Valerie Bloom – Myself in a Poem

‘A few years ago, in a village just outside Cambridge…’. The 16th annual Philippa Pearce Lecture kicked off to a fairytale start as Debbie Pullinger, Chair of Lecture Steering Committee, recalled the Lecture’s origins. Paying homage to the vision of Morag Styles, founder of the Lecture and Professor of Children’s Poetry at Cambridge, the Lecture was dedicated to her loving memory. The legacy of Morag’s work, particularly The Caribbean Poetry Project, which influenced teaching and syllabuses in both the UK and Caribbean, made Valerie Bloom an extremely fitting speaker for this year’s Lecture. Valerie is a renowned children’s poet, known for her distinctive use of English and Patois in her poems, and draws on her Jamaican heritage in her poetry and advocacy of diverse children’s poetry.

Morag was an early supporter of Valerie’s work, and Valerie remembered first meeting her in 1982 when Morag was in the audience as she performed at the Black History Show in Camden. Two years later, Morag included several of Valerie’s poems in her anthology, I Like That Stuff: Poems from Many Cultures, that was adopted by the GCSE English syllabus and one of the first to include such diverse contributions.

What do we mean by ‘diverse poetry’? Valerie offered a very broad definition: ‘ethnicity, gender, disability, religion, and more …’ Making space for different voices and traditions is so important, Valerie told us. ‘Why?’ she continued, launching seamlessly into the first of several brilliant performances. ‘A poem can take you places you’ve never been /make you laugh or make you cry / be an ally be a friend’. Invoking Morag, she went on to say that poetry matters because when children are encouraged to experiment with poetry and have fun, they can be free to express themselves and unlock new ways of thinking, which aids social and emotional development. And whilst poetry can reflect social norms, it can also change them; it can even act as mirror: ‘Diversity in children’s poetry can get children to see themselves in a poem!’

With a gentle balance of humour and gravitas, Valerie shared further anecdotes from her time as a teacher and as a poet going into schools. She often introduces the children to Patois before getting them to write anything, and recalled how, in one UK school workshop, a quiet, apparently unengaged girl of Caribbean heritage suddenly found her voice and produced a lengthy poem in Patois which left the teacher speechless. What was impressed upon us was the phenomenal power of poetry. Valerie put it best: ‘Diverse poetry can change people’s lives, especially children’s lives.’

From her time teaching in Jamaica, Valerie recalled one class who had been written off by the school because of their behaviour. Valerie’s breakthrough moment with the students came when she read a poem from Louise Bennett’s Jamaica Lambrish, which cut through all the classroom noise as the students listened enthralled – before begging for another. ‘Your turn!’ said Valerie. The students proved talented performance poets; they were eventually entered into the National Festival, making it all the way to the final where they performed in Kingston and received an award. Following their brush with poetry, the class’s academic achievement soared. Many years later, Valerie ran into one of those students and they recounted the formational experience with performance poetry as part of their journey to becoming an artist. Which once again bore out her razor-sharp message: ‘Poetry can change lives’.

Valerie then delivered a series of rhythmically brilliant, socially engaged poems to her captivated audience. and taught us all some Patois – a mixture of West African and European languages that formed, she told us, when slaves were neither allowed their own language or European languages. Once we’d been introduced us to some of its rules – dropping ‘h’s, turning ‘th’ into a ‘d’ sound, so ‘them’ becomes ‘dem’, and so on –   we were ready to join in with Keeping Wicket and Sandwich.

As the clock ticked towards six, the audience were hungry for just one more poem! Indulging us, Valerie transformed Homerton’s Auditorium into the streets of a Caribbean marketplace. After appraising the audience’s familiarity with haggling –  ‘Can you haggle? Good! ’  – she delighted us with exchanges of intense negotiation punctuated by resounding refrains of ‘fresssh callaloo-ooo-oo’ and ‘fiiii-iiiiiissssh’. The atmosphere was buoyant with the laughter and smiles of a thoroughly good time.

Zahra Grieve (PhD in Education Student, Centre for Research in Children’s Literature at Cambridge, University of Cambridge)