*Please note this transcript is generated using an automated service and it may not be 100% accurate.
First story presents London Voice.
Liam: If you were Prime Minister, what would you change about schools?
Jahaluka: Oh, I have such a long list. Okay. One of the things I’d definitely change, when we are in class, we should have like times where we just make a circle within the chairs and just have a complete group discussion about, not necessarily situations that are going in within our classes, but situations that are going in within the world. Because as we grow up, we get like exposed to a lot more that’s happening within the world. And having those group discussions would definitely help us voice our opinions on matters in the respectful way.
Tracy: Hi, my name is Tracy Chevalier, I’m a novelist – you might know me from my book Girl with a Pearl Earring – but I’m also an ambassador for First Story, England’s leading creative writing charity for young people in state schools.
I’ve been an ambassador for First Story for a couple of years and it has been such a joy to sit in classrooms, watching students write, listening to what they have to say, listening to their voices. I love that First Story is stepping outside the curriculum and allowing creativity to thrive without it being examined.
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. In this episode, you’ll hear poems about stereotypes and school. You’ll also hear about the power of oracy from my fellow ambassador Patrice Lawrence.
Now, over to the students
Jahaluka: You’re about to hear a selection of poems written and performed by students from Trinity Academy in South London.
Keanna: My name is Keanna and my poem is titled ‘What They Think’. I am beautiful. My eyes shine brighter than an undiscovered star and my skin is dark, not pitched like tar. I tell stories of unbelievable sights. But when they see me, is that what comes to mind when they see me? Do they think of me from the neck up or chest down? Just the thought of it makes me want to frown.
It’s not where she’s been, it’s who she’s seen. A woman walks around in baggy clothing and she’s all of a sudden ridiculed for not taking care of herself. But if she’s wearing something a little bit tighter, she’s asking for it.
Not that she’s happy. No, God forbid. God forbid, a woman is confident. No, she’s sexualized. How boys will be boys. Do you know how many girls believe these sad lies? How women are only valued from the neck down and are being franchised? I pity the ones who embrace it, not for embracing it, but now they’re giving it away and they’ll never find a man who’s willing to stay.
But don’t, you know, you call this. Yes, men and women, men believe that women are dumb toys who belong in the kitchen. And all these poor women who sadly are being held captive by thoughts fed since they were young, young girls who no longer care about dolls’ curls and how their tutus twirls. But now it’s, am I pretty enough and thoughts that make my skin crawl?
Little girls stripped of their innocence because it’s not attractive enough for boys. But boys will be boys. And obviously if he’s mean to you, he likes you. And sadly, when your daughter thinks this is okay, and he crosses that boundary, don’t ask why she stayed because you made her think it’s okay.
So I say it again. I am beautiful. My eyes shine brighter than an undiscovered star, and my skin is dark, not pitched like tar. I tell stories of unbelievable sights and when they see me, that better be what they think.
John: My name is John and my poem is called ‘Fix Your So-Called Perfect World’, and it goes when influence is my past. It didn’t last for it to be our task. In the world of reality where illusion cannot be a solution, each night was a day of pain. Is this me. My future is pained with shame. If we make our hands hear and our mouths see who can shape this water, my foresight, any world can exist. But, who am I to begin with?
Remembrance was before and now. So who are we but the characters in the story. Women and men lie in their own name. Blood stains on hands said, you are clean. You look into my eyes and say, it’s time to change. The world we live in is simple, in the simple way, but not with ease.
One says otherwise. Quote, Spider-Man says, I saved you, but why can’t you save me? Referring to us, men and women are equal, but what happens stays in the past, but damages the present. What can we do but emphasize on the same loss. Lost in the darkness, but swells up high hopes, but are never to be seen again.
I strive for what I could, but never works in the world of injustice for it’s to save a loved one, but stabbed again, I won, but at what cost? To feel what I feel. We got lost. The words that should bring us together, but it only separates us forever. For what clarity we seek from our patience to become weak from dreading points that make us leak. I would like this world to think of all the impurities and corrupt nature that blends us all in the night. We’re dawn by blinks red, the lowest of lives that people cannot strive. We ought to understand what pains us, a loop of distent and disorder. What we see is the negative that amplifies fertility when in the truth that accepts us, but chose to neglect it.
Mohammed: My name is Mohammed and my title is ‘Dear Teachers’, this poem was inspired by ‘Dear White America’ and ‘Dear Hearing world’. I’ve lost hope in half of you. All you can do is target us pupils. Most of you just copy what is said on the electric whiteboards, asserting your dominance by giving unfair detentions, blaming kids for standing up when they don’t.
Giving detentions for asking questions like, what is this? Can’t teach, can’t be nice. So why bother did you apply for this school to put all your pain onto kids? Got a teaching degree, to bully kids ’cause you got bullied as a kid. Tut, tut, tut. This generation don’t even need teachers. Why? For maths, we have calculators. English, we have subtitles on Netflix shows. Drama, we have TikTok. Science, the only science I need is Coca Mentos. Spanish, we have Dora the Explorer. All of these taught me more than you will ever. Dear teachers, the ones that are good, stay good. And the ones that are bad. Oh, well.
Tracy: That was really great hearing poems in the voices of the people who wrote them. Sometimes words on a page are one thing but when you actually hear it in the voice of the young person you can hear the passion and the anger even more strongly and also the individuality and the creativity.
Part of my work as an ambassador is to really listen to the young people at First Story. My fellow ambassador shares this passion…
Patrice: My name is Patrice Lawrence and I write books with characters that are children and young adults.
To say to young people that your voice is important is a gift. And for me, it goes back to the idea in our society that many young people’s experiences are ignored, their voices are suppressed. You know, uh, schools are an institution that fulfill a very particular function around, uh, academic achievement and fitting in and uniformity. And actually what you can do around sort of creativity and oral creativity is you can, in a very safe setting, you can go beyond that. You can be yourself.
I think oracy’s important because so many people come from oral traditions. So whether it’s, you know, working class communities, Irish communities, Caribbean communities, African communities… I grew up with people just telling stories.
What oracy does is it gives young people and children back their voices. To pass an exam, you have to write in a certain way, have so many adverbs, spell correctly, et cetera, et cetera, et cetera, which is so much pressure on young people and makes them feel that they can’t be storytellers or writers or poets. And what oracy does, it gives them back their own voice to know that they can tell stories in a way their brain works in a way that their voice can tell.
It’s important to have young people at, at the center of literature because they deserve good things. Books and writers that are being studied now are still the same ones that I did for an exam, which excludes so many contemporary experiences, contemporary identities, although I loved reading as a child, and stories also had that disconnection in that I had to do an ethnic hop to be part of a book.
The only books that had, um, children of color, particularly black children. Were, were incredibly stereotyped racism, deeply unpleasant. And I also still feel that as a society in uh England, we undervalue teenagers.
Tracy: Let’s head back to the classroom to hear more from the students at Trinity Academy…
Shaniel: My name is Shaniel and my poem is ‘My People’. They only see me for my color. My skin is dark and tells stories, a story of my ancestors and background. The work they did, the pain, they endured. Pain that won’t be reciprocated because of the vulgar. Now they’re vulgars. So now when they walk, pause, you don’t know the pain that they had mustered, the hope that they held, the tears that they shed.
Do you know how much time they had spent fighting for us? The battle that they fought to make it this far? They overcome so many challenges and fought for a voice to allow others to know who they are and who we are. They don’t know what we have been through. They only tell one stories about her. Proceeded. These are my people.
Ridwaan: My name is Ridwaan and today I’ll be ready a story or a poem that I wrote called ‘The Bigger Picture’. The reason for way I wrote ‘The Bigger Picture’ was because I wanted to inspire or motivate the younger generation, into make the right decision or the right choice. So yeah, there you go.
When a minuscule ant makes its way through the woods, its death is a constant probability. We never know, maybe it’ll walk to the end of its days in safety, without predators or poison – it’s a possibility. In megalopolis cities, people join gangs, causing harm and toxicity to the community. Continue on that path, they could kill you where you hang. Only righteous behaviour provides immunity. If the path through the woods is right in front of our eyes, why would we take the wrong turn? Why would anyone make a decision that ensures their life must inevitably crumble and burn? If protestors’ voices were truly heard, society would dismantle these murderous fixtures. When each new generation thinks gangs are the way, we must show them the Bigger Picture.
Jahaluka: My name is Jahaluka and the name of my poem is called ‘Scarred Heart’. I remember these times when you and I was talk and laugh, feels like he is in the past, but was merely weeks ago. I gave you my love and you relished in it. Took comfort in it only for you to damage it. You turn your back on me. Confused me.
Hurts me, only for my heart to yearn for something I can’t have. My brain is telling me no. My heart is telling me yes, I don’t want to hurt anymore, but you are the only one that’s going to heal my shattered core.
Jahaluka: while doing this project, I’ve learned that I can, like, I already knew I could use my words, but it’s like I found my love of poetry and just writing in general, and it’s given me inspiration to produce better pieces of work every day.
Keanna: Saying things in front of a mic or something like that, it makes me feel like my words are being heard and it allows other people to also feel like their words are being heard ’cause it can see that other people also sympathize with them .
Mohammed: from this I, I can speak in front of other people, but I don’t necessarily know as like friends, and that gives me confidence to do other things in lessons.
Shaniel: Yeah, I just think it’s nice to like have people hear my voice.
Keanna: The project helped me see like things in another light, not only my own light.
Liam: During this project, I’ve seen students from all different year groups really grow in terms of their confidence. Um, there was a lot of talented writers in the group, but they didn’t at the start always want to share what they’d written, even though it’s really strong. Um, and now several terms in we’re seeing that people are really keen to share, and not just within this group, but they’re going and joining other extra school activities. Um, things like our oracy showcase, our talent shows that they’ve been taking part of and putting themselves forward. So it’s been a really amazing change to see in a short space of time.
Tracy: To hear these young people talking – I feel like I’ve been standing out in the hallway and a door has opened up to their room and they are letting me in just briefly to hear what they think. One of the reasons I like being involved with First Story is that it reminds me of my own childhood in school, and having teachers who really cared about me and cared to make a space for me to feel that I could express myself in words and that’s exactly what First Story is doing here in these schools
Patrice: First Story feels necessary to me because it reminds me of the teachers that supported me in my secondary school. I went through what was considered a good secondary school simply ’cause I was in a catchment area at that time, they let a few council kids in while the rest was very affluent. But I knew nothing about writing. I did it. Um, and some of the teachers you know, said, oh, that’s really good. But I had a couple of English teachers who really supported me. And actually when Orange Boy came out and won prizes, they both contacted me on social media to say that they always knew that I would be a writer and they’re proud.
And I could say thank you to them because I didn’t have a clue. And I think what First Story does is enables that process, but enables writers to build a relationship with writers and residents so that they can push and push and develop that work, and develop that work and actually feel they’re taken seriously As a writer, and for me as someone who developed my love of writing in a teenage years, I just feel, again, that is such a wonderful thing to do.
Tracy: Thanks for listening to First Story Presents: London Voice. I’ve been Tracy Chevalier, 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 poetry and prose of students at St. Saviour’s and St Olave’s in South London.
What have been some of your favourite things that have happened throughout the whole project?
The biscuits…
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.
