Identity and Cross-Cultural Working

Friday 30th July 2021

Identity and Cross-Cultural Working

This month’s featured poem is actually a small set of three poems, I Am, You Are, He / She / They Are. This small set was created as a result of a series of workshops I facilitated for Birmingham LGBT charity.  The workshops looked at aspects of Identity with people from the South Asian LGBT communities.

It was a wonderful experience.  The guys were amazingly responsive and honest in their discussions, and we found some creative ways of working with their ideas.  On a personal note, I was moved by the welcome I was given.  Nobody wondered why this white Englishman was facilitating the discussion – I sense it was more important to them that I was doing a decent job.

There is an important lesson from this.  In a way, also reflected by the England football team so recently in the news.  Inclusivity is the key, the richness that comes from diverse peoples working together.  I hope this is reflected in the poems.

The poems in the set are not directly from the workshops.  Rather they are my responses to the workshops.  The poems were discussed during the sessions, and I like to think they found favour.

I hope I reflect the richness’s of diversity in all my work.   I try very hard to.  It’s a major idea sitting behind the present theatre piece I’m working on.

Current Work

I’ve been putting finishing touches to a group of poems Buying Blue Cornflowers.  Also putting together a set of radio drama ideas.  It’s increasingly difficult to get radio work commissioned.  The BBC is cutting back on radio drama work.

Signing Off

Don’t forget to visit my Tuesday Poem each week on Twitter.  And I hope you find my weekly tip on Instagram helpful. 

Next Update

Friday 27 August.