Volume 07, Chapter 09 | July 2020

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Image by Khadija Saye
courtesy of the artist’s estate

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Dear writers, readers and friends,

In solidarity with the Black Lives Matter movement and to mark the third anniversary of the Grenfell Tower fire which in 2017 claimed the lives of 72 people in London, most of them from Black, Asian and ethnic minority families, Visual Verse brings you an image and lead words by five extraordinary creators.

Our issue this month resonates with the idea of inspiration (from the Latin, spirare, “to breathe”). Inspiration – as breath, as life, as hope – and as a human right. Our world resounds with the phrase ‘I can’t breathe’, uttered by Black people who have suffered institutional brutality, including, in the UK, Jimmy Mubenga in 2014 (his head held down by G4S security guards whilst on a plane) and by Sheku Bayoh in 2015 (who suffered positional asphyxiation by the police: they sprayed CS gas in his face and held him down). ‘I can’t breathe’ were the words of Eric Garner in New York in 2014 as he died from a police chokehold, and George Floyd in Minnesota on May 25, 2020 who died with a police knee in his neck. The phrase also resonates terribly with the reality of the Grenfell Tower fire. ‘We can’t breathe’ were among the last words of nursery teacher Nadia Choucair as she called emergency services from her 22nd floor flat that night. The survivors of Grenfell are still awaiting justic
e, while the official inquiry refuses to recognise the systemic racism of social inequality and institutional response as contributing to the disaster. The death of George Floyd and the anniversary of the fire fell during the lockdown for a pandemic that affects our breathing, our lungs, and is most disproportionately taking the lives of the poorest from Black and Bangladeshi minority communities (in the UK).

What is the role of art and curation here? As memorial, as reckoning. As inspiration.

Our image is from the self-portrait series, Dwelling: in this space we breathe by Khadija Mohammadou Saye with the kind permission of her estate (https://www.estateofkhadijasaye.com/) . Also known as Ya-Haddy Sisi Saye, she was a Gambian-British photographer whose work was exhibited in the Diaspora Pavilion at the Venice Biennale in 2017. She died aged 24, in Grenfell Tower.

The British Library’s exhibition, Khadija Saye: in this space we breathe was due to take place in Spring 2020. It was postponed, and new dates will be announced in due course.

And so to our lead writers, with respect and gratitude for their responses to this most important work…

Kadija Sesay (https://twitter.com/kadijattug) , FRSA, is a literary activist. She is the founder/publisher of SABLE litmag, SABLE litfest, and co-founder of The Mboka Festival of Arts, Culture and Sport in The Gambia. She is the editor of several anthologies of work by writers of African and Asian descent and the Publications Manager for the Inscribe Programme for Peepal Tree Press. She has also mentored several writers and judged several writing competitions. Her poetry collection, Irki (https://www.peepaltreepress.com/books/irki) (which means ‘Homeland’ in the Nubian language) (Peepal Tree Press, 2013) was shortlisted for the Glenna Luschei Prize for African Poetry in 2014. She received an Arts Council grant for Research and Development for her second collection, The Modern Pan Africanist’s Journey which includes a poetry and Pan-Africanism app. Kadija has received several awards for her work in the Creative Arts. She is a Fellow of the Kennedy Arts Centre of Performance Arts Management
and a Kluge Fellow. She currently has an AHRC scholarship to research Black British Publishing and Pan-Africanism at University of Brighton. She is a cousin of Sheku Bayoh.

Maame Blue (https://maamebluewrites.com) is a Ghanaian-Londoner splitting her time between Melbourne and London. She is part of Jacaranda’s #Twentyin2020 initiative. (https://www.jacarandabooksartmusic.co.uk/blogs/news/twentyin2020-is-announced-and-its-quite-the-moment) Her debut novel Bad Love (https://www.jacarandabooksartmusic.co.uk/products/bad-love) is available to buy online (https://www.jacarandabooksartmusic.co.uk/products/bad-love) , at Foyles (https://www.foyles.co.uk/witem/fiction-poetry/bad-love,maame-blue-9781913090180) and all good Indie bookshops, and as an Audible audiobook (https://www.audible.co.uk/pd/Bad-Love-Audiobook/B084HLGCZY) . Her short stories and creative non-fiction pieces have appeared in Black Ballad, AFREADA, Litro Magazine and The Good Journal. She also has pieces forthcoming in the Royal Literary Fund Magazine and New Australian Fiction 2020, and co-hosts Headscarves and Carry-ons – a podcast about black girls living abroad.

Karthika Naïr (https://www.poetryfoundation.org/poetrymagazine/poems/150393/remaindering-habits) is the author of several books, including the award-winning Until the Lions: Echoes from the Mahabharata (https://www.brooklinebooksmith-shop.com/book/9781939810366) , and principal scriptwriter of Akram Khan’s DESH, Chotto Desh and Until the Lions, a partial adaptation of her own book. Also a dance enabler, Naïr’s closest association has been with Sidi Larbi Cherkaoui and Damien Jalet as executive producer of their works like Babel (Words), Puz/zle and Les Médusés, and as co-founder of Cherkaoui’s company, Eastman. She lives in Paris.

Ruby Cowling (https://rubyorruth.wordpress.com/) grew up in Bradford and lives in London. Her short fiction has won awards including The White Review Short Story Prize and the London Short Story Prize, and her publication credits include Lighthouse, The Lonely Crowd, Wasafiri online, the Galley Beggar Press Singles Club, and numerous print anthologies. Her collection This Paradise (Boiler House Press) was longlisted for the 2020 Orwell Prize for Political Fiction.

Visual Verse is a free, shared space for writers across the world collaborating in art and words. We believe that curating art and writing is an ongoing statement of who we are. We are committed to the work that making genuine, lasting equality for Black lives asks of all of us, not only as allies but as active accomplices (with thanks to The White Pube for this term).

And now dear writers, we hope you are inspired. Give yourself an hour, and 50-500 words. Make work, share it with us by 15 July.

Now, more than ever, the image is the starting point, the rest is up to you.

Kristen, Preti, Lucie and Luke

Connect with us
@visual_verse (https://twitter.com/visual_verse?lang=en)
@kadijattug (https://twitter.com/kadijattug) / @sablelitmag (https://twitter.com/sablelitmag)
@maamebluewrites (https://twitter.com/maamebluewrites) / @JacarandaBooks (https://twitter.com/JacarandaBooks)
@rubycowling (https://twitter.com/rubycowling) / @bhousepress (https://twitter.com/bhousepress)

Resources
Justice for Grenfell (https://justice4grenfell.org/)

The Grenfell Inquiry and racism Khadija Saye IntoArts Programme (https://intouniversity.org/content/khadija-saye-intoarts-programme)

The White Pube: art statements on Black Lives Matter (https://www.thewhitepube.co.uk/blm)

Black Lives Matter USA (https://blacklivesmatter.com/ )

Black Lives Matter in arts, academia, culture, research, education (UK) (https://beinghumanfestival.org/blm-resources-for-the-humanities/)

Donations and fundraisers

Justice for Sheku Bayoh (https://www.crowdjustice.com/case/justiceforsheku/?utm_source=backer_social&utm_campaign=justiceforsheku&utm_reference=339c027a16d4d9fa1d367a92c36f3228&utm_medium=Facebook&utm_content=post_pledge_page_flat_v1&fbclid=IwAR2hfGzu5RcTD1dnOlTFfBa_EbGAL-9VY5-PHQd65PlMwFJ_BEnBtfGb5oA) : Five years after Sheku Bayoh’s death at the hands of Scottish police, not one officer has been disciplined let alone charged with his murder. This campaign is raising funds to support legal costs for Sheku’s family as they continue to fight for justice.

United Families and Friends Campaign (UFFC) (https://uffcampaign.org) : All funds donated here go towards all family campaigns for those families who are members of UFFC, which is open to all family and friends whose loved ones have been violated and died at the hands of the state.

Injustice – UV (https://www.crowdfunder.co.uk/injustice—uv-1) : Injustice was named “The most important British documentary of my professional lifetime” by Peter Bradshaw, Guardian Film Critic. Director, Ken Fero was one of the founders of UFFC. This is a crowdfunder for the second Injustice film, it follows the struggles for justice of families in the UK whose loved ones have been killed by the police.
Start Timer (https://vclock.com/timer/#countdown=01:00:00&enabled=0&seconds=3600&title=Visual+Verse%3A+One+image.+One+Hour.+50-500+Words.+)
Submit (https://visualverse.org/submit/)

** #DailyVisual
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Don’t forget you can join us every day on Instagram for a 15-minute, 5-50 word writing challenge.
Visit Visual Verse Anthology on Instagram now… (https://www.instagram.com/visualverseanthology/)

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Volume 04, Chapter 09 | July 2017

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Image by Rupert Jessop

We are excited to welcome George Spender to the helm as guest editor of the next three issues of Visual Verse. George is the senior editor of Oberon Books (https://www.oberonbooks.com/) , an independent publisher in London specialising in theatre and performance.

Dear writers, readers and friends,

It’s July, and that means it’s rehearsal time for the biggest arts festival in the world. Thousands of writers, directors and performers are preparing to swarm to Scotland for the Edinburgh festival, hoping that their show will achieve critical acclaim, transfer to a major theatre, or if they’re really lucky, just about break even. Official figures for the 2016 festival list 50,266 performances of 3,269 shows taking place in 294 venues, so we are expecting big things in 2017. To mark the release of the festival programme in July, we have created a playwright special. We start with a visual prompt from photographer Rupert Jessop (http://www.rupertjessop.com/) whose fabulously whimsical scenes are full of drama and narrative. In response to the image we have four remarkable playwrights, taking us into a new genre of writing for Visual Verse.

Our lead writer is playwright and poet Glyn Maxwell (http://glynmaxwell.com/) . Glyn has long been regarded as one of Britain’s major poets, but is also an accomplished playwright, with several of his plays having been staged in the UK and USA, including Liberty, which premiered at Shakespeare’s Globe. His adaptations of Alice in Wonderland, The Beggar’s Opera, Cyrano De Bergerac and Wind in the Willows were staged at Chester’s new theatre Storyhouse. In 2012 Glyn published the acclaimed On Poetry, which considered the art through the eyes of four imaginary students. The imaginative, ‘sequel’ Drinks With Dead Poets: The Autumn Term, was published in 2016, with a paperback edition out later this year.

Our second playwright is Rita Kalnejais (https://www.oberonbooks.com/rita-kalnejais.html) . Originally from Australia, Rita worked as an actor before turning to writing. Rita was a resident playwright at Sydney Theatre Company in 2011/12. Her play for Soho theatre in London, First Love Is The Revolution premiered in 2015, and followed the story of a teenage urban fox falling in love with a teenage urban boy. The Evening Standard described it as ‘a cult hit in the making’. Her phenomenal play This Beautiful Future (http://www.theyardtheatre.co.uk/2017/04/writer-rita-kalnejais-on-this-beautiful-future/) , which premiered at the Yard Theatre in Hackney in 2017, is a love story set in World War Two. French farm girl Elodie and German soldier Otto are experiencing love for the first time, while outside, the world around them is exploding. Rita has a truly original mind, and her poetic dialogue crackles. Critic Andrew Haydon as the ‘best thing on in London at the moment bar none.’

Our third playwright is Texan-born, Chicago-based playwright Reginald Edmund (https://pwcenter.org/profile/reginald-edmund) . Reginald was the Artistic Director for the Silver House Theatre in Houston as well as the founder and producer for the Silver House Playwrights Festival and the Houston Urban Theatre Series. He is the founder of Black Lives, Black Words (http://www.blacklivesblackwords.org/) , a theatrical phenomenon that started out in a basement in Chicago, that now takes place all over the world. Reginald curates performances of short plays responding to the Black Lives Matter movement on both sides of the Atlantic, asking ‘Do Black Lives matter today?’ A collection of the plays was published in 2017. Themes of race, gender, and empowerment, as well as a wicked sense of humour, define Reginald’s work.

Our final playwright is Caitlin McEwan (https://twitter.com/caitlinmcew) . Originally from Edinburgh but now based in London, her play Monsters was awarded a special commendation in the Soho Young Writers Award 2016. Her play, Harry (http://www.underbellyedinburgh.co.uk/whats-on/harry) , a dark comedy about friendship, fandom, and Harry Styles, was performed in April 2017 at Theatre N16 in Balham and will play at Edinburgh’s Underbelly venue through August. Her play Thick Skin was selected for the 2017 National Student Drama Festival.

So writers, bring us the drama, in poetry, prose, dialogue or whatever style takes you. The image is the starting point, the text is up to you.

Enjoy,
George Spender

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Join us on Twitter:
Visual Verse @visual_verse (https://twitter.com/visual_verse)
Oberon Books @OberonBooks (https://twitter.com/oberonbooks)
Glyn Maxwell @glynofwelwyn (https://twitter.com/glynofwelwyn)
Reginald Edmund @reginaldedmund (https://twitter.com/reginaldedmund)
Caitlin McEwan @caitlinmcew (https://twitter.com/caitlinmcew)

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