Maya Angelou and Michael Jackson

I’m just watching the Michael Jackson Tribute show…. some stunning performances by the likes of Stevie Wonder and Jennifer Hudson, but I’m wondering how many of the other stars bragging of their ‘close’ friendship with him were actually physically there for him during the problems in recent years….. but anyway Maya Angelou had written beautifully and Queen Latifah read out her words. (Like Obama’s inauguration ceremony, Americans include living poets in big occasions more than we seem to in the UK – can we copy? Can the next PM invite Benjamin Zephaniah or Kate Fox to scribe some words for their big day?! )

Anyway, she spoke of how fans from places as far away as Birmingham Alabama and Birmingham England are united by this time – and here I am in the British Birmingham watching it all – so place has been referenced as something dissolved by a common interest.

Ofcourse the internet does this best, as we all read these words here on our laptops/computers anywhere we travel. China and other places still not having such free access restricts their unity with world events in realtime, but it’s intriguing how new creations like Twitter helped information flow from Iran in the recent elections. I’m hopeful this spreads and remember as a student how we relied on Amnesty International and sending our hand written letters to maintain awareness of world situations…. now with one click so much more can be achieved. When technology frustrates me, I try to remember this amazing side to it….

I read a quote by George Mackay Brown, the Orkney poet talking of how ‘conversations of page and place take place over time’. This project has already taken several months during which changes have taken place in each place of residency and each of our lives, and maybe that’s already refected in our work. If we started it again next year, the words would be completely different I know. I’m still hearing some of the speakers at the MJ tribute, hardly any have used notes and most speak v. passionately with their own particular anecdote or viewpoint, each wanting to talk from the heart at this time. Many have referenced his song titles or lyrics, which echoes quoting poetry I think. Each is speaking or performing with Michael Jackson’s body in a coffin just in front of the stage……even in death it seems that ‘place’ is important. (I know it’s very American too.)

I’ve missed the last 10 days worth of email/blogging as I’ve been waking up at 4am for breakfast radio shows, then doing school workshops straight afterwards without a day off and am now totally trashed…… on the hottest days of the year so far there’s nothing like teaching 120 13yr olds in a cramped hall when it’s 30c outside and everyone of their poems included the word ’sweaty!’ I resisted the urge to tell them how early I’d woken up and how many hours I’d worked before getting to the school… but it was close:) Finally this week I’ll get the luxury of 7 hrs in bed at night to get some sleep and more importantly time to write up some of the WBA notes into finished pieces, now the deadline is looming…..

Back to MJ briefly though…. At the Muslim writer awards in B’ham last year, I gave out an award with Jermaine Jackson and we spent some time chatting backstage. He was very kind and gentle and spoke of how much he wanted to get the Jackson 5 back together. He was mobbed for the entire night by hundreds of grown men and women for photos and autographs and said the only place he enjoyed any peace was when he performed the call to prayer at our local mosque. I remember going for a walk in the park in the sunshine early the next morning with an ice cream and thinking how sad that he would be unable to do the same thing, ever, let alone Michael.

Guess that’s why the super rich and famous have these enormous mansions like gilded cages, where they build a whole world inside ‘cos they can’t just go out like the rest of us. And I only need a little flat!

Anyway, the finale of the tribute means that all the artists and family have just been standing at the front of the stage singing ‘We are the World’…. and they dragged his children up there as well, looking v uncomfortable in front of their father’s coffin….. I never thought I’d understand why he made them cover their faces with masks etc, but now I kind of do… how sad is that…. couldn’t someone have protected their privacy now?