For national poetry day we looked at poems from the book 'Part of a story that started before me: Poems and Black British History.
We read Abi Simms 'Africans in Roman Britannia' and then watched 'Black & 6teen' spoken word (see below). The young people reflected that they enjoyed her spoken word more as it was more repetitive and felt more relatable as she was 16 when she wrote it.
Being Black & 6teen stars talented 16-year old Abi Simms from Thornton Heath, South London and her powerful spoken-word piece about what it feels like to be Black and 16 in Britain, penned the day she found out about the murder of George Floyd.
Students were impressed that she was a published poet at such a young age. We thoroughly recommend exploring her work.
