Mum had always said that love was never in question. I am not defined by my scars but by the incredible ability to heal. Giving him up for adoption, he thinks, was a massively selfless thing to do. The result is an inspiring photograph for young people in care today, Introduction by Claire Armitstead. Written with all the lyricism and power you would expect from one of the nation's . He dived into Mums arms and said: Mum, I beat Norman, didnt I? She stroked his head and said: Yes, you did. And then she looked at me. He wrote about the experience in his 2010 poetry collection Whistle, which was shortlisted for a Ted Hughes award and which Figura later turned into an Edinburgh show. Catherine and David had no children when they took me. Axa Hynes, right, with her foster sister Michelle Brown, also featured in the Foundling Museum photograph. Founder and executive chef, Bramble Dining, Aged eight, Richard Bramble and his older brother Greg, also featured, moved in with a foster family near Leamington Spa. He has been with this family since he was a couple of months old and Mrs Greenwood considers him as theirs. I had nothing to put in the locker by my bed. Programme manager, Greater Manchester Trauma Responsive Programme. Reconnecting with her birth family in Eritrea in her late 20s allowed me to realise the multiplicities of who I am, to make connections around inter-country adoption, and the idea that you can belong in multiple places and with multiple families. I just have to keep mentally strong and reverse those doubts., Participation and projects lead at Pure Insight and business owner, Natalie Hirst spent eight years living in foster care in Greater Manchester and had a mixed experience, but her resilience helped her to develop the strength and skills to overcome many challenges. "Margaret Thatcher was my mother," he says, beginning his story. She is now employed by the NHS in Greater Manchester, leading a programme to create trauma responsive communities and organisations and to improve health outcomes and opportunities across the region. We raced each other home from school every day and every day I got there first. I came into care when I was 13, due to being homeless, says Sanna Mahmood. 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. It was the end of December 1979 and I was excited when I entered the front room for the family meeting. The foster parents have spoken of adoption, but they are afraid that investigations may lead to his mother. Social workers report. I was mostly well looked after, he says, and learned to be happy in my own company., Ive become somebody to whom family and community is incredibly important, says opera singer Jack Holton, who was born in Kent to a single mother with health issues and fostered at an early age. In the Baptist church, our church, we were taught to question why. A school report calling the boy "a ray of sunshine" is probed for racist overtones, and happily exonerated. I loved the Market, the Flower Park, the Big Park, the books. They were in the trunk back at home. In prison I became an avid reader, he says an experience that paved the way for his career as a novelist. Johanan Walker, aged 13, with her one-year-old daughter, during their time in care in Hackney. Accidentally shares video of daughter over it can Listen to Capital Spoilers September 20 I was lucky to have a loving upbringing, but I find Im never really happy with what Ive done, he says. He then secured himself a flat on Poets Corner, a housing estate near Wigan. It had its pitfalls, he says, but it was unique.. Just before leaving the house, Mum looked at me. Lemn Sissay, My Name Is Why. Lemn Sissay was seventeen when he wrote his first poetry book, which he hand-sold to the miners and mill workers of Wigan. One of the best things [foster care] has given me is the knowledge that it doesnt need to be a totally typical family setup to work, he says. I wasnt given anything and nobody contacted me. He advocates for children in the local authority's care and is involved in organisations concerning their welfare. Poet Lemn Sissay, with the help of Londons Foundling Museum, has gathered 59 athletes, artists, CEOs and others who, like him, spent part of their childhoods in care. His mother, a young Ethiopian studying in England, had refused to give him up for adoption when he was born in 1967. In a sea of brilliantly coloured fabrics never has clothing seemed more important to the story we tell of ourselves TV producer and editor Janet Lee looks particularly confident in jazzy reds, hot oranges and cheeky pinks. There are a lot of big emotions flying around the room. Night cant drive out nightOnly the light aboveFear cant drive out fearOnly love. We passed the butchers and the chemists and Wigan Road and passed the Flower Park and the main park, the junior school and Byrchall High School, and then unfamiliar territory unfolded before me: the East Lancashire Road. None of us have ever looked into our birth parents, he says. Lemn Sissay MBE is a British author and broadcaster. We usually get the narrative told about us so its nice to tell it ourselves, she says. Not even a Bible. He has authored several collections of poetry, as well as plays for both stage and public radio, and was official poet of. Her care experience in West Yorkshire was reasonably positive, partly because I was just happy to have a home. One is piteous, the other heroic. Why would I think anything else? Raising a joyous toast to the forgotten and the forgettable, Sissay recognizes the power we give to what we pay attention to and invites us to look anew at all that has been undervalued. After a succession of institutions, he left the care system, alone, and requested his files via customer services. Christopher was their first-born, but I was their first. They wanted me to ask God for forgiveness and through him I will learn to love them. This is what I have chosen. Id never thought of myself as a different person., Principal and artistic director of Bird College, Sidcup. There are many strings to the bow of Lemn Sissay OBE. Audio CD. But the responsibility is too great for a child and so he finds himself manipulated and blamed for what he exposes by the simple virtue of innocence. Lemn Sissay is the author of five poetry collections: Tender Fingers in a Clenched Fist (1988); Rebel Without Applause (1992); Morning Breaks in the Elevator (1999):The Emperor's Watchmaker (2000), and Listener (2008). Yet in 1980, at the age of 12, young Norman was abruptly expelled from his white . Ive had experiences with homelessness, she says, and its something that disproportionately affects people who are leaving foster care. I brought all these questions home. 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. 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. On the back another poem is handwritten, composed on the train into London this morning, fresh on the page. The level of invisibility of the issues facing young people leaving care has not fundamentally altered in the past 20 years., Theres still a very clear judgment passed when people hear you say, I was in care, says Akiya Henry. Available in used condition with free delivery in the UK. He said, and we almost believed him, that he had shushed the restaurant and then stood on the table and forcefully delivered the poem. We fought with unbridled determination the way brothers do. Even this Great Hall, he reminded the audience, had been imagined by an architect before it had been built. I asked when my clothes and toys would be arriving. The abuse she endured, none of which came from her own family, was incomprehensible and frightening, she says. Google "Lemn Sissay" and all the hits will be about him. A decade ago, Clare Gorham was very much pro transracial adoption. I was 10 and we were off to a wedding in our new clothes. Being in foster care is probably the primary reason why I had a diagnosis of borderline personality disorder, says Derek Owusu, whose award-winning debut novel, That Reminds Me, explores the after-effects of a childhood in care. I remember the smell of wet heather, bracken and fern. Mum told me they will never visit me because it is my choice to leave them because I didnt love them. ISBN: 9781786892362. To mark National Poetry Day this month, poet and author Lemn Sissay muses on a country childhood of mixed blessings - and why this year he is more hopeful than ever. I am mightily proud of being care-experienced as its made me who I am today. I waited in the kitchen by my mum. So it didnt just have to be: this is your problem. $21.87 10 New from $16.75. You dont love us, you dont want to be with us? All of this happened the day after they had made this call to the social worker. Just me. A poem by Lemn Sissay. She left home at 16 after coming out as gay an experience depicted in her 2011 memoir, Why Be Happy When You Could Be Normal? He lost touch at nightTheir fingertips withdrewNobody touched him, light,Except you. 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 . They wanted their children to be educated and go to university. It was Lemn Sissay. Raise me with sunshine, bathe me in light: Lemn Sissay. Seek and ye shall find. This is what they wanted to seek. And then Lemn spoke elegantly and measuredly as he delivered a cathartic unburdening of his formative years. In the process of tracking down his birth parents, which is ongoing, Chris Fretwell learned that he was given up for adoption to cover up a family scandal: his parents were first cousins. The internationally acclaimed poet and playwright Lemn Sissay OBE shares the story of his life by recalling five memorable dishes. He was the eldest of three adopted siblings, all from different families. This is a great opportunity to celebrate our achievements, says Keith Saha of the Foundling Museum project. Interspersing readings from his new collectionGold from the Stonewith moving and raw recollections of his childhood, Lemn transfixed the audience. He has authored collections of poetry and plays and his memoir My Name Is Why was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. 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. Charles Dickenss orphan Oliver Twist is one of scores of names plastered over the walls of the room where the volunteers gather for coffee and biscuits before the shoot, along with James Bond, Jane Eyre, Han Solo and Huckleberry Finn. When Luis De Abreu was nine, he travelled from Madeira to join his mother in Jersey, where shed been working for several years. Lemn was the first person I saw on stage talking about being care-experienced and it blew my mind, says comedian, actor and writer Sophie Willan, best known as the creator and star of Bafta-winning BBC Two series Almas Not Normal. If you just want to be? Baker was transracially fostered from 11 days old. He is in two minds about searching for his birth parents. It was Lemn Sissay. My foster father was a teacher and my foster mother was a nurse. Ive never used it in a serious way, and I absolutely never will, says Stewart Lee of mining his care experience for standup material he was in care for the first year of his life before being adopted by a couple in Solihull. They were good people who did bad things. He was taken into long-term foster care in Wigan and named Norman Greenwood. Other weird things started to happen. Pete Turner was adopted at five months and grew up in Bury in a very liberal family that loved me, he says. Poet Lemn Sissay says he felt obliged to accept his OBE because the award honours his younger self who overcame a "dehumanising" time in care. Christopher, Sarah and I were on top of the world. What happens if you want to be neither? But its a bit of a B-movie of an existence. Lemn Sissay is an award-winning writer, poet, playwright, artist and broadcaster. In and out of care from the age of five, Stanley J Browne says his horror story began aged eight, when he was separated from his siblings and fostered off to Nottingham. They were my parents and I loved them unconditionally. Im 12. This is the story of being stolen by the state and his 17 years in local authority care. It was a difficult situation, he says. He describes a happy childhood, a mischievous nature, and warmth between siblings. Her adoption broke down when she was nine and she moved through various childrens homes around Manchester until leaving care at 17 because I came out as a lesbian and it was a Catholic childrens home. 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. The car filled with quiet loss. My home situation was dire. All my personal belongings went in the locker by the bed. He made me realise that it could be a strength not a hindrance. Shes now a patron of the Bolton charity Backup North West which helped her get her first flat when she was 17. The journey took about 45 minutes, or 45 seconds. I slowly realised I was being set up. I lost everybody. One thing many share is dark memories of the shame and stigma they suffered. LEMN SISSAY. are! He has authored collections of poetry and plays. I just felt I had to hide it, says Sophie Willan, creator and star of Almas Not Normal, of her experience in care she spent much of her childhood in foster care in Bolton. I was causing problems for everyone. We look at reclaiming the adoption narrative and reframing the worlds view on adoption, and also helping adult adoptees heal from their trauma.. LEMN SISSAY MBE is a BAFTA nominated International prize winning writer. I would narrate the game against Christopher, my invisible brother and Id let him win. It was actually seeing Lemn [Sissay] perform that helped me realise that you could talk about it. He loved his parents, he says, but at the time there were no black kids around. 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. Both places recognised her writing talent and helped her get work published. 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. Mr Sissay, who grew up in the care system, shared his concerns after a report, published by the. He thrives on praise and affection, in fact he cannot do without it. Social workers report, I hadnt realised I wasnt a happy child. Spectacularly ordinary, is how poet Paul Cookson describes his very happy childhood in Lancashire alongside three other siblings, all of them adopted. If they were asking me whether I loved them or not, and if they were the ones who taught me about love, then maybe I didnt love them, otherwise they wouldnt ask. Postscript: After Woodfields, Lemn Sissay was sent to two more childrens homes. I spent my life searching for my birth family. 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. Where I grew up, in a very white conservative area, there werent any other people who looked like me for the best part of 16 years, she says. Today we stand proud as care leavers and remove societys stigma. Brown defied expectations by progressing to university and getting a Masters. 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. 19 April 1978: There is a letter on file from Normans mother, written in 1968, requesting he be returned to her in Ethiopia perhaps Norman should be made aware of this? Social workers report, on which someone has written in block capitals, NOT YET I THINK. I felt incredibly cared for and looked after., When Paolo Hewitt was researching his care memoir, The Looked After Kid, in his early 40s, he went back to Burbank childrens home in Woking, where he lived from 10 to 18, and realised that it was actually a great experience, especially compared with the dismal years in foster care that preceded it. I was challenged with a lot of preconceived ideas and biases by the adults I was around, about whether I could be a mum and make it through against all odds. 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