Just before Christmas in 1983 the 16-year-old "Norman Greenwood" discovered his real name and Ethiopian roots in his birth certificate and some letters from a social worker. It must be true. His love will shine through me and them. It was a question to which I already had the answer. He was brought up by foster parents as Norman Greenwood and was put into the first of four children's homes in Greater Manchester in 1979. This is Lemn's story: a story of neglect and determination, misfortune and hope, cruelty and triumph. Like "A foster child will expose the cracks in the familial veneer. Its taken a lot of years to reflect back to my foster parents what they did to me. I put it to him that it was the only home the boy had known.. I dont believe an adopted baby gets any less love from their parents than a child naturally born to them. Being adopted is definitely something that puts a mark on you, says fashion and portrait photographer Philip Sinden. He has been with this family since he was a couple of months old and Mrs Greenwood considers him as theirs. What happens if you want to be neither? It made me aware that families all look different and thats absolutely fine., Carl Parsons was adopted at five weeks. Lemn Sissay's poem "Some Things I Like" celebrates what we might consider discardable like cold tea, ash trays, and even people. Writer and national campaigner for young people in care, Chris Wild has written two books about his experiences in care, Damaged and The State of It, and has spent the past decade campaigning to improve the care system. I have a very happy childhood memory of being in Scotland on holiday when I was about four. My friends. Instead of celebrating success despite the odds, we urgently need to improve the odds.. He was British and Ethiopian. He has authored collections of poetry and plays and his memoir My Name Is Why was a number one Sunday Times bestseller. The answer was often because we are sinners. He really put it on the map and allowed it to be something that we could be proud of as an identity and talk about as a political thing. This was quickly followed bySuitcases and Muddy Parkswhich spoke of proving yourself to your parents and he fleetingly remembered how his own mum and dad went off one way, whilst he went off with a social worker. Wallwein later dramatised her search for her birth mother in the acclaimed one-woman show (later a book) Glue. Went on to talk about another placement for Norman without any consideration of how the boy might feel. Axa Hynes, right, with her foster sister Michelle Brown, also featured in the Foundling Museum photograph. They wanted me to ask God for forgiveness and through him I will learn to love them. $21.87 10 New from $16.75. My grandad and foster parents and I used to go down to the bay to get salmon, trout and mussels. The result is an inspiring photograph for young people in care today, Introduction by Claire Armitstead. We want you to spend the next day thinking about love and what it is. I was a very challenging and complex young person. His memoir about that time, Fifty-One Moves, is now taught at universities and Ashcroft is a founding member of the campaign group Every Child Leaving Care Matters. Author and poet Lemn Sissay says there is "inherent prejudice against children in care". He was badly bullied at school and his education suffered terribly, but he soldiered on and enrolled at Bird College aged 22 to study dance and musical theatre. And thats all right, but thats the deal. When Allan Jenkins embarked on his gardening memoir Plot 29, he found himself writing about the helplessness of seed just three paragraphs in and was prompted to revisit his unsettled past, growing up in foster care in south Devon with his older brother Christopher. Lemn Sissay was born on 21 May 1967 in Billinge Hospital, near Wigan, Lancashire Higher End, England, UK. In the Baptist church, our church, we were taught to question why. And this is what I found. By the time Sissay was approaching adolescence, cracks in their relationship had started to appear. Lemn thanked the audience, saying: You have been a blessing and shared my story. They were just friends, says Cato, now an expert on Antiques Roadshow. Reconnecting with her birth family in Eritrea in her late 20s allowed me to realise the multiplicities of who I am, to make connections around inter-country adoption, and the idea that you can belong in multiple places and with multiple families. Lemn Sissay, one of our best-loved poets, was fostered as a baby. These are the words of Mr Graves, the headteacher in my files, in January 1976, from the social workers report: Spoke to Mr Graves several times on the phone and eventually visited the school. At the age of 17, after a childhood in a foster family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his Birth Certificate. Here are a few organisations for support and information: Become has been supporting and campaigning for children in care and young care leavers since 1985. On the back another poem is handwritten, composed on the train into London this morning, fresh on the page. Today we stand proud as care leavers and remove societys stigma. Brown defied expectations by progressing to university and getting a Masters. Lightening the mood with the short, punchySarcasmhe recalled how he wrote it in his Batman boxer shorts outside the backdoor of his house, his girlfriend having thrown him out after a row! From 13, he lived at a Barnardos care home in Ripon, North Yorkshire. He lost touch at nightTheir fingertips withdrewNobody touched him, light,Except you. 31 December 1979: Message left after Christmas saying that the Greenwoods wanted Norman removed without further notice. Social workers report, 31 December 1979: Spoke to foster parents on telephone. He reflected how he had since forgiven his foster parents, saying they did the best they could and he had also received apologies from Wigan Council. Now he works as a theatre-maker working with young and emerging artists, many of whom are also care-experienced. The result is an. Books were a way to escape from the madness around me, be that foster care, family, or residential homes. He learned that his real name was not Norman. I lost everybody. They wanted their children to be educated and go to university. Lemn Sissay said it was "a wonderful thing to be recognised as somebody who has got my kind of past" Poet Lemn Sissay has dedicated his OBE to his younger self who he said overcame a. It is not sunny, but Lemn Sissay is sheltering behind dark shades, hunched over as he inhales cigarettes to feed his near-40-year habit. This was the beginning of empty Christmas time and hollow birthdays. We sweated until one of us, invariably Christopher, would burst into tears. I still think love is the most important thing. Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. The way I see it, this should be something for people who are going through the system. Wallwein, who received an MBE in 2018 for services to spoken word poetry, had been in 13 homes before writing her first play at 17. He put me gently in the car. I brought all these questions home. Lemn Sissay: 'My younger self did not deserve what institutions did to him' In a Letter to My Younger Self, the writer-broadcaster speaks candidly with The Big Issue about a childhood in care Adrian Lobb 6 Sep 2019 The memory of my younger self is something I struggle with. Ive loved mussels ever since. Why would the social worker, Jean Jones, say that my mum and dad are seen by Norman as his parents? Poet Lemn Sissay, who said he was abused at Wood End as a child, returned there for a 1995 documentary . Rosie Canning, aged four, as a bridesmaid to her foster mothers son, 1962. The documents armed Sissay with the necessary proof that "the government had stolen my childhood.". There are times, friends say, when he disappears altogether, depression paralysing him for months; times when he folds himself into himself. It upset my brother when he realised what he hadnt taken on board., Photography/film rep, exec producer and consultant, In the 1990s Loo How, who was adopted at six weeks by a very Christian white family in Bristol, went on a journey to track down her biological parents. It was amazing to be seen, says Olumide Popoola about some of the social workers who helped her through care in Germany. I was 10 and we were off to a wedding in our new clothes. This is the story of being stolen by the state and his 17 years in local authority care. Here is an extract from the book. There's only one person in the world called Lemn Sissay. I stumbled across hazelnuts on a recent walk on Dentdale in Cumbria for a TV documentary. Not even a Bible. Why would I think anything else? His zodiac sign is Gemini. He shared the abuse he suffered during his formative years in the one-off show . He learned that his real name was not Norman. Pete Turner was adopted at five months and grew up in Bury in a very liberal family that loved me, he says. Poet Lemn Sissay and actress Lisa Faulkner became friends on Twitter, united by one common interest: children in the British care system. Mr Sissay with his godmother Ethiopia Alfred (Jonathan Brady/PA) After being reunited with his birth mother aged 18,. Mum and Dad said I was like Macavity. If youd asked me as a child, Id be like, Oh, Im adopted but its not a thing. Now he acknowledges that there is probably some degree of separation anxiety as a result of not being with my mother in those crucial first few weeks. Lemn Sissay: 'My foster parents were good people who did bad things' Interview by Donna Ferguson The poet talks about how his foster parents put him into care at the age of 12 and left him there,. But I will ask God for forgiveness and learn to love you. This was the perfect answer. We were very secure in our upbringing. But he did accidentally come across his birth name: Christopher Goldsmith. In junior school, he proudly announced that he was adopted and half-Pakistani. I wasnt given anything and nobody contacted me. He spent his childhood moving between different carers after his mother was killed by his father in 1966. The sculpture commemorates the abolition of the transatlantic slave trade in 1807, which began the process of the emancipation of slaves throughout the British Empire. A year later, the local authority released his birth certificate revealing the name his birth mother had given him, Lemn Sissay, and the letter requesting her sons return. Thats all I knew. Wherever I lived, my care experience included libraries and reading, and without them I wouldnt be here, says Rosie Canning, who was put into care in London at six weeks. Of course I loved them. It taught me the middle-class way of life: how to lay a table and make a bed and eat with a knife and fork. She showed him a letter that she had written in 1968, 4 months after he had been born, in which she pleaded, to no avail, that he be given back to her to live with his own people. Where they are, we have been; where we are, they can go, says Akabusi who, like several others in the room, found his way through by joining the army. Theyre part of a poem-a-day project by their author Paul Cookson, who was born in the north of England and adopted shortly afterwards by a family in Essex. Sheen has made a documentary about her experience, a powerful study of cultural displacement and linguistic disenfranchisement called Abandoned Adopted Here. It was Lemn Sissay. I opened the door to allow that to happen. Where I grew up, in a very white conservative area, there werent any other people who looked like me for the best part of 16 years, she says. Its listening to care-experienced young people Ive been working with that has empowered me to talk openly about it., Donna Ludford applied to become lord mayor of the City of Manchester to raise aspirations for young people in the care system. Just me. Pool was adopted from an Eritrean orphanage and lived in Sudan and Norway before coming to the UK aged six. Christopher Goldsmith lived for a month, he writes, then quietly died, slipped away/ Almost never existed Christopher died so that I might have life/ and have it more abundantly.. I know I was lucky, I was loved, he says. My body will skip around the table like a sprite on the solid stone floor. Born in London, Henry was privately fostered at six months by a wonderful couple in Weston-super-Mare who encouraged her dreams of becoming an actor shes currently starring in Mad House in the West End. Sissay was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics, has been chancellor of the University of Manchester since 2015, and joined the Foundling Museum's board of trustees two years later, having previously been appointed one of the museum's fellows. Lemn was born in 1967; two months later, he was taken into care. As much as you read this book and are in shock (or not) at how this young black child was dragged through a problematic system and feel angry at the injustices he has faced, you can't . It's the first time in many years . Lemn Sissay, writer and Chancellor of the University of Manchester, held the Great Hall of Bolton School Girls' Division mesmerised during an emotional rollercoaster of an evening. They were happy, he says. When Luis De Abreu was nine, he travelled from Madeira to join his mother in Jersey, where shed been working for several years. Mr Sissay detailed his experiences in the British . In that situation, a mother doesnt see her child, she is wrenched into the memory of the father. Its a mixture of stigma and admiration, says Martin Figura of attitudes towards people in care. They were in the trunk back at home. When my foster parents put me into care, at the age of 12, they said: Were never going to write to you, were never going to come. I could never have imagined that the people who said they were my parents for ever could do such a thing. None of it. I had no idea what he meant. They refused. I loved life: Lemn Sissay with friends in the days when he believed his name was Norman. If we spent long enough with each other, wed probably all start crying. The betrayal was the worst thing. Lucy Sheen was one of 106 Hong Kong Chinese foundlings who were adopted by white British families in the 1950s and 60s. Id never thought of myself as a different person., Principal and artistic director of Bird College, Sidcup. There are a lot of big emotions flying around the room. Which is interesting, because I always saw myself as white. The abuse was confusing, he says, but Im quite stubborn. Its radically changed who I am.. Audio CD. Now, as he approaches his 55th birthday, he's added another: children's writer. James McMahon 'I was so proud to be the official poet of the 2012 Olympic Games': Lemn Sissay. Mr Sissay, who grew up in the care system, shared his concerns after a report, published by the. My Name Is Why: Quick Reads 2022: Amazon.co.uk: Sissay, Lemn: 9781838854645: Books Skip to main content .co.uk Hello Select your address I know from reading the very brief information I have on my birth parents that my natural mother wanted me to have a better life than she could give me, he says. Lemn Sissay. Whilst it served as a telling analogy for his own life, he apologised to anyone fresh to poetry readings as this was a weighty introduction but, he said, I wanted to push you. The heartache and anger of his youth alternate in his poetry with lighter, whimsical aphorisms and celebrations of place . His Landmark poems are visible in London, Manchester, Huddersfield and Addis Ababa. He recalled how becoming 12 years old, he started to develop into an adolescent and told the odd lie and stayed out late occasionally. 9.02M subscribers Lemn Sissay is one of the UK's most revered writers. But success is not about being the lord mayor, she told a group of care leavers recently. If they were asking me whether I loved them or not, and if they were the ones who taught me about love, then maybe I didnt love them, otherwise they wouldnt ask. We can go on to do better if were just given the same life chances as other people. It was amazing to find him and realise where I get my activism from., Social work leader, campaigner and charity trustee. I loved the Market, the Flower Park, the Big Park, the books. After a succession of institutions, he left the care system, alone, and requested his files via customer services. They treated me as if I was a Trojan horse sent into the family to destroy it. Christopher Goldsmith lived for a month, he writes, then quietly died, slipped away/ Almost never existed Christopher died so that I might have life/ and have it more abundantly., Cookson is one of the success stories of the UKs care system. (He later rejoined his mother after she remarried.) Lemn Sissay is a poet, author and broadcaster who was the official poet of the London Olympics in 2012. None of this is your fault. But dont be fooled, she says. Its one of the things thats made me the happiest recently, the number of people who will happily associate themselves with their care experience, says Jonny Hoyle. I had no one. But its a bit of a B-movie of an existence. 248 ratings29 reviews. One of the greatest signs of my own sense of independence when I left care was the day I could ask for help when I needed it. In terms of the care system, everybody has such massively different experiences, she says, and the fact that sometimes we are all put into one bracket is, I think, a little bit unfair., Artist, puppet-maker and puppeteer for film and TV, I decided quite early on that whatever happened to me, I wasnt going to be a victim of it, says Marcus Clarke, who lived in two national childrens homes in the early 60s, aged four to seven, while his mother was caring for his ailing father. I loved school. Thus, Sissay began his life as "Norman Mark Greenwood . She lived with a foster family from 12 to 14 and then spent a couple of years in a childrens home. This was the beginning of not being touched. Author and national adviser for care leavers. Now my foster mother sends me birthday cards. I was challenged with a lot of preconceived ideas and biases by the adults I was around, about whether I could be a mum and make it through against all odds. Walker managed to hold on to her child and was later able to focus on education, which saved me, she says. The view of care leavers is typically: unable to achieve a higher education, expected to fail in life, says Michelle Brown, who went into care at 11 and was hugely let down by her local authorities she was left on the streets aged 15 after one of her foster carers relocated. I am mightily proud of being care-experienced as its made me who I am today. Ben Ashcroft, the author of a memoir titled Fifty-One Moves, was nearly one of them. We raced each other home from school every day and every day I got there first. We look at reclaiming the adoption narrative and reframing the worlds view on adoption, and also helping adult adoptees heal from their trauma.. I am not defined by my scars but by the incredible ability to heal. As he moved into adulthood he was given his birth certificate and saw that his real name was Lemn Sissay and that his mother was called Yemarshet. They were an aspirational middle-class family from Lancashire. If I told someone I was in care, their handbag would move to the other side, jokes Luis De Abreu, who made his escape through acting and is now principal of the dance and music theatre conservatoire he joined after dropping out of school at 15. Giving him up for adoption, he thinks, was a massively selfless thing to do. And so, the poet took the Wigan council to court. I looked at their faces to see if I had said the right thing. Mr Sissay detailed his experiences in the British care system in his autobiography of his early life - My Name Is Why. This is the story of being stolen by the state and his 17 years in local authority care. At the age of seventeen, after a childhood in a foster family followed by six years in care homes, Norman Greenwood was given his birth certificate. "I wanted to hold them accountable for what they did," Sissay says. No brothers and sisters. Ive put a great amount of my own time back into trying to improve things for other people., It destroys you as a person, the amount of anxiety you develop from always expecting something to go wrong in your life, says Tarell Mcintosh, who became homeless after two local authorities in south London failed to properly care for him. Even this Great Hall, he reminded the audience, had been imagined by an architect before it had been built. I was mostly well looked after, he says, and learned to be happy in my own company., Ive become somebody to whom family and community is incredibly important, says opera singer Jack Holton, who was born in Kent to a single mother with health issues and fostered at an early age. Im getting to exorcise lots of demons., Now writing a memoir about her journey from care to Cambridge University, by day Kasmira Kincaid works as a fundraiser for Shelter. The lecture was the latest in a series of Arts and Science presentations which are taking place at the School in the evenings and are open to the general public. A social worker placed Lemn with white Christian foster parents, David and Catherine Greenwood, who lived in Ashton-in-Makerfield. Answering questions, he said he is still angry but now it is more defined and he does not maintain the same anger of his youth. All I knew was that my birth mother, the woman who had my face and my blood, was from Africa and Africa was where poor people were. If you just want to be? Baker was transracially fostered from 11 days old. He dived into Mums arms and said: Mum, I beat Norman, didnt I? She stroked his head and said: Yes, you did. And then she looked at me. Since then his poems have become landmarks, sculpted in granite and built from concrete, recorded on era-defining albums and declaimed in over twenty countries. It could be: this is everybodys problem., Ive started to connect with my identity as an adopted person a lot more in the past couple of years, says Luke Wright, who was adopted at five weeks. Over the past few years I sensed I had done something wrong and yet didnt know what it was. Mum and Dad must have told everyone in my family to stay away from me. I carried a lot of anger for many years and then I realised that the anger is one of the things that kills people. Social services placed the baby Lemn into long-term foster care, advising the foster family to treat this as adoption. We need to prioritise the voices of people with lived experience of care, she says. Music producer/writer; founder of clothing labels Duffer of St George and Sharpeye; author; one of the two creators of the rare groove scene; photographer; activist. My experience has taught me the importance of having kind, supportive adults in the lives of children in care to help them feel safe, cared for and treated like one of the family, she says. To help others like her, Button has co-founded calling4gr8ness.org, a programme supporting care-experienced young adults in the creative industries. You just get used to battling with everybody all the time, and you always have your guard up. His Landmark poems are visible in London, Manchester, Huddersfield and Addis Ababa. Johanan Walker, aged 13, with her one-year-old daughter, during their time in care in Hackney. Once in the care system, he became known as Chalky White and was moved to a new home each year, ending up at Woodend Assessment Centre, near Westhoughton. Sissay realised he'd been stolen. Buy My Name Is Why By Lemn Sissay. Come what may, I may be knocked down, but I wont be down for long., Artist and founder member of the darkroom e5process, Tina Rowe first encountered racism when, aged six, she moved with her white adoptive family from a small Oxfordshire village to Malvern in Worcestershire. Thered be many times in the future that I would play table tennis with myself by pushing the table against the wall. Lemn Sissay was seventeen when he wrote his first poetry book, which he hand-sold to the miners and mill workers of Wigan. You felt like you had to grow up too fast., The issues around growing up in care dont magically stop at 25, just because public policy stops, says Jim Goddard, who went into care in Liverpool aged three. Best known for designing clothes for Diana, Princess of Wales, Bruce Oldfield was born in Durham and fostered at 18 months by a seamstress, Violet Masters, who taught him how to sew. Lemn Sissay's traumatic childhood has informed much of the work he has created. 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