Viva Brighton Issue #68 October 2018

PERFORMANCE
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Lemn Sissay
The Art of Attachment
Lemn Sissay and Charlotte Vincent at Brighton Oasis Project. Photo by Bosie Vincent
Lemn Sissay has lived
an extraordinary life.
Born in 1967, he was
fostered into a family
who were told -
wrongly - to treat this
as an adoption. When
Lemn was twelve, his
foster parents placed
him in a children’s
home. The next five
years were spent
in the care system.
On leaving his final children’s home he was
given his birth certificate, showing the name
of his mother, Yemarshet Sissay, and his true
name, Lemn Sissay. He was also given a letter,
written by his mother, pleading for his return.
He began the search for her and finally met his
birth mother when he was 21. After making his
way as a poet, playwright, and writer, he is now
Chancellor of Manchester University.
When I was asked if I wanted to interview
Lemn I didn’t hesitate. I’m a care leaver myself,
and know well the toll ‘care’ can take. We speak
on the phone, on a sunny autumn day, and in
his warm Mancunian tones he tells me about
the show he’s been working on.
“The Art of Attachment comes from a call I got
from Brighton Oasis Project, a brilliant organisation
that works with women caught up in
substance misuse. I’m choosy about the projects
I work on, but this really spoke to me. I did a
series of workshops where we wrote poetry and
they said things that they’d never said before.”
Lemn has been working on the show with
award-winning choreographer Charlotte Vincent
(also pictured). “Charlotte and I had a few
meetings. She’s doing
a great job of translating
the women into
dancers. Charlotte’s
using the subject matter
of attachment and
there’s a lot coming
out of that.”
Something I want
to explore with
Lemn is separation
anxiety. If my Other
Half takes her time
coming back from the shops I start to get very
uneasy. “Something that we have in common is
dysfunctional reactions to disappearance. I tend
to think that nobody’s coming back anyway.
Sometimes I’ll leave them before they leave me.
I’ll push them away before they push me away.”
I ask him whether he thinks women get a
rougher time than men about substance
misuse. “I think ever since the care system was
established women have been adversely treated.
Their children have been taken from them,
they’ve been punished from the get go, and as
soon as you step out of the matrix, that punishment
is waiting for you. And this has got to
do with the fear of a pregnant woman without
a man. That’s why they’ve taken their children,
that’s why they’ve put them into children’s
homes. This is not the way for a child to be.
Groups like Oasis are right at the forefront of
change and growth.”
As we finish I realise that Lemn Sissay hasn’t
lived an extraodinary life – he’s still living it.
John O’Donoghue
Attenborough Centre, University of Sussex,
Thurs 18th Oct, 7pm, £10/8. vincentdt.com
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