The Power to Inspire
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Thu, 02 Jun 2011 00:00:00 BST
Lemn Sissay (right) pictured with one of the looked-after young people he worked with at the University last year.
Inspirational poet and playwright Lemn Sissay MBE made an eagerly anticipated return to the University of Huddersfield in May 2010, when he delivered a public lecture entitled ‘Wireless and Looking for Reception’.
Keen to give something back to the University following his award of Honorary Doctor of Letters in 2009, Lemn thrilled his 80-plus audience with more of a performance than a lecture, drawing on his own extraordinary background in the process.
Students, lecturers, friends, colleagues from local authorities, and some looked-after young people were treated to a number of digressions that were intensely philosophical, deeply self-examining, and sometimes desperately funny.
Having grown up in foster care as a young child and transferred to the care system at age 11, no-one in Lemn’s life had known him for more than a year. He had no real context for his life. He was even given another name.
Being a compulsive writer through his childhood, though, meant that Lemn’s gift of expression was well-established by the time he left care. He self-published a few poems and this small step proved to be the start of his career and his first step to wider acclaim.
To help improve the life chances of other young people growing up in care, Lemn became a children’s rights activist. A key priority for him these days is the ‘Letterbox Club’, a national organisation which aims to write to 4,500 looked-after young people, send them parcels of books, and go some way to providing the ‘context’ that he lacked as a child.
The University is already looking forward to Lemn’s next rousing visit when, no doubt, another rapt audience will be moved, amused and inspired by his vibrant and powerful words.
