Since focusing on being a poet from an early age, Lemn Sissay MBE has not only enjoyed a varied career of writing books and plays to making documentaries for television and radio and supporting literary organisations. His poetry has also been an inspiration to other artists, as well as being turned into landmarks in public spaces around the UK.

As he gets set to appear at the Writing On The Wall festival, we caught up with Lemn to talk about how Liverpool has been a catalyst for his work and new projects in the city.

 

You say you’ve been a poet from a young age. How did you know you were a poet back then, and how did your love of poetry come about?

I was given a poetry book when I was 14 from the deputy head of Leigh C of E School called ‘The Mersey Sound’, written by Liverpool poets Roger McGough, Brian Patten and the late Adrian Henri.

In the first poem of that book, by Adrian Henri, he mentions an orphanage. I was brought up in children’s homes, I had no family, and that book being given to me was a flagpole in the base camp of my journey to be a poet.

My foster parents were religious and used to give me all kinds of books of poetry and books from the Bible so there was a connection there as well.

I made a documentary on BBC Radio 4 where I went back to the children’s homes. Without having family I didn’t have people to remember me other than people I’d only known for a short time, so making documentaries has been important and when I went back the cleaner said ‘you used to sit in the corner writing your poetry’ – people always remember me by it.

As early as I can remember, that’s what I wanted to do and that’s what I did. You don’t have to be published to be a poet, you need to write poetry.

 

You must write a lot of poetry that’s personal to you, so is it surprising when lots of other people relate to it too?

If you wanted to be super famous you would never be a poet, it would be a stupid career to take. You’ve got to do it for a way bigger reason and that same reason lasts a lifetime in as much as it has an effect on people’s lives. I really cherish that.

Poems can help people through really dark times in their lives, and also lift people in light times of their lives. We turn to poetry when we need to hear the world speak, we don’t turn to the news for that.

 

Your poetry is featured on streets and landmarks. Are you commissioned to write poems specifically for public spaces or do people ask to your poems that they find inspirational?

It’s both. I’m commissioned to write poetry for public spaces and I’m in discussions about a landmark poem with a certain area in Liverpool which is being developed with a particular view that the arts should be central rather than peripheral.

I mean why would you develop an area, spend however much on it and then assume all the art there should just be a little statue or some words engraved into a plaque on a small wall somewhere?

Art makes life easier and when you’ve made your money as a lawyer or doctor or working in the hairdressers, what do you want to do? You want to go and dance, listen to music, put pictures on the wall, read books on holiday. Art is about quality of life and it’s really easy for us to think it’s an added extra but it’s not, it’s who we are.

My landmark poetry makes a book of our environment. As somebody who has learnt that this is my home, this north, this Britain; to have my poems tattooed onto it is such an honour.

 

So when you’re commissioned to write a poem for a particular space, do you look to where it will feature and the people it will represent for inspiration?

You should always write a poem from your perspective but you should add to the environment rather than simply describe it, it’s got to be more than that. When you look at something, you’re also looking through the prism of how you feel so the same thing can look different to different people because each one is feeling different at the time they’re looking at it. It should draw people’s eyes to a place they would otherwise not have been looking.

 

You’ve really embraced social media, using Twitter and Facebook to interact with people. Does that mean you’re writing more poetry than you’ve ever written?

I do a morning tweet where I try and describe the day in a way it’s never been described before since the beginning of time, every day. That’s got a following around the world, which is kind of weird – fun and weird! Social media is just a way of people being able to connect and for writers and poets particularly, their job is to connect with themselves and anybody else who wants to listen.

 

One of your morning tweets was once used to build a pop-up cafe in London. Has your writing inspired any other unusual creations?

It inspired a festival in Canterbury – my morning tweets were all over an event called the Wise Words Festival. Also, I began a Literature Festival of the Sea in Southend, where every book had something to do with water.

I went to the Arctic for a project which took artists to experience climate change, with Jarvis Cocker, Laurie Anderson, Martha Wainright, KT Tunstall and a set of other artists, and I wrote a track called ‘What If’. That then became a festival tent at Schumacher College in Devon.

Oh and I’ve got a PHD scholarship as well! I inspired Huddersfield University to do a scholarship for a care leaver to have a PHD paid for by the university; it’s a really big deal. That has led to Leeds University offering a PHD scholarship for a care leaver, and I approached Vivienne Westwood to ask if she’d put her name to it. My aim is that, especially in the north of England, each university will have a PHD scholarship for a care leaver, named after a famous supportive person.

 

You’re taking part in the Harlem Nights music and spoken word event as part of Liverpool’s Writing On The Wall festival. Can you tell us a bit about it?

This is inspired by Malik al Nasir, a great ambassador for spoken word and particularly his relationship with Gill Scott-Heron, whom I knew while he was alive and made a BBC documentary about.

It’s great this link between Harlem and Liverpool is being made because both are fiercely independent. Both of them are rebellious, artistic firebrands of the working class, middle class, upper middle class. As the years go on these areas change and grow but their independence remains the same.

I’m just looking forward to doing a good gig, I love doing a gig in Liverpool. I was brought up in a children’s home in Leigh, Atherton and Ashton-in-Makerfield, which is equidistant between Liverpool and Manchester. I graduated towards Manchester but I could, in the same way, have graduated towards Liverpool. In fact, I was much more a Liverpool poet than I was John Cooper Clarke. I was inspired by the Liverpool poets, although Manchester was very good to me in the poetry world.

 

What other projects do you have underway?

I was commissioned this year to write the official poem for the FA Cup. They’ve been making a short film of each verse to going out with each round. I’m really proud of that commission.

Also, I’m going to be nominated to be chancellor of Manchester University. There’ll be about four people running, one of whom is me and another is Peter Mandelson. For me it’s really exciting, I represent the power of the arts to raise the economy and the spirit of people and communities.

Then on 12 May I’ve got a comedy on BBC Radio 4 called ‘Lemn Sissay’s Homecoming’ which is all about the fluid anchor of home.

 

Lemn Sissay will appear at Writing On The Wall’s Harlem Nights event at the Black-E on 9 May. For tickets and further information visit www.writingonthewall.org.uk.

To keep up with Lemn’s morning tweets follow him on Twitter @lemnsissay.