tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-58738787217158343032024-03-14T02:04:29.945-07:00Shapes And Disfigurements Of Raymond AntrobusDedicated to Poetry, Spoken Word & Social CommentaryRaymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.comBlogger425125tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-70413600580258489142015-11-22T08:51:00.001-08:002018-05-25T09:12:49.878-07:00www.raymondantrobus.com<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">www.<a href="http://www.raymondantrobus.com/">raymondantrobus.com</a> </span></b><br />
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I have moved my activity to my new site. I am no longer active on blogger.<br />
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<b><span style="font-size: x-large;">www.<a href="http://www.raymondantrobus.com/">raymondantrobus.com</a> </span></b></div>
Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-48574597860883975832015-11-17T02:29:00.000-08:002015-11-17T02:31:58.367-08:00Chill Pill Christmas Special 17th Dec at The Albany<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">17th Dec at The Albany<br />
<b><a href="http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/1608/Spoken-Word/Chill-Pill:-The-Big-One">http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/1608/Spoken-Word/Chill-Pill:-The-Big-One</a></b></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: "arial" , "helvetica" , sans-serif;">DO NOT MISS London's biggest poetry Christmas party at The Albany. W<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 20.8444px;">e’re introducing local singer-songwriter <b>Sarah Williams White</b> who has been described as ‘raw, funky-rootsy slice of entertainment’ by Metro. To add to this all-star line-up <b>Ross Sutherland </b>will be performing his poetry which was shortlisted for the 2015 Arts Foundation Award for Poetry. <b>Megan Beech</b>, who featured on the Guardian’s list of Inspiring Young Feminists of 2014, will also be gracing the stage with her enigmatic prose and last but not least <b>Bridget Minamore</b>, shortlisted as one of London’s first Young Poet Laureate's will be performing, making this is night not to miss.</span></span></div>
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-5933326277344068962015-11-12T03:13:00.000-08:002015-11-12T03:13:24.702-08:00"You Can't Give Your Students What You Don't Give Yourself"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Read it here - <a href="http://gulfcoastmag.org/online/blog/you-cannot-give-your-students-what-you-do-not-give-yourself/"><b>http://gulfcoastmag.org/online/blog/you-cannot-give-your-students-what-you-do-not-give-yourself/</b></a></td></tr>
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This month I was interviewed about poetry in education by poet educator, R.A Villanueva, alongside Jacob Sam La Rose and Toni Stuart. </div>
Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-72298500197704039962015-10-31T09:49:00.000-07:002015-11-04T10:54:51.707-08:00Chill Pill, Southbank's Being A Man Festival, Sunday Assembly and 2000 hits on youtube...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
October was a very eventful month after reading's in Bristol, Leicester, Sweden and around London. I am now officially appointed as one of six London Laureates (<a href="http://www.londonlaureates.co.uk/young-poet-laureate-shortlist">http://www.londonlaureates.co.uk/young-poet-laureate-shortlist</a>/) and was mentioned in <b>The Guardian</b> as one of Michael Rosen's Cultural Highlights as well as <b>The Independent</b> on National Poetry Day.<br />
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I also just had a few poems from <b>The Island That's Hard To Find In English</b> accepted for publication in <b>The Rialto</b>, <b>Oxford Diaspora's Programme</b>, <b>Magma</b>, <b>Morning Star</b> and <span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px;"><b>University of Arkansas Press</b>. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman"; font-size: 16px;">One more thing...The First Time I Wore Hearing Aids just reached over 2000 hits on youtube, so thank you all for that.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #222222; font-family: "times new roman";"><span style="background-color: white;"><u><b>UPCOMING SHOWS </b></u></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Chill Pill November 10th<br />
<a href="https://qbichotels.com/london-city/treats/chill-pill-meets-qbic-london/">https://qbichotels.com/london-city/treats/chill-pill-meets-qbic-london/</a></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;">Chill Pill are proud to be hosting three poets from Sweden -<b> </b><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 20.8444px;"><b>Oskar Hanska</b>, </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 20.8444px;"><b>Henry Bowers</b> and </span><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; line-height: 20.8444px;"><b>Sam Kessel </b>at QBIC Hotel for an international special. Also, this show is <b>FREE</b>!</span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">BAM Festival at Southbank 27th Nov<br />
<a href="http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/being-a-man">http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/festivals-series/being-a-man</a></td></tr>
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I will be appearing on a panel selected by BBC Radio One host, Gemma Cairney to discuss masculinity, education and boyhood. </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">5th Dec <a href="http://london.sundayassembly.com/">http://london.sundayassembly.com/</a></td></tr>
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I will be poem'ing at Sunday Assembly, Conway Hall. I have appeared previously with Sunday Assembly at Wilderness Festival, an honour to join them in London this time around.</div>
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-1795263508728478982015-09-24T10:00:00.002-07:002015-10-15T06:14:48.156-07:00Upcoming Shows - Ordspark Poetry Festival (Uppsala, Sweden) Southbank, Ronnie Scott's, Jamaica Rising at Bristol Literature Festival...<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Proud to be included in Goldsmith University's exhibition that acknowledges 14 black British poets </div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">1st - 3rd October</td></tr>
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I'll be performing and reading poetry in Uppsala Sweden alongside Sage Francis, Ian Ewok Robinson, Deanna Rodger, Henry Bowers and more...<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">National Poetry Day (Light show)</td></tr>
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I have been commissioned to write three new poems around the theme of light which will be debuted at Southbank Centre on National Poetry Day.<br />
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Tickets - <a href="http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/beginning-to-see-the-light-93421?dt=2015-10-08">http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/beginning-to-see-the-light-93421?dt=2015-10-08</a></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">11th October, Ronnie Scott's</td></tr>
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Returning to Ronnie Scott's Jazz Verse Jukebox with Jumoke Fashola.<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">October 15th Tongue Fu, Rich Mix</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">October 21st, Jamaica Rising at Bristol Festival of Literature</td></tr>
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I'm very much looking forward to sharing poems and speaking about Jamaican British identity in Bristol. Tickets - <a href="http://unputdownable.org/event/word-of-mouth-jamaica-rising">http://unputdownable.org/event/word-of-mouth-jamaica-rising</a><br />
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<b>Why Not Strive? - The Rights Of The Child Festival at Southbank</b>. October 23rd, 7pm <a href="http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/why-not-strive-93879">http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/why-not-strive-93879</a><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Southbank, Oct 23rd</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">28th October, Leicester</td></tr>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">30th October at London Review Bookshop alongside Daljit Nagra</td></tr>
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Another poem from 'The Island That's Hard To Find In English' has been accepted for publication, this time in Magma poetry magazine. I will be reading alongside Daljit Nagra</div>
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com3tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-71152143280482100972015-09-09T10:22:00.000-07:002015-09-09T10:23:30.755-07:00Storymoja Festival (Kenya, Nairobi) Chill Pill (London, The Albany)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Proud to announce that I'm flying to Kenya to take part in the Storymoja Festival with the British Council. I will be meeting local students from 10 - 14 year olds as well as collaborating with local poets and reading my own poetry. (<a href="http://storymojafestival.com/2015-guest-line-up/"><b>http://storymojafestival.com/2015-guest-line-up/</b></a>).<br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Sep 17th at The Albany<br />
Tickets -<a href="http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/1607/Spoken-Word/Chill-Pill" target="_blank"> http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/1607/Spoken-Word/Chill-Pill</a></td></tr>
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Also, Chill Pill is back. Although I will be in Kenya, if you're in London you must go! We're featuring poet, Kayo Chingonyi with live music from FUR. Also more from the OPEN MIC.</div>
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-7938817125297364542015-08-31T01:53:00.000-07:002015-08-31T01:53:17.806-07:00Junkyard Father (Raymond Antrobus & Christian Foley)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-70828604385392076772015-08-22T13:39:00.003-07:002015-08-22T13:40:46.818-07:00Jamaican British (after Broken Ghazal by Arron Samuels)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-70444656479206193852015-08-03T11:06:00.001-07:002015-08-03T11:21:36.831-07:00Tony Blair Speech On In Which He Apologises For Britain’s Role In The Slave Trade<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<b>Nov 27th 2006, Tony Blair Commemorates 200 years since the abolition of the Trans-Atlantic Slave Trade In The UK </b><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-d0b0de47-f4b8-4a54-edb2-d3cc0b0b0c66"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: black;">The transatlantic slave trade stands as one of the most inhuman enterprises in</span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white; color: white;"> </span>history<span style="background-color: white; color: white;"> </span></span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">At a time when the capitals of Europe and America championed the Enlightenment of man, their merchants were enslaving a continent. Racism, not the rights of man, rove the horrors of the triangular trade. Some 12 million were</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: white; color: white;"> </span>transported </span><span style="background-color: black;"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Some</span></span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> three million died.</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-d0b0de47-f4b8-4a54-edb2-d3cc0b0b0c66"><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Slavery's impact upon Africa, the Caribbean, the Americas and Europe was profound. Thankfully, Britain was the first country to abolish the trade. As we approach the commemoration for the 200th anniversary of that abolition, it is only right we also recognise the active role Britain played until then in the slave trade. British industry and ports were intimately intertwined in it. Britain's rise to global pre-eminence was partially dependent on a system of colonia</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> slave </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">labour and, as we recall its abolition, we should also recall our place in its practice.</span></span></div>
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-d0b0de47-f4b8-4a54-edb2-d3cc0b0b0c66"><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: black;">It is hard to believe that what would now be a crime against humanity was</span><span style="background-color: white; color: white;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">legal at the time. </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Personally I believe the bicentenary offers us a chance not just to say how profoundly</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> shameful </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the slave trade was - how we condemn its existence utterly and</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> praise </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">those who fought for its abolition, but also to express our deep sorrow that it ever happened, that it ever could have happened and to rejoice at the different and better times we live in today. </span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">The people who fought against slavery came from all walks of life. They included slaves and former slaves like Olaudah Aquiano, church leaders, statesmen like William Wilberforce and countless ordinary citizens who signed petitions, marched, lobbied and prayed for change. The bicentenary is an opportunity for us all to remember those who were</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> bought and sold </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">into slavery and those who struggled against its injustices. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Community, faith and cultural organisations, with the support in many cases of the</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Heritage </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Lottery Fund, are already planning events to mark the bicentenary. We in Government, with local authorities, will be playing our full part. And the UK is co-sponsoring a resolution in the UN General Assembly, put forward by Caribbean countries, which calls for special commemorative </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">activities to be </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">held by the United Nations to mark the occasion. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We also need, while reflecting on the past, to acknowledge the unspeakable cruelty that persists in the form of modern day slavery. Today slavery comes in many guises around the world - such as bonded labour, forced recruitment of child soldiers and human trafficking - and at its root is poverty and social exclusion. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We also need to respond to the problems of Africa and the challenges facing the African and Caribbean diaspora today. Africa,</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">course, is a place of great beauty, fantastic diversity and a resilient and talented people with</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> enormous </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">potential. It is also the only continent getting poorer and where, in many places, life expectancy is</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">falling. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: black;">But</span><span style="background-color: white; color: white;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the world is</span><span style="background-color: white; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">now focussing, not least because of the G8 summit and the Make Poverty History campaign, on how we can help Africa tackle its problems. Agreement was reached to double aid to Africa by 2010, to write off the debts of the poorest countries and massively to increase funding to tackle AIDS and improve healthcare and education.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Britain is playing its full part both through increasing bilateral aid and through international leadership. The International Finance Facility for Immunisation, which we have launched, should save five million children a year.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; font-weight: bold; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">All this is making a difference. Debt relief is already</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> beginning </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to flow. It has, for example, enabled Zambia to scrap charges for health care. This is taking place in partnership with African Governments and their people. But there is a great deal more to do. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: black;">At home, the bicentenary is also an opportunity for us</span><span style="background-color: white; color: white;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">to </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">pause and</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> consider </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">the enormous contribution today of Black African and Caribbean communities to our nation. Britain is richer in every way - for example, in business, politics, sport, the arts and science - because of the part played by these communities in every aspect of our national life. But even 30 years after Labour introduced the groundbreaking Race Relations Act and set up the Commission for Racial Equality, there are still barriers to overcome before</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> everyone </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">can make the most of their talents and potential. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="background-color: black;">government, we are investing in tackling inequality in education, health, employment, housing</span><span style="background-color: white; color: white;"> </span></span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">and the </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">criminal justice system. I want to see a future in which everyone can achieve their full potential. Earlier this week, a group of young people from Bristol, Hull and Liverpool visited the capital at the invitation of the DeAcross puty Prime Minister and I know that our schools and colleges will play a big role in next year's commemorations and</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> legacy </span><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">events.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">This bicentenary must also be a spur for us to redouble our efforts to stop human trafficking and all forms of modern slavery. </span></div>
<br /><span style="background-color: black; font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">But, above all, this 200th anniversary of the abolition of the slave trade is a chance for all of us to increase our understanding of the heritage we share, celebrate the richness of our diversity and increase our determination to shape the world with the values</span><span style="font-family: Arial; font-size: 14.6666666666667px; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"> we share.</span></span></div>
Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-68175584182629649322015-07-26T11:01:00.000-07:002015-07-30T15:39:18.902-07:00Simon Armitage, The Last Poets & Cultural Appropriation<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><i style="font-size: medium; line-height: 27.6000003814697px; text-align: left;"> "Screaming "brand new", when they just sanitized the old shit"</i><span style="font-size: small; line-height: 27.6000003814697px; text-align: left;"> - Mos Def</span></td></tr>
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m a fan of Simon Armitage. I have studied his poetry and taught it to GCSE students in Hackney classrooms and often, students appreciate poems like ‘Harmonium’. It’s a rich prompt to get students to think of what can come to symbolise a relationship, from a worn out piano to an unsung father figure. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m also glad for his new position as Oxford professor of poetry. When this was announced, </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;">The Telegraph picked up on Armitage stating he; </span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;"><br /></span>
<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;">“Will use rap and hip hop to explore the definition of modern poetry so the literary form is not thought of "as a museum". </span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;">A contentious statement, but for the most part he is right to point out that rap and Hip-Hop culture are relevant to western poetry traditions, I don’t feel the need to explain why and how, we’re beyond that argument now</span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;">. </span><span style="font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;">What I did find interesting is when Armitage states; </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: transparent; color: black; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">“</span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">We might need to consider what constitutes poetry, and rap might be one of the answers. If it comes up I'll probably talk about Kate Tempest - though she might be hip hop.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;">Really? Kate Tempest is his entry point to validate the bridge between rap and poetry? I know Kate, I think even she would be embarrassed by this remark, but even though I understand Armitage’s intention, you got to be aware of the consistency in which black culture is appropriated by white mainstream media and why there is a carelessness to this statement, as Oxford Laureate, there is new </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 27.6000003814697px; white-space: pre-wrap;">volumes</span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;"> in his voice. </span></span></span></span><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-family: inherit; line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;">Armitage does go on to say he wants the next person taking his place to be a woman, so in a way he could be setting up the stage for someone like Kate to be considered, very noble of him. </span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Last week I performed at Latitude, standing backstage with Bohdan Piasecki when Simon Armitage walked into the room and I was like “Shit, Simon Armitage!" I had so much to say to him but where do I start, how could I not come across as awkwardly overeager?” Then, as sudden as Simon appeared, the members from The Last Poets walked in and sat on the sofa, brushing past Simon, who now had nowhere to sit.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white;"><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;">Hopefully I don't need to explain who The Last Poets are, but they are basically, alongside Gil Scott Heron, DJ Kool Herc and Grandmaster Flash, credited among the </span></span><span style="color: #333333;"><span style="line-height: 27.6000003814697px; white-space: pre-wrap;">pioneers</span></span><span style="color: #333333; font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1.725; white-space: pre-wrap;"> of Hip-Hop culture in America. I had to take a minute to take in that these men were in the same room, not knowing the significance of the other and I, a poet and lover of Hip-Hop, could've taken the responsibility of introducing these two missing links and probably done more for poetry in the UK than any essay I’ll ever write.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">That bridge Simon was building between rap and poetry, a lot of that was built by the guys from the other side of the Atlantic, who had just taken his place on the sofa. If only I had taken that picture, it would’ve been the poetry equivalent of John Lennon meeting Chuck Berry. The difference there is John Lennon understood the issue of cultural appropriation and famously, when asked if he was inspired by black music, Lennon stated, “of course, is there any other kind of music?”. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">I’m not saying poetry is a “black” thing, that would be ridiculous, language isn’t racial, it’s cultural. I’m saying, if Simon Armitage is going to talk about under representation and feel a need to rethink our relationship with the ideas of what poetry is, who it is by and who it belongs to, he must go all the way and perhaps educate himself on the subject before he becomes another white man claiming his people invented something they didn’t.</span></span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #333333; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;"><b>Source</b> - <a href="http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11716911/Newly-elected-professor-of-poetry-at-Oxford-to-use-rap-to-explore-definiton-of-literary-form.html">http://www.telegraph.co.uk/education/educationnews/11716911/Newly-elected-professor-of-poetry-at-Oxford-to-use-rap-to-explore-definiton-of-literary-form.html</a></span></span><br />
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Didn't get to speak to Simon Armitage but I did speak with The Last Poets and Eimear Mcbride</td></tr>
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If you are interested in further reading, I'd recommend Nate Marshall's Breakbeat Poets Anthology.</div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#RayRecommends</td></tr>
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<b>Six Features Of Hip-Hop Poetry </b>- <a href="http://blog.oup.com/2015/04/six-features-hip-hop-poetry/">http://blog.oup.com/2015/04/six-features-hip-hop-poetry/</a></div>
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com8tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-65098654733952803722015-07-13T14:19:00.002-07:002015-07-13T14:19:44.412-07:00What Is Spoken Word Education?<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
This week I leave my position as Lead Educator on the Spoken Word Education MA Programme, it's been a great three years and it's been hard saying farewells to students and teachers. Here's a video of a few of the students I've worked with over the years at an all school showcase. Also look out for a series of blogposts on Spoken Word Education coming out on Apples & Snakes in the coming weeks.<br />
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com1tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-64539705130673275952015-07-12T14:42:00.000-07:002015-07-12T14:42:17.321-07:00Joburg Street Photography<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-19025258906863257682015-07-12T03:39:00.001-07:002015-07-12T05:18:08.390-07:00Johannesburg, The Apartheid Museum & Maboneng, An Example Of Positive Gentrification<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Currently, I am in Johannesburg, sat on the top floor, a mile in the sky of a hotel room with a group of theatre producers and programmers. Joburg, a city described with hard edges, grumbles below us. Peter Stark OBE, a former theatre director and a cultural policy expert gives us an orientation to the city, explaining how the city creaks and groans as it tries to keep up with the first world mechanics of free market capitalism. He looks and speaks like a larger version of Sean Connery in the extraordinary league of gentlemen, although he has an English charm about him, he’s also blunt and to the point. He’s able to articulate the brutality of European Colonialism and white supremacy in Africa in a way that even knowledgeable white people in England couldn’t without lowering their voice. You can’t avoid talking about race in South Africa, it’s a country built on racism since European invasion. Peter Stark, to be stark, is stark about being white and English in Africa. This, paradoxically, makes me comfortable with him. “Being white in South Africa is like being a V.I.P toilet” says Peter "after we’re </span></span><span style="line-height: 22.0799999237061px; white-space: pre-wrap;">continuously</span><span style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"> told we’re special, it’s hard to realise our shit isn’t as special as everyone else's”.</span></span></div>
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<span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">After visiting the Apartheid Museum, an intense and moving experience, I found myself shaking my head at the fact that the theme park next door and the Apartheid museum is owned by the same company, (this company also has shares in the skin bleaching industry if I heard Peter Stark right, it was also a site where gold was struck when the Dutch were settling) this is capitalism, starkly Amoral, what makes money, makes money. It also made me think of the gentrification that’s been happening in London. A few weeks ago I overheard a guy outside a coffee shop in Bow, tell his friend he’s “moved to Hackney because it’s meant to be jumping”, but he’s disappointed with how many old people and school children are about. I had to pull him up and say “Hackney is a community, not a theme park”. But this is it, if you got money and no emotional investment in an area, you care less about the cost of your fun.</span></span><br />
<span style="font-family: inherit;"><br /><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;">Later I visited Constitutional Hill, another intense experience looking at the condition of those jailed in the Apartheid era, including Gandhi and Winnie Mandela. Afterwards, just round the corner there was a musical theatre, walking out of these dreaded historical landmarks into singing and dancing (and you couldn’t overlook that the directors and most the actors were white), there’s something insensitive about that. I’m not saying anyone needs to be in constant shame, but rollercoasters and musicals? it feels like two long white middle fingers.</span></span><br />
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<span id="docs-internal-guid-fec12ba1-81d2-785d-053b-2ac2fa6ccca2"><span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: inherit;">Speaking of Gentrification, I visited Maboneng this evening and met the community activists that managed to nurture relationships with the town property developers. A town that has investors and the guidance of a local community who see the area as a home, not a theme park. The money here is doing more than talk, it’s listening. The cynic in me wanted to tell the locals about Hackney and Brixton as a warning tale, but I didn’t need to, they understood. They felt they’ve managed to negotiate the space to suit both, local community and new investments. The artwork on the walls around the city is staggeringly striking. A large portrait of a young Nelson Mandela in his freedom fighter days, posing with boxing gloves on looms over the town. The statement is clear, the people here will not be moved from their own movement.</span></span></span><br />
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-36877339785407581712015-07-09T17:00:00.002-07:002015-07-10T02:13:30.834-07:00Iain Ewok Robinson On Whiteness In South Africa<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit; font-size: small;">Ewok as YOBO</span></td></tr>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit;">“Can’t heal nothing without pain” – Toni Morrison</span><br />
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<span style="font-family: inherit; white-space: pre-wrap;">In 2012, after returning from teaching English and poetry in Cape Town Townships, I had my first photography exhibition as part of the Afrovibes Festival in The Albany, Deptford. I published a travel journal, “The Coloured Experience” alongside the exhibition. Chill Pill, the poetry night I co-curate has been in collaboration with The Albany for over four years now. Last year we collaborated with Afrovibes and installed a Chill Pill show inside a Township Cafe’ at The Albany. Currently, I am in South Africa looking to meet the nation's poets and poetry programmers to start potential international collaborations. Along the way I'm thrilled to meet Iain Ewok Robinson in Grahamstown and see his latest one man Spoken Word show, YOBO, which is a commentary and deconstruction of whiteness in South Africa.</span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>First off, man, it’s been a long time in the making and we finally get to meet! When I was last in South Africa your name rang from Cape Town to Durban! I want to congratulate you on your new one-man Spoken Word show, YOBO. An ambitious piece and I applaud you for taking it on… so, what is “whiteness”?</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;"><span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #2672ec;">Ha ha! </span></span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2672ec;">Master Antrobus, it's been a highlight of my festival this year, touching base with a head like yourself. So YOBO, yeah, ambitious, but from our perspective (my wife Karen is the co-creator and director) we just felt that there was no other way to approach this subject other than head-on as you said.</span></span></div>
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<span style="color: #2672ec; font-family: inherit;">When I think "whiteness" I think "blinding white light". It's a type of mental blindness inherent in most white people that allows us to view other races as victims, as oppressed, as previously disadvantaged, but somehow disables us when it comes to seeing ourselves as privileged, advantaged, as perpetuating an ongoing racist paradigm. Whiteness is an act of "othering" if you will, of positioning white as normal and anything other than white as abnormal. Whiteness is the result of centuries of inbred superiority along a completely arbitrary genetic difference, skin pigment. It is a condition that allows us to say sorry but not to feel sorry, to hide away in plain site, to feel sorry for ourselves for being victims of self-inflicted guilt. I think the idea for me was best encapsulated by an author called Peggy McIntosh in an essay called<i>"White privilege: Unpacking the invisible knapsack". </i>She says<i> "White privilege is like an invisible weightless knapsack of special provisions, maps, passports, codebooks, visas, clothes, tools and blank checks."</i></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>What’s racism got to do with us in 2015? (said the brown Brit to the white African)</b></span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2672ec;"><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">The world has never been as readily accessible to us, in terms of our being globally connected through media, and yet even with this incredible expanded knowledge base we are somehow growing further apart. Segregation along lines of class and race and religion is growing as rapidly as the technology that purports to bring us closer together. We are finally seeing each other for who we really are: scared fight-or-flight animals with a consciousness that has us not at the top of the food chain but at the bottom of the crab bucket. Racism is a manifestation of some of our most base animal instincts for survival at all costs. Confronting it and transcending it means that we have to be able to see it, to recognise it, and the act of exposing racism in all of its manifestations is also an act of community, of coming together, or eradicating arbitrary categories and differences that enable us to be separated easily. It's such an arbitrary category in fact, race, as evidenced by the existence of a brown Brit kicking it with a white African. Humans, we seem to love labels so much, we buy into them because they seem to make us feel more certain of ourselves somehow. Maybe it's because we are so settled in our consumerism that we respond so readily to these easy to apply images of each other.</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>YOBO got a standing ovation on the first night, but you mentioned walk out’s too, considering it’s a head on commentary and critique of Whiteness in South Africa, you must have expected that?</b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #2672ec; font-family: inherit;">Yeah, totally, I think we ticked all the right boxes with that one! Same story tonight at our second show: ovation at the end accompanied by one or two walk-outs during the piece. What's interesting to me is when the walk-outs happen. Tonight I managed to pin-point the exact moment. It was during what is arguably the most judgmental part of the performance, a voice-over called "Dear White People" that is essentially about owning our privilege. I will never know exactly what the reason was. Maybe it had nothing to do with the show! Maybe there was an emergency at home and they had to cut-out, but in all honesty I think it has more to do with people not wanting to feel preached at, not wanting to be challenged. Some people come to theatre so that they can escape, or so that they can bare witness to someone else speaking their thoughts for them. This piece, as you pointed out, tackles the topic head-on and doesn't leave you any room to hide really. It was intended for that purpose, because I think that trying to make this subject matter comfortable for white-people is retroactive. As one reviewer said, he was "looking for more charm, more humour, more enticement to enjoy…Maybe Robinson's too angry to sugar-coat the pill." I think he nailed it. I think that the time for mincing our words is long gone. </span></span><br />
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<b>Do you think YOBO could speak beyond your shores? For example, the US’s Black Lives Matter gets a name check, what conversation can be had internationally?</b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #2672ec; font-family: inherit;">This piece is very specific in its use of South African-isms to localise the discussion, only because I don't feel equipped yet to deconstruct racism outside of my immediate context as a white South African male. That being said, it does speak to the idea that the real work to be done in terms of addressing this condition of "whiteness", especially with the more hidden insidious institutional racism, is really about seeing it, exposing it and activating white artists and creatives to tackle it head-on by turning the tables. As many international activists and writers have said recently in response to the exposing of the brutal racism that still exists within the American public policing system: Racism is not a black problem, it is a white problem, and the real work in righting this wrong needs to be done on white people by white people.</span></span><br />
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<b><span class="Apple-style-span" style="font-family: inherit;">We were talking about Brett Bailey’s Exhibit B. When that show came to London it was protested, apparently there were no protests in South Africa, what do you think that says about racial consciousness in these two parts of the world? </span></b><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #2672ec; font-family: inherit;">I don't think that South Africans have had enough large inclusive conversations about the notion of a type of institutional racism that seemed to typify the reactions that were the London protests. For us race is still very much a he-said-she-said surface level type of personality clash, where to be racist is simply to use derogatory words or demean others through outright acts of dehumanisation. This idea that there is an entrenched almost invisible superiority complex that pervades our society is only really being exposed now through the work around transformation being led by student groups and grass-roots activists at our universities e.g. #RhodesMustFall and #OpenStellies. A lot of people here would have succumbed to the ease of simply brushing off Brett Bailey's work or ignoring it rather than confronting it.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">You’re a musician, rapper, graffiti artist, educator and a parent… How does race play a part in each of these identities?</span></span></b><br />
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit;"><span style="color: #2672ec;">Well, I group all of those aspects of my career together as seeing myself as a Hip Hop artist, and Hip Hop culture taught me about race and politics and alternative education. Hip Hop draws it's roots from black Jamaican and American working-class culture. However, the power of Hip Hop is in its ability to transcend race, to cross borders and connect people beyond race, gender, age or language. </span><span style="color: #2672ec;">So expressing myself through the elements of Hip Hop culture has introduced me to the problem of stigmatised racial categorisation ("A white rapper?"), and it has shown me some solutions, at least enough for me to believe that we have the ability to connect beyond the barriers that we have constructed in our society.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #2672ec; font-family: inherit;">The biggest barrier that I face as an educator in South Africa is language, which is still very much tied to institutionalised racism. The oppression of indiginous black Africans through a dispossession of their language is for me the deepest cut of all. Education is at crisis point here, and my ability to play a part in addressing that crisis is ham-strung by my inability to communicate effectively in any language other than English. My work as a poet and a teacher comes with the bitter pill of reinforcing the dominance of English as a medium of instruction and mainstream communication in our country.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #2672ec; font-family: inherit;">As a dad? I want my son to speak twenty tongues and use every one to tell stories about the way we were and never want to be again!</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US">As we’re both poets who teach, I have to ask, did Suli Breaks see your response to his Why I Love Education But Hate School and what’s the story behind that?</span></span></b><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #2672ec; font-family: inherit;">Yeah, he left a comment on the YouTube site, something like "I'm glad we can keep the debate alive." I basically wanted to provide a vital balance to his seemingly one-sided argument about the validity of standardised schooling systems. While I agreed with some aspects of his agenda, I just think that he didn't take into account the teachers themselves, at all, or the parents. He grouped them all together into one "education system" that completely dehumanised the incredible individuals I have come across, both as teachers and as colleagues. I know from first-hand experience how teachers and parents have to struggle to navigate the dominant education system that serves to produce cogs for the capitalist machinery, where they are having to satisfy the education outcomes of policies that are determined by politically aligned committees and look good on paper, but when you have to apply them to "real-time" teaching, face-to-face classroom connections and conditions, prove to be lacking.</span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-family: inherit;"><b>So Ewok, we’ll be seeing each other in Sweden alongside Sage Francis in October for the Ordsprak Festival. The force is with us… right?</b></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #2672ec; font-family: inherit;">Yeah yeah! There's a powerful posse of poetic heads lining up for the Swedish journey, and the Upsaala Ordsprak Festival 2015 looks set to be some continent shifting consciousness connecting brother, best be warned! Three days of Slam, Spoken Word and the purest poetry. Salute my man, see you there!</span></span><br />
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<span lang="EN-US"><span style="color: #2672ec; font-family: inherit;"><b>Follow Ewok on Twitter - @EwokEssay </b></span></span></div>
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-29441871132389705142015-06-16T05:05:00.004-07:002015-06-16T05:07:49.381-07:00Next Gen Poet, Hannah Lowe - "Poetry Is The First Place I Claimed A Mixed Race Identity"<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">#RayRecommends<br />
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<span style="color: #0000ee; font-size: small; font-weight: bold; text-align: left; text-decoration: underline;"><a href="http://indiefeedpp.libsyn.com/hannah-lowe-in">http://indiefeedpp.libsyn.com/hannah-lowe-in</a></span><br />
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After Hannah Lowe was our guest poet at Keats House Poets Forum last month, I got to speak with her in a Holloway Road cafe. Hannah's first collection 'Chick' is, as she calls it "poetry of memory". Exploring her relationship with her Chinese-Jamaican father while growing up in Britain. I have recommended this book to a number of people who have never read a poetry collection.</td></tr>
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Have a listen to her poem, 'IN' and what she had to say about the "Black British Poetic"</div>
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<span style="text-align: left;"><a href="http://indiefeedpp.libsyn.com/hannah-lowe-in"><b>http://indiefeedpp.libsyn.com/hannah-lowe-in</b></a></span></div>
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-16818562685562856562015-06-01T11:44:00.000-07:002015-06-01T11:44:00.327-07:00What Is Impossible<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-93422571707064802015-06-01T08:42:00.004-07:002015-08-01T07:45:39.854-07:00On Race, Feminism, Education, Gentrification & Colonial Cocktails<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<i style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“Students from gang-ridden areas of the East London borough of Hackney have been learning how performing poetry can help tackle life, one word at a time.”</b></span></i></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_pME1gy3mClIXLUHZvL0zABJ5bds94zrSIjI4H612KS24ZICEn4Dzh18nZHnCYfC3yH3uJj0Fou5FPZ88A28XdfL9QBQ8pMKtHygDxJuzqWE8hZcobANo06ci4wkkyHaKegxbBKqM2Sk/s1600/Inequality+street.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="clear: right; float: right; margin-bottom: 1em; margin-left: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEg_pME1gy3mClIXLUHZvL0zABJ5bds94zrSIjI4H612KS24ZICEn4Dzh18nZHnCYfC3yH3uJj0Fou5FPZ88A28XdfL9QBQ8pMKtHygDxJuzqWE8hZcobANo06ci4wkkyHaKegxbBKqM2Sk/s1600/Inequality+street.jpg" /></a><span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">After visiting the young poets I work with in Hackney, this is how the article, written last week by the </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 22.0799999237061px;">Reuters </span><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">journalist begins. (The journalist had good intentions, but skewed editors). Straight off, I’ll say the students I work with in Cardinal Pole are not themselves “in-gangs”, they are mixed-ability (in terms of literacy and predicted grades) and between the ages of 12 -17. They attend our after school Spoken Word poetry Club and are indeed, growing up in the marginal regions of Hackney, still, as one of the English teachers rightfully put, "our students are up to more than just rising against their circumstances."</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“The Spoken Word Education Programme, founded by a former Chicago social worker, aims to help pupils in some of London's most deprived districts to articulate their feelings and have their voices heard despite an often difficult upbringing.”</b></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Peter Kahn is not merely a “former social worker”, he’s an English teacher and community leader with over 25 years teaching experience.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"These kids are so disenfranchised," said Christian Foley, a poet and spoken-word educator at Cardinal Pole school. "The gang warfare arises from the fact you own nothing, and so you're going to fight over a lamppost because that's all you have."</b></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-style: normal; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Christian was in fact referring to a different working environment, not the students in Cardinal Pole. This is a clever spin, because what Christian was actually highlighting was the systematic failures in our government in welfare and education and how this ties to the future prospects of our young people. Also,(ironically, given the tone of this article), how harmful the negative reinforcement of stereotypes are for both, society and the individual within it. We don’t necessarily “give students a voice”, they already have one, we counter the argument that they don’t have anything worth saying. We recognise that whether they speak or not, other people (media, politicians etc) are already speaking for them.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“Hackney was one of London's four most dangerous boroughs in 2013, according to the Office for National Statistics. It also ranks in the bottom quarter of the capital's 32 boroughs for a range of indicators including low income, health and education, according to London's Poverty Profile, an independent data provider.”</b></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">When you say Hackney is “dangerous”, I think what should be asked is, dangerous for whom and why? Hackney is known as “the socialist borough”, due to its long history of anti-racist and anti-fascist organisations. Evident too, in the names of Hackney streets such as </span><span style="line-height: 22.0799999237061px; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b>Sojourner</b></span><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"><b> Truth </b>Close and <b>Nelson Mandela</b> House. Public figures such as </span><b><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">James Baldwin, </span><span style="line-height: 22.0799999237061px; white-space: pre-wrap;">Muhammad</span><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"> Ali, Nelson Mandela, Oliver Tambo, Michael Jackson, Ngugi wa Thiong'o, Jesse Jackson, Angela Davis</span></b><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"> have all spoken and passed through Hackney. The Dalston <b>C.L.R James</b> library acknowledges a powerful Caribbean activist. In certain circles, this indeed, sounds dangerous.</span></span></span></div>
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">"A Symbol Of Hackney's History Of Tackling Racism" - Anthony Kendall</td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“The spoken-word initiative began with Peter Kahn, who used poetry to help students in one of Chicago's most crime-plagued districts. He found that pupils who could not discuss their problems would open up when performing poetry they had written, helped by the art form's links to hip-hop music.”</b></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; vertical-align: baseline;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, Hip-Hop music but also, many of the students are aspiring actors, public speakers, </span><span style="line-height: 22.0799999237061px; white-space: pre-wrap;">physicists</span><span style="line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;"> and attend an after school “Debate Club”, which they excel at.</span></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>"A Complicated Answer," an anthology produced by the Hackney pupils, covers experiences from witnessing a stabbing to losing a friend to cancer. There are several about fathers leaving their families.”</b></span></i></span><br />
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 1.38; white-space: pre-wrap;">Yes, there are also poems about poetry, friendships and “what it’s like to play the piano”. The poems in “A Complicated Answer” are about bravery, not ghetto pathologies.</span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“the programme is backed by institutions including the Arts Council. Since its 2013 inception, Cardinal Pole has seen one student into Oxford University to study English literature; while others at the school, which is principally made up of ethnic minorities, have improved their English.”</b></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; font-weight: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Something cuts me here, it’s on the edge of saying “ethnic minority children are being civilised by the English language, and look, they now have the prospects of attending a prestigious but also, a racially problematic institution, Oxford University. Just the other day Oxford made headlines for serving <i><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/education/2015/may/29/oxford-union-accused-of-racism-for-sale-of-colonial-comeback-cocktail" target="_blank">“colonial comeback cocktails”</a></i> in their Union bar. Is this really the golden measuring bar for academic success? I've known students from ethnic and working class backgrounds who became suicidal after attending Oxford and similarly acclaimed universities.</span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“Poetry is not a panacea, and those involved in the programme know it has its limits."You never give up, but sometimes it just takes time you don't have," Kahn said. "They may not make it to (age) 25."</b></span></i></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This is Peter Kahn acknowledging a reality for some of his inner city students in Chicago, but equally relevant, is some of those students grow to feel isolated from an education system which glorifies fascist, sexist and racist literature, <i><b><u><a href="http://raymondantrobus.blogspot.co.uk/search?updated-max=2014-09-27T16:14:00-07:00&max-results=10&start=10&by-date=false" target="_blank">I’ve written about this in a previous blog post.</a></u></b></i></span></span></div>
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<span style="background-color: transparent; font-variant: normal; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><i><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>“Despite this, at Cardinal Pole there seems to be an irrepressible optimism among students. What is poetry, the educators ask Tian Sewell Morgan, one of their star students. </b></span></i></span><i style="line-height: 1.92; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b>She thinks for a few moments and answers: "Blood in words."”</b></span></i></div>
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<span style="vertical-align: baseline; white-space: pre-wrap;"><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Yes, blood in words, as in the blood (that stays in her body) is poetry, as opposed to the idea that poetry is something keeping blood inside her.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Articles like this in Reuters contribute to the conservative's </span><a href="http://www.theguardian.com/lifeandstyle/2015/may/30/london-property-market-boom-housing-tower-hamlets" style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;" target="_blank"><i>attempt to justify the social cleansing of London</i></a><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> and the racist fear-mongering of working class ethnic minorities. The disparity between rich and the poor in the UK is vast and easy to contest, words are powerful, but they aren't enough. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">In the East London schools I've worked in, I've seen students have schooling disrupted because their council homes have been sold to private investors. Many are moved to Kent, where <a href="http://www.kentnews.co.uk/news/anti_fracking_campaigner_says_earthquake_should_serve_as_a_warning_1_4084135" target="_blank"><i>Fracking was a possible cause of a recent earthquake. </i></a></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">Careless language is a misused weapon, people often say, "you get what you deserve", but we live in a country which built an empire on slavery and the oppression of the poor. There are twelve million dead Africans in the Atlantic, responsible for the wealth and building of British colonies world wide. Without those mass burials, there is no "Great Britain". This is why Nationalism takes on a form of genocide denial, or genocide glorification. Decolonising your British identity is difficult and I've yet to have a discussion on it that didn't involve someone getting upset or defensive.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">George Orwell differentiated patriotism as "<span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">devotion to a particular place and a particular way of life" and Nationalism as a desire to colonise and "</span><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 18px;">secure more power and more prestige, not for oneself but for the nation or other unit in which he has chosen to sink his (or her) own individuality.”</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">I was asked the other day why "I put up race related articles on facebook, why is race a struggle,<b> isn't feminism a more pressing issue?",</b> the idea that a struggle needs to struggle against each other has only led to inside bickering of people on the same side of the coin. In this area, I myself have used embarrassingly careless language on twitter which I made a public apology for.</span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">C.L.R James, in a speech in Hackney in 1984 addressed an anti-racist rally by saying, "I want us to be aware that for a long time women have been at the very bottom of society", James asks, if education is how we defeat oppression and austerity, why is it that there are higher amounts of women graduating from universities and still so few in Congress, Parliament or positions of political policy influence? </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">C.L.R James states "black people in particular have a lot of experience of being maintained in a position subordinate to the general level which is attainted by men and women who are not black." He goes on to say it would be hypocritical to claim a "fight for equal rights"as a racially exclusive battle. This from a man, born the same century slavery was dismantled in the Caribbean, where he was born (1886) and spent over seventy years as a historian and activist.</span></div>
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<b style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">The Island That's Hard To Find In English</b><span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"> is a poetry manuscript I have been working on for the past two years. I am currently travelling to all the colonial hotspots in the UK (Liverpool and London covered wildly) but recently I was in Bristol and learned the idea for the African slave trade was put into motion by the Mayor of Bristol, John Hawkins. I'm delving into this history and feeling how it re-aligns my sense of self as a British, Jamaican. America's first UK based Embassy was built in Bristol after a falling out during the trans Atlantic trading profits of Rum and Sugar from the Caribbean. </span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">This links directly into our current culture and conservative-led government with the passing of a law called "TTIP" which <span style="background-color: white;"><span style="line-height: 21.466667175293px;">allows major corporations compensation for "loss of profits", tax payers are now insurers for multi-nationals (as if their off-shore tax havens weren't enough of an insult). When slavery was abolished, slave merchants, plantation and slave owners were also compensated for loss of profits. Unbelievably, this was paid for by the tax payer. These people were rewarded instead of punished (there was no human rights bill that would see to it otherwise). Charles Dickens mocked this in Little Dorrit, "Credit is a system, whereby a person who can't pay, gets another person who can't pay, to guarantee that he can pay". </span></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><span style="background-color: white; line-height: 21.466667175293px;">Human rights laws which would have seen the enslavement of Africans as unjust are now being undone by Michael Gove. When talking about colonialism, people in the UK often ask what it has to do with today? I find it incredible that anyone could go through the English education system without having such questions answered? Today is built on yesterday. </span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><u>Disclaimer</u></b></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif;">My thoughts here are by no means complete, it's merely an outpouring of thinking and feeling done while working in education, examining my privilege and positioning myself in a society, hung over after too many colonial cocktails.</span></div>
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-72370619239545957282015-05-06T22:20:00.000-07:002015-05-06T22:20:41.882-07:00Look, There's A Black Man | The Island That's Hard To Find In English<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-81287622686901864152015-04-22T10:07:00.000-07:002015-04-22T10:20:53.906-07:007th May - Chill Pill ELECTION SHOW (A Ticket To Chill Pill Is A Vote For Poetry)<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Get Tickets Here -<br />
<a href="http://www.thealbany.org.uk/tickets/1396/Spoken%20Word/Chill-Pill:-The-Big-One"><b>http://www.thealbany.org.uk/tickets/1396/Spoken%20Word/Chill-Pill:-The-Big-One</b></a></td></tr>
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;">We have got such a nuts line up this month.</span><br />
<br style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;" />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;">Outspoken boys Anthony Anaxagorou and Karim Kamar will be performing poetry and classical piano. Meaty. Beautiful. Rare. </span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/ZNvSsXc9Mog" width="560"></iframe></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;">The rowdy godmother of spoken word, Salena Godden, will be bringing her distinct brand of unpredictability, hilarity and pin-point poignance to the big room. </span><br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/p82vUIrJNYw" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;">The incredible Gentle Mystics are lending us their DJ's to play us out into the wee hours with their balkan gypsy punk rap joyousness.</span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/tu6tFblzaqI" width="560"></iframe></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;">And Chill Pill's own Adam Kammerling is dragging his partner in hip hop crime up from Brighton to kick off their pre album launch tour!</span><br />
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<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;"><iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/QH174vzZ2IY" width="560"></iframe></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;"><br /></span></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;">Plus secret special guests, Chill Pill regulars, general poetry happiness and a generous dose of spring time giggles. </span><br />
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<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;">See you there.</span><br />
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;"><br /></span>
<span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, 'lucida grande', sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;">FB - </span><span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;"><b><a href="https://www.facebook.com/events/1574414339507575/">https://www.facebook.com/events/1574414339507575/</a></b></span></span><br />
<span style="color: #141823; font-family: helvetica, arial, lucida grande, sans-serif;"><span style="font-size: 14px; line-height: 20.844446182251px;">Twitter - @ChillPillUK</span></span><br />
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-48205909470933514962015-04-09T13:00:00.000-07:002015-05-20T11:46:09.753-07:00Why & How Poetry In Education Matters<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Student reading his favourite poem in our school anthology published in March 2015, A Complicated Answer.</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: georgia; font-size: 16px; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px;">Seeing a young student of his use poetry to deal with his conflicted feelings over his dad’s death reminded <a href="http://www.ideastap.com/People/Raymond_Antrobus" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #0fdaab; font-size: 21px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Raymond Antrobus</a>, poet, photographer and educator, why the arts matter so much...</span><br />
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">“Do not strive to be a person of success but a person of value”– Albert Einstein</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Last year, I read a poem to a Year 7 class about my father's death. After that class, a boy – let’s call him Tyrone – waited for everyone to leave to tell me his father had died recently too. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Tyrone told me that he was angry his father had died because it was his father’s own fault (he was an alcoholic). He told me I was lucky to experience my father’s death without anger in my heart. I told him I was angry at my father for a long time, but I'm lucky, because I'm a poet and I have written about him and have therefore written myself out of the anger. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Tyrone asked if he became a poet, would he stop being angry? I said yes, writing helps you understand what you think and feel. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Today, almost six months later, Tyrone sat next to me in the lunch hall and told me he has been writing. He pulled a red Arsenal notebook from his bag and handed it to me. The notebook was full of his wonky handwriting, and I sat reading the difficult words of a young boy who is a poet, trying to understand his father's death without anger in his heart. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Experiences like this make me wonder how anyone can question the value of art.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">“Value” is an old English word that stemmed from the old French “valor”, which is synonymous with “moral worth, merit, courage and virtue”. It seems nowadays many of us have lost touch with this root, as we don’t know how to measure value if it doesn’t have a price tag. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Example</strong></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">I called the parent of a student recently, to tell them their child has poetic talent, and the reply to this was, “So? Is that going to make my child rich?” I was stunned, but this response makes sense in a world where our language is socially engineered by capitalism. Even the word “poet” has connotations of “poverty” and “unemployment”. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">I don’t teach poetry and spoken word in schools solely hoping students will become poets or even that they go on to study English over science. My hope is to offer students an empowering relationship with language, which promotes a building of confidence, community and relief from stress. If our education system can nurture this kind of richness then students will prosper in any subjects that are taught by passionate teachers that foster their natural ability. </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Renewed</strong></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">I used to be a personal trainer; I earned twice as much as I do now, but I’m happier writing poems and teaching, I’m happier in classrooms meeting young people like Tyrone, building a writing community in a school, I’m happier inviting other poets into my classes to meet my students, I’m happy that they are always excited to meet poets that look more like them than any of the poets or writers on the walls, I’m proud of many of our young people and I thank them for showing me new ways of assessing my own value.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Below is a poem I wrote commissioned by the Arts Council for their online magazine,<a href="http://www.artscouncil.org.uk/what-we-do/value-arts-and-culture/state-arts/create/" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #0fdaab; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;">Create</a>, on why society ought to value the arts. I thought about how many encounters I have had in the three years I have been working in schools, how much my students have taught me about courage and what it really means to prosper. I have taught students that could hardly write or were too shy to speak, but were eventually able to engage with language and use their voice in a way that feels as important to them as it should to us.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><strong style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Sound Air</strong></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Classroom chairs know Melisa’s weight.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Twelve years old, holding</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">space</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">at the back of the class, pinned</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">by her own gravity, a gravity her voice</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">fails to escape, even when reaching</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">for answers.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Hearing her find a way to hold</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">her quiver, silencing </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">a hundred students in an assembly hall, </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">knowing my words have lured her eyes outside windows</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">where a featherweight voice is still hard to throw—</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><br /></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">Melisa’s nerve to read her first poem </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">in her second language </span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">taught me the raising of back-row voices</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;">lifts something closer to the front for us all.</span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;"><span class="s1" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Raymond Antrobus is a poet, photographer and lead educator on the Spoken Word Education MA Programme at Goldsmiths University. </span>Born and bred in Hackney, he is also co-curator of popular London poetry events Chill Pill (Soho Theatre and The Albany) and Keats House Poets. Raymond’s work has appeared on BBC Radio 4, The Big Issue and recently in The Guardian and at TedxEastEnd.</em></span></div>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">You can follow Ray on Twitter <a href="https://twitter.com/RaymondAntrobus" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #0fdaab; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">@RaymondAntrobus</a> </em></span></div>
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYTlZxUBkY71P_vvkOKTDxwB5N2O1WTFo1tkyH4Y5ie4NlI8aUuGVrKOjvrzsKFQkmd-am8VVUGqB3baG6tScFYheUaC3_PedNoY1zVKZSeOV110yzvewJ7fyah-EMgkAlMBYEX7Ui4hI/s1600/SpokenWordShowcase_090414_AnthonyKeiler_11.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" height="212" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhYTlZxUBkY71P_vvkOKTDxwB5N2O1WTFo1tkyH4Y5ie4NlI8aUuGVrKOjvrzsKFQkmd-am8VVUGqB3baG6tScFYheUaC3_PedNoY1zVKZSeOV110yzvewJ7fyah-EMgkAlMBYEX7Ui4hI/s1600/SpokenWordShowcase_090414_AnthonyKeiler_11.jpg" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Spoken Word Showcase, Hackney 2014</td></tr>
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<span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: Arial, Helvetica, sans-serif; line-height: 14px;"><em style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; vertical-align: baseline;">Subscribe to the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL5aHsSB0k9FynXiQp8cbrjJT3kTW0QAjM" style="background-attachment: initial; background-clip: initial; background-color: transparent; background-image: initial; background-origin: initial; background-position: initial initial; background-repeat: initial initial; border-bottom-width: 0px; border-color: initial; border-left-width: 0px; border-right-width: 0px; border-style: initial; border-top-width: 0px; color: #0fdaab; font-size: 14px; margin-bottom: 0px; margin-left: 0px; margin-right: 0px; margin-top: 0px; padding-bottom: 0px; padding-left: 0px; padding-right: 0px; padding-top: 0px; text-decoration: none; vertical-align: baseline;" target="_blank">Chill Pill Shorts YouTube poetry channel.</a></em></span></div>
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</span><span class="Apple-style-span" style="color: #2d2d2d; font-family: georgia; font-size: x-small; font-style: italic; line-height: 20px;">Artical originally published for ideastap, Nov 2014.</span></div>
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-32509681810493685542015-04-06T10:52:00.012-07:002015-04-06T10:53:42.432-07:00Street Photography In Montego Bay, Jamaica<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
It's not easy taking photos on the local streets of Jamaica without attracting attention, but I worked out a system for stealth. Equipped with a beach towel and my Canon wrapped around my neck to keep it concealed, my motion motto was - see-shoot-conceal. Here is a quick selection taken in Montego Bay with a 400d and a 50mm.<br />
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizaVZ_lHo0ejq1U4JHDMgW0a_-2f4lrAud4GKo0MuBeMlDslX06_BJKmOsVQSj1hfCjQYSicYG-hyMwrZ-MEvzfe6DB-u5kJZKRosytIVBEgUygnYuyQyojmY_5Lq1OhECfAAFy8Z-b5o/s1600/street+6.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEizaVZ_lHo0ejq1U4JHDMgW0a_-2f4lrAud4GKo0MuBeMlDslX06_BJKmOsVQSj1hfCjQYSicYG-hyMwrZ-MEvzfe6DB-u5kJZKRosytIVBEgUygnYuyQyojmY_5Lq1OhECfAAFy8Z-b5o/s1600/street+6.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQVFVhlwcuzl5tFVm-4pDchMDD37OajEWqZfUM4skjoL14mtE8Mon097h3EXocxhjBLGn8dMR8T4YpOIdvoyF-vCVfRWq81rpOAJtBUren1X5VyJp9ySavpRe742hJlWiR2uLiXs76Mfs/s1600/street+3.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhQVFVhlwcuzl5tFVm-4pDchMDD37OajEWqZfUM4skjoL14mtE8Mon097h3EXocxhjBLGn8dMR8T4YpOIdvoyF-vCVfRWq81rpOAJtBUren1X5VyJp9ySavpRe742hJlWiR2uLiXs76Mfs/s1600/street+3.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLoDcAB1ZarfdPwuazHJrAe5PdO8TrbOAdrnvlkm0rg0DaJQpcVu-bX-zm1jwYPnm2VMVw1XwWKD63OmPeq2e1g4KhJrD4wLbUoSii2SpMbyP05iZ_QL_E-w95KQQCXxU4HpcPjG_0MkM/s1600/street+1.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhLoDcAB1ZarfdPwuazHJrAe5PdO8TrbOAdrnvlkm0rg0DaJQpcVu-bX-zm1jwYPnm2VMVw1XwWKD63OmPeq2e1g4KhJrD4wLbUoSii2SpMbyP05iZ_QL_E-w95KQQCXxU4HpcPjG_0MkM/s1600/street+1.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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<a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5h7WYVXUadbDdnO-DLbk5sAYuhjQf7qXEcCS0NYYjzuqMPGkLYV-k50_1CNUWeEL_oh0tm8aK-fz1V1b-2C9d-WrmDpEeGb2zlM6hnDIpjDtVNZF0sAq7PIaK1fi2LcH3ySzGZ1fydCk/s1600/woman+and+chile+on+street.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: 1em; margin-right: 1em;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEi5h7WYVXUadbDdnO-DLbk5sAYuhjQf7qXEcCS0NYYjzuqMPGkLYV-k50_1CNUWeEL_oh0tm8aK-fz1V1b-2C9d-WrmDpEeGb2zlM6hnDIpjDtVNZF0sAq7PIaK1fi2LcH3ySzGZ1fydCk/s1600/woman+and+chile+on+street.jpg" height="320" width="213" /></a></div>
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-24151572565516127462015-03-20T02:11:00.000-07:002015-03-20T02:11:54.020-07:00"a hilarious and fast paced double act piece, inspired by teaching spoken word in the classroom" - Sabotage Reviews<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/7xMf4kEAoV4" width="560"></iframe></div>
Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-57521633045822333692015-03-15T06:09:00.000-07:002015-03-15T06:10:15.405-07:00Chill Pill is BACK at The Albany this Thursday (March 19th) with Bunty & Pete The Temp<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><span style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><a href="http://sabotagereviews.com/2015/03/11/chill-pill-canada-water-culture-space-260215/" target="_blank"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEiWPOgc9pHxR6tIPe83GUYrM4_1h3Y8dc6jbsd-tiAhlGuV74PVcoqb546g8sdpmeqq8QkMv8GZTL1eHeJlsrVb8AqOf9B70yCFeknrQoBJmoSgyHXPY7DpIywJL6YWyrsn-6PLkt6X9Xw/s1600/CP.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></span></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;"><a href="http://sabotagereviews.com/2015/03/11/chill-pill-canada-water-culture-space-260215/" target="_blank">"one of the best nights around" - <b>Sabotage Reviews</b> http://sabotagereviews.com/2015/03/11/chill-pill-canada-water-culture-space-260215/</a></td></tr>
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<b>Bunty </b>(Championed by David Rodigan, Mark Lemar & BBC Radio 6 as one of "Brighton's Rising Stars")<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/8_0CjMsL2MA" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<b>Pete The Temp (</b>Poet, teacher, activist and musician, Pete The Temp is on top form at the moment, don't miss a poet at the top of his game!)<br />
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<iframe allowfullscreen="" frameborder="0" height="315" src="https://www.youtube.com/embed/-s2mIfwtN_g" width="560"></iframe><br />
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<b>BOOK TICKETS NOW</b> - <a href="http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/1384/Theatre/Chill-Pill">http://www.thealbany.org.uk/event_detail/1384/Theatre/Chill-Pill</a></div>
Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-10643100626988592902015-03-03T04:20:00.000-08:002015-03-03T04:22:09.818-08:00Hackney Youth Poetry Showcase Wednesday 11th March at Cardinal Pole <div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 24pt;"><b>Cardinal Pole Catholic Secondary BOOK LAUNCH + SPOKEN WORD SHOWCASE</b></span><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">on the Wednesday March 11th at the School.</span></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">The evening will feature:</span></b><b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;"><br /><br />- the Book Launch of <i>'A Complicated Answer'</i></span></b><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 13.5pt;">,</span></i></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;"> an anthology of Cardinal Pole students’ creative writing comprising poetry, prose and short fiction pieces written by students at the school aged 11-19.<br />The book has already been praised by the UK top poets and educators: </span></span></div>
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<span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;"><span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"> ‘This book will spin in the world, like a stick in a candy floss machine, gathering good things as it spins.’ <b><i>Michael Rosen</i></b><br /><br /> ‘This anthology [...], offers us the world in ways we may never have seen it before.’ <b><i>Jacob Sam-La Rose</i></b><br /> 'An incredible, magical, transformative book. My breath is stolen.’ <b><i>Joelle Taylor</i></b></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><i><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">- Performances </span></i></b><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;">from young poets and their educators as well as readings from the book.<br /><br />This event is brought to you by <b>Spoken Word Education Programme. I</b>n its third year, the programme embeds spoken word artists<br />in schools to work with classes throughout the academic year. It partners with <b>Goldsmiths University, Waltham Forest Arts Education Network,<br />Arvon Foundation, Spread the Word, Apples & Snakes, Eastside Educational Trust and Slambassadors.</b><br />Its aims are to raise children’s confidence, encourage self-expression, team-building and leadership skills through poetry and performance.<br />Cardinal Pole is one of eight schools, who are part of the programme.</span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">When</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">: Wednesday March 11<sup>th</sup> 2015, 5.30pm-6.30pm<b><br />Where: </b>205 Morning Lane, Hackney, E9 6LG, London</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">Entry Fee: £1</span></b><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;"> for students / £3 for guests</span><span lang="EN-US" style="font-size: 12pt;"></span></span></div>
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<span style="font-family: arial, helvetica, sans-serif;"><i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;">A Complicated Answer</span></i><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 12pt;"> will be on sale at the showcase, for £5 each.</span><b>Contact Person:</b><span lang="EN-GB"> Katie Hayward (School Librarian) Email: <a href="mailto:KatieHayward@cardinalpole.co.uk" style="color: #1155cc;" target="_blank">KatieHayward@<wbr></wbr>cardinalpole.co.uk</a> or call </span><span lang="EN-GB" style="font-size: 10pt;">020 8985 5150</span></span></div>
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Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0tag:blogger.com,1999:blog-5873878721715834303.post-90723093324355878012015-02-21T05:49:00.000-08:002015-02-21T05:49:20.195-08:00Spoken Word Education MA<div dir="ltr" style="text-align: left;" trbidi="on">
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<tr><td style="text-align: center;"><a href="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhut8Xpnz6fbFnj2pO_aR1JJb8FiuAjzIVEWf104nZ8HwQTvr9yg8OGHeTvxzf2ItzE4UyxqhZ6N5Bc7QhZhhf5IqNJj9W1jnuMAhSJEBXr0EIJAJvAArdSiCTvD8aiGPuYY1mTrNVU05U/s1600/Grad.jpg" imageanchor="1" style="margin-left: auto; margin-right: auto;"><img border="0" src="https://blogger.googleusercontent.com/img/b/R29vZ2xl/AVvXsEhut8Xpnz6fbFnj2pO_aR1JJb8FiuAjzIVEWf104nZ8HwQTvr9yg8OGHeTvxzf2ItzE4UyxqhZ6N5Bc7QhZhhf5IqNJj9W1jnuMAhSJEBXr0EIJAJvAArdSiCTvD8aiGPuYY1mTrNVU05U/s1600/Grad.jpg" height="320" width="320" /></a></td></tr>
<tr><td class="tr-caption" style="text-align: center;">Graduating From Goldsmith University with an MA in Spoken Word Education<br />Keith Jarrett, Indigo Williams, Raymond Antrobus, Dean Atta, Pete The Temp, Cat Brogan</td></tr>
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<br /><span style="background-color: white; color: #141823; font-family: Helvetica, Arial, 'lucida grande', tahoma, verdana, arial, sans-serif; font-size: 14px; line-height: 19.3199996948242px;">Two years ago I started the worlds first MA in Spoken Word Education at Goldsmith University. This Wednesday, I graduated with full honours. Never went to University before and left institutional education at 16, but this is testimony to what is possible when we commit to our passions. Proud of my fellow poets and the Goldsmith professors and Peter Kahn, who gave me the chance to prove myself academically. I got a distinction.</span></div>
Raymond Antrobushttp://www.blogger.com/profile/04283895579062324614noreply@blogger.com0