Poetry to the fore.
Monday 22nd June 2020 sees National Windrush Day, a day to honour the British Caribbean community and celebrate the arrival of the passenger liner, the Empire Windrush, which, in 1948, arrived in London with Caribbean migrants who had come to help rebuild the UK after World War II.
On a beautiful June day St Augustine’s Priory also sought to celebrate National Windrush Day and Mrs Cattigan reports on how the girls in Upper II Alpha marked the occasion.
‘The girls in Upper II Alpha took part in a Windrush-inspired poetry reading in celebration of Windrush Day 2020. We listened to the stories from some Windrush pioneers who described their journey from the Caribbean to the UK and their experiences of settling in a new place to call home. We then listened to some poetry readings, including John Agard’s ‘Windrush Child’, which we have been studying in English, James Berry’s ‘Englan Voice’ and the brilliant ‘Sausages’ by Hannah Lowe.
The girls then chose from a wide range of Windrush-inspired poetry, from ‘Isn’t my name magical’ by James Berry to ‘Home’ by Nairobi Thompson and developed their own performance of it. We ended the lesson by listening (and dancing behind desks) to Desmond Dekker’s ‘You can get it if you really want’ at precisely 10.27a.m. which represents the arrival of 1,027 people on the Empire Windrush.’
