Reading and recovery

Happy New Year! Is it too late to say that? Ah well, at least I managed to get this out in January… just!

December was a washout for me in terms of writing - I had a small op. Preparing and recovering as well as the usual vicissitudes of the season - just wiped me out. All the stress of the whole year seemed to show up while I was prone, so I took January to rest.

What I did do was read. As a child that was my go-to, my escape. I’d go to the library and take out up to 8 books a week when I was bored in the summer holidays. Libraries, as well as galleries, are my safe spaces, places where it’s ok to just be and ponder.

One of the things I’ve learned from doing The Artist’s Way, is to ‘fill my creative well’.

So this last couple of months I’ve read:

• Homegoing by Yaa Gyasi

• Yellowface by Rebecca R. F. Kuang

• The List by Yomi Adegoke

• Awaken by Richard Lalchan

My favourite was Homegoing it’s an epic story covering two branches of a family over at least 10 generations starting from just before the British arrived in Ghana at the beginning of the slave trade. One branch follows the impact on Ghana and the conflicting loyalties of tribes who sold others into slavery, and the offspring of British officers who married local women.

The other branch follows the generation that was taken into slavery and the suffering that successive generations faced in America through slavery, its eventual abolition, segregation etc. She shows how the grip of racism, discrimination and exploitation found other means and avenues to operate.

There was poetry in how Gyasi described emotions and spiritual, cultural and religious legacies. It was well-researched and she managed to make each person’s story come alive even though each character only had 20 pages.

Slowly my creative mojo returned - I finished the draft of my manuscript but realised I wanted to add a few more poems so they are in the works.

January is also my birthday month, so I had a good time celebrating with family and mostly eating and relaxing at the spa - what could be better?

I managed to get a performance in sharing a poem at the Finnish Art Group’s annual exhibition which had the theme of ‘Where is home’. My poem - To the tune of adornment has very similar themes.

The poem was written for a black history event and has themes related to the black diaspora, so I wondered how it would be received. The themes of displacement seemed to resonate, and people latched on to different parts of the poem. This is good to know!

I’m now back on the train of planning for the year and finishing the manuscript. Onwards!