{"id":388,"date":"2023-10-31T16:32:34","date_gmt":"2023-10-31T16:32:34","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/decolonialmapsoflearning\/?p=388"},"modified":"2023-11-02T17:03:16","modified_gmt":"2023-11-02T17:03:16","slug":"the-power-of-poetry-and-living-libraries-for-decolonial-dialogue","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/blogs.sussex.ac.uk\/decolonialmapsoflearning\/2023\/10\/31\/the-power-of-poetry-and-living-libraries-for-decolonial-dialogue\/","title":{"rendered":"The Power of Poetry and Living Libraries for Decolonial Dialogue"},"content":{"rendered":"\n
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As Black History Month draws to a close (yet Black History must continue to be shared<\/a>) and I adjust to the turn of the season and new positions, I want to reflect today on The Power of Poetry and Living Libraries for Decolonial Dialogue. This was the title of an in-person event at University of Sussex Library that I was proud to host on 28th September last month, to mark the end of my AHRC-RLUK fellowship<\/a> and four years working for the Library. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jenny Mitchell, Erin James and Alice Corble at University of Sussex Library. (Photograph by Demet Dinler)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

The event centred on the transformational poetic language and insights of two distinguished guests: award winning poets and artists, Jenny Mitchell and Erin James. This year’s Black History Month theme is “Saluting Our Sisters<\/a>” and the phenomenal work of these talented poets is most certainly worth saluting in this vein.

Jenny Mitchell<\/strong><\/a> is an alumna of the University of Sussex who has earned recognition and multiple awards for her contributions to the world of poetry. Notably, she was awarded the Gregory O’Donoghue Prize in 2023 for a single poem. Her second collection, “Map of a Plantation<\/a>,” received the Poetry Book Awards in 2021 and is now part of the syllabus at Manchester Metropolitan University. Mitchell’s best-selling debut collection, “Her Lost Language<\/a>,” was featured in Poetry Wales’ list of 44 Poetry Books for 2019. Her latest work, Resurrection of a Black Man,<\/a> has received widespread acclaim, with three prize-winning poems and a feature on the U.S. podcast Poetry Unbound<\/a>. Just last week, Jenny was also a winner of the Bread and Roses Poetry Award 2023<\/a>.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Erin James<\/strong><\/a> is a Brighton-based multi-disciplinary artist, known for merging art and activism in their diverse range of art, including poetry, DJing, photography, zine-making and curation. They were awarded the 2023 Stuart Hall Fellowship<\/a> at University of Sussex, where they developed the creative research project The Live Archive<\/a>. Erin\u2019s work focuses on poetry and music as alternative mediums for academic research and archiving. Themes of their work include mental health, activism, the use of joy as an antidote to hate, and the normalisation of ‘stigmatised’ subjects.

For this event featuring Jenny and Erin’s work, we gathered together with a diverse audience of sixty people, a mixture of current and former Sussex students and staff and local community members in the large open plan area of the Library Caf\u00e9 (which once upon a time was the University bookshop). The early evening autumnal light and lively energies of starting a new academic year filled the space and formed a fitting setting for the stunning poetic performances and reflections provided by Jenny and Erin.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Jenny Mitchell (photograph by Varun Akaash @shotbybugz<\/a>)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n
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Erin James (photograph by Varun Akaash @shotbybugz)<\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

Erin and Jenny took it in turns to recite a selection of their phenomenal poems, before entering into a reflexive conversation about the roles that libraries, archives, reading and education have played in their lives, inflected with the entwined themes of race, gender, and legacies of colonialism and British transatlantic enslavement. Some of the issues raised in the dialogue included the power of oral storytelling, and the damage done to those who were, for reasons beyond their control, unable to access mainstream education that still privileges the written word above all else. One of the central and resounding themes was the ways in which poetry can be both liberating and an act of reclamation.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The poems Jenny recited were drawn from all three of her collections, including \u201cLost Child\u201d, \u201cSong for a Former Slave\u201d, \u201cBlack Rapunzel<\/a>\u201d, \u201cThe Seamstress\u201d (dedicated to her grandmother), and \u201cBlack Men Should Wear Colour\u201d (dedicated to her brother Mark). Her final poem was one written this year, called \u201cAcademia\u201d with reference to her past experiences as a student at Sussex.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Academia<\/strong><\/p>\n\n\n\n

by Jenny Mitchell<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

This is not a campus for the poor. The posh,
in drab designer clothes, labels on the outside \u2013
wealth flapping in the sun. A coddled generation,
prepared to have it all, held up as leaders
of the world, when I hail from a council flat \u2013
the first child in my family to ever sit exams.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The rich must sense I do not know my arse
from elbow \u2013 how to cook a bechamel.
Is it the same as a white sauce? Black girl
begins to hide her voice \u2013 How now brown cow?<\/em>
Call me Eliza Doolittle. Who knows about
the rain in Spain? I\u2019ve never been abroad.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Debt is accrued by lounging in a coffee shop \u2013
scones filled with cream and jam, hot chocolate
poured up to the brim. I\u2019m awed by silver spoons
between thin lips. The upper one is always stiff.
Money sharpens vowels \u2013 a cut-glass voice,
words I long to speak trapped down my throat.<\/p>\n<\/div><\/div>\n<\/div><\/div>\n\n\n\n


(First published by <\/em>Poetry Wales 59.1 Summer 2023<\/a> , and re-published by Culture Matters 16 September 2023<\/a>.<\/em>)<\/p>\n\n\n\n


I was particularly struck by the image of the ‘b\u00e9chamel’ or \u2018white sauce\u2019 in this poem, which I interpreted as a viscous medium of whiteness that conditions the structures and cultures of the university, too often marginalising or silencing Black voices and student experiences. Jenny\u2019s voice has certainly cut through that medium, however, with power and poise that speaks volumes about social and racial injustices. Recurring leitmotifs of ancestral voices like musical notes sutured in to the hems and seams of resurrected garments reverberated into the library space with a sense of reckoning as Jenny recited her poems. The metaphor of seams and stitching also made me think of the binding and spines of books that fill library stacks, yet the power of the human voice through poetry shared aloud has an unbinding force, liberating the words from the page and from the suffering of its subjects.
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We've pulled together a selection of photos and clips from the transformative event "The Power of Poetry and Living Libraries for Decolonial Dialogue\u201d. This well-attended event featured award-winning poet and Sussex alumna @JennyMitchellGo<\/a>… 1\/6 #DecolonialDialogue<\/a> #Poetry<\/a> pic.twitter.com\/GckiPG5t46<\/a><\/p>— Sussex Library (@sussexlibrary) October 17, 2023<\/a><\/blockquote>