To coincide with their new monthly residency on the MDR airwaves, Where Are The Girl Bands? offer us a monthly glimpse into what they’ve been up to and what’s caught their attention over the past 30 days…
Where are the Girlbands are starting 2022 where we left off - celebrating new and exciting creatives on the Merseyside music scene. On the 6th February we will be hosting the second instalment of our ‘All in the Same Boat’ event at Bloom Building, Birkenhead. This event is a supportive space for creatives starting out (be it in their music careers, or moving into the Merseyside creative scene from another) to perform, meet other new faces on the scene and establish their next steps.
This month, our line-up is jam packed with poets! While we introduced you to the artists from our last event via a review, we felt there is no better way to introduce a poet than through their own words. So, we present to you today the ‘All in the Same Boat: Poetry Collection’. If you like the work you read here today, head down to Bloom Building Birkenhead on the 6th February to hear these fantastic wordsmiths perform their poetry live (tickets available here).
Alongside these fantastic poets we’re thrilled to have Louis Cross sharing his music too, which you can find more about on our Instagram page. Without further ado, it’s time to get lost at sea within this ocean of poetry.
Lost – Melanie John
Is it just me
Or does anyone else
Feel like life is just passing you by
The Pharcyde
An oxymoron
To be Lost in the thrill of it all
An Ocean
Swimming against the tide
Something bigger than me
And tryna catch up
With your peers
Who’ve got it going on
With the fact
That Comparison is the Thief of Joy
Is a mental prison
That keeps you shackled
From living Your life
It’s Constipated Cataclysm
It’s a Tricky Situation
Cus’ Hell’s only around the corner
Hell Ya, Fuckin Right
And them murky, Muddy Waters
Sometimes make you feel Blue
A Crossroads
Quick fixes
Soul searching
Eradicate time
To reach your destination
Prophesied
Where in the World is all the Time
Cus’ you wish you knew
This is the Otherside of the Game
Didn’t Cha know?
Misery loves bad company
A mental incapacity
Sadness is an emotion to tenderly embrace
But never lose yourself
Warped in the illusion
That you’re deserving of no more
Like the soul prophet ruminated
Good Days are always on my mind
Fuck regret
An Ex
Lost Youth
The here & now
Should be present in our minds
That’s the only resolute
To navigate through
The Web of neurotic naysayers
i.e. my mind
Take this mirror
As a reflection
Of I got you
Sad Eyes
Tense demise
They’ll be Better Days to Come
I ain’t Lost No more, are you?
Erin’s At Work - Tilly Foulkes
I don’t think I should
Be left alone – I’m too bored
And I’m scared I’ll break
The washing machine.
I keep thinking it’s gonna
take off, a spaceship
made of clean towels
and daz or whatever it
uses in there. It’s
getting aggressive,
it’s gargling and gurgling like
an ancient sea beast
and foaming at the
mouth, a rabid wolf drunk on
fabric softener
flinging and spitting
my towels all about. The
kitchen floor hums with
uncurbed yet clean rage
I feel it vibrate in the
Soles of my cold feet
At last –
the screams soften. The
barbaric gargoyle
of sanitation
releases his fangs,
his sterile teeth retreat back
into his white gums
For now – we’re safe; no
Fatalities or dyed red
Sheets. Until next time…
silk is frank
oceans apart from where I am
locomotion’s created
from words spoken
occur so naturally, effortlessly
he undresses
depresses me
lullabies bless me
lost in the weightless gracious
cool as ice
boy in my wet dreams tonight
So I wake
Midnight
To write
That I’ll just never keep up
Through my eyes – Claire Beerjeraz
Hear me out
Let me in
I am propagated for just one thing
This industry likes to play their cards wisely
I am their prop and puppet for diversity
My racial identity makes me proud,
But what’s challenging is fitting in within this crowd,
Or at least enough to be taken more seriously
For someone to empower and platform my creativity
I get conveyed that my words hold power and worth
But when it comes to showcasing it
I feel limited to where I can turn
I try to construct my own space
but end up getting used and treated poorly
Because I don’t feel like I have any other choice or opportunity
To get my work perceived or received by others
Hard to rearrange my time for fake headhunters
We’ll only work with you if you already have clout
Or if your name is known by the right crowd
We need more safe spaces
Not private places
Not a VIP exclusive know the right contact sort of placement
There is so much room for artistic outlets
So why do I only see the same faces in creative programmes?
Where are the newcomers or people who have been waiting for their time to
ascend?
And at what cost?
Maybe there isn’t one
But convening here on the outside, waiting for the doors to open
It sure as hell seems like there is a secret password to make things unbroken
I get expended and then dropped
End of Black history month
Showcasing comes to an end
Be silent now
Hold your breathe
It grows futile around here
If you don’t fit the mold
Of a perfect imposter to a white world
These matters they haunt me
It tells me to question my integrity
And because I am mixed
My truth seems diluted
Because I don’t quite fit the stereotype of what I meant to be like
Shades of black don’t exist to many
Colourism in this industry trust me there’s plenty
Not quite fitting the role of my own words I have written
Because my complexion wasn’t dark enough for someone else’s vision
My experiences of mental health, racism, and sexism,
Met by a disguised shadow of microaggressions.
Enough of the fake woke behaviour
The “we’ve done enough” because we hired someone of colour
What does that even mean?
How does that improve?
What further are you doing, to create more than just a marketing move?
I shouldn’t have to devote every single day, working twice as hard
Shouting pick me
Just to be given a glance
True diversity includes all, there isn’t a limit
Not just your ambassadors you use for your company image
More growth to be made
To evolve and come together
To listen and learn
From everyone because they matter
So we can use our different cultures and views
To generate discussions and work we can all contribute to
We can go so much further by being able to explore
In a way that is inclusive to all
Give more people the chance, and start trying to break that control
Illusions no more, new standards to uphold
It’s our time to be heard.
We can form a universal platform for creation
Take a step back and then take 3 forward
Make a change now, take from this what applies
Because this is the reality of the world through my eyes.
The club in Portugal that let girls in for free – Lucy Butler
On the dancefloor we thaw
Into each other, lips salty with heat,
The crowd twists and swells
around us, a shoal of drunken tourists
with sticky eyes marinating
our bodies: we’re some rare, exotic meat.
A shark-smiled woman appears,
says something swept away by music,
Do you mind, could the two of you kiss
for my husband? she repeats.
We resist, she persists, it’s his dream
she insists. Trapped in the mesh of crowd,
vision rocking, we weigh up the risks
twist up wire lips in defeat.
The sound of liberation is a dozen fists
pounding against aquarium glass
she turns to a man with blood in his drink
says honey, I’ve caught you a treat.
Drool steams from his eyes, our lips
salted with fear, push together
and the world shudders, all those hands
thudding, a floundering heartbeat.
Version of you – Zara Jama
What version of you is the true you
Is it the one surrounded by family
Completely careless or maybe reserved
The one only presented to a select few
Carefully picked and sorted
To upkeep that version of you
What version of you is the true you
Maybe it’s the one surrounded by friends
The goofy laughs and the deep talks
The emotional outbursts and late night walks
Until the end of the road is reached and it’s the end
Of that version of you
What version of you is the true you
Could it be the working one
The polite nods and the determined one
The anxious and constantly tired one
Maybe with a break you’ll find
The truest version of you
But maybe that version of you was you all along
Engulfed in the escapades of life
Surrounded by loved ones and strangers alike
You quickly come to find and realise
The true version of you is you simply being you
Shadow Tree – Kaya Bee
Take solace, shadow tree
Standing alone.
A visual mirage to your surroundings.
Burnt amber,
Mellow tones,
Yellow and orange flecks of sky.
The floor falls beneath you
Hidden in the dark of dusk
You solider on,
Taking the podium in this performance.
I smile at the beauty
You have created,
Smile and be
Smile with me.
I take solace in you,
Shadow tree.
Breakup – Josh Banks
I try to move on,
but I see him
everywhere.
I guess that hair
must be in style
or he can just stay
in my mind.
A while
longer
I wish I was stronger.
Able to get over
a silly boy,
cause my heart
is not a toy!!
|| WHERE ARE THE GIRLBANDS? ||