Your girl won a prize last night. They’ve been handing out these Eric Gregory Awards to promising poets under the age of 30 since 1960 and I have so many faves on that list. Now for the maths. The first Black poet to receive one was the brilliant Jackie Kay, of mixed Scottish and Nigerian parentage. That was 27 years ago, in 1991. If she’s the first, she’s also the last. Which is ironic and frustrating, because [redacted 🙃]. And then also cyclical, in a way, since Jackie’s year was the year that I was born, and that next winner would be me. Here’s to celebrating the win but never the distance between wins. It won’t take this long again. It never needed to. •••
Pictured: OG Linton Kwesi Johnson (you should have SEEN my dad run up to him); the amazing Miriam Nash; Irenosen Okojie, a genius; and OG John Agard, who called over Grace Nichols, and talked to us about being young in Guyana, celebrating Ghana Day for Ghana’s independence in 1957.
‘You must write every day. Write *every* day. You have come to collect the spiritual gold.’ Some things you told me. When an elder passes, as it goes, a library burns down. I am so deeply grateful to have met you. So thankful that my father was able to tell me about you - having loved you 20+ years before I even existed and then, with the support of Nii Parkes, have the chance to meet you. Rest in endless ENDLESS power Professor Nii Atukwei Okai. You were a poet but you are an ancestor now and that’s even more magical. // photo: Pan-African Writers’ Association, August 2017
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