“The human experience is what we all share. I believe the more authentic we are in expressing our experiences the more we connect with one each other, which is pivotal at this time.”

Says Kurly, poet and Hip Hop artist from Birmingham. "It’s really important that we share stories as often and as truthfully as possible, but by the same token we also have to be willing to listen twice as much.” Kurly didn’t start writing raps and poetry until he was 18 “I remember I was in the kitchen mixing flour and chicken in KFC when a work mate asked if I could write a rap for a song he working on.

I’d never tried it before, but I’d always loved listening to music and watched people on television performing to cheering crowds. Deep down I felt I’d like to be on stage performing and reaching out to people. So I saw this as a chance to start the process of getting there.”
Since then Kurly has built a career out of writing and performing and but more importantly he’s been helping others develop the love of writing by delivering workshops around the country and abroad.

I remember throughout my late teens and early 20’s just how much the process of writing helped me to reflect on my life at any given point, which helped me to consider options and make better decisions. When you write you’re practicing the use of language to define the world from your prospective as well as developing more self awareness of what you think and feel about those things.

Self awareness is a key to taking actions that get you to your desired outcomes, which means it enables you to have more control over your happiness. For me the process of writing has always been very cathartic. Getting my thoughts and feelings out onto paper or recorded onto a song/rap or poem stops it from coming out in other ways, whether it be through negative feelings or negative actions, at least through writing it can be channelled in a much more productive and positive way, plus you can make a career should you continue to commit to it. Put it this way, I’m not working at KFC anymore!”

“I see myself as more of a vessel to enable others to share in discovering their preferred method of expressing themselves because some people are gifted at movement, martial arts , sport or dance, for others it may be some aspect of drawing or playing a musical instrument. Whatever it is through speaking and writing about, it can give you the tools to begin the process of setting your goals with those skills. It’s hard to know what you want unless you have a reflective conversation with yourself and can define certain things with words, which writing helps you to do.”

“I’m in my early 40’s now, and still feel like I’m early on in my journey. The path has led me to helping others, particularly young people, build self esteem and literacy confidence through poetry, which is set to continue. I find helping others not only rewarding, but essential to tackling difficulties we face.

Exploring language around themes such as respect for self and for others, equality, kindness, love, aspirations, hopes and dreams, along with discussing the solutions to issues we face today around stereotypes and hate crime. Challenging wrongs begins with finding the right words, which will ultimately defines each person’s legacy, as our ideas and the actions they lead to will shape the world in which our loved ones will live in.” “I come from a multi-ethnic background, from Scottish/Irish and Caribbean descendants and I clearly remember as a child growing up, hearing the divisions within my family based on fear.

My white grandad at times sound like Enoch Powell, who’d spouted fear around immigration from the Common Wealth countries, even though he himself was somewhat of a immigrant too. Whilst in the other corner my dad spoke of the exploitation of resources and poor people coming from the elite ruling class. Often there were huge arguments that left me as a youngster feeling very insecure. My grandad questioned the place of someone like me, a ‘mixed raced’ boy in British society. But thankfully through it all I was very much surrounded by love and my white Irish Catholic nan would often step in and tell her Scottish Protestant husband to ‘Shut up!’

I knew my grandad loved me in his own way and was probably just concerned. That was the climate at the time. But at the same time the rhetoric was clear. Fear is divisive. But love is the solution. Today we cannot afford to slip back to that kind of climate of fear which is clearly what we are seeing. So in the great words of the poet Tony ‘Long Fella’ Walsh, performing after the Manchester bombing, ’Choose Love’.

To find out more about Kurly, his poetry workshops, poems, and work with Love Music Hate Racism and anti youth violence work with The Joshua Ribera Foundation please visit: kurlyspoetry.com

Kurly performing at the Royal Albert Hall performing ‘Key Change’.

https://youtu.be/XU8LmH7GxCo Kurly performing ‘No Excuses’ sharing the story and life experience of Moin Younis who suffered from a rare skin condition. https://youtu.be/5qVtcSa5vmI