Poetry/Culture

A Poem by Gary Huskisson

Gary kindly wrote this poem for the PREC research project

For the City's Sake!

Young Black, Asian and Minority Ethnic Voices from Peterborough

Gen Z

Our backpack has travelled via many cities

It reaches many destinations, regions countries and continents

To be planted here in my city of dreams

We want more than to be safe and green

When you open our backpack it is full of artefacts

And treasures that glow

To the beat to the city

Each pulse is a new chapter of new memory

In this vibrant community,

With more colours than in the rainbow

I maybe Asian , Caribbean or even Eastern European,

This is our city to settle in,

Our parents , our ancestors and forefathers arrived here to blossom ,

Sowing a seed, to build a family

Sealing everlasting love in holy matrimony

To grow, to nurture this community,

Where its free to kneel, to read the bible,

Set the Sat-Nav to the East,

Point my Mat, that way

Free to Pray

The Cross Keys unlock the city gates

The Medehamsted Gates majestically open

to all,

Our branded backpack didn’t arrive in these wetlands

For benefits and to queue for a bed at the NHS

We are here to give Boro, our Best

Is time to look inside to the future,

Acknowledging the past in the side mirrors ,

Wearing my baseball cap

With the front at the back

Mirror, Signal, Manoeuvre

Looking inside The Weight

There is exquisite recipes and tea

So we can have a garden party with the Queen

We can stand up and be, anything you want to be

There are Polaroid’s of my family

My skin of my community,

Your 900-year-old city

Look inside the 15 miles of parkway,

Embrace yourself, your senses,

Smell, touch, hear and See

The treasures that lie in our city

There is bright clothes and shoes to match

Family heirlooms that accessorize my life,

Scrap books and cuttings black and white and read all over

Music and dance that celebrate my culture

For the city sake we all need to work together

Open the city gates and trudge through the Fen Marshes

Like a phoenix The Tablets of Gen Z

Rises out Nene Park bushes

Our voices

Our words,

Scorched on tablets

From CO2 gases

infused by tractor engines

and the aroma of global dishes ,

Here us in our daily podcast’s

Our pledge, our statutory amendments are

downloaded via silicon Chips in Megabytes

In distinguished colours ,

Only 21st Century luddites

would fail to listen.

Turn up the volume on your hearing aids;

For our citys sake, comprehend our mission

This bigger than any inauguration

For the Gen Z generation .

We will be your carers,

Your preachers, teachers and your leaders

Don’t just hear us,

Believe us, empower us

We are the offspring of the virus

Have faith in us

This is the future

A Time to build our community together ,

We have the power to heal ,

To eradicate hate

In a brave new world

Gen Z are able to communicate

For the City’s Sake, please read and listen.

A Poem by Sameena Aziz Yaqoob

Loss of Humanity at the Hands of Barbarity

A man

A tall man

A dark man

A handsome man

A tall, dark, handsome man

The sought-after requisite for a man by every society

A tall, dark, handsome, black man

The blackness, a stamp by birth

The definitive for prejudice, discrimination, injustice and bigotry

The world an oyster for the white man, a tragic mirage for the black

This pre-birth bigotry is not an act of injustice by the Creator of mankind and the universe

This is but the incessant need for the white man to be in charge

To be in control, to decide the in-group and the out

The black man, the Mexican, the Irish man, the Red Indian and the Muslim

Outcasts, shunned for their race, their faith, their origin

Not to be included within the circles of humaneship

A tall, dark, handsome, black man

Pinned to the ground, like a boarhound, by the white man

As if this was the first prize for his savagery

Superiority racing through the blood of this beast

The glint in the eyes sparkling its victory

The venom dug knee onto the jugular, blazing hatred in the heart

Wishing, one by one this breed comes to an end

This smugness, this superiority at the hands of two other helpful minions

You daren’t duel him to a battle one-on-one

You hide behind your uniform and the badge

You feel confident, complacent and secure

Your ardent belief in your institution to keep you safe from retribution

Humanity is the breath in this man’s lungs

Humanity is the blood coursing through his veins

Humanity is the grown man’s cry for his mother when in pain

Humanity is the nose bleeding and the bladder leaking

Humanity is the man losing his pulse under so much strain

Humanity was this man’s heart beating like yours and mine

Barbarian is the white man sucking the life out of humanity

If the in-group is composed of barbaric thugs and cold-blooded murderers

I most gladly choose to be the outcast

This black man was named George Floyd

This black man is the shaking of your safe haven, your institution

This black man is the new revolution

This black man represents all institutionalised outcasts

George Floyd

The black man

Is your undoing!

Sameena Aziz Yaqoob

Instagram@themuslimspectrum

Dear Queens ...

A poem for Black History Month by Tomiwa Alabi

From the gorgeous cornrows that you wear

Your inspiring presence is felt everywhere

Opera, Serena, Beyoncé, just naming a few

Your love never wavers it’s always present and true

What you have done for the community forever will stand

Your power, grace and care let’s our minds expand

So just continue aspiring as you always do

Just know we’ll stay till you see it through

Harriett Tubman a natural leader and freedom key

To Rosa Parks’ heroic stance, your might is surreal to me

Now to Michelle supporting young black girls everywhere

And you keep doing it - hate or love without no fear

Malorie Blackman - books full of passion, hope and crosses...

She keeps writing, telling, preaching despite the Bosses

Telling her to stop, but she won't, she holds on to her only hope

Hanging tight dearly to our freedom rope

You overcome the barriers set by society

Just so your children and their children can be free

Mary Seacole, risked her life for an army

That once rejected her, now that's true history

As a black Nurse in the war she was an anomaly

But wouldn't give up so the whole world can see...

Your intellect, power, love and supreme loyalty

That resonates, inspires, and sets me free

One powerful movement after another which you lead

Words, lessons and stories to our minds that you feed

It’s inspiring that’s despite the struggles you still achieve

Greatness upon greatness - true legends to me

Your constant passion and unwavering drive

Is unmatched and is what leads you to thrive

So never stop dreaming young black girls

Go from schools to Governments, from clams to pearls

Just know your presence resonates and never ends

So, keep on striving so our hope never Bends

And wherever your touching messages reach

Just know for sure that a heart it will teach

Down casted by society but you still stand strong

So, I will shout and shout your praises all day long

My loyal backbone in every time of trouble

Always have saved me from the rubble

Mum, sister, aunties, grandmas, friends I pray the passion you display never ends

No, we will NOT stay silent and watch you be mistreated

I will stand up for you as you have done for me

To my complex lock you are the only key

Black Women stand up... And Dare to Dream

TOMIWA ALABI

Find out more

Peterborough Racial Equality Council (PREC)

Promoting Dialogue and Confronting Racism since 1974 CHARITY No. 803225

Poetry and Culture

Welcome

Say it Loud

Empire Windrush Video

A Poem by Gary Huskisson

Donald Brown and the Millennium Sculpture

A Poem by Sameena Aziz Yaqoob

Dear Queens ...

A poem for Black History Month by Tomiwa Alabi