The Revolution is Being Televised

Collage Arts have been working with the local BAME community for a long time, helping them find a voice. We are asking a number of our artistic associates to share their creative outputs which shine a light on Black Lives Matter, from their experience and perspective.

THE REVOLUTION IS BEING TELEVISED is part of “We Matter: Yesterday, Today and Tomorrow” by Sandra Howell.  Recorded by Sheila Atim (actor, composer), one of the most exciting BAME actors in the UK.

The revolution is being televised is a series of poems developed by Sandra Howell. She is a member of our community of writers at Collage Writing Room. Sandra honed her skills on the ‘Short Fiction Workshop’ with Kiare Ladner in Autumn 2019.  She read her flash fiction at our sharing event at McQueens Theatre in December 2019.

THE REVOLUTION IS BEING TELEVISED 

What is this twisted show and tell?
Dragged kicking and screaming through a living hell

And, when you look back at our history
Cops and protesters on bended knee

Rubber bullets, beatings and tear gas
Black and white people gathered en masse

What do you think you will see?
What are you going to say
about me?

What are they going to say about us?
Will we still be confined to the back of the bus?

Seems like Gil Scott-Heron got it wrong
the Revolution is being televised, but for how long?

Sandra Howell

SANDRA HOWELL’S BIOGRAPHY 

“I am of Jamaican parentage and was born and brought up by my mother in Southampton with my 3 siblings. I worked for the trade union Unison for 19 years. Whilst working as a National Officer for Unison, I qualified as a barrister. I took ill health retirement from Unison in 2016, ten years after a life-threatening road traffic collision had left me physically disabled.

As a child and as an adult I have loved performing, as an amateur, in choirs and the theatre. Since last year, kayaking has become one of my greatest passions. I also love singing in my choir. I enjoy cooking, reading, sunny holidays, music from jazz to dance, going to galleries, museums and socialising with friends.

Since 2016 I have been writing short fiction, after attending creative writing courses. I began writing theatre reviews for a couple of theatre blogs in 2017. I attended Collage Writing Room in 2019 and am part of its growing community of writers.

During lockdown I have been writing satirical lyrics to pop songs and sharing them, (along with my dodgy vocals), with friends and family for fun. This developed into writing poems about matters which directly affect me. The world wide anti-racism protests, starting in the USA, spreading to the UK and the rest of the world, have been the catalyst for me to re-examine everyday racism in my life and the lives of family and friends. My poems have served as a release for my frustrations and I hope they educate, provide succour and enjoyment to anyone reading them.”

COLLAGE ARTS have just been awarded a grant from Arts Council England to work with more BAME women, Creative Futures: picking up the threads, that is enabling black, Asian, ethnic minority and refugee women to create new work and materials, to process the challenges of lockdown, woven together into new interpretations and art pieces.  For more info, contact preeti@collage-arts.org