The Poetry School recently teamed up with Spread the Word to relaunch the successful project Flight, a mentoring scheme set up for young writers offering them support and guidance with published writers, culminating with a showcase of the writers reading their work in mid-June.
One of Flight's most prestigious alumni writers is the poet Dean Atta, whose recent poem 'I am Nobody's Nigger' - written in response to the Stephen Lawrence murder enquiry - went viral online. He received attention in the Guardian and the Huffington Post and his poem is has been circulated many more times than the Poet Laureate's. We caught up with him to talk about about his viral poem, the mentoring scheme that changed his life, and Carol Ann Duffy.
Your poem ‘I am nobody’s nigger’ exploded on twitter with blogs reposting it and people widely praising the poem. Did you expect to get such a massive response?
I did expect some response because I have a strong online presence and network of people who support and follow my work but I didn't expect to get such a huge response from people who didn't already know me. I assumed my poem would get lost in the wave of tweets about the Stephen Lawrence case, I didn't add the hash tag #StephenLawrence when I tweeted my poem because I didn't want to impose on that source of information for people following the case. Lots of other people added the #StephenLawrence hash tag when they tweeted my poem and that's when it started getting a lot of listens, retweets and blogs picking up on it. Within 24 hours it had been listened to over 8,000 times.
How does the notion of diaspora and hybrid identity influence your work.
My heritage is Greek Cypriot and Jamaican. Being mixed-race, your ethnic
background is always brought into question by others, which leads you to
question it yourself. I sometimes think this is a distraction from the real
questions I should be asking myself, like "What does it mean to be a good
person/family member/friend/lover/leader/role model/writer?" Instead I
find myself more concerned with questions of age/race/sexuality.
My poem 'Young, Black and Gay' is a prime example of this questioning and
reasoning I find myself trapped in. I sometimes feel like a proud prisoner of
my race and sexuality; I know I'm not going to stay young but I imagine the
labels 'black' and 'gay' will remain with me my whole life and definitely my
whole career.
What effect were you trying to create by repeating the word ‘nigger’, while at the same time warning people of the dangers of the word: ‘Rappers when you use the word ‘nigger/ Remember that’s one of the last words Stephen Lawrence heard/ So don’t tell me it’s a reclaimed word.’
This I'd rather leave open to the reader/listener's own interpretation.
The responsibility of writing
about a racial murder and derogative controversial language is a large one, yet
yinnyang.co.uk state that you wrote the poem in 30 minutes. If this is true,
how did you deal so quickly with the responsibility of commenting on such a
sensitive subject?
This is true but I didn't write it feeling any sense of responsibility, it was
an expression of my feelings in those 30 minutes. I wasn't trying to write a
timeless piece, nor was I trying to write a historical or a commemorative poem.
There was nothing I needed to research or contemplate because what I expressed
was at the forefront of my consciousness. I think this quickness made it so
honest and heartfelt and the momentum it gathered online was a recognition of
the truth and passion out of which it was born.
Tell me a bit about the Flight mentoring scheme that you were a part of and
that which The Poetry School are relaunching this year.
Flight was a life changing experience. I was mentored by the incredible man
that is Charlie Dark, who help me tackle a piece I had wanted to write for a
long time but hadn't found the courage to pick up the pen and begin. 'Rice & Peas' is a monologue about violence in a gay relationship, an issue that
is rarely talked about. I was terribly nervous to have a straight man critique
this particular piece of work but essentially he was just another writer and he
was there to help me not to judge me. It was so amazing to have Charlie read
every single draft of the piece and give me feedback, as well as general advice
about making a career as a writer.
To complete 'Rice & Peas' and have it published in the Flight Anthology and
to read in public for the first time alongside the other Flight participants at
our book launch at the Royal Festival Hall was a feeling unlike any other; to
hold a book in my hand with my words in print, words that meant and represented
so much. It gave me a taste of what it must be like to publish a full
collection. Although I wrote just the one piece during six months on the Flight
mentoring programme, I gained a lifelong friendship with my mentor and the
seeds of advice he sowed back then are still growing in my mind to this present
day. I now feel I have material to publish a full collection of my work but
before Flight I wasn't thinking about publishing, only performing.
To apply for Flight, you have to be between 18 and 24, click HERE to download an application form before the 30th January 2012, good luck!
