Just before Christmas in 1983 the 16-year-old "Norman Greenwood" discovered his real name and Ethiopian roots in his birth certificate and some letters from a social worker. He has authored collections of poetry and plays and his memoir My Name Is Why was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. That was it! I loved school. Photograph: Hamish Brown/Contour The poet and broadcaster, 55, on the power of forgiveness,. My parents were amazing, but their colour-blind approach wasnt representative of societys view of me., There are at least two kinds of narratives about being in care, says Sylvan Baker. $12.79 12 Used from $6.23 32 New from $8.47. It was about having support and confidence, and knowing what is possible, she says, I didnt even know what an artist was.. He reflected how he had since forgiven his foster parents, saying they did the best they could and he had also received apologies from Wigan Council. He learned that his real name was not Norman. But I will ask God for forgiveness and learn to love you. This was the perfect answer. I always thought it was something I had to hide. I am not defined by my scars but by the incredible ability to heal. She had a deeply unsettled childhood, moving between foster families and childrens homes from the age of six months, after her parents were badly injured in a motorcycle accident. If we spent long enough with each other, wed probably all start crying. Answering questions, he said he is still angry but now it is more defined and he does not maintain the same anger of his youth. I was a very challenging and complex young person. His memoir about that time, Fifty-One Moves, is now taught at universities and Ashcroft is a founding member of the campaign group Every Child Leaving Care Matters. Norman Mills, my new social worker, waited at the gate. I loved life: Lemn Sissay with friends in the days when he believed his name was Norman. Whilst it served as a telling analogy for his own life, he apologised to anyone fresh to poetry readings as this was a weighty introduction but, he said, I wanted to push you. Lemn Sissay MBE (born 21 May 1967) is an English author and broadcaster. Born in Wigan to an Ethiopian mother, Lemn Sissay was placed in foster care as a baby, and sent aged 12 to the first of a series of childrens homes. They told me they were my parents forever. Riordan was in respite care several times during his first four years. Today, we are as close as she can allow herself to be. The Greenwoods were strict Baptists and their foster child's high spirits appeared to wear them down. He felt that Normans successes were too many for [his brother] Christopher to cope with. We raced each other home from school every day and every day I got there first. So it didnt just have to be: this is your problem. Mr Sissay detailed his experiences in the British . Its really horrible.. I know I was lucky, I was loved, he says. My body will skip around the table like a sprite on the solid stone floor. Every one of us has a different story, says Sissay, beaming around the room in a shirt that is playing catch-up with the sun. And this is what I found. Becoming a young parent motivated her to return to education as an adult. It had its pitfalls, he says, but it was unique.. His zodiac sign is Gemini. Poet, playwright, novelist, memoirist, radio broadcaster, documentary maker, public speaker, Chancellor of the University of Manchester. As much as you read this book and are in shock (or not) at how this young black child was dragged through a problematic system and feel angry at the injustices he has faced, you can't . This is Lemn's story, a story of neglect and determination . For ever, for ages, until the end came, no matter how volatile the day had been, Id pray shed open the bedroom door before I slept, Id pray shed sit on the edge of my bed and sing me to sleep as she did when I was younger. Her care experience in West Yorkshire was reasonably positive, partly because I was just happy to have a home. He tapped the indicator and pulled quietly into a lay-by and turned the engine off. And it is my fault. Now my mindset is slightly different. His Landmark poems are visible in London, Manchester, Huddersfield and. Soon afterwards she died of cancer and De Abreu ended up, after several foster placements, living in the notorious Jersey childrens home Haut de la Garenne. I came into care when I was 13, due to being homeless, says Sanna Mahmood. She was taken into a mother and baby unit as a 12-year-old mum, and had to fight to keep her daughter. It's Mrs Catherine Greenwood, my foster mother of the first eleven years. Samaritans is a 24-hour service offering emotional support for anyone struggling to cope. Lemn means 'why' in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, where celebrated poet Lemn Sissay's mother was from. He advocates for children in the local authority's care and is involved in organisations concerning their welfare. There's only one person in the world called Lemn Sissay. . An encounter with Sylvester Stallone in the Sinai desert, while working as an extra on Rambo III, prompted Mark Riddell to turn his turbulent care experience into a force for change. Accidentally shares video of daughter over it can Listen to Capital Spoilers September 20 They include Olympic medallist Kriss Akabusi; novelist Jeanette Winterson; the comedian and Observer columnist Stewart Lee, and the Turner prize-nominated photographer and film-maker Zarina Bhimji. Here is an extract from the book. He received his MBE in 2010. It could be: this is everybodys problem., Ive started to connect with my identity as an adopted person a lot more in the past couple of years, says Luke Wright, who was adopted at five weeks. I stumbled across hazelnuts on a recent walk on Dentdale in Cumbria for a TV documentary. Thank you to every venue that has booked me as a poet and writer over the past thirty five years. Thered be many times in the future that I would play table tennis with myself by pushing the table against the wall. I looked at their faces to see if I had said the right thing. He spoke of finding wreckage from the crash in the documentary Internal Flight which can be viewed on YouTube. Lemn Sissay. They were happy, he says. Later, while piecing together his origins, he discovered that his mother had pleaded for his return and been denied by social services. In care from 11 to 17, Ben Ashcroft moved 51 times between foster parents, residential care, secure units, secure training centre, and finally a young offenders unit. He followed his dad into the antiques trade. And it gave me comfort to see your views on forgiveness and forgetting, for whilst I can see the psychological argument in favour of forgiveness, I stand with the words of a Holocaust survivor, 'There is no such thing as closure; it is a word invented by people who . I was a questioner. The clamour of questions is almost deafening at Londons Foundling Museum one sunny July morning, when 59 people who, for many different reasons, spent all or part of their childhoods in care, gather for a historic photocall. These experiences have shaped who I am today, an independent woman, passionate about my career and working with local authorities in Greater Manchester to ensure every young person has a voice, choice and control over decisions made about them., Psychodynamic psychotherapist and director of Integrated Minds and Artists on the Couch. This is Lemn's story: a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph. Libraries were my hallowed space, and librarians were kind guardians who gave me orphan tales. Now, as part of her PhD, Canning is writing her own novel, entitled Hiraeth, about a 16-year-old orphan leaving a childrens home in the mid-1970s. Read the scriptures and give us your most honest and truthful answer tomorrow.. I have no one to dispute or agree on the memory of me, good or bad. I loved the Market, the Flower Park, the Big Park, the books. He was brought up by foster parents as Norman Greenwood and was put into the first of four children's homes in Greater Manchester in 1979. Lemn Sissay, writer and Chancellor of the University of Manchester, held the Great Hall of Bolton School Girls Division mesmerised during an emotional rollercoaster of an evening. He is now Birds principal and artistic director. One dual carriageway, with a single destination: Woodfields. Mum told me they will never visit me because it is my choice to leave them because I didnt love them. Something pinched her features. This was the beginning of not being touched. Lemn Sissay MBE is a British author and broadcaster. She is also a trustee of the charity Pure Insight, which supports young people to have a better care-leaving experience than she did herself. I waited in the kitchen by my mum. When my foster parents put me into care, at the age of 12, they said: Were never going to write to you, were never going to come. I could never have imagined that the people who said they were my parents for ever could do such a thing. One of the greatest signs of my own sense of independence when I left care was the day I could ask for help when I needed it. Sissay was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, has been chancellor of the University of Manchester since 2015, and joined the Foundling Museum's board of trustees two years later, having previously been appointed one of the museum's fellows. He spent 10 months in Wood End Assessment Centre in 1984. Thank you to Jude Kelly, and John McGrath. I found my birth father very quickly, because he was an actor, Louis Mahoney, who was a big activist for Black, Asian and ethnic minority rights in the actors union Equity, she says. I was causing problems for everyone. We need to prioritise the voices of people with lived experience of care, she says. My brother Christopher was eight. He loved his parents, he says, but at the time there were no black kids around. 0 likes. I said to Norman Mills in the car: I know this is my fault and I will ask God for forgiveness. He kept his eyes on the road, but his hands gripped tighter on the wheel. I slowly realised I was being set up. Thats all I knew. $21.87 10 New from $16.75. Opening the evening with the epicMorning Breaks, he immediately pitched the listeners into a tale of the narrator clinging onto a branch for years before choosing to finally let go, having, throughout all his time in suspension, grown wings which enabled him to take flight. 4 October 1979: The Greenwoods are seen by Norman as his parents, and they and their natural children meet his needs in every way. Social workers report. Lemn Sissay, writer and Chancellor of the University of Manchester, held the Great Hall of Bolton School Girls' Division mesmerised during an emotional rollercoaster of an evening. None of us have ever looked into our birth parents, he says. And so, the poet took the Wigan council to court. My mother had schizophrenia, I had a stepfather who was very violent to my mother and to me. Its listening to care-experienced young people Ive been working with that has empowered me to talk openly about it., Donna Ludford applied to become lord mayor of the City of Manchester to raise aspirations for young people in the care system. Interspersing readings from his new collection Gold from the Stone with moving and raw recollections of his childhood, Lemn transfixed the audience. And he learned that his mother had been pleading for his safe return to her since his birth. Social services placed the baby Lemn into long-term foster care, advising the foster family to treat this as adoption. I put it to him that it was the only home the boy had known.. Mr Sissay, who grew up in the care system, shared his concerns after a report, published by the. Lemn Sissay is a BAFTA-nominated, award-winning writer and broadcaster. I have a very happy childhood memory of being in Scotland on holiday when I was about four. Now my foster mother sends me birthday cards. Someone gave me a fish-finger sandwich and I was like, Ive made it. Leaving care was harder: The social housing that I got put into was not the best there were needles all over the floor and blood on the wall and the support wasnt always the greatest. Support for care leavers has since improved, Mahmood says, thanks to new policies from her local authority in Kirklees. Ludford began as a cleaner at Manchester city council before working her way up, earlier this year, to lord mayor. But nothing was coming from there. Here are a few organisations for support and information: Become has been supporting and campaigning for children in care and young care leavers since 1985. Mum and Dad said I was like Macavity. The world of Lemn Sissay Home Tag Archives: christophergreenwood Mercy Mercy Mercy Mercy Posted on March 2, 2013 by Lemn Sissay 8 Every Ethiopian, Eritrean, American and European who has any interest in race, identity, loss, storytelling, psychology, childhood, religion, nationhood, documentary making, or intercontinental Read more [.] It didnt feel like a traumatic experience at the time, but as I got older it dawned on me that an older, white, middle-class woman with seven black children in her house, beating them with a cane, was a bit strange., Author and artistic director/CEO, Bernie Grant Arts Centre, London, I think of my life in two parts: before I traced my birth family and after, says former Guardian journalist Hannah-Azieb Pool, who detailed the journey in her memoir My Fathers Daughter (republished this year). He put me gently in the car. As depicted in Steve McQueens TV series Small Axe, he was sent to live in Brixton, where his involvement in the 1981 uprisings led to his incarceration aged 18. Buy My Name Is Why: Quick Reads 2022 Main - Quick Reads by Sissay, Lemn (ISBN: 9781838854645) from Amazon's Book Store. These are the words of Mr Graves, the headteacher in my files, in January 1976, from the social workers report: Spoke to Mr Graves several times on the phone and eventually visited the school. But dont be fooled, she says. The social worker handed Lemn to foster parents and declared his name Norman. He rebelled against the system and later ended up in detention centres and prisons, dealing with drug addiction. It was actually seeing Lemn [Sissay] perform that helped me realise that you could talk about it. Macavity was dark, quick and a thief. It was the sense of an underlining unkindness that stayed with me. Secrets are the stonesThat sink the boatTake them out, look at themThrow them out and float. Lemn means 'why' in Amharic, the official language of Ethiopia, where celebrated poet Lemn Sissay's mother was from. Writer and national campaigner for young people in care, Chris Wild has written two books about his experiences in care, Damaged and The State of It, and has spent the past decade campaigning to improve the care system. Its one of the things thats made me the happiest recently, the number of people who will happily associate themselves with their care experience, says Jonny Hoyle. I had nothing to put in the locker by my bed. The summer variety show hes directing with his students at Bird College, in Sidcup, south-east London, includes a song from the pickpocketing musical Oliver!, poignantly titled Boy for Sale. But they were telling me that I didnt love them because if they could convince me that I didnt love them, they would have a reason to put me into care. The installation, Superman Is a Foundling, is another of Sissays initiatives, drawing attention to the ubiquity of the orphan in popular culture, and it momentarily shocks the poet and performer Luke Wright to find his own history reflected in a literary trope. His mother, a young Ethiopian studying in England, had refused to give him up for adoption when he was born in 1967. It started at The Black Women's Cooperative - The Abasindi Coop - in Moss Side (1984 first paid gig) to todays event at Belfast Book Festival. I asked when my clothes and toys would be arriving. My grandad and foster parents and I used to go down to the bay to get salmon, trout and mussels. They refused. All images courtesy of contributors, Council where Logan Mwangi was murdered worryingly dependent on agency care, Councils in England and Wales pay 1m a year to house child in private care home, Private childrens home bosses in England criticised over huge profits, Council paid 60k a week for wholly unsuitable place for vulnerable girl, Almost a third of disabled children and teenagers face abuse, global study finds, UKhas sleepwalked into dysfunctional childrens social care market, says regulator, Revealed: money for educating excluded children funded Bolton bar owners social life, Bolton childrens home shut down for serious and widespread failures, Access to NHS mental health for children remains a postcode lottery, Childrens social care system unfit for purpose in England, Key to the photo of people whove spent time in care, with a list of their names, the notorious Shirley Oaks childrens home. "Margaret Thatcher was my mother," he says, beginning his story. This is the story of being stolen by the state and his 17 years in local authority care. Buy a copy for 11.99 at guardianbookshop.com, Lemn Sissay will be at Southbank Centre on 18 October as part of the London Literature Festival, Original reporting and incisive analysis, direct from the Guardian every morning. A poem by Lemn Sissay. Sarah looked pretty as a picture in her blue floral dress. I am, as I have ever been, interested to hear anything Catherine has to say about the eleven year old boy who she and her husband placed into care. This was quickly followed bySuitcases and Muddy Parkswhich spoke of proving yourself to your parents and he fleetingly remembered how his own mum and dad went off one way, whilst he went off with a social worker. Mum smelled like mums smell; there must be a smell a child is attuned to from being a baby, a cross between baby powder and witch hazel. After a succession of institutions, he left the care system, alone, and requested his files via customer services. The way I see it, this should be something for people who are going through the system. He's talked before about a later meeting, but this first reunion, on London's South. He lost touch at nightTheir fingertips withdrewNobody touched him, light,Except you. We usually get the narrative told about us so its nice to tell it ourselves, she says. Now hes a national adviser for England, advising the government and local authorities how to have a better leaving care offer to the more than 80,000 kids that weve got in care. I just felt this overwhelming relief when I found out the truth, he says, because I was always told, they didnt want you. For Fretwell, writing and making films is a way of dealing with both his care experience and the racism he suffered growing up in Bognor Regis. He has authored collections of poetry and plays. Just me. 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