Amazing People
In this edition we are focusing on:
Lemn Sissay MBE
Lemn Sissay MBE
With everything going off in the world at the moment it is difficult to remember the positives in life and easy to forget that there are many people who make it through hardship to come out on top! To help highlight this and inspire people we are starting our amazing people thread, this will feature a care leaver who has gone through difficult times but used their energy to create a better life for themselves.
For our first article we will be focusing on Lemn Sissay MBE a successful English author and broadcaster, who has won awards in literature and was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics.
Lemn was born in England in 1967 after his mother had moved to England from Ethiopia while pregnant with him. Shortly after he was born, he was placed into foster care and renamed Norman by his social worker. His new very religious foster family then renamed him Mark and gave him their surname Greenwood, Lemn did not learn his real name until he was 17.
After an already difficult start to life Limn was then abandoned by his foster family when he was 12 and put into a children’s home, being told that he would never hear from them again. Throughout his time in care he was then moved to a total of four different children’s homes with no contact from either his biological or foster family. With no support and a troubling background Lemn plunged himself into his poetry, creating beautiful pieces straight from the heart.
Upon leaving care he was given a letter from his mother addressed to his original care worker pleading for contact with Lemn. From this point, still only 17, Lemn set out to find his biological mother. Torn between his search for his mother and his own survival, without any support, Lemn published his first poetry pamphlet, using the little money he had from his unemployment benefit. This then helped him to get a job as a literature development worker at Commonword in Manchester where he built upon his knowledge of English literature.
Finally, at the ago of 21 he was reconnected with his birth mother, who was working for the UN in Gambia. Later that year he released his first book of poetry, and since the age of 24 has been a full-time writer, doing performances all over the world. Lemn then turned his focus to creating documentaries, aiming to reveal racial inequality in the care system and winning the Race in the Media Award in 2006 for his work.
In recent years, Lemn continues to improve the care system by highlighting injustice, becoming highly involved in political matters. He has even been noted calling out the government in the “Drawing on Childhood” exhibition stating:
"How a society treats those children who have no one to look after them is a measure of how civilised it is. It is scandalous that a prime minister should have to admit, as David Cameron did last autumn, that the care system 'shames our country' and that Ofsted should report that there are more councils judged as 'inadequate' than 'good' for their children’s services."
To this day Lemn is still writing, winning awards and partitioning for improvements in the care system.
Lemn Sissay is a truly amazing person, suffering a childhood full of turmoil but never giving up; growing to be a successful, talented and passionate individual, out to change the world. This story shows that no matter what, if you dedicate yourself to what you are passionate about you can come out on top and move on from your past.
For our first article we will be focusing on Lemn Sissay MBE a successful English author and broadcaster, who has won awards in literature and was the official poet of the 2012 London Olympics.
Lemn was born in England in 1967 after his mother had moved to England from Ethiopia while pregnant with him. Shortly after he was born, he was placed into foster care and renamed Norman by his social worker. His new very religious foster family then renamed him Mark and gave him their surname Greenwood, Lemn did not learn his real name until he was 17.
After an already difficult start to life Limn was then abandoned by his foster family when he was 12 and put into a children’s home, being told that he would never hear from them again. Throughout his time in care he was then moved to a total of four different children’s homes with no contact from either his biological or foster family. With no support and a troubling background Lemn plunged himself into his poetry, creating beautiful pieces straight from the heart.
Upon leaving care he was given a letter from his mother addressed to his original care worker pleading for contact with Lemn. From this point, still only 17, Lemn set out to find his biological mother. Torn between his search for his mother and his own survival, without any support, Lemn published his first poetry pamphlet, using the little money he had from his unemployment benefit. This then helped him to get a job as a literature development worker at Commonword in Manchester where he built upon his knowledge of English literature.
Finally, at the ago of 21 he was reconnected with his birth mother, who was working for the UN in Gambia. Later that year he released his first book of poetry, and since the age of 24 has been a full-time writer, doing performances all over the world. Lemn then turned his focus to creating documentaries, aiming to reveal racial inequality in the care system and winning the Race in the Media Award in 2006 for his work.
In recent years, Lemn continues to improve the care system by highlighting injustice, becoming highly involved in political matters. He has even been noted calling out the government in the “Drawing on Childhood” exhibition stating:
"How a society treats those children who have no one to look after them is a measure of how civilised it is. It is scandalous that a prime minister should have to admit, as David Cameron did last autumn, that the care system 'shames our country' and that Ofsted should report that there are more councils judged as 'inadequate' than 'good' for their children’s services."
To this day Lemn is still writing, winning awards and partitioning for improvements in the care system.
Lemn Sissay is a truly amazing person, suffering a childhood full of turmoil but never giving up; growing to be a successful, talented and passionate individual, out to change the world. This story shows that no matter what, if you dedicate yourself to what you are passionate about you can come out on top and move on from your past.
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She Read As She Cradled
You part of me Every day your history Every tomorrow your destiny Every growth your mystery Every mother wants a baby Like you Every laugh your personality Every look your clarity Every word your stability Every mother wants a baby Like you Every hiccup a comedy Every fall a catastrophe Every worry my worry Every step you’re beside me Every sight you’re pure beauty Every mother wants a baby Like you Every tear wiped carefully Every word spoke lovingly Every meal fed silently every cloth washed caringly Every song sung sweetly Every day I whisper quietly Every mother wants a baby Like you © Lemn Sissay |
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The first person to write to us at Under the Sky with a full name and address will receive a copy of Lemn Sissay’s best selling book:
My Name is Why
jacki@undertheskyevents.org
My Name is Why
jacki@undertheskyevents.org
