By Simon Pizzey
I do what I do as a writer, visual artist, and poet, because I did not choose art, it chose me. I have a deep love of humanity and for the creatures that share our beautiful planet. If you subscribe to the aforementioned, welcome to my tribe.
I don’t remember having any grand ambitions as a child. I was born in Kensington, London. I spent my early years with my grandmother Sarah, brother Michael, and other members of my extended family in Kingston, Jamaica. I returned to England in 1970, growing up in the shadow of the National Front and vicious racism.
Back then, which really isn’t that long ago, the world appeared to be simple and more stable than it is today. In the straightforward world of which I lived people got educated to a level that would secure a job with the post office or the local council. Very often this meant a job for life that would offer some stability in a person’s life. With that came the opportunity to fall in love and marry a local girl, raise a family, and live amongst the people you grew up with. It sounds very idyllic now and quite naïve, but whether real or imagined, that is how it was back then.
I first got acquainted with Stroud through my wife, whose sister has resided here for quite a few years now. At the time my wife was a teacher, and we used the half-term break to visit her family and get out of London for a while. It was always great to get away from the hustle and bustle of the city, to see a different landscape, and take advantage of some much-needed fresh air. However, having the choice of getting away every now and then did not entice me to leave the city of my birth and move to Stroud right away. That happened quite a few years later when I realised that being Black and British did not mean that I had to remain wedded to a stereotypically urban notion of my Blackness. As with a lot of Black Britons I subconsciously policed myself into thinking that the countryside wasn’t for ‘us’.
Among many other things, moving to Stroud was an attempt to break this form of mental slavery. Afterall, we were originally a people of the land who had been urbanized across the generations and therefore lost our cultural memory of tilling the soil and being at one with nature. Thankfully things are changing now and it’s good to see that Stroud has a small but growing community of Black and Brown people.
In many ways Stroud is a unique place that punches above its weight. There are some wonderful people here who really go out of their way to build and maintain a strong sense of community. As well as the Trinity Room, the Stroud Valley Artspace is a wonderful creative hub that supports visual artists, musicians, actors, young people, DJ’s and poets of all ages. My colleague, Derrick McLean, and I have put on cultural events under the auspice of our organisation Black Ark Media which aims to promote the best in Black art and culture. I think it’s amazing that for such a small town we also have the Stroud Film Festival where one can see an array of important and innovative films such as Saul Williams Neptune Frost, which is a very progressive Afro-Futurist movie that is truly groundbreaking.
I frequent a lot of shops in Stroud and I have some great conversations, I’m talking about shops like Sunshine, Rasmachaz, Butterfly Ball, Made in Stroud, The Stroud Valleys Project, Fourteen Lifestyle and of course the wonderful Star Anise Arts Café, where I sometimes go to eat and read a book.
Like most towns in Britain, keeping the high street afloat is a struggle in terms of physical trade. Generally speaking, online shopping has made it so convenient to shop from home that after a hard day’s work people don’t seem to have the energy or the time to frequent the high street on a regular basis. The result is a high street that appears to be dying. However, as an artist I do a lot of re-imagining. As such I see this moment as a great opportunity to reinvent the high street. Stroud is renowned for its radicalism and as such, this has got to be one of the best places for the opportunity to reinvent the public space and our conspicuous shopping habits. In this sense I am not a pessimist and see the high street as a blank canvas in waiting.
This photograph is very special to me because it was taken on my birthday in Jamaica when I was about four or five years old. For some reason I had an innate fear of the camera, and after much screaming and crying, a member of my family was able to calm me down and take the shot.
A favourite object of mine is this piece of art which I created a couple of years ago out of various objects that I found in Stroud. Among other things, it is based on a home alter and is a syncretic blend of African religions such as Candomble (Brazil), Santeria (Cuba), and Pocomania (Jamaica). Central to the piece is a representation of the ancient Egyptian cat Goddess Sekhmet, adorned with cowrie shells and the Ankh, the key of life symbol.
The future? At the moment I have just finished a collection of my neo-surrealist poetry which is more accessible than it sounds. It is very multilayered, and I wanted to bring attention to one of our most precious commodity water. Unlike a large swathe of the world, it is so readily available to us that we often take it for granted. The collection is entitled: Alga-Rhythm and like I said, even though the focus is water it is unapologetically about so much more than that. I am currently looking for a publisher so watch this space!
BIOG
Ronnie is a graduate of Manchester University’s MA in Novel writing and was both a runner up and 1st place winner of Len Garrison’s ACER award for Young Penmanship. Just like his neo-surrealist poetry and postmodern writing, he produces contemporary works of art which are informed by the changing same of his ‘black’ identity.
He is a founding member of the former musical group The London Afro Blok, who toured Europe and performed for Queen Elizabeth.
A former Creative Writing Lecturer at University of the Arts, London College of Communication, he teaches creative writing at Stroud South Gloucestershire College and Bath Spa University.
Ronnie appeared on the BBC4 documentary Tales from the Front Room, which is based on an installation by artist and playwright Michael McMillan’s work.
As well as having taught creative writing for many years at CRISIS, the UK’s national charity for people experiencing homelessness, and at Mount Carmel Addiction Treatment Centre in South London, Ronnie has facilitated workshops in schools and for a variety of organisations throughout the country, including writing as a therapeutic tool.
A selection of published works; Encounters with James Baldwin – features Ronnie’s essay, What’s Love Got to do with it?
Neo-Surrealist Poems – by Ronnie McGrath. Poetry – full collection.
Data Trace – by Ronnie McGrath. Poetry – full collection.
On the Verge of Losing It – by Ronnie McGrath. Novel (postmodern).
Watermelon – Rivers of Love Speeches by Ronnie McGrath. Conceptual writing.
Glimpse – Edited by Leone Ross, an Anthology of Black British Speculative Fiction. Features Ronnie’s cover art art and the short story: Contraband.
Links:
https://www.the87press.co.uk/thehythe-open/digital-poetics-39-3-poems-by-ronnie-mcgrath
