Vicende come questa lasciano il segno e, nel caso di Sissay, permeano i suoi testi in mille modi diversi: dalla commozione alla rabbia all’ironia. E’ lui stesso a raccontare la sua storia in un TED Talk (una serie di conferenze annuali su temi vari, dalla tecnologia alla cultura… ma chi non conosce i TED Talk ormai?) nel quale è particolarmente evidente la mescolanza di tragico e comico tipica di Sissay. Esordisce con umorismo, definendosi ‘child of state’ e spiegando l’espressione e giocando sui doppi sensi (‘Margaret Thatcher was my mother’) per poi snocciolare una sequenza di personaggi letterari e della cultura popolare che sono stati adottati o erano orfani (dai personaggi di Dickens a Batman). Infine arriva al personale e descrive che cosa ha significato per lui essere un child of state di colore in Inghilterra in quegli anni… e quello che racconta non è per nulla edificante: è un paesaggio dell’anima desolato e arido quello che ha trovato. Con una calma implacabile arriva in fondo al racconto lasciando senza parole chi ascolta. Ne vale davvero la pena, guardatelo:
Oggi vive a Manchester, una città da cui trae continuamente ispirazione e che lo ricambia con molte gratificazioni: le sue poesie, infatti, decorano i muri e i marciapiedi sotto forma di landmark poems (poesia paesaggio).
Inoltre è rettore dell’università di Manchester dal 2015 e, nel 2012, è stato il poeta ufficiale delle Olimpiadi di Londra.
Il parco olimpico costruito per l’occasione è stato infatti decorato con i versi di molti poeti inglesi classici e contemporanei. Iniziativa lodevole che porta la poesia ‘tra la gente’ e proprio dove meno te la aspetti e volta a ricordarci che a tutti piace la poesia e che certi versi, certe parole… è innegabile… ci fanno subito sognare. Ebbene, i versi di Sissay sono scolpiti sulla protezione di un trasformatore elettrico e sono molto suggestivi perchè si tratta in realtà di un unico verso, ripetuto innumerevoli volte: ‘Living is in’. Per la natura stessa della parete su cui è impressa la poesia è stato necessario inserire un cartello di avvertimento per la sicurezza, che recita ‘Danger of Death’ (pericolo di morte) che dà al tutto una svolta di significato in chiave ironica… living is in danger of death… che è esattamente il contrario del significato originario che, nella ripetizione, portava a "living is in living".
LEMN SISSAY: THE FAILURE OF THE BRITISH FOSTER CARE SYSTEM
Lemn Sissay is not just a poet: he’s also a musician, a stand-up comedian, a playwright and a producer. In short, he’s a man of many talents. But he’s also a man with great sensitivity. He can turn grief into something beautiful using words. When he was a small Ethiopian child, he was adopted by an English family, and he grew up with a deep feeling of abandonment and loneliness which still permeate his poetry. On the net there are a lot of information on his life: his adoptive family, after having children of their own, have practically “returned” him to the public institution breaking off relations with him. He was 12 at the time and was no longer adopted by anyone. As soon as he attained majority he moved to Manchester and started proposing his poems… he also started a long search for his birth mother. He found her after 3 years. Such stories leave a mark and, in Mr Sissay’s case, the marks permeate his texts in many different ways: from commotion to anger to irony. He tells his story in a TED Talk (a series of annual conferences on different topics, from technology to culture… but who doesn’t know what a TED Talk is today?), where Sissay’s typical mixture of tragic and ironic is very clear. In that talk he begins with humour, calling himself a ‘child of state’ and explaining what the phrase means and then playing with double meanings (‘Margaret Thatcher was my mother’). After that he lists a series of literary characters as well as characters from popular culture who were adopted or orphans (from Dickens to Batman). Finally, the speech becomes personal when he describes what it meant for him being a coloured child of state in England at the time… and what he tells is far from edifying: it’s a desolate and barren landscape of the soul. With unrelenting calm he makes it to the end of the speech leaving the listeners speechless. It’s really worth it: take the time to watch it. (See video above)
Today he lives in Manchester, a city from which he continually draws inspiration and which reciprocates with many rewards: in fact his words decorate the walls and pavements in the form of landmark poems. (See photos above)
He’s also been the rector of the University of Manchester since 2015. In 2012 he was the official poet of the London Olympics. The Olympic park was decorated with verses from English poets, both classic and modern. It was a praiseworthy initiative bringing poetry among the people and where you least expect it: an invitation to remember that everybody likes poetry and that some lines, some words… undeniably make us dream. Well, Mr Sissay’s lines are carved on an electric transformer protection and are very suggestive because it’s just one line repeated numerous times: ‘Living is in’. By the very nature of the wall where his poem is written it was necessary to add a warning sign that reads ‘Danger of Death’. That sign gives it an ironical turn in meaning… that is: living is in danger of death… which is exactly the opposite of the original meaning of the line that, once repeated, should bring to living is in living.
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