Umbrage and Suffrage.

The lovely Scottish poet laureate, Jackie Kay, ran a brilliant creative workshop on Thursday at The Working Class Museum in Salford. Focused on the importance of making your voice heard, we spent time looking at dissenting voices over the years, and the impact of resistance and resilience today. We explored artefacts from the era of the Suffragettes.

And I even wrote a poem I had been carrying for years but could never pen, about the racism my dad endured at the Ford, Dagenham plant in the 70’s & 80’s. The prompt given was to write about the ways that someone we know may have resisted. And it’s weird – I always felt that that particular poem would be hard to write but after sharing it with the group, I have decided I may add the poem to my collection out in October published by Burning Eye Books.

We had deep discussions about what it means to have a voice, to be silent, what we lose and what we gain, what it means to grieve and how by sharing stories, so many people are brought to the room through our memories, to also share space.

It was an honour to spend time with the very inspiring Jackie Kay for an afternoon that ended too quickly!