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What We Leave We Carry

“My parents Ethlyn and Bageye left Jamaica in 1959 but they carried Jamaica with them when they came here. That notion inspired this project What We Leave We Carry. What do you leave behind when you migrate and what do you carry with you physically and emotionally?”

WritersMosaic Director Colin Grant

WritersMosaic has launched a new podcast series, What We Leave We Carry, to tell the true life stories of pioneering migrants who have made their homes in the UK during the 20th and 21st centuries.

The series was announced last week at the WritersMosaic‘s Remember Me event at Bradford Literary Festival and is led by Director Colin Grant, in collaboration with twelve writers associated with WritersMosaic.

The first episode of the podcast is available to listen to now on the WritersMosaic website. In it, Colin reflects on his own experiences and discusses the inspiration behind What We Leave We Carry.

What We Leave We Carry is an oral history project that aims to shed light on the often overlooked but impactful stories of individuals and communities including South Korean restaurateurs in New Malden, Yemeni steelworkers in Sheffield, Polish coal miners in Doncaster, Ukrainian and South Asian textile workers in Bradford, Nigerian hairdressers in Peckham, Lithuanian tailors in Glasgow, and many more.

Drawing inspiration from his previous work, Homecoming: Voices of the Windrush Generation, Colin and his collaborators will record numerous interviews across the country, seeking to reveal the richness and complexity of British culture.

Visit the WritersMosaic website to stay up-to-date on the project.

Image credit: Missohio Studios.

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