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Culture Matters<\/strong> is proud to commemorate Black History Month 2023 and mark National Poetry Day with the first of four new poems by the award-winning writer Jenny Mitchell, under the heading British History is Black<\/em>. This work examines the legacies of British transatlantic enslavement, looking at the impact on shared identities, ambition, personal safety and home.<\/p>\n Why four poems? Because Black History Month can often seem like a tick box exercise, and Culture Matters<\/strong> is committed to publishing work all year round that aims to challenge outmoded notions of \u2018race\u2019 and equity.<\/p>\n These poems have been written to stimulate new thoughts and lead to new questions. Culture Matters<\/strong> will post one poem a week during October; feedback from readers is welcome on Twitter\/X at #Culturematters<\/a> and on Facebook at Culturematters2019<\/a>.<\/p>\n Great British Voice<\/strong><\/span><\/p>\n by Jenny Mitchell<\/em><\/p>\n When mother sails to England \u2013 1958 \u2013 faces coming close as if a dozen moons have where she works at night, sun rising like a coin, tears at her clothes, grabbing for the pay, coins You want to see me cry eye water? Never. do you have?<\/em> Men kick her to the ground, shout contempt, running as she stands, limping to the that has to change as skin cannot be white. to oranges doesn\u2019t really help, still a victim Culture Matters is proud to commemorate Black History Month 2023 and mark National Poetry Day with the first of four new poems by the award-winning writer Jenny…<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":575,"featured_media":15614,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1660],"tags":[2843,2842,2755,2841],"class_list":["post-15615","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-poetry-2","tag-black-history-month","tag-national-poetry-day","tag-nhs","tag-windrush"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15615","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/575"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=15615"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/15615\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/15614"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=15615"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=15615"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"http:\/\/www.gfdesign.co.uk\/culture\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=15615"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
chin higher than a ship\u2019s carved figurehead \u2013
she\u2019s followed by a huddled mob, white<\/p>\n
dropped, fists clenched, breath thick with beer,
each spit-stained curse shadowing the hospital<\/p>\n
earning measly pay to be sent home, as she called
Jamaica then \u2013 aging mouths to feed. The mob<\/p>\n
spinning on the road, but she stands her ground.
I is a British citizen. Me passport have a stamp.<\/em><\/p>\n
Not for you. Me farder fight in World War One.
Two bruder fight in World War Two. What medals<\/em><\/p>\n
above her screams, Listen to the monkey grunt!<\/em>
They cough up phlegm, shower her with thick<\/p>\n
small bedsit shared with all those mice, crying
as she bathes the wounds, thinking it\u2019s her voice<\/p>\n
She puts Jamaica in a box, accent jailed for life,
no more haitches dropped. Adding them<\/p>\n
of attack walking down the streets, even when
she cries for help, using her Queen\u2019s English.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"