The Brixton Bard on Dirty South
Alex Wheatle is the author of The Dirty South and its prequel East of Acre Lane, which won the London Art Board Writer’s Award. Catch A Vibe met up with him in the library Borders on Oxford Street, to talk about his journey as a writer and the future of his work.
CAV: How did you become a writer?
Alex Wheatle: I used to be involved in sound systems in Brixton in the late 70’s early 80’s.To entertain the crowd I used to write lyrics and try to perform them. I guess my career started from then, from when I used to think seriously about making little stories, references to what was going in Brixton at the time.
CAV: So how did you progress from lyrics to writing stories?
Alex Wheatle: When the sound system thing faded, I didn’t really do anything for a while. I had a bunch of lyrics and poems and I didn’t do anything with them until the poetry jam explosion happened in the late 1980’s and early 90’s. I used to perform my lyrics at those type of events, and as time went on people started to encourage me to write a novel. So I did – Brixton Rock – and I wrote the first draft of that in 1995. So that’s my journey. It’s a long one: some of the lyrics that I wrote when I was 18 just after the Brixton Riots made into East of Acre Lane 20 years later.
CAV: Will you publish a book of your poems?
Alex Wheatle: I will, one day. A lot of good stuff there but I need to collate them and sort them out because much of my poetry is written on bits of paper or the back of LP sleeves.
CAV: A lot of your books concern urban youth especially in your latest novel The Dirty South. What do you think is one of the biggest problems facing urban youth today?
Alex Wheatle: I think us adults have really let things go a bit, in terms of what we allow our children to do and what they’re exposed to. I think they are exposed to too much too early so it’s not a big step for them to perhaps pick up a gun or a knife when they have seen those horrific images so young. I’m not with all these Government ministers who blame the youth. I think we [the adults] are guilty too. We need to look at how we are raising our kids. It’s 2008 and we’re still hearing that black boys are in trouble, that they don’t get the same advantages. But nobody is saying that there are more opportunities now than there were when we were young. We need to keep the youth focused and active and away from this ghetto. Because sometimes when you don’t have money or a career, the only currency you have is how bad you are. We need to tell our kids that they are talented.
CAV: A lot of your books are either set in London, Brixton or Jamaica, would you consider writing a novel outside of these places?
Alex Wheatle: Oh yes, I’m writing it now.
CAV: Well please tell us about your new project?
Alex Wheatle: It’s a teenage fantasy project set in a different world many many miles away.
CAV: Sci-fi?
Alex Wheatle: Fantasy, not sci-fi. As a kid I used to read a great deal: stories like “Narnia” and “Treasure Island”. But now the main thing that sticks in my mind even though I loved those books is: where are the black heroes? So I’m going to try and write a story with black teenage heroes in it – why not?! I only know of Malorie Blackman who is doing that. And it is really up to us to write those stories, because they aren’t going to write them for us. I don’t think the Phillip Pullmans and J. K. Rowlings of this world are going to write these stories for us.
CAV: What would you say to inspire young black writers?
Alex Wheatle: Write everyday. The more you write the better you get. It was very hard work for me to learn to construct a story. And I’m not saying you have to write 5000 words every day but at least write a paragraph, work at it and practice your art.
CAV: Use 5 words to describe your novel The Dirty South?
Alex Wheatle: Honest, friendship, revenge, love, authentic.
Portrait of the 1985 Handsworth Riots – Pogus Caesar – BBC1 TV . Inside Out.
Broadcast 25 Oct 2010.
http://vodpod.com/search/browse?q=pogus+caesar
Birmingham film maker and photographer Pogus Caesar knows Handsworth well. He found himself in the centre of the 1985 riots and spent two days capturing a series of startling images. Caesar kept them hidden for 20 years. Why? And how does he see Handsworth now?. The stark black and white photographs featured in the film provide a rare, valuable and historical record of the raw emotion, heartbreak and violence that unfolded during those dark and fateful days in September 1985.