Climate change: who should we trust?

By Orla Price

On 30 September this year the Free Word Centre held a discussion on the topic ‘Trust and the environment’. The discussion centred on what sources of information we could trust in the face of climate change, and how education, the media, politics and the public perceived threats to the environment. What I found most innovative and indeed engaging about the nature of the discussions was the choice of speakers and the input from the audience. Chairing the discussion was comedian Tiernan Doueib, and the panel included seventeen year old student and activist Claudia Delpero as well as Tony Birch, an Australian novelist. Also, they happened to have me doing a poem.

Often when trying to access debates and discussions on political subjects we are confronted with ‘experts’, academics and politicians who distance us from subjects that affect us constantly. Speaking in languages of their own, these arenas become intimidating, we are made to feel opinions on these matters are ‘left to the experts’ fostering a culture of helplessness at best and complete detachment at worst. By the end of the discussion an audience member pointed out that if the opinions of front line communities that are experiencing the worst of climate change were taken more into account in the media, as well as having their opinions heard by politicians, the public would find it easier to trust the information about climate change and our future, and would then become more engaged with these issues.

Tommy Clark, "Harnessing Nature"

Taking part in this event and also participating in SHAKE! has shown me there are alternative ways to communicate, and that experiential knowledge and telling our stories can have as much –indeed, probably more- impact than passively listening to expert opinions purposely convoluted to distance us from engaging properly with important issues, just in case we pose a threat. 

We're told Change and flux are a part of nature

So nothing or no one can be sure

No magic calculator

Calculating the sums of the future

No equations to justify pure

So we go round in circles with no end

Inaction, the only theory to defend

Can't see the destination, this road has too many bends

People are showing us the answers

Others tell us to step back

Say we can't understand

Palms up, overturned hands

Cash is passed on

They're passing the blame on

Thinking how long this will go on

And I'm doing my bit

But truth is, I'm getting scared of the news

And truth is, I don't know what more I can do

Cause I'm following the advice

But the TV's shouting crisis

Worrying how much time there is

In a society with no off switch

So I'm doing my recycling

But they're making more packaging

Taking the bus to work

Elsewhere they're selling mercs

Checking the labels on my food, trying not to import

Climate refugees moving country, trying not to get hurt

Somewhere in the back of my mind,

I'm thinking it wasn't us that overstepped the line

We're coming to a point where doing our bits not enough,

There's got to be someone out there we can trust

Headspace - Shake #5 Poem - "Dear Beauty in the Rubble"

Headspace: when we think about how the amazing capabilities of the mind to imagine and  agility of the brain to calculate, reason and deduce, we always imagine it to be an electrifying place to be. It should and always be.

Shake's Headspace 2014  is about how we connect with these abilities, how we learn and how the brain and mind should be maintained as healthy places. Shake thought about the brain and mind in relation to the human spirit and the well being of the body.

Environment and relationships will influence how the headspace interprets and creates the world we live in. So all that said what did Shake Headspace discover or reveal? 

For one week we explored how the education system and the environment young people learn. Often learning is exciting. Often they feel stressed and pressurised. We spoke about how when a regimented, conformist, often discriminatory  hyper-consumerist and oversexualised society becomes too much, confidence and esteem are so affected, the body will react. The human spirit might be distracted but the mind is an amazing thing and will create all kinds of coping mechanisms to keep the body alive and "safe". Here is where assessing and taking care of our mental well being comes into play. 

We heard stories of first hand experiences with medication for depression and many shared other less mentally aggressive means to get through another day. Sharing our day to day sanity self maintenance was one of the weeks highlights, along with the brilliant games to provoke discussions and debate which inspired some very cool creative work.

Through images, poetry and film, we unpacked one of the most crowded places on the planet - inside our heads. Orla Prices image, which we have used for all Shake August 2014 promotion, is a perfect illustration for our headspace inquiry.

Here is the video of Shake! poets group piece that the Shake! filmmakers produced with our brilliant film duo, Dershe and Patrice from NuWave Productions. 

"Dear Beauty" puts the system we live under in the spot light and praises the subtle energy of  the human spirit resisting modern day pressures.

Powerful stuff as usual...  

Dear Beauty Amongst the Rubble

Eternally conflicted

I pray for the day

They tell you that your beauty can only take you so far

I am breaking through

Burning up inside

The base of a tool you proclaim necessary

The weight of thousands on me

Lost on earth my forefathers reigned the land

My existence displaces that which came before me

abused so freely  with confidentiality 

you created me

A fever constantly rising 

you created me

Your power can beat me?

I might be forgotten, faded now

but the Earth used to be mine

yes I look happy, I feel yellow

But they don;t tell you without their version of beauty

you're given permanent scar

How does my thinness grow green out of this dense grey?

The wind blows the tune

The gentle flower dances happily

Few words from Zena post Shake!"13 @ BGAC

Zee grooving to Lucas Kelly's poem "Messy Python"

                                           
I am speechless. I can't even talk about tired after an intensive week of youth arts and activism because I've been so inspired by the voices of the young people on the this weeks Shake course. It has been empowering, emotional.... oh I could go on and on but I'm supposed to be speechless the resonance of the participants voices run so deep there are no adequate words (don't really cut it.)

Thanks to Farzana Khan, Edward Lewis, Sai Murray, Derek Richards, Marcina Arnold and Hannan and Richard from the www.rainbowcollective.co.uk for making it soooo easy to bring this dream project to fruition and to aaaaall the young people who invested so much of themselves to produced some incredibly powerful poetry and film. Am feeling blessed and honoured. I know I keep saying it but I must again - "I love my job!"
Big Love and Thanks to all.

Idle No More by Umaru

Umaru Saidu  deliberated hard over this poem during the Shake course in Feb. A passionate reading at the Shake Voice, Verse, Power Showcase at the AlbanY, 23rd June 2013.

Human Trafficking by Khafi

A moving and thought provoking poem by Khafi Kareem filmed by Media 4 Youth at the Shake! Voice, Verse and Power showcase, Albany, 23rd June 2013.

Event: Shake! Showcase #2 Voice! Verse! & Power!

Voice! Verse! & Power!  is the explosive showcase from the participants of the second Shake! course. Featuring freshly created poetic, filmic and musical responses to injustice, the showcase will present an original and inspiring mix of political creativity. The event is FREE, but with limited capacity, it is important to get your tickets early! So get on down to The Albany in Deptford on June 23^rd and join us for what promises to be an electric event. 

Get your tickets here: http://shakeshowcase2.eventbrite.co.uk/

See you there! 

Shake! in the Metro newspaper.

Yesterday, we were pleasantly surprised to find Shake! on the London Metro newspaper. We were selected as Rahul Verma's podcast picks. For those who missed it, check us out. Thanks Rahul :) 

I Will Not Let An Exam Result Decide My Fate - Suli Breaks

Great Video about how some young people are wise to some of the failings of the education system. 
Virtually every line hits a point of observation to provoke thoughts about how education catergorizes people, and lacks true bearing to the current affairs in the real world. 
A serious comment on the future for young people.

Thanks to Nathaniel Chapman for the heads up on this one

A Messy Picture - By Nathaniel Chapman

Sometimes life is just raw. There are not pretty edges. There are no get out clauses. This poem speaks directly  to an experience that many young people feel today. It rolls with clarity, "no frills" but hard hitting and heartfelt. It asks for someone to take notice that young minds searching for answers. What response do you have?

A Messy Picture

Now I’m Just Sitting Here Reminiscing,
Feeling Out My Mind But Locked In Its Prison,
While The World Spins It Feels Like Its Drilling,
A Whole In My Soul While Its Slowly Killing.
Me, got my mind racing every time I see police
My head hurts and my heart aches I mean
How much pain does it take for a heart to break?
I mean look around you can see what’s up for stakes
No matter what the coppers state I will not be locked away
The systems a game but we don’t want to play
Damn

We have a life but with every second spent
We try to fit it
But for once can we please make our own decisions
Why does life hurt?
Feeling scared my emotions turn
Got me feeling anger because the system needs to learn
But it won’t
I’m just saying

You got the male youths spraying nines griping knifes taking lives
You got the female youths looking left looking right opening legs pregnant by
A boy who isn’t ready so he decides to leave because he don’t want what’s in her belly
She crying saying she’s messed up her life already
This could get messy

She turns to alcohol
He turns to weed
She goes to parties
He gives up his dreams
She takes drugs
He does a robbery
She’s feeling alone so she decides to cheat
He finds out and smacks her into next week
Now stop and think
What might become of their unborn seed?
I can see reality fading washing away
It’s not our fort we was raised this way
So we come to the question
Who’s to blame?

You could blame the dad who didn’t show his son how to treat a lady
You could blame the mum who didn’t show her daughter how to treat a baby
You could blame the police who didn’t give him a chance to explain maybe
You could blame the government for taking food away and stopping money daily
But I look at the world and I say
All this made me

Written by Nathaniel Chapman©

rough draft of a never-ending process

rough draft of a never-ending process1

“Our lives begin to end the day we become silent about things that matter” 2

so let us Begin:

to disbelieve in any system claiming to have a “monopoly on the truth”3

to make Noise – and to listen

to Eat great food – but not too much

to Work – but not too much

to make Art without limit

to have a place to Sleep – and someone to keep us warm

to be Untiringly Human

we refuse to be embarrassed about hope or to have dreams about checking

our email

we refuse to continue to see the world in the black and white stark contrasts of Manichean design

we refuse to confuse Education with Capital, in which:

BORN INTO THIS?

Charles Bukowski was listed as an influence of one of the Shake!rs for the Shake!’13 @SLCT week. Bukowski was a German -born American author, prolific poet, short story writer, columnist and novelist.  His work has inspired and influenced so many great writers and thinkers and he is often described as a dangerous mind.

 We thought we would share his powerful poem Born Into This:

 “...Born like this
Into this
Into these carefully mad wars
Into the sight of broken factory windows of emptiness
Into bars where people no longer speak to each other
Into fist fights that end as shootings and knifings
Born into this
Into hospitals which are so expensive that it's cheaper to die
Into lawyers who charge so much it's cheaper to plead guilty
Into a country where the jails are full and the madhouses closed
Into a place where the masses elevate fools into rich heroes
Born into this...” ( an extract from Born Into This)

What do you think? Are we born into this reality Bukowski describes? Can we do anything to change it?

Blown away by visit to Shake!

It's Friday 22nd of February and I walk up to Stephen Lawrence Centre wondering what the showcase for Shake! will be like. I worked on the pilot in 2010 so had some idea...

I walk into the main workshop space and the vibe is hushed, focused, calm. 6 or 7 young people are busy writing, editing, thinking. Facilitators wander in and out, checking things are happening and on time. The walls are covered in fascinating mind-maps, post-it notes, drawings, key words, poems. A table is groaning with books and publications, posters and flyers that participants have been sharing. Another table has fruit, biscuits, tea. There's a fascinating cardboard washing line of dirty cardboard linen that was clearly a revealing exercise. We've all got some.

I catch up with Farzana, the coordinator, who is still relaxed and full of energy, after a full-on week. We go upstairs and find the video group busy planning and rehearsing. Another productive vibe.

Taz Rasul and Doreen Thompson-Addo from Stephen Lawrence Centre join us, together with a journalist from BBC Radio 1 who is doing a programme about young people, politics, and music. The showcase begins and it's

what Nuha, Rotimi, Selina are doing...

Latest news in about three of Shake's brilliant young participants from 2010/11 programme! 

Nuha Baruti and Rotimi Skyers are taking part in Stephen Lawrence Charitable Trust's 2012 architecture and design exhibition 'People & Places', held with Scott Brownrigg in Covent Garden. Nuha was a Bursary recipient at SLCT and has played a key role in curating and organising the exhibition of young talent. Rotimi is studying architecture at University of the Creative Arts, Canterbury, and has developed a close ongoing relationship with the Trust since Shake! 
It's on til 30 Nov so if you're in London, get over there.

Meanwhile, Selina Nwulu is responding to a challenge: to write a brand new 20-minute poem as part of Apples and Snakes event 'The Word's a Stage', 21st November, in Hackney, London. Selina's been mentored by Malika Booker along with three other up and coming poets. Should be a brilliant night.

Shake! Stars Poetry

Happy National Poetry Day (for yesterday...!)

Yes we just missed posting about this by a few hours but we do have a good excuse as we're busy busy in the exciting recruiting process for our new Shake! coordinator.

A revamp of this blogsite is also needed we realise but in the meantime and with the theme of National Poetry Day being "stars" here is the link to discover all the posts on this site from our Shake! poetry stars:

http://voicesthatshake.blogspot.co.uk/search/label/Poems

Also a newly created playlist over on our YouTube featuring Selina's original poem and also Paris Kaur and Zodwa Nyoni from Leeds Young Authors at our 2011 Britain on Trial event:

The winners are... Yorkshire!

Members of Ralph Thoresby team at the regional heats

At yesterday afternoon's National Poetry Slam finals, the team from Ralph Thoresby High School in Leeds were hailed as the overall winners. This group works with Sai Murray, our very own poet-facilitator here at Shake! How well deserved it was, and how hard it must have been for the judges to decide.

Because it was an afternoon of amazing talent and some extraordinary moments. The stage crackled with energy, commitment, and craft. Too many fabulous moments from many groups to recall here, but for me one of the things that stood out about the Leeds group was the political content. A lot of groups addressed tough issues but something about the analysis that the Leeds young people brought seemed sophisticated beyond their years, yet so authentic.

First Wave at 'Shake the Dust'

First Wave at 'Shake the Dust'

Last night's '100% Proof' event showcased the coach mentors for today's National Youth Poetry Slam final plus we also got to see an amazing performance by 'First Wave', a group from the Spoken Word and Hip Hop Learning Community course at University of Wisconsin, Madison (USA). 

This group, now touring the UK, used their own experience of race and racism in the US education system as the basis for this piece. It was mesmerising: a performance of such power, and such polish, and also such rawness, love, humanity. And great tenderness. I went with a friend completely new to this way of working with poetry, and he was overwhelmed by it. The slam groups from around the country filled the audience and you could have heard a pin drop from the concentration and appreciation. 

Zodwa Nyoni - A Letter for Mama Oluwale

One of the most successful aspects of Britain On Trial was the coming together and sharing of experiences between active, articulate, dedicated young people from two different parts of the UK and from two different artistic organisations - Leeds Young Authors and Shake!.

Zodwa Nyoni, a Leeds Young Authors alumni (Leeds Superheroes of Slam winner 2011 & Voices of A New Generation winning poet coach 2011 just the latest of her long list of acolades...) was a part of the 15 minute speed-lecture on "Racism, Young People and the Police" and followed poetry from Shake!'s Rotimi and Selina - who opened proceedings with Britain on Trial and her response to Stephen Lawrence's murder, Thou Shalt Not Kill.

Zodwa provided the perfect closing contribution to this opening speed-lecture by bringing the topic back home to Leeds with a dedication to David Oluwale - a Nigerian killed in police custody back in 1969 and still, over 40 years later, the only case ever of criminal convictions for officers involved in a police-related death since records began in 1970.

IGNITE - Poem by Rotimi Skyer

Written on the night ot Tottenham unrest.
More voices of our Positive Young please.
Peace.

Ignite
Fire
Black engulfs da air
Smoke blocks out sky
Hands raised up high
...
Fire
Black is da youth
Emotions feel da heat
ppl burnt too much to retreat

Fire
Bullet tears thru black
Pigs grunt in their sty
Mama,
mama looks up to da sky oh my oh my at da sky she asks,

why?

Fire


Copyright Rotimi Skyers

Rotimi's poem "Hey Stevie" presented to Doreen Lawrence

It was such a special moment last Thursday, when Rotimi Skyers and Nuha Baruti from SHAKE! presented a beautifully designed poster of Rotimi's poem to Doreen Lawrence at the Stephen Lawrence Centre.

Doreen was guest of honour at the SHAKE! Preview at The Albany in February, and was very struck by "Hey Stevie" and the way Ro performed it. She told us she'd love a copy for her wall, so we commissioned the wonderful Liquorice Fish to work with Ro on the design. You can listen to "Hey Stevie" here.

The framed poster in the exhibition space at SLC

Buy one and support SHAKE's development 
We have a limited edition of these beautiful A2 posters on high-quality paper, at £20 each p&p.
Email us!

Extracts from Nuha's Poetic Piece Performed at The Albany

                                                                                                  Click on image to enlarge