To The Sector I love,
there’s room for me too.
My intellect, my experiences, my thighs and my dark skin -
I’m not a threat to you.
My place is in every space where art is made and performed.
My creativity and my work will only improve the world.
There’s room for me too.
So don’t offer the lowest wage but showcase me on every poster
while simultaneously hiding me at the back of every stage.
At every age I have something to offer, something to give. I shouldn’t have to prove
that my work is of worth simply because of differences you can’t seem to see past.
There’s room for me too.
You hide behind words like ‘classical’
as an excuse to continue racism, ableism, sexism, and exclusion.
You say there’s no room in the writing for someone who looks like me,
as if excluding difference isn’t centuries old;
an injustice created by the insecure that for some strange reason we refuse to truly end.
Why have we allowed this system to continue to stand?
Tell the truth.
You prefer racism instead of change – don’t you?
Hear me.
If your shows cannot showcase me – Write. New. Shows.
Don’t call me lucky when I’ve earned all I have.
Don’t write my name on applications for projects you never intended to hire me for.
Don’t tell me that my skin isn’t an issue but the shape of my Black body is –
Black isn’t just a colour, it’s culture and frame,
and so much more even I’m still seeking to discover.
If you struggle to pronounce my name –
practice. Don’t require
me to change it - once again -
to fit the aesthetic, you claim.
There’s room for my identity too.
My identity isn’t a trophy for you to hold above your head
so you can feel some sort of triumph
while I’m reduced to simply skin.
Simply skin.
There is more to me than simply skin.
Where do I begin?
I’m my mother’s brown eyes,
And my father’s high chin.
I’m the places I’ve been.
I’m the friends I’ve kept.
I’m the language I speak because it doesn’t only belong to you.
Am nad ydyw’n perthyn i chi’n unig.
Mae lle i mi hefyd.
There’s room for me.
Not ‘women like me’ –
part of a community or group as if I have no individual identity.
Look at me
and see
the fullness of the woman I am –
don’t just label me B.A.M.E.
It’s not enough to crowd your spaces with people who look like me,
while the high places are filled with people who look like you.
Where is the representation at the top of this pyramid?
No space?
Let’s change the shape.
Make a place for difference in the board rooms and in the directors’ chairs.
When there’s representation where decision makers are
that’s when change will truly start.
Do I look like ‘another angry Black woman’?
Don’t mistake my passion and unyielding fight against racism, ableism, sexism, bigotry, exclusion,
and inaccessibility for something as simple as anger.
I have something far more powerful.
I have action. I have passion. I have fight. I have resolve.
You wish I was angry.
Then, you could dismiss me.
could pretend this is just a speech of abuse
instead, see, that this is me
shining a light on all that continues to go on in this sector that I love.
Silence doesn’t equal peace.
Silence is loud and active.
If you’re not actively a part of the solution than you’re adding to the problem.
The sector I see
isn’t afraid of difference and change.
It’s fuelled by diversity.
It seeks to engage all instead of the few
and values every person for their individual identity.
And I will not stop until the Sector I love, becomes all that it should be.
So, take down your barriers -
I’m well within reach.
There is room for me, and you.
