in Bolton. His zodiac sign is Gemini. I showed my love for him by punching him. My mother had schizophrenia, I had a stepfather who was very violent to my mother and to me. Ive loved mussels ever since. The journey took about 45 minutes, or 45 seconds. His is an extraordinary story of family, and identity, lost and . He spent 10 months in Wood End Assessment Centre in 1984. 19 April 1978: There is a letter on file from Normans mother, written in 1968, requesting he be returned to her in Ethiopia perhaps Norman should be made aware of this? Social workers report, on which someone has written in block capitals, NOT YET I THINK. The social worker handed Lemn to foster parents and declared his name Norman. See more information He spoke of finding wreckage from the crash in the documentary Internal Flight which can be viewed on YouTube. I spent my life searching for my birth family. Paperback. Lemn Sissay MBE (born 21 May 1967) is an English author and broadcaster. Thered be many times in the future that I would play table tennis with myself by pushing the table against the wall. CERI - Centre for Educational Research and Innovation, Ceremony of Carols Brings Light on a Dark December Evening, Local Primaries Compete in Maths Challenge, Cross Country Teams Crowned Town Champions, Girls Win Club Stage of Utilita Girls' Cup, 50th Tillotson Lecture Focuses on Biotechnology Revolution, Harriet is Swim Englands Breakthrough Athlete of the Year, Girls Lay Wreath During Armistice Assembly, Lacrosse Team Wins Northern Schools Tournament, One-Day Film School Develops a Range of Skills, Prize-giving Celebrates Outstanding Achievements. Lemn Sissay is a BAFTA-nominated, award-winning international writer and broadcaster. "I wanted to hold them accountable for what they did," Sissay says. Lemn Sissay MBE is a British author and broadcaster. I had nothing to put in the locker by my bed. It was Lemn Sissay. Being adopted is definitely something that puts a mark on you, says fashion and portrait photographer Philip Sinden. Lemn Sissay on ITV News (Credit: ITV) He gained significant international recognition in 2012 when he was appointed the official poet at the 2012 London Olympics. When Lennox Cato and his older brother were adopted by a white family in Brighton, they stayed in touch with their birth parents, who had come over from Grenada. He was British and Ethiopian, and he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth. LEMN SISSAY. Through my lived experience of being adopted, I co-founded a mental-health organisation called Adoptee Futures, which is led by adoptees and which centres adoptees. Lemn Sissay MBE, yes put some respeck on his name and add them last 3 letters. He was taken into long-term foster care in Wigan and named Norman Greenwood. He advocates for children in the local authority's care and is involved in organisations concerning their welfare. I lost everybody. I was a very challenging and complex young person. His memoir about that time, Fifty-One Moves, is now taught at universities and Ashcroft is a founding member of the campaign group Every Child Leaving Care Matters. Went on to talk about another placement for Norman without any consideration of how the boy might feel. I was just nudging into adolescence at the time, and theyd recently had their third child, Helen. When Stallone heard Riddells tale of growing up in Aberdeen childrens homes in the early 80s, he urged him to share his story more widely. Poet Lemn Sissay, with the help of London's Foundling Museum, has gathered 59 athletes, artists, CEOs and others who, like him, spent part of their childhoods in care. We had the same rivalry most brothers have. Alex Wheatle grew up in care in the notorious Shirley Oaks childrens home in Croydon a very lonely existence, he says. In junior school, he proudly announced that he was adopted and half-Pakistani. Other weird things started to happen. They were just friends, says Cato, now an expert on Antiques Roadshow. Once her pregnancy became known, she was moved from Bracknell, Berkshire to Plodder Lane, Bolton. Over the past few years I sensed I had done something wrong and yet didnt know what it was. Gilt of Cain by Michael Visocchi & Lemn Sissay This powerful sculpture was unveiled by the Archbishop Emeritus Desmond Mpilo Tutu on 4 th September 2008. He wrote about the experience in his 2010 poetry collection Whistle, which was shortlisted for a Ted Hughes award and which Figura later turned into an Edinburgh show. I would have said that the only thing a child needs is love, she says, reflecting on her own experience of being happily adopted by her white family in Wimbledon in 1966. They were an aspirational middle-class family from Lancashire. As much as you read this book and are in shock (or not) at how this young black child was dragged through a problematic system and feel angry at the injustices he has faced, you can't . Interspersing readings from his new collection Gold from the Stone with moving and raw recollections of his childhood, Lemn transfixed the audience. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth. I waited in the kitchen by my mum. The betrayal was the worst thing. Its been fine., Greg Bramble counts himself lucky that he and his brother Richard, also featured, had a stable experience with a foster family in Warwickshire, but leaving his birth family aged 10 was traumatic, and negotiating their new family life was often fraught. Mrs Greenwood does not think of the boy as a foster child. When he was four, Kriss Akabusis parents returned to Nigeria, leaving him alone in the UK with his younger brother. For ever, for ages, until the end came, no matter how volatile the day had been, Id pray shed open the bedroom door before I slept, Id pray shed sit on the edge of my bed and sing me to sleep as she did when I was younger. He recalled how becoming 12 years old, he started to develop into an adolescent and told the odd lie and stayed out late occasionally. Donna Ludford, aged six months, with her dad. My name, my brother . His biological mother had traveled to from Ethiopia to England in the late 1960s and because she was pregnant and single was pushed to put her baby up for adoption. Music producer/writer; founder of clothing labels Duffer of St George and Sharpeye; author; one of the two creators of the rare groove scene; photographer; activist. Lemn Sissay was born on 21 May 1967 in Billinge Hospital, near Wigan, Lancashire Higher End, England, UK. I opened the door to allow that to happen. . Lemn means 'why' in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, where celebrated poet Lemn Sissay's mother was from. I looked back, but they were turning to go indoors, mindful of the neighbours. Thank you. This is a great opportunity to celebrate our achievements, says Keith Saha of the Foundling Museum project. I was a questioner. Ben Ashcroft, the author of a memoir titled Fifty-One Moves, was nearly one of them. In a sea of brilliantly coloured fabrics never has clothing seemed more important to the story we tell of ourselves TV producer and editor Janet Lee looks particularly confident in jazzy reds, hot oranges and cheeky pinks. Johanan Walker enthusiastically nods. A decade ago, Clare Gorham was very much pro transracial adoption. One dual carriageway, with a single destination: Woodfields. Im 12. Moving unexpectedly from subject to subject, he thanked the girls for producing such wonderful flags devoted to his poetry which he had seen on the English corridor and said had truly moved him. Born in London, Henry was privately fostered at six months by a wonderful couple in Weston-super-Mare who encouraged her dreams of becoming an actor shes currently starring in Mad House in the West End. His own inspiration in poetry has come from ColeridgesRime of the Ancient Mariner. That was it! They were my parents and I loved them unconditionally. Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. The internationally acclaimed poet and playwright Lemn Sissay OBE shares the story of his life by recalling five memorable dishes. Sissay realised he'd been stolen. We can go on to do better if were just given the same life chances as other people. We were very secure in our upbringing. But he did accidentally come across his birth name: Christopher Goldsmith. He then secured himself a flat on Poets Corner, a housing estate near Wigan. But dont be fooled, she says. Hes now a fellow of the Royal Society of Arts and founder of a campaign group Every Child Leaving Care Matters. Im always moving on to the next thing and thinking somethings going to go wrong., Artistic director, 20 Stories High theatre company. The documents armed Sissay with the necessary proof that "the government had stolen my childhood.". I asked when my clothes and toys would be arriving. The Fostering Network is the UKs leading fostering charity; it champions fostering and seeks to create vital change. 248 ratings29 reviews. This is Lemn's story: a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph. He dived into Mums arms and said: Mum, I beat Norman, didnt I? She stroked his head and said: Yes, you did. And then she looked at me. Interviews by Killian Fox, I once was Christopher Goldsmith, reads a poem, neatly typed out on one side of a piece of A4 paper. I always thought it was something I had to hide. They wanted their children to be educated and go to university. I had no pictures, no photographs. As depicted in Steve McQueens TV series Small Axe, he was sent to live in Brixton, where his involvement in the 1981 uprisings led to his incarceration aged 18. After a succession of institutions, he left the care system, alone, and requested his files via customer services. Yemarshet Sissay came to England from her homeland, in 1966, planning to become a teacher so she could bring her new found skills back with her to Ethiopia to teach in schools there. Sometimes, if youve had my childhood, you try not to be defined by it, he says. Wallwein later dramatised her search for her birth mother in the acclaimed one-woman show (later a book) Glue. Lucy Sheen, whose Chinese name is Chau Lai-Tuen, aged one in the home of her adoptive parents. No brothers and sisters. Thats all I knew. He describes a happy childhood, a mischievous nature, and warmth between siblings. They were good people who did bad things. In terms of the care system, everybody has such massively different experiences, she says, and the fact that sometimes we are all put into one bracket is, I think, a little bit unfair., Artist, puppet-maker and puppeteer for film and TV, I decided quite early on that whatever happened to me, I wasnt going to be a victim of it, says Marcus Clarke, who lived in two national childrens homes in the early 60s, aged four to seven, while his mother was caring for his ailing father. Lemn Sissay was born in the village of Billinge, near Wigan, in 1967 to an Ethiopian mother. She wanted her child to be fostered while she studied. The theology was perfect, the timing unquestionable and the answer as honest as a sinner could get. 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