This book of poetry is an extraordinary debut from Jay Bernard. It shines a light on parts of Black British history that have been forgotten or ignored, beginning with an event called the New Cross Fire in 1981. Believed to have been a racist attack, thirteen young black people were killed at a birthday party by a house fire.
Bernard moves through history, exploring memories, cultures, and injustices that have not been made right, through to the Grenfell Tower fire and some of the awful responses to it, such as the online viral burning effigy.
The first poem, Arrival, is ambiguous in time - it could easily be the slave trade or the Windrush - but its tone is clear. Black people were seen as useful tools and nothing more - no freedom to rise, or dream, or be seen as equal citizens. It very clearly sets the pattern and tone of the rest of the poems, full of rage, despair (see, Losers), helplessness (see the poem Harbour about someone trapped in a fire), and a call to action.
There are more personal moments, as well. Poems such as Pride and Peg, where Bernard explores his identity as a queer black man.
This book of poetry is talent unparalleled. It is raw, powerful, moving, and leaves you with the kind of sadness that doesn't necessarily make you cry, but it's a deep ache.
Losers, the penultimate poem, to me speaks of the division of Britain today ever since the referendum. Bernard quite rightly points out that even the winners think they are losing - no one has won, everybody seems to have lost:
"You're either or you're not. There's no middle ground"
and
"Get lost with your truth and your news which never speaks for our lot."
The overall question for me throughout was, "who does this country work for?" Because the answer is definitely not the people in these poems.
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