My first poetry performance ever was at the Poetry Cafe in Covent Garden in September 2008. I had visited their website and found out about a writing group for black female and mixed-race writers called Shangwe owned by Nicole Moore. I guess writing like a hermit indoors took its toll on me and I needed to find an audience. Looking back I am glad that I found Nicole and through her group I met Ursula Troche a mixed-race writer who I have been friends with ever since. Shangwe helped me to realise that there is a market for me and an audience too. Some people may say that psychology and creative writing are such independent disciplines and this may be the case, however, I have found a way to mix the two in my work.
Nicole is about to publish an anthology of female writers this summer and I was happy to make a contribution to the theme of Shangwe Hair & Skin Anthology, from a black or mixed-raced female perspective. You may say what is all this thing about “blackness”. I say “my identity” and my struggle as a black female writer, born in the western hemisphere and therefore taking on the status of being a female Black British.
Meeting Nicole inspired me and this led to me contacting Spread the Word, developing new writers. Yet another trip to London to have a writer’s surgery on what I am doing and where I am going. Their Forum has been a magical space for expression and has encouraged me to develop becoming an online writer.
I thank Nicole for believing in me as so often others I had considered close to me had not. I am happy to say that my interest in psychology has deepened my understanding of myself, others and the world. Belief in myself is an integral part of my writing, without which I would have no reason to develop the work that I now do as a contemporary writer.
My final words are, if you write, you are a writer, published or unpublished. Take pride in your uniqueness as no one else can write like you do because there is no one else like you. Not everyone will appreciate your work, but it’s obvious you do otherwise you would not be doing it. Believe in what you are writing about and it’s not your job to explain everything, the reader has some responsibility to discern and interpret and where possible appreciate your truth in a written art form.
http://shawana-lulu.blogspot.com/2010/02/love-what-is-it.html
