A Visit from Daljit Nagra and a Journey to Brixton

Today we started class by briefly talking about the events of last night—the spoken word poetry event and our visit to a Sikh temple. We were soon interrupted by a visit from Daljit Nagra, a British Punjabi poet. Nagra started by introducing himself and then having each of us go around and mention a favorite spot in England. Some people mentioned Canterbury, Camden Market, and the Shakespeare Globe.

Nagra also read two poems, “Prayer for Gurdwara” and “Cane, “from his poetry collection British Museum. After reading, he took us through two creative writing prompts related to family members and cultural traditions, which we then shared with peers. Nagra emphasized the importance of taking the prompts in any direction we’d like, since writing is a personal experience, which I appreciated as these were sensitive topics.

After class was over, we took a semi-long tube ride to Brixton in South London. We visited the Black Cultural Archives museum, “the only national heritage centre dedicated to collecting, preserving, and celebrating the histories of African and Caribbean people in Britain.” One thing I enjoyed was the portrait collection of influential Black British women. There was also a shop to support their organization where I found a copy of Alex Wheatle’s Cane Warriors. His work is a part of our homework assignment for tomorrow morning!

Once everyone was finished at the museum, we dispersed to find ourselves lunch. My group stumbled upon a Colombian restaurant in the middle of a market. Before heading back to St. Athans, we explored Brixton’s many markets and neighborhoods more!

I concluded my day by doing a needed load of laundry, eating dinner, and preparing for class. All in all, It was a very eventful and rewarding day, like most of the time in London has been!

Blog post provided by Jakyra Green, a junior English and secondary education double major.