New Writing North’s Read Regional 2020

Sorry I’ve been away so long but what a whirlwind year it’s been! Hopefully I’ll fill you all in as to what the last few months have entailed but first some revelations.

I am realising I am not very apt at updating this blog as regularly as I should but I can’t give it up either. It’s been around too long a time, much like a diary of sorts! One day I’ll look back and think I’m glad I persevered.

Anyway, I am thrilled to tell you that since my last entry I’ve been awarded a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship alongside two incredible artists Yomi Sode & Anthony Joseph, become Supported Artist at The Royal Exchange Theatre, an Associate Artist at Oldham Coliseum & Associate Artist at The Poetry Exchange.

But I also want to make some noise about being one of ten authors selected for New Writing North’s Read Regional 2020. It’s been a great year as an artist and am humbled that I’ve got this far.

I have some brilliant projects I’ll be working on over the year but before then join me at library venues in the North where I’ll share poetry from my collection, The Celox And The Clot.

Morpeth Library

Royal Sovereign House, Manchester St, Morpeth NE61 1AF

Thursday 5 March, 7.15pm

(There will be a free Exploring Poetry workshop at 6pm, before the reading)

Batley Library

14 Market Pl, Batley WF17 5DA

Saturday 7 March, 2pm

(An International Women’s Day event)

Hull Central Library

Albion St, Hull Hu1 3TF

Thursday 12 March, 7pm

(There will be a free Exploring Poetry workshop at 6pm, before the reading)

Bradford City Library

9 Aldermanbury Centenary Square, Bradford BD1 1SD

Saturday 14 March, 2pm

(There will be a free Exploring Poetry workshop at 1pm, before the reading)

Darlington Library

Crown St, Darlington DL1 1ND

Wednesday 10 June, 2.30pm

(Part of Crossing the Tees Book Festival)

Kendal Library

Stricklandgate, Kendal, Cumbria LA9 4PY

Friday 19 June, 12pm

(There will be a free Exploring Poetry workshop at 11am, before the reading)

Part of Kendal Poetry Festival.

You can purchase

The Celox and the Clot here: https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/product/the-celox-and-the-clot-by-hafsah-aneela-bashir

And if you wondered who the other nine incredible writers are, check us out! New Writing North’s #ReadRegional 2020 Authors!

The full list of Read Regional 2020 titles is:

CHILDREN’S FICTION

James Nicol, A Witch Come True

FICTION

Clara Barley, The Moss House

Yvonne Battle-Felton, Remembered

C.J. Cooke, The Blame Game

Linda Green, The Last Thing She Told Me

Oliver Harris, A Shadow Intelligence

Lara Williams, Supper Club

MEMOIR

Horatio Clare, Icebreaker

POETRY

Hafsah Aneela Bashir, The Celox and the Clot

Keith Hutson, Baldwin’s Catholic Geese

Hope to see some of you at the libraries we’ll be sharing our books at!

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I’m a Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellow 2019!!

I am super thrilled to announce that I’ve been selected as one of this year’s #JerwoodCompton Poetry Fellows alongside Yomi Sode and Anthony Joseph!

Through the programme I’ll be receiving critical support, funding and mentoring supported by Jerwood Arts and Ace National!

It’s been crazy hard trying to sit on this news but I’d like to take this moment to give thanks to all of you who have ever supported me, turned up to hear me perform, bought my book, encouraged me to show up and go for opportunities and had faith in me and to those that never faltered in reminding me who I am when I needed it! So much love for y’all!

Link to my book is here https://burningeye.bigcartel.com/

I’m really looking forward to see what the year brings and want to give a huge congratulatory shoutout to my two #jerwoodcomptonpoetryfellowship awardees too! It’s going to be a year of growth and learning and I am so here for it! *******************************

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Longsight’s Writer In Residence!

Yes! That’s what I am now, thanks to Manchester Literature Festival, alongside the extremely talented Isaiah Hull of Young Identity. In a commission titled Rewriting Longsight, I’ll be spending the next few months  walking the streets and meeting residents to hear their views on what this area means to them. The plan is to break bread, share stories and map the area through its people.

A few weeks back I visited Longsight library and met with all sorts of surprises. One of the themes everyone kept coming back to was this idea of community spirit and friendship. My conversations with chatty retired men, with councillors, mums, staff, support workers, lively school kids and a mix of service users  was a pleasure.

Being a fond library user from a young age, I know what a lifeline these places can be for people. And the unbelievable amount of activity going on within the building itself is such a step up from my childhood memories.

I was also honoured to be invited to a lively Boishakhi Pitha party by Ananna – a Bengali Women’s Organisation at the Pakistani Community Center where I got to judge the most beautiful dishes made by the party goers. The games played here gave new meaning to fun and dance for me!

Another incredible grass roots community hub I visited is called the Northmoor Community Centre located in the heart of Longsight where I met the absolute Queens that rustle up delicious home cooked meals for cafe customers every Wednesday from 12-2pm. You pay what you want and when the foods gone, it’s gone!

Through this residency I have had the pleasure of people watching and having meaningful conversations with individuals from all walks of life ( my fave hobbies ). This centre royally delivered.

I met the most inspiring people with gems to spill about the area and how they feel about it. From Lahore to Jamaica, from Ireland to Cape Verde, from Grenada to Longsight, the stories just kept on coming! I don’t know yet for sure what my creative response might look like but there is a seed growing for sure. Cultivated by stories, watered by hope. Let’s see what blossoms!

If you’re in the area, pick up a #channehchats menu from the library and fill it in with your voice.

Drop it in to #longsightlibrary for me! It will all feed into the #rewritingLongsight creative piece for Manchester Literature Festival in October!

 

 

 

 

Hello! Can you see me?

Through my work in the arts, I have often sat in inherently white cultural spaces and asked myself this question many times.

My wonderful friend Pakeezah Zahoor wrote this piece that sums up what so many people of colour felt/feel growing up in Britain. Have a read! Post your comments and have a lovely day looking beyond what you already know.

https://bradfordsnationalmuseum.org/2019/04/12/hello-can-you-see-me/

Hello,
Can you see me? It’s just that my whole life I’ve been looking at you and trying to look like you. In fact, I think we’ve all been trying to look like you and to talk like you too. Perhaps we’ve spent too much time in attempts to reflect you, see ourselves through your eyes, talk about ourselves through your eyes. Just to clarify, it’s not because we hate ourselves but because we knew, though nobody told us this, it was the only way we’d be seen and counted. That constant pressure to evolve from our working class, free school meals, brown, immigrant selves; into as white, middle-class a version as we could muster. And I wasn’t even conscious of it until just yesterday, the fog suddenly lifting around a realisation that I can’t actually be other than who I am.

And you know, these days I’d rather look at my mum than at you. Hear about how she was betrothed to my dad at birth, how the thought to question this decision made on her behalf wouldn’t have crossed her mind. That she married my dad at 20 but spent 11 years in Pakistan before she was able to join him in the UK. I want to know how she bore that period of time with patience, determined that she would have a home of her own one day. I can’t imagine how my mother, beautiful and smart, spent her twenties waiting like that. I’d rather look at my dad, who moved to the UK at 11 years old, growing up in a country where as a teenager, he had to fight and defend himself against skinheads at the end of every school term. Whose teachers told him not to bother applying to University, who read stories about great leaders in Muslim history to give him a sense of place and to keep his identity intact. I can’t imagine my dad, a man of words, at 17 creating a makeshift weapon to use should he need to.

It would do you good to look closer at my mum and dad too. You say you want to engage with ‘diverse’ audiences, open up your establishments to everybody, showcase art from different cultures, reflect the society in which we exist. But you’re not even looking at us. How can you hope to establish meaningful engagement if you won’t even look at us? Why do you expect our participation when your understanding of our context is so limited?

It feels to me that the reality of the immigrant experience has been so steeped in shame that as a culture we’ve skimmed past it. Its being too unsightly – that poverty and confusion and shame, to find yourself in a country you don’t know, that constantly tells you that you don’t belong, that you’re not good enough and that you should just go back. And then to stay and try to make a home for yourself anyway. Our parents didn’t tell us about some of the uglier things they had to deal with, and no one else talked about it either. Being an immigrant almost certainly meant being working-class and working low-level jobs regardless of your potential. They focussed on raising and feeding their families whilst trying to gain a level of financial security. There weren’t many spaces in which they felt accepted and safe so the spaces they inhabited openly were limited; spending most of their spare time in the homes of friends and family. There was a lot of good food and a lot of laughter. They certainly didn’t step into walled institutions like the theatre or art galleries, even the white working class didn’t go in there. And because they didn’t go in there, well their children, they don’t go there either. They’ve grown up unfamiliar with these spaces and they have inherited the same sense of not belonging. And it can go on like this for generations.

So when you ask, ‘Why don’t they come?’ I’d say that an open door doesn’t always feel like an open door and that some barriers are invisible. I’d say that we are all human beings and we need to feel understood in order to build trust. We’d like to see more of us in your institutions, so we could recognise ourselves in you. We’d prefer it if the dynamic between us didn’t feel so distinctly focussed on our difference but simply on who we are. If it didn’t feel like you are the hand that gives and we the ones who receive. Maybe that way we’d just walk in without having to be asked.

If we could try to comprehend each other better, with clarity and honesty, then perhaps we could communicate a way to move on from the past.

4th Review ~ ‘Cuts Of The Cloth’!!

4th Review of Cuts Of The Cloth! I love reading them but can’t help noticing that the fact that the play is a collaborative process, sometimes slips under the radar for some!

Its so important to acknowledge the team it takes to put something like this together! Yes written and performed by me but I want to reiterate it’s also co-created/directed by Nikki Mailer who was producing too 💪🏼( since we are a small team of two at Outside The Frame Arts ) with Kooj Chuhan on soundscapes & visuals, Andrea Pazos working on our set, Kalpa Vriksha who marketed with 🔥and the brilliant team at HOME making this come together! Special thanks to Carla Henry, Elmi Ali and Sarah Yaseen who were part of its development last year during the work in progress as well as Keke Thompson and Alison Surtees who supported and funded our work through Futures Venture that has made all our Outside The Frame’s work possible. Hats off to The Royal Exchange for giving us rehearsal space too! And a heartfelt thanks to all my friends who had to listen to my ‘imposter syndrome’ anxieties throughout the process!

We’re excited to see what comes of this so if you know any theatres or funders that would whip this up – let us know! oh and here’s the review!!!

http://www.caughtintheact.co.uk/cuts-of-the-cloth-review/

Another review for Cuts Of The Cloth!

twitter.com/northwestend/status/1086986706262392833

Cuts of the Cloth – HOME, Manchester – THE PLAY’S THE THING

Have a read of this review about our Outside The Frame Art’s ‘Cuts Of The Cloth’ play showcased at Home Theatre & Arts Centre for PUSH Festival this weekend!

Cuts of the Cloth – HOME, Manchester – THE PLAY’S THE THING
— Read on theplaysthething.co.uk/2019/01/20/review-cuts-of-the-cloth-home-manchester-theatre-review/amp/

Manchester Muslim Writers: Hafsah Aneela Bashir | aAh! Magazine

A lil review visiting Manchester Metropolitan University’s School Of English where I talked about my writing journey and my debut poetry collection The Celox And The Clot!

Manchester Muslim Writers: Hafsah Aneela Bashir | aAh! Magazine
— Read on aah-magazine.co.uk/2018/manchester-muslim-writers-hafsah-aneela-bashir/

Outside The Frame Arts ‘Anti-Oppression Movement Workshop’ – Oct 2018

Have a read of Outside The Frame Arts blog about our Anti-Oppression Movement workshop last October. Heavily focussed on racism, sexism and intersectionality, the workshop brought together many women of colour! Click on the link to hear all about it!

http://outsidetheframearts.org.uk/saria-khalifas-reflection-movement-workshop-with-camille-barton/

FTRW NOVEMBER Write Up – Burning Eye Books

by Synth Void Find the Right Words is certainly THE place to be on a third Wednesday evening. If you can take yourself Upstairs at The Western around 7:30pm, you will find a vast array of poets (and a dog, if you’re lucky!) from in and out of Leicester, delivering words to make you laugh,…
— Read on burningeyebooks.wordpress.com/2018/11/29/ftrw-november-write-up/