The power of poetry

On a sunny day several years ago, a newlywed couple began a joyous procession from the London Central Mosque through Regents Park. As I stopped to watch, an older white woman cursed the 'foreigners' and said they 'should go back to their own country'.

I had several angry words to say on the subject but was left with an unstoppable desire to find out why so many 'foreigners', including my family from Jamaica, had settled in Britain – and how it connected to the racism I witnessed that day. This launched years of research into the British empire and the British transatlantic trade in enslaved peoples, which helped me to see that while the history is one of great brutality it is also one of unbelievable resilience on the part of the enslaved peoples and their descendants.

This research also became the basis for three poetry collections, Her Lost Language (2019), Map of a Plantation (2021) and Resurrection of a Black Man (2022) as I had no other way of expressing my feelings about such a complex history. Map of a Plantation gives voice to imagined enslaved people and enslavers, and is on the syllabus at Manchester Metropolitan University.

Today I facilitate poetry workshops with diverse groups of young people on the subject of enslavement and its legacies. I encourage them to write in a way that emphasises creativity, empathy and feelings of safety. Safety is particularly important when talking about such a painful subject. As enslavement was racialised, it's important that diverse groups of young people find ways to talk about this history in a way that allows their feelings to be heard, whether they are feeling pain, anger or confusion. Poetry is, in my opinion, the perfect form to talk about these difficult subjects in a way that helps us feel emotionally safe. It helps young people come to terms with a difficult history, process challenging emotions and ultimately can help them thrive.

This poem from my collection, Map of a Plantation, is called How I Write About Enslavement. I hope it gives you a sense of the visceral need I had to write about the history of enslavement. It's a history that is linked to transgenerational trauma, something I strongly believe is held in all of us, not just people of colour, because our history is shared.

I dig bones from a grave carried on my back
lay them on the page – blood full-stops.
Chains are brought up next, a tangled weight.

Whips the overseers soaked in salt
start a fire on my skin. Deep wounds
turn into welts, flower into sentences.

My body folds, neck wrenched to feel the rope
pulling at my neck. Knees quake. Each organ
fills with names, the children sold

their cries tamped in my throat, locked away
for safety's sake until they scream
break free, demand a page.

Poem by Jenny Mitchell, published by Indigo Dreams Publishing. Reproduced by permission of Jenny Mitchell.

As a creative writing facilitator, I often encourage young people to write poems about how they feel when exploring this challenging history. Two possible opening lines are:

I want the history to help…
or
The history has made me feel…

The second prompt in particular often helps the writer to think of something surprising when it comes to their own beliefs about enslavement. It is not unusual for people to start crying at this point as the details around the history can bring up feelings of intense empathy. On the other hand, I have known people to become angry and this is when, in my experience, poetry is most useful. Poetry prompts help the writers look at their anger and understand that it does not have to be externalised as violence. Anger can be a rich source of information and poetry can be a good way of releasing difficult emotions.

I specialise in workshops that look at freedom and identity. These are topics that seem to resonate with young people on a personal level, but they are also at the heart of understanding the history of colonialism and enslavement. In my experience, it really helps young people to relax into a poetry session to be offered poetry prompts on these subjects. I think we all need a place to think about who we are deep down, not just the external self that may be judged or ignored on a day-to-day basis.

Perhaps it's all-too rare for us to take the time to sit down and think about who we are, what we want from life and how we'd like to be seen by others. In doing so, we assert ourselves in a way that helps us to feel stronger and therefore helps build our self-confidence.

Some examples of opening lines might be:

This is who I really am…
or
I think freedom is…

Writing poems about freedom and identity seems to offer young people a foundation or a sense of support and security as they talk about enslavement.
 

I always let participants know that I will not be judging or 'marking' their poetry, and often invite them to write a song or a rap as this might feel more familiar and less intimidating than writing a poem.

Over the years, I've realised that a surprising number of us feel intimidated by the idea of reading or writing poetry. This may be because of the way it has been taught in schools. Many people assume poetry has to rhyme or resemble something by Tennyson or one of the greats.

In my workshops, I always emphasise that, for me, a poem is just a written expression of what we feel deep in our hearts about a subject. Once the young people know I'm not going to judge them, they feel a lot more relaxed to write on an emotional level. This has an almost immediate impact on their confidence. It's as if writing from the heart allows them to tap into an inner strength and sense that their words are as important as anyone else's. I believe this is crucial when writing about emotive or challenging subjects as we can often feel daunted or as if we have nothing to say on important subjects.

Several years ago, I facilitated a workshop for 11-year-olds at Maida Vale Library, looking at the life of Walter Tull, the dual-heritage footballer and World War One soldier. The children were fascinated by his life story because they could either identify with his ethnicity or admire his footballing prowess and heroism during the war, or both.

This meant they were devastated to find out he suffered racism from supporters of his own football team. It was also very emotional to reveal to the children that Walter Tull was killed in action close to the end of the war. I found it was important to ask them how they felt about this, and many expressed sadness. I encouraged them to write a poem addressed to 'Dear Mr Tull'.

The invitation to do this seemed to allow the children to focus their emotions, and they were all keen to stand up and share their work. It seemed not only to offer them a form of comfort but to allow them to honour Walter Tull.

This year, I facilitated a Camden Summer University poetry course, during which young people between the ages of 13 and 18 were encouraged to write poems about notable Black people, some of whose images are held in the British Museum. These included the musician, composer and soldier Joseph Bologne, Chevalier de Saint-George (1745–99), the poet Benjamin Zephaniah (1958–2023), the first Black female footballer in Britain, Emma Clarke (1876 – after 1903) and the 'Ivory Bangle Lady', a Roman noblewoman of North African descent, who lived and died in York more than 1600 years ago.

The aim of the course was to introduce the young people to Black people who had overcome obstacles in order to achieve great things. It was hoped that this would give the young people a sense of their own power and confidence. The course also helped the young people improve their literacy and basic skills in the hope that this would have a positive impact on their school work when they started a new term.

The following poem entitled The musician, was written by a participant called Joseph about Joseph Bologne as part of the course:

In jail I sing about my life when I was young and talented,
words rolling off the tip of my tongue, 
when my performances were attended by queens,
when life was all a dream.

Now I sit here trapped, dark and alone,
waiting for the sweet scent of home.
Now I am a prisoner, watching my days turn to months,
still not knowing what I have done, wondering hopelessly what I'll become.

I fought for my country,
A revolution not a Queen,
Now I am left alone,
Unclean.

The poems will be published in the Camden Black History Month Calendar 2025. The writers' outstanding work demonstrates that if young people are given enough stimulus and information about a person, they can produce poems that bring those people and stories alive. Whether you're a teacher, a parent, or someone simply looking to broach the subject of colonialism with the young people in your life, you could encourage them to read these poems and write their own versions.

Alongside this, you may want to deepen your knowledge of the history of empire and colonialism. I would highly recommend: Black and British (2016) by David Olusogo, Black Ivory (1992) by James Walvin and Natural Rebels (1989) by Sir Hilary Beckles. There are lots of other books to choose from but I think these are a great starting point. There are also lots of poems that help and inspire me when I am offering poetry about colonialism and enslavement to young people. Perhaps one of the most famous poems is The Sea is History by Derek Walcott. The poems alternate names for black boys by Danez Smith, Family by Marilyn Nelson and Incident by Countee Cullen are a few other brilliant examples.

This month, I'll be working with the British Museum to offer a series of in-person and online workshops for teachers based on the exhibition Hew Locke: what have we here? During these workshops, I'll be using objects from the exhibition to help inspire the teacher-participants to write poetry and think about prompts they can offer to students in their classrooms. Again, the emphasis will be on finding ways to safely open up the history of empire, colonialism and enslavement.

In advance of the Hew Locke workshops, I'd like to share examples of poetry prompts that have helped young people delve deeper into what they think about the history of enslavement.
    
First poetry prompt:

Write a poem that imagines enslavement as a person. What do they look like? Are their arms folded, flailing or behind their backs? If they have a voice, are they shouting or whispering?

Now make enslavement move. Does it take mighty footsteps or tiptoe after you? Make it speak but, most of all, offer it the chance to change in your poem.

This prompt can help young people begin discussions about the nature of enslavement and the way it overwhelms everyone in its path. Paradoxically, by 'humanising' enslavement, it becomes possible to see how de-humanising it is and see its abusive impact.

Second poetry prompt:

There's been a lot of discussion in the news recently about whether the government should be obliged to pay reparations for enslavement or offer an apology. Write a poem about this. Allow the pro and anti-reparation factions to set out their arguments, perhaps as a list. You could pretend to be a lawyer for each side. Who wins in your poem or is it a tie?

This prompt helps to open up discussions about justice, legacies and reparations. It also allows participants to think about whether the descendants of enslaved peoples should benefit from enslavement by receiving money meant to compensate their ancestors. Conversely, it also opens up a discussion about the descendants of enslavers who may continue to benefit from legacies of colonialism or from assets their ancestors bought with the proceeds of enslavement.

Third poetry prompt:

Look at some of the highlight objects on the Hew Locke exhibition page on the British Museum website. Write a poem for each one. For example, if you choose the Barbados Penny, you could think of the coin passing from one hand to another, and the way in which its worth increases or decreases, depending on who owns it. Perhaps begin the poem by getting the coin to speak. It could say: 'My owner had a white hand and I was worth much more…'

This prompt opens up discussions about human value. Does anyone have the right to say who has worth and who is worthless? Does wealth and so-called status give us value or is that more to do with our behaviour and how we treat others?        
 

In my workshops, I never ask young people to imagine themselves as enslavers or enslaved people. This could prove emotionally disturbing or lead to difficulties in groups of students from diverse backgrounds.

However, I find it's helpful to show the young people anti-slavery material like the shocking illustration of the inside of the Brooks slaving ship. How does it make them feel, and what sort of campaigns might they think of creating when it comes to the problems in the world now?

I invite young people to write interviews with imaginary enslaved people who have attained their freedom. What do they think is the difference between being free and being enslaved? How do enslavers justify their involvement in the 'trade'? How would they feel if they or their own relatives were enslaved?

I also invite young people to write poems to say why no one should ever be enslaved, with the first line prompt: 'I'll put an end to slavery because…' This can offer them a sense of agency and empowerment. It also helps them to empathise with the lives of the enslaved, and to understand their own feelings about a challenging subject.

In my experience, one of the positive outcomes of encouraging young people to write poetry is that it offers them a chance to read their work to the group. As I said earlier, I always establish that I will not be judging the poems. I ensure that everyone in the group knows that the only feedback we need to offer is positive. I ask them to say things like 'I like your poem because…' or 'Your poem made me feel…'

I also ensure that everyone who shares their work is given a round of applause. It's very common to see how proud this makes the young people feel, and how encouraged they are to write even more.

As we know, some young people struggle to thrive in a classroom setting for a wealth of reasons. But on more than one occasion, I've seen young people who were painfully shy at the start of a session end it by asking to perform their work. Once boundaries are in place about feedback, I think they see it as a wonderful opportunity to receive positive affirmation, not only from me but from the entire group.

I can also say from personal experience that it was only by writing poetry at school, and receiving this sort of affirmation, that I was able to gain anything from the classroom. The only lessons I really loved were English Literature and English Language, especially because I had teachers who encouraged me to write poetry and short stories.

This meant I was keen to read a lot of established writers in order to learn from them. It had a dramatic impact on all of my schoolwork and my grades improved. It also gave me the focus and ambition to go to university, and I was the first person from my school to do so in over five years. I strongly believe the reason I was able to do this was because of creative writing.

The life-changing impact poetry had on me as a young person is detailed in an article I wrote for Poetry Wales called How Being a Girl Poet Saved My Life. In the article, I wrote about how writing gave me a sense of freedom; how 'writing poems and stories allowed me to avoid a life it would have destroyed me to live'. I hope it gives further insight into why I write and why I think poetry is so potentially healing and life-changing.

Hew Locke: what have we here? is open until 9 February 2025.