*Please note this transcript is generated using an automated service and it may not be 100% accurate.
First story presents London voice.
Nofisat: Being creative is like an outlet for, um, teenagers especially because people can be creative in different ways. Maybe they are creative through science, maybe they’re creative through music, or even just like art, but it’s like a way to express yourself and let your voice be heard. It really like helps. Get all that pressure off you.
Luan: You just heard the words of Nofisat, a student from my old school, Skinners’ Academy in London. I can really relate to her sentiment about creativity being an outlet.
My name is Luan Goldie. I’m a novelist, short story writer and teacher. As a Resident Writer with First Story, England’s leading creative writing charity for young people in state schools, and as a former classroom teacher, I see how vital creative expression can be for young people – how powerful it can be to get their voices out there.
This is a podcast that brings the creative voices of young people to the forefront. In each episode, you’ll hear a different writer guiding you through original poems and stories by young people. Today, you’ll hear heartfelt and comical poems. You’ll hear how visual art can inspire creative writing. And you’ll also hear the students at Skinners’ discussing why focusing on your words – and not how you look – is so precious to them. Over to the students.
Angelina: You are about to hear a selection of poems written and performed by students from Skinners’ Academy in North London.
Hi, I’m Angelina, and this is ‘Nothingness’. Nothingness. Time had passed and life goes on, but a little quieter, a little lost. The emotion of nothingness is the one that no one truly ever gets over. It stays with you like your heart does. Your heart stays, but they go. But what if they are your heart? Then you have lost everything.
You wake up one day, get the phone call, you can’t cry because you need to be strong for them. You can’t scream because you need to be in control for them. You can’t imagine life without them because it wasn’t a reality until now. The emotion of nothingness, the first time you feel it, you hope it never falls into your life again.
Spoiler alert, it will. It’s life. To feel fullness again, people are the key. You lost a person, but you found others in between. I miss my person so much. They are here with me. Amina Vo.
Ameera: Hi, my name is amira and this poem’s called ‘Salt and Vinegar Crisps’. Roses are red, violets are blue. My life feels incomplete without you, baby in the night I’m filled with gloom. Baby’ I need to be in your room. Your long, slender limbs. The taste of you lingering in my mouth. Oh, how much I love the sharp tanginess of you, the way you leave me feeling brand new.
The saltiness and vinegary-ness, absolute assault to my tongue. O salt and vinegar french fries. Please stay young. You make me levitate up to the sky, up to the birds, salt and vinegar french fry. These are my words.
Farida: Hi, my name’s Farida, and this is my poem, ‘The Things we Take for Granted’. And now I am breathing, breathing in a breath so many others could not take. And now I am sitting, sitting in a sanctuary so many others can’t find. And now I am eating, eating food that so many others do not have access to. And now I am.
Sleeping. Sleeping in a bed so many others can’t afford to make. And now I am thinking, thinking for the people who aren’t allowed to think for themselves. And now I am waiting, waiting for the day we can all be free from the chains of this cycle. One apple fell, the whole world knew gravity. Millions of people dead, but no one knows humanity.
Luan: In addition to the weekly writing sessions I run with the students, when we can, First Story takes them outside of the walls of the school to find inspiration elsewhere.
One such trip was to the Courtauld Gallery in London. The two poems you’re about to hear are the result of conversations we had about women in paintings.
Tiayan: My name Tiayan, this is ‘The price of silence’. In the velvet box, she sits with grace, a moment of peace, a still embrace, but behind her, the man’s eyes stray. Binoculars raised his gaze astray, not at the stage, but beyond the crowd to another woman, fair and proud. Her heart once calm, now starts to stir. A silent ache begins to blur.
She wonders, does he care at all, or is she just a moment’s fall? With every glance, her heart feels strained as she sits beside him, yet detached, unchained. His eyes may wonder but her heart remains. A woman’s value isn’t tied to his chains. In silence, she bears the heavy cost, as love fades and trust is lost.
Nofisat: My name’s Nofisat, and this is ‘Below the surface’, this mask I put on to please others and look my best. The hours I take carefully painting a masterpiece on my face. This side of me is only shown to guests. I wish the real me could blossom from its nest, but I am a girl, my job is to look right and say the right things. My job is to be a man’s centerpiece. This mask I put on, wears me down, eroding my soul, tearing me down.
Luan: Next up, Tiayan and Nofisat talk in more detail about the artwork that inspired them to write those two pieces. It was by the artist Renoir.
Taiyan: This poem was inspired by a painting, one in a theater. So her, her partner is looking into the crowd. And she, obviously he’s looking at another woman.
Nofisat: He was probably cheating on her, and the woman was like, instead of sad, it was like she, she knows what’s going on and she doesn’t even care at this point.
Tiayan: I felt like they felt powerless, the women, ’cause it was set back in old times.
Nofisat: Maybe in Victorian England. This painting made me feel kind of sad, but also related to it because in this day and age, I feel like a lot of people, they kind of give up in society and instead of like constantly trying to fight back and prove to the world that, um, I’m different, we’re different, we just kind of slowly accept that this is the life we were born into and it’s just time to accept instead of always fighting back. And I feel like a lot of people are like that, even though others are like, oh, stand up, fight. But sometimes it’s just too exhausting to do and you just wanna do what’s easy instead.
Luan: The themes in those two poems—being looked at, feeling like you have to wear a mask, feeling on display—resonated with this group in a way that went beyond creative writing inspiration.
Podcast Producer Talia Randall wanted to learn more about this. She sat down with the students and their teacher Comfort Akano to not only find out how they felt sharing their work out loud but also about growing up in a culture where everyone’s camera is at the ready.
Talia: How did it feel sitting down speaking your piece into a microphone?
Tiayan: I found it quite nerve-wracking at first because like I’m, I’m not the type of person to usually like read it out in front of people. The fact that it wasn’t videoed made me feel more comfortable and I was able to share my ideas, but I was also really fun and I’m glad that you recorded it.
Nofisat: It was fun. The fact that you didn’t have to worry about like how you look. Or anything like that. It was just, you got to speak how you wanted to speak without the fear of like being judged on like how you look saying it. And I finally understand why like the most randomest people in the world start a podcast.
Talia: Do you guys feel like sometimes there’s too much video for young people? Like things are filmed all the time? What do you, what do you have to say about that?
Nofisat: People need to calm down because I see all the time children getting exploited to get more views or to boost someone’s like in like make them more influential, like kind of.
But I think people actually just need to let kids be kids and instead of everyone trying to be famous all the time, like just stay in the moment and enjoy what’s in front of you. Because even though it’s nice to have memories. Are they really memories if you aren’t there in the moment, like experiencing them?
Angelina: and we live in the time where we think, oh, a picture paints a thousand words, but maybe it’s worth realizing that maybe words just need to be words and not pictures.
Comfort: I also think that giving young people the voice makes them to develop their minds rather than develop how they look, you know, and concentrate on what is ephemeral. The picture thing, the video thing makes young people to concentrate on what does not really matter, and so they lose out on a number of opportunities, but giving them a voice, hearing themselves talk gives them more confidence that yes, there is more in them than people can see.
Luan: The fun that can be had with words and speaking chimes with research from the Oracy Expression Commission. According to their recent report, ‘59% of children say strong communication skills make them feel happier.’ Is this something that feels important to the students at Skinners’?
Ameera: Well, I think that the definition of Oracy is when you can speak like fluently and coherently. And people can understand what you’re saying and you can really articulate your feelings.
Talia: Is that a skill that you think is really important and if so, why?
Tiayan: I definitely think Oracy is important and that kids should feel more open to speaking like freely, because like at school we don’t really get the opportunity to talk aloud a lot. And I guess that kind of impacts how you do it in the future.
Nofisat: Um, adding onto Tiayan, I really agreed with her because so many people have so much they wanna say, have a lot on their chest, they just dunno how to say it or communicate it with people because they feel like people won’t understand them.
Everyone has the right to express themselves and feel like people understand them. So just having spaces or like lessons at school where you can speak and gradually improve your way of speaking.
Comfort: Um, which is why, uh, this program is quite appropriate that we’ve had sessions of, um of writing, creative writing, and then they have the opportunity of actually speaking out what they’ve written.
So it is a combination of the two. And if this continues, definitely it’s going to develop our young people. So what they need to go out and do is to recruit, you know, uh, students in other years, let them know that there is a place for creativity, there is a place where their voices can be heard, not just heard in the classroom, but heard possibly all over the world.
Luan: Thanks for listening to First Story Presents: London Voice. I’ve been Luan Goldie, your host for today’s episode.
In the next episode, I’ll be handing the mic to another writer who’ll guide you through the wonderful creative minds of students at Trinity Academy in South London.
If you were Prime Minister, what would you change about schools?
Ohhh, I have such a long list. Okay…
First Story Presents: London Voice was produced by Talia Randall in collaboration with First Story. It was mixed by Jamie Payne. This was a First Story project.
This podcast is part of the wider London Voice programme, an exciting new oracy pilot delivered by First Story, England’s leading creative writing charity for young people.
Over the course of this academic year, First Story has been working with six non-selective secondary schools in Greater London as part of London Voice.
It’s aim? To help young people develop as writers who have a voice and the skills and confidence to be heard.
Students from Hampstead School, St Paul’s Way School, Platanos College, Skinners’ Academy, Trinity Acadamy and St Saviour’s and St Olave’s Church of England School have had the opportunity to take part in creative writing, performance and audio workshops led by skilled industry professionals. This podcast is one of the outcomes of their work.
London Voice has been made possible by the generous support of The Mercers’ Company, trustee of St Paul’s Schools Foundation.
To find out more about First Story and London Voice, visit First Story dot org dot uk and join the conversation on Instagram by searching firststory_uk.
