Bradford lawyer-turned-poet Sheena Hussain has put together a free monthly open mic night exclusively for women across Bradford. With one event already under the belt, these sessions are already proving popular with female creatives across the city.
The open mic night is currently held on Zoom between 7 pm and 8.30 pm on the last Wednesday of every month, with guest poets planned for each session.
Ms Hussain put together the event after noticing a lack of Black, South Asian, and ethnic minority representation in poetry and spoken word events across Bradford. She said: “I put together the Bard of Bradford event after noticing a gap in the market. The uptake of black and ethnic minority women in poetry events is low. Women not partaking in these events are just not good enough.”
Ms Hussain who worked as an immigration lawyer for eight years turned to poetry after an unexpected cancer diagnosis in 2018. Ms Hussain took to writing about positive experiences in her childhood to help her along her path of recovery before realising the work that she produced is poetry.
After taking eight months off to recover, Ms Hussain wrote a massive 34 poems and released her debut book Memories of a Poet, My Road to Recovery. After dipping her toe back into law work, Ms Hussain realised her heart was in poetry and with the backing of family and aid through some creative arts grants, left her desk job to become a full-time poet.
Giving women of colour a platform to express themselves is incredibly important to Ms Hussain, who says that she wants the sessions to be as diverse as possible. The first guest poet last month was Shamim Azad, a Bengali-British bi-lingual poet, storyteller and writer who has written an incredible 37 books so far in her three-decade-long career.
This month’s guest speaker is Antonette Clarke-Akalanne, a poet originally from the Caribbean that is now based in Bristol.
Each open mic night will feature up to ten women taking part in reading their poetry out loud with Ms Hussain hosting the event and a special guest poet joining the session to share some of their poetry. Spaces are also available for women who want to watch the readings without taking part.
Unlike other poetry readings which form around a different theme each meetup, these sessions put on by Ms Hussain are themeless which allows the women taking part to express themselves as they see fit. Ms Hussain said: “Women should be free to express themselves and read whatever they have written. Women shouldn’t be boxed in, I want this open mic night to be fresh and open.”
“During the various lockdowns, women have struggled as there has been no support. This platform will give women a mechanism to heal.”
Due to Covid-19 restrictions, the event is held virtually through Zoom but with plans of holding the session in person in Bradford soon. Ms Hussain said: “Zoom is great because we can get women and guest poets from up-and-down Britain join our session but once we get the green light, holding the events in person will be much better since we can create a bit of an atmosphere.
“I will be looking at venues that will be easily accessible for women across Bradford and that is suitable for everyone. The venue will need to be a safe space that will empower women to share their stories. During the various lockdowns, women have struggled as there has been no support. This platform will give women a mechanism to heal.”
Supporting black, South Asian, and minority women in the creative arts is important to Ms Hussain and Madiha Ansari, director of the Cultural Ecology project, a company that provided training to South Asian Women in the creative fields and workshops and advice from predominately South Asian women who have made it in their respective fields. Ms Ansari currently provides the Zoom platform that allows the session to go ahead.
Getting young women and girls to attend the session is also important to Ms Hussain. She added: “Young girls in our South Asian community are very bright. They get brilliant results in school but still can be quite shy. Getting young girls to attend this event will boost their public speaking skills which is important for later on in life, when they go to university and get jobs.”
To get involved with the open mic night, you can contact Sheena Hussain at Sheena4076@live.com
