He made me realise that it could be a strength not a hindrance. Shes now a patron of the Bolton charity Backup North West which helped her get her first flat when she was 17. They were religious, and theyd never had [to deal with] an adolescent before. Raising a joyous toast to the forgotten and the forgettable, Sissay recognizes the power we give to what we pay attention to and invites us to look anew at all that has been undervalued. 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. Healing can hurt too. A school report calling the boy "a ray of sunshine" is probed for racist overtones, and happily exonerated. Mr Sissay with his godmother Ethiopia Alfred (Jonathan Brady/PA) After being reunited with his birth mother aged 18,. It was Lemn Sissay. 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. There were times when Dad was charged with punishing me in the front room with the cane. That was it! By isolating and highlighting the success of care-experienced people it can become voyeuristic and soothes decision-makers into thinking that meritocracy is real. One is piteous, the other heroic. We need to prioritise the voices of people with lived experience of care, she says. Lemn Sissay is the author of five poetry collections: Tender Fingers in a Clenched Fist (1988); Rebel Without Applause (1992); Morning Breaks in the Elevator (1999):The Emperor's Watchmaker (2000), and Listener (2008). The journey took about 45 minutes, or 45 seconds. My name, my brother . Here are a few organisations for support and information: Become has been supporting and campaigning for children in care and young care leavers since 1985. LEMN SISSAY. "Margaret Thatcher was my mother," he says, beginning his story. Secrets are the stonesThat sink the boatTake them out, look at themThrow them out and float. 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. Lemn Sissay was born on 21 May 1967 in Billinge Hospital, near Wigan, Lancashire Higher End, England, UK. Buy My Name Is Why: Quick Reads 2022 Main - Quick Reads by Sissay, Lemn (ISBN: 9781838854645) from Amazon's Book Store. Today we stand proud as care leavers and remove societys stigma. Brown defied expectations by progressing to university and getting a Masters. They were just friends, says Cato, now an expert on Antiques Roadshow. These experiences have shaped who I am today, an independent woman, passionate about my career and working with local authorities in Greater Manchester to ensure every young person has a voice, choice and control over decisions made about them., Psychodynamic psychotherapist and director of Integrated Minds and Artists on the Couch. Something pinched her features. She looked at me as if I had wounded her. Lemn Sissay, writer and Chancellor of the University of Manchester, held the Great Hall of Bolton School Girls Division mesmerised during an emotional rollercoaster of an evening. Born in 1967, Sissay was the child of an Ethiopian mother who was forced to give up her son against her will; he was fostered by a white couple from Lancashire who sent him back into care aged. The result is an. Lemn Sissay said it was "a wonderful thing to be recognised as somebody who has got my kind of past" Poet Lemn Sissay has dedicated his OBE to his younger self who he said overcame a. In 2017 he launched the Lemn Sissay. If we spent long enough with each other, wed probably all start crying. Sheen has made a documentary about her experience, a powerful study of cultural displacement and linguistic disenfranchisement called Abandoned Adopted Here. In care from 11 to 17, Ben Ashcroft moved 51 times between foster parents, residential care, secure units, secure training centre, and finally a young offenders unit. So it didnt just have to be: this is your problem. 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. 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. She is also a trustee of the charity Pure Insight, which supports young people to have a better care-leaving experience than she did herself. He lost touch at nightTheir fingertips withdrewNobody touched him, light,Except you. Why would she make that comment now? We usually get the narrative told about us so its nice to tell it ourselves, she says. Norman Mills, my new social worker, waited at the gate. Today, we are as close as she can allow herself to be. 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. 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. He was British and Ethiopian. Now my mindset is slightly different. . When you are told by your parents that you are something you know you are not, it is very scary. Although its going to take time to shift the stigma and change the system, I believe it will happen.. Lemn Sissay OBE FRSL (born 21 May 1967) [1] is a British author and broadcaster. You are my sunshine, my only sunshine, you make me happy, when skies are grey. I believed her. Lemn Sissay was stolen by the state. They told me they were my parents forever. Lemn means 'why' in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, where celebrated poet Lemn Sissay's mother was from. The foster parents, Catherine and David Greenwood, went on to have three children of their own. He learned that his real name was not Norman. He left school at 15 with one GCSE and two CSEs. Yes, you did.. It was the end of December 1979 and I was excited when I entered the front room for the family meeting. But dont be fooled, she says. No brothers and sisters. 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. In and out of care from the age of five, Stanley J Browne says his horror story began aged eight, when he was separated from his siblings and fostered off to Nottingham. PAIN Parents against Injustice is a voluntary organisation, run and funded by volunteers who provide help and support to families caught in the care system. By the time Sissay was approaching adolescence, cracks in their relationship had started to appear. Author, broadcaster, chancellor of the University of Manchester. They moved between several foster placements before entering a childrens home. Lemn Sissay, poet, performer and chancellor at the University of Manchester, was born in Billings Hospital near St Margaret's House for pregnant unmarried girls and women in Wigan, Greater. Lemn Sissay, writer and Chancellor of the University of Manchester, held the Great Hall of Bolton School Girls' Division mesmerised during an emotional rollercoaster of an evening. Thank you. It was the sense of an underlining unkindness that stayed with me. The foster parents have spoken of adoption, but they are afraid that investigations may lead to his mother. Social workers report. On the back another poem is handwritten, composed on the train into London this morning, fresh on the page. The Care Leavers Association is a national user-led charity aimed at improving the lives of care leavers of all ages. 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. Both places recognised her writing talent and helped her get work published. These are the words of Mr Graves, the headteacher in my files, in January 1976, from the social workers report: Spoke to Mr Graves several times on the phone and eventually visited the school. Later, while piecing together his origins, he discovered that his mother had pleaded for his return and been denied by social services. Which is interesting, because I always saw myself as white. The abuse was confusing, he says, but Im quite stubborn. It made me aware that families all look different and thats absolutely fine., Carl Parsons was adopted at five weeks. Why - and the search for the answer to why - became the word that defined Lemn . Mr Sissay, who grew up in the care system, shared his concerns after a report, published by the. Mum and Dad said I was like Macavity. A decade ago, Clare Gorham was very much pro transracial adoption. 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. "I found out about your past and then I heard you on Desert Island Discs," Lisa told Lemn . 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. Christopher was their first-born, but I was their first. Then it was time for a love poem, which he believes is read at a wedding at least every two weeks and is available for free online:Invisible Kisses. My mother had schizophrenia, I had a stepfather who was very violent to my mother and to me. The car filled with quiet loss. Now hes written a lyrical memoir describing his experiences, Lemn Sissay, poet, performer and chancellor at the University of Manchester, was born in Billings Hospital near St Margarets House for pregnant unmarried girls and women in Wigan, Greater Manchester, to an Ethiopian student on 21 May 1967. ISBN-10: 1786892367 . It took her nine years before she revealed who his father was and Lemn discovered he had been a pilot for Ethiopian Airlines and had died in a crash in 1974. The heartache and anger of his youth alternate in his poetry with lighter, whimsical aphorisms and celebrations of place . They were happy, he says. 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. His mother was a student at the time of his birth who had come from Ethiopia to study in Bracknell City, England. Giving him up for adoption, he thinks, was a massively selfless thing to do. Now Im starting to realise that it did really have an impact on me, she says. Theres all sorts of shapes of family that can work and your community can be whatever you choose it to be. I slowly realised I was being set up. I had no pictures, no photographs. Raise me with sunshineBathe me in lightWash all the shadowsThat fell from the night, 11 December 1974: There are no problems with Norman. 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. If you just want to be? Baker was transracially fostered from 11 days old. 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. I was different. The abuse she endured, none of which came from her own family, was incomprehensible and frightening, she says. When Luis De Abreu was nine, he travelled from Madeira to join his mother in Jersey, where shed been working for several years. Its radically changed who I am.. The way I see it, this should be something for people who are going through the system. None of it. I had no idea what he meant. I loved my town. Lemn Sissay's poem "Some Things I Like" celebrates what we might consider discardable like cold tea, ash trays, and even people. But I will ask God for forgiveness and learn to love you. This was the perfect answer. He spent 10 months in Wood End Assessment Centre in 1984. My foster father was a teacher and my foster mother was a nurse. At the age of seventeen, after a childhood in a foster family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. The University of Manchester Chancellor, poet and playwright, Lemn Sissay, has received his OBE for services to Literature and Charity from HRH Price Charles.Since taking up the Chancellorship in 2015, Lemn Sissay MBE has contributed to the University significantly on a local, national and international scale. 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. Founder and executive chef, Bramble Dining, Aged eight, Richard Bramble and his older brother Greg, also featured, moved in with a foster family near Leamington Spa. It was a clear instruction from Mum and Dad. To help others like her, Button has co-founded calling4gr8ness.org, a programme supporting care-experienced young adults in the creative industries. His autobiography, Little Big Man (out 14 October), describes how he turned his life around to become an actor and musician. Riddell wrote a memoir called The Cornflake Kid. They wanted me to ask God for forgiveness and through him I will learn to love them. 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. He loved his parents, he says, but at the time there were no black kids around. I used to let Christopher win at things, because he would get really upset when he didnt win, so I would play the wall and then let the ball go, and say to the wall: 15 love, to you. There was always a decision as I got to the end of the game with the wall, about whether Id let him win or not. Akabusi joined the British army aged 16 and later embarked on a glittering athletics career as a sprinter and hurdler. Macavity was dark, quick and a thief. Johanan Walker enthusiastically nods. My experience has taught me the importance of having kind, supportive adults in the lives of children in care to help them feel safe, cared for and treated like one of the family, she says. I had nothing to put in the locker by my bed. The installation, Superman Is a Foundling, is another of Sissays initiatives, drawing attention to the ubiquity of the orphan in popular culture, and it momentarily shocks the poet and performer Luke Wright to find his own history reflected in a literary trope. And then Lemn spoke elegantly and measuredly as he delivered a cathartic unburdening of his formative years. Yet in 1980, at the age of 12, young Norman was abruptly expelled from his white . Mcintosh managed to make it to university and now runs a Caribbean restaurant, Sugarcane London, in Wandsworth, but he remains scarred by his experiences. Whilst it served as a telling analogy for his own life, he apologised to anyone fresh to poetry readings as this was a weighty introduction but, he said, I wanted to push you. 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. At school I was subject to all kinds of questions about my race, which I couldnt answer. It's the first time in many years . This is an edited extract from My Name Is Why: a Memoir by Lemn Sissay, published by Canongate on 29 August at 16.99. He was awarded an MBE for services to literature by The Queen of England, The Pen Pinter Prize and a Points of Light Award from The Prime Minister. 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. He expected a certain amount of difficulty from the exposure but its not made anything weird at all, he says. Now Popoola is a novelist and an associate lecturer at Central Saint Martins in London. Id never thought of myself as a different person., Principal and artistic director of Bird College, Sidcup. It was a difficult situation, he says. 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. Interspersing readings from his new collection Gold from the Stone with moving and raw recollections of his childhood, Lemn transfixed the audience. I had teachers who put me in a box once they knew my background and said, Youll end up doing no good. Reynolds, who contributed to her mother Margarets 2021 book about adoption, The Wild Track, now studies ancient history and social anthropology at St Andrews and is involved in activist groups. Soon afterwards she died of cancer and De Abreu ended up, after several foster placements, living in the notorious Jersey childrens home Haut de la Garenne. His affectionate nickname was Bunty. These moments stuck in my memory. None of us have ever looked into our birth parents, he says. Riordan was in respite care several times during his first four years. This is the story of being stolen by the state and his 17 years in local authority care. Lemn Sissay is a BAFTA-nominated, award-winning writer and broadcaster. Just me. 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. It was Lemn Sissay. I took off my trousers and gave them to my brother. The experience was marked by contradictions relating to her race and religion: I remember I had chickenpox and I couldnt go to the mosque, but we were allowed to go and see the Queen as she was visiting the town. Encouragement from teachers spurred her on to become an artist (she was nominated for the Turner prize in 2007).