{"version":1,"type":"rich","provider_name":"Libsyn","provider_url":"https:\/\/www.libsyn.com","height":90,"width":600,"title":" 103. Lemn Sissay MBE; Lancashire Care Homes, Life\u2019s Language of Travel and How Poetry Gave Him Wings ","description":"Lemn Sissay, BAFTA nominated writer and one of the world\u2019s most brilliant poets, was taken from his Ethiopian mother at birth against her will and after a stinging rejection from foster parents spent his childhood in care. He published his first book of poetry age 17, selling it to striking miners in Lancashire. Although a large part of him will \u2018always feel like that rootless kid\u2019, poetry, he says, gave him wings and he began his travels not just around the world but also the both physical and emotional journey to find his birth family (as beautifully written in his book My Name is Why).      On this episode we cover:   Being conceived in Athens His Ethiopian mother\u2019s arrival in London in 1966 His father being a pilot for Ethiopian Airlines The magic and history of Ethiopia People knowing Ethiopia due to the famine The first migration a person makes being from the womb into the open air A social worker taking the baby against his mother\u2019s will Being fostered by the Greenwood family in Lancashire Family trips to Scotland to visit his grandparents Being put into a children\u2019s home at 12 Losing all his family Spending a lot of his formative years feeling it was his fault The care system being very punishment orientated The trauma of being thought of as intrinsically bad Still finding life beautiful The unspoken heroes brought up in care now making the world a better place Poetry being in him from the moment he was born Knowing he would become a poet age 12 Selling poetry to striking miners in Lancashire age 17 Poetry putting him on planes, enabling him to travel The transformative experience of his first trip abroad (to Germany to perform) German cakes and breakfasts Lisa fighting the corner for British cakes Cakeology (!) and the resurgence of interest in British cakes The cakes of Germany being like miniature palaces (There is a lot of conversation about cake) Regretting not learning a language Coronavirus meaning he\u2019s missed Dubai, Ethiopia, India, the USA and Australia Being very defined in what he wanted in life \u2013 to find his mother and to be a poet Poetry paying for his physical journey to find his family Finding his mother when he was 21, after a long search His mother working for the UN in the Gambia Her fleeing of Ethiopia in 1974 Flying to Africa for the first time to meet his mother Sending cash for his flight in an envelope from Lancashire to Brixton! The Senegalese man obsessed with Chris Rhea\u2019s Lady in Red How travel puts you out of your comfort zone Communication without language means you have to lose your fear  The fun and trick to bartering The vulnerability of not knowing the rules People on the plane from Senegal to Gambia who worked with his mum Golden wings of dust driving through the Gambian sunset The moment he met his mother How travel makes its way into our language; making life journeys, navigating our problems, finding pathways, taking flight How the relationship with his birth family has developed Ethiopian Airlines being part of his DNA The aviation industry in the 1960s being like a village Lisa going to Addis Ababa to interview Ethiopian model Liya Kebede And New York to interview chef Marcus Samuelsson and author Maaza Mengiste Lisa meeting her Fiji-Indian family for the first time Looking at his mother\u2019s, brothers\u2019 and sisters\u2019 faces for the first time How we can define ourselves as people of the world People will only call themselves by a colour when they\u2019re in the minority The incredible photo of his pilot father with the Emperor\u2019s lion His father\u2019s death in a plane crash in storm on New Year\u2019s Day Taking a BBC film crew to the Simian mountains where the crash happened Finding pieces of plane and fuselage Finding the place where his father died being like the beginning of the rest of his life Loving the Hilton in Addis Ababa where his father partied and his mother got married Staying next to Nick Cave in the Amadari Hotel in Bali Bathing underneath the Balinese stars What Nick Cave is like on holiday The Emirates Literary Festival Feeling at peace in the Scottish Highlands Loving New York and Penang in Malaysia \u2013 How the food is always a reflection of the people How you can have the greatest journeys in your own village Wanting to give the gift of travel to kids in care Travel broadens the mind, but the new experience broadens the mind Migration, travelling, immigrants\u2026all what it takes to be human ","author_name":"The Big Travel Podcast","author_url":"http:\/\/www.thebigtravelpodcast.com","html":"