After opening the 6 Music Festival, Amina Atiq will be at Deep Cuts later in the the year, here’s her special poem and love letter to Liverpool.
Amina Atiq is a part Yemeni part Scouse poet, performance artist and activist.
She has work published in a number of places and read the following poem at the 6 Music Festival launch in Liverpool earlier this month.
Such was the power and beautifully crafted word play she left listeners, who had gathered for the Mary Anne Hobbs show at the Bluecoat, breathless and received a standing ovation.
Atiq uses poetry to explore her Yemeni heritage. Her identity lies in Yemen and in her current home, Liverpool, and her lyrical delivery reveals the beauty of both.
Full details, stages, venues and tickets for BBC 6 Music Festival
She performs at Getintothis‘ Deep Cuts night at Jacaranda Records Phase One on Thursday May 2 – full details of the night to be announced in due course and will once again be involved in the forthcoming 6 Music Festival.
Sir, I Speak Scouse
My gran-dad arrived on a boat to a strangeland,
rested on her port, drank water from her Mersey,
greeted by her Liver birds-they lent out their
wings
and here, he opened his corner shop on Lawrence road-
selling broken biscuits for half a penny. Here, he settled
where dreams are carved and never forgotten.
She is not New York where dreams are wonders.
She is a promise never broken and secrets are cross
my heart and swear down to never tell a soul.
She is the love letters found at the bottom of the river-
stories floating to her waves- voices echoing her pain-
happiness of those who passed by and those who stayed.
The Irish, Afro-Caribbean, the Chinese, the Yemenis,
Somalis, the Greeks- her beauty is her diversity.
She has a face that is hard to forget. Maybe not the
prettiest of them all but the most friendliest you’ll find.
She is the most down-to- earth bird you’ll ever find,
enough to make your heart go by.
Her stubbornness is her resilience, reds or blues-
she never gives up, she never walks alone– wounded
or scarred, she picks you up too- that’s her charm.
She is Hope Street, hoping for a better tomorrow and when
the broken-hearted people living in the world agree /There will be an answer, let it be, let it be…
What makes her whole, is the peoples voice because
Sir, I Speak Scouse, fire from my stomach- love and
kindness from my heart-she taught me to stand up
stand up speak up speak up be anything anything.
My city is my home and my home is my city.
She is perfect and her name is Liverpool.
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