By Taha, Areeba and Atiya from Whalley Range High School
Multiculturalism
throughout Manchester has been expressed through the form of written art and
has been shown in the Manchester children’s book festival on 30th June.
The cultural diversity has been expressed through the city in many different
ways and on 30th June, many activities and events took place.
The audience was filled with excitement and chatter as Mandy
Coe first took the stage by sharing her experiences, saying that poetry should
be for children than for adults and that poetry for children is running out and
not expressed as much. She then introduced Poetry By Heart where young poets
read out poems by heart. She then welcomed four young poets on the stage.
Personally, I think this was the best part, listening to other people in our
age group reading out poetry, which potentially could inspire us in the future.
Next was the first female poet Laureate Dame
Carol Ann Duffy. She read out inspirational poetry including the poetry that
was banned for the use in schools. The poem talks about violence: a teenager
killing, however it has nothing negative but we have to interpret in a positive
and meaningful kind of way. She read out a poem that involved the audience:
Elvis, Shakespeare, Picasso and Virginia Wolf, adding, “Probably one of the
highlights of my life as a poet is standing here and watching people scream
Virginia Wolf at me.”
Next up was Imtiaz Dharker. Her poems had a very wide span
of unique topics, ranging from pomegranates to being ‘Over the Moon’, which
kept the audience hooked to them. Some of the poems she read out were quite amusing,
such as the ‘Dabba Dialogue’ or, ‘Tiffin-Box Talks’. This poem in particular
was written from the point of view of a tiffin-box. Her choice of words make
her poems really interesting and fun to listen to. I personally thought it was
a really good experience and a very engaging event.
After the poetry event we went over to the other event
taking place. There we watched a one-woman play about a girl called Gabrielle,
who lived on a small island in the Caribbean. It portrayed how Gabrielle’s life
was like in the Caribbean’s, and how drastically it changed after she travelled
to England, on a boat ride that took 20 days. Her new life in England was
already off to a rocky start, being cramped on a ship for 20 days, so you can
imagine how it must have been later on. It showed her struggle to find a proper
job and home amongst the racial Britons of that time.
All in all, it was a very inspirational day. I learned new
things, and I’m very happy that I had the chance to take part in such an event.
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