The Secret Knock

The British Library, 2017. This is where my story with Malika's Poetry Kitchen began. 

When Susannah Herbert asked would I like to come to the launch of The Golden Shovel Anthology I was excited, but couldn’t possibly imagine the profound and lasting impact the evening would have on me: Malika Booker and Roger Robinson on stage, going back to the early days, when “no one wanted to hear from us”; Roger breaking down in tears; Peter Kahn asking who in the audience had been affected by Malika’s Poetry Kitchen and everyone around me rising out of their seats; the enormous sense of companionship and support, built over decades, that filled the room. I haven’t experienced anything quite like it since.

For days afterwards the thought wouldn’t let me go: This story needs to be told. 

I was in the middle of working on the Second Home Poetry Festival, where I had some curatorial role, and contacted Kitchen’s Director, Jill Abram: Couldn’t we get together for an event on this? The answer was an enthusiastic Yes. Malika and Jacob Sam La-Rose shared the stage to talk about the history, and a whole crew of current members came to read. By the side of the stage, Dean Atta encouraged me to consider joining the collective (thank you Dean!). To Jill I said, possibly a bit enthusiastically: “I really want to write this story.” 

She remembered. When the collective came to create its new anthology, Too Young Too Loud Too Different (I had joined by now), she and Rishi Dastidar reached out and commissioned me.  

It was a huge privilege – and a phenomenal pleasure – to write this history. (You can read and extract here.)

Interviews happened whenever we could fit them in, on lunchbreaks, before work, in the evenings, large chunks of the writing on the Westcliff-to-London train. Early drafts exceeded the word-count three-fold: there were just so many stories, so many aspects worth mentioning! I had to fight the urge to include everything, do justice to all; we had to be brutal (with special thanks to Rishi for being such a fantastic editor). 

What is in the anthology now is one history (I am of course secretly dreaming about compiling an entire book…). I hope it goes some way to recording the vital achievement of this collective, and the impact it has had.

My heartfelt gratitude goes to Jill Abram, Malika Booker, Patricia Foster McKenkley, Peter Kahn, Sundra Lawrence, Nick Makoha, Nii Ayikwei Parkes, Roger Robinson, Jacob Sam-La Rose, Denise Saul, and Nathalie Teitler for being so generous with their time, stories and memories, and to Malika, Roger, Jill and Rishi for trusting me with this story. 

I’m sending my love to every Kitchen member, past and present. You are the energy; you are the hope.     

Westcliff-on-Sea, August 2021