Exploring identity through writing
I’m a child of multiple worlds. You know, I grew up in the UK. My mum is from the UK and she’s Christian. My dad is from Zimbabwe and he’s Muslim, so I’m many and multiple things.
I often find, or found, growing up that so many people want to define you for themselves. They want to put you in the different boxes that they set out. And I, I learned very early on as a mixed kid that you have to define yourself for yourself.
And my poetry and my writing, it allows me to do that. It allows me to express my voice on the page in terms of everything: my culture, my ideas, my different approaches to religion, who I am, all of that, and all of what you want to say. Writing is a tool that allows you to express that in your own way, in your own terms, with your own words.
Description
In this clip from BBC Authors Live, Nadine Aisha Jassat discusses growing up as a ‘mixed kid’ and how this has informed her writing.
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