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Away Being, Coming Â鶹ԼÅÄ

Samira Ahmed explores understandings of 'home' and the experiences of people leaving, desiring to leave and returning to their former dwelling places.

Samira Ahmed explores understandings of 'home' and the experiences of young people leaving, desiring to leave and returning to their former dwelling places.

When the Beatles wrote their iconic song She's Leaving Â鶹ԼÅÄ, they painted a picture of the post-war suburban house as a claustrophobic cage, trapping the free spirited young woman eager to make her way in the brave new world of 1960's Britain.

Decades later, the 'boomerang generation' abounds, as rapidly growing numbers of young adults return to the parental home due to economic or employment pressures. This situation can be emotionally and practically challenging for all the family.

The term 'home' implies much more than simply a building or a geographical location. It can also be a community, a family, an institution, a sense of emotional well being. Not all houses are a home to those who reside there.

Samira Ahmed considers 'home' and how writers and musicians have explored relationships between parents and children, at this pivotal point of leaving home. The title - Away Being, Coming Â鶹ԼÅÄ - refers to a cross arts project in which young people, writers and musicians created work inspired by photographs of empty croft houses in the Hebrides, and the stories of their former inhabitants. The programme opens with a poem, Barren, a response to an image of one of these homes left behind.

Includes music from The Beatles, Yo La Tengo, South African bassist and composer Benjamin Jephta and The Smiths. There's poetry from Tony Harrison, Cecil Day Lewis and Grace Nichols, and readings from L-Shaped Room by Lynne Reid Banks, and Jill by Phillip Larkin.

The readers are Rachel Atkins, Natasha Gordon and Peter Ormond.

Producer: Lucy Dichmont
A Whistledown production for Â鶹ԼÅÄ Radio 4.

30 minutes

Last on

Sun 26 Jul 2015 23:30

Music Played

  • The Beatles

    She's Leaving Â鶹ԼÅÄ

    • Sgt. Pepper's Lonely Hearts Club Band.
    • EMI.
    • B0025KVLTM.
    • 6.
  • The Animals

    We Gotta Get Out Of This Place

    • The Bootleg Beatles: Hits Of The '60s.
    • EMI.
    • B0011W6KMS.
    • 6.
  • Benjamin Jephta

    Â鶹ԼÅÄcoming

    Performer: Benjamin Jephta Quintet.
    • Â鶹ԼÅÄcoming.
    • Benjamin Jephta.
    • B00TKVUCIK.
    • 1.
  • Lord Kitchener (Aldwyn Roberts)

    London Is The Place For Me

    Performer: Lord Kitchener.
    • London Is The Place For Me: Trinidadian Calypso In London, 1950-1956.
    • Honest Jon's.
    • B000068GU3.
    • 1.
  • Shankar - Jaikishan & Shailendra

    Mera Joota Hai Japani Revival (Revival)

    Performer: Mukesh.
    • Shree 420 (Original Motion Picture Soundtrack).
    • Saregama.
    • B00LRBHRSY.
    • 2.
  • Morrisey & Marr Johnny

    There Is a Light That Never Goes Out

    Performer: The Smiths.
    • The Sound of The Smiths.
    • Rhino.
    • B001ECE6CQ.
    • 15.
  • Yo La Tengo

    Leaving Â鶹ԼÅÄ

    Performer: Yo La Tengo.
    • They Shoot, We Score.
    • Egon Records.
    • B0051FLDH8.
    • 1.
  • One eskimO

    Â鶹ԼÅÄtime

    Performer: One eskimO.
    • One eskimO.
    • Artist First.
    • B002JODUO8.
    • 1.

Samira Ahmed's blog

Readings

Title:Ìýµþ²¹°ù°ù±ð²Ô

Synopsis: poem inspired by a photograph titled 'Unmade Bed, Lewis' depicting an empty croft house in the Hebrides,ÌýÌýseemingly abandoned hastily. The poet imagines what might have happened to the former occupants.

Author: MarjorieÌýLotfi Gill

Ìý

The poem is unpublished but image and text can be viewed at The Thrive ArchiveÌý

Ìý

Title:Ìýthe L- Shaped Room

Synopsis: Thrown out of her family home after becoming pregnant, the unmarried protagonist contemplates her new home, a room on the margins of mainstream society.

Author: Lynne Reid Banks

From:Ìýthe L- Shaped Room

Publisher

Random House, 2014( reprint original 1962)

ISBNÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý1446426270,

ÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý9781446426272

Ìý

Title:ÌýBookends

Synopsis: Poem exploring how the poet's relationship with his father changes after the sudden death of his mother.ÌýÌýRead by the author.

Author: Tony Harrison

From: Tony Harrison: Selected Poems

Publisher:ÌýPenguin Books Ltd; 2nd Revised edition edition (29 Jun. 1995)

ISBN-10:Ìý0140587314

ISBN-13:Ìý978-0140587319

Ìý

Ìý

Title:ÌýWalking away (For Sean)

Synopsis: Poem describing a father's emotions as he watches his young son walking into school for the first time

Author:Ìýby C Day Lewis

From: TheÌýGate and Other Poems

Publisher: Cape (1969)

ISBN N/A

Walking Away is read by permission of Peters Fraser & Dunlop on behalf of the Estate of C Day Lewis

Ìý

Title:ÌýExtract from the Women's RoomÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌýÌý

Synopsis: protagonist Mira reflects on the process of children separating from their mothers.

Author: Marilyn French

From: The Women's Room

Publisher:ÌýAndrew Deutsch (1978) Warner Books reprint (1992)

ISBN 0ÌýÌýÌý75150538 2

Ìý

Title:ÌýLike a Beacon

Synopsis:ÌýÌýSmells and sights trigger powerful memories and longings for home.

Author: Grace Nichols

From:ÌýPoems on the Underground, Tenth Edition, edited by Gerard Benson, Judith Chernaik & Cicely Herbert

Publisher: W&N, 2001)

Ìý

ISBN-10:Ìý0304348589

ISBN-13:Ìý978-0304348589

Ìý

Ìý

Title:ÌýA house of my own

Synopsis:ÌýÌýThe author reflects on the freedom of having a house that belongs entirely to her.

Author: Sandra Cisneros

From: The House on Mango Street

Publisher:ÌýBloomsbury (2004) reprint of 1991 Vintage

ISBN-10:Ìý0747560870

ISBN-13:Ìý978-0747560876

Ìý

Title:ÌýExtract from 'Jill'

Synopsis:ÌýÌýa young working class man arrives at university, and is disturbedÌýÌýto find his room occupied by students of a different social class.

Author: Phillip Larkin

From: Jill

Publisher:ÌýOverlook Press (1984)

ISBN

0879519614,

9780879519612

Ìý

Ìý

Title:ÌýSaturday at the canal

Synopsis: a young man dreams of running away to the hippy haven of San Francisco.

Author: Gary Soto

From: Â鶹ԼÅÄ Course in religion

Publisher:ÌýChronicle Books (1991)

ISBN ISBN-10:Ìý087701857X

ISBN-13:Ìý978-0877018575


Related Links

Related Links

The programme title: ‘Away Being, Coming Â鶹ԼÅÄ’,Ìý refers to a cross arts project in which young people, writers and musicians created work inspired by photographs of empty croft houses in the Hebrides, and the stories of their former inhabitants.Ìý The programme opens with a poem, 'Barren', read by author Marjorie Gill, in response to an image of one of these homes left behind, entitledÌý 'Unmade Bed, Lewis', by photographer Ian Paterson.

More images and details about the exhibition can be found at:


Broadcasts

  • Sun 26 Jul 2015 06:05
  • Sun 26 Jul 2015 23:30