New Writing North and Me
Like many second-generation immigrant children, my mother drilled the importance of pursuing education into me. “Education is power,” she often states. “When you have your degree no one will be able to make you feel small.” From a very young age, I was taught the number one lesson: education comes first!
I – daughter to a single-parent household; educated at the West End of Newcastle’s beloved Excelsior Academy – have graduated from one of the top ten UK universities. I have secured a graduate role to train at one of the top five leading UK commercial law firms. And I have succeeded in many areas where statistics and stereotypes have predicted my failure. My journey, deemed as a success story, has been no stranger to confusion, disappointment and imposter syndrome. I have faced, and continue to face, many obstacles. Nonetheless, I am and will always be a dreamer.
“We believe that writing talent is everywhere, but that opportunities are not.” This quote from the New Writing North website stands out to me. When I was 13, Emily Wiseman, a producer on the Young Writers’ City programme, came to my school to deliver a workshop on creative writing. I, prompted by the excitement of being one of the ‘first’ to engage with the programme, eagerly attended. At the time, I did not understand the importance of what I had signed up for. For many years, I have been told to focus my efforts on getting the highest grades possible, which always involved reading textbooks and writing essays with a processed formula or essay structure provided. There was no need for creativity. All that mattered were the numbers attached to my lined notebook at the end of every assessment.
The Young Writers’ City programme was very foreign to me. The workshops I took part in with Emily were not graded out of 30. There was no exhaustive list of assessment objectives for me to hit. There was no red pen to attack my ideas. This was very foreign to me.
During my secondary education, as part of the programme, I was invited to perform an original piece I had crafted during one of the sessions: ‘My Mother is Fire, My Father is Water’. A poem that, as you can guess from its title, explored the complicated emotions I harboured regarding my ‘broken’ family. A poem about my deep-rooted anger. At the Sage, Gateshead I stood in front of a sea of strangers and performed my heart to faces I did not know.
This moment deeply impacted me. It was then, filled with excitement at the opportunity to share my voice, that I understood that the arts were welcome to me, too. People cared about what I had to say. Emotions that I had tried so hard to suppress, ignore, and store in a box that caused me to sarcastically talk back to my teachers in hopes of retaining some control over what I felt, could and were turned into something more.
My mom (my biggest supporter) was in attendance, too. I remember her shrieks and applause, brimming with joy that her young 14-year-old daughter was sharing her talents on a larger scale. In her words: “When you perform on stage, there is a fire that lights within you that touches people and makes them want to listen.”
My engagement with New Writing North’s projects shaped my broader perspective on education and learning. In my GCSEs, I received an A grade average (with the exception of two Bs in science and maths). During my A levels I replicated the same high level of success. My academic efforts saw me gain a scholarship from a leading international law firm.
The connection between the arts and academia is so strong and obvious that it’s disappointing that many fail to recognise its relationship. I’ve been able to identify similes and metaphors in foundational GCSE English Literature texts such as The Strange Case of Dr Jekyll and Mr Hyde and Macbeth because I’ve spent my lunchtimes working with Emily on including these literary techniques in my written poems. My love for my History lessons, where I learned about the greatest minds of history – Martin Luther King Jr, Winston Churchill and many more – was heavily influenced by my desire to understand the complex systems of our world and delve into topics pertaining to equity, inclusion and diversity.
I have been invited to speak in the House of Commons on the impact of hate crime on young people in the UK. I have appeared on various news outlets such as ITV and BBC. I have spoken in front of crowds of hundreds of people. I am the first person in my family to have graduated from university, and I am currently training to become a solicitor, accessing a dream that I have chased since I was 13 years old. My ability to articulate myself in various crowds and perform well in interviews where I’ve secured scholarships and internship placements has been largely facilitated through the wonderful medium of the arts. I have been afforded a massive advantage because of the Young Writers’ City projects that I have been involved with over the years. An investment that I did not know I would be reaping dividends from to this very day.
The road for many who come from a background like mine is narrow. I know of schoolmates who wanted to change the world, aspiring politicians, doctors, and much more. Now, because of limited choices, many visions have been eroded by a lived context of criminality and closed doors.
The older I get, the more I realise that human beings perform every day. New Writing North afforded me the means to recognise creative writing and performing arts as vital tools for stepping toward success. I am living testament that arts and education are not at odds with one another: they work together to give students a framework to overcome life’s interviews and applications that are to come. I am and will always be a dreamer. As I reflect on my journey, I urge educators, investors, and anyone who believes in the power of creativity and writing to support charities like New Writing North. Together, we can create more stories like ‘New Writing North and Me’.