Let me tell you about why I'm sharing the stories below, and those yet to come.
Each and every one of us, wherever we are, and however we identify, are attempting to belong to something. Whether it be to an ideology, a place, a group or a person, belonging shapes our identities.
Yet, what does it mean to belong, in a time when identities and citizenships can be removed, in the stroke of a pen? Or when the words 'Leave' or 'Remain' can define and separate us?
Join me in my story of belonging as I prepare to leave the land of my birth in search of another place like home.
Sometime in the early hours of April 10th, 1941, in Smethwick the lives of unconnected strangers would be changed forever. We are all connected to the spaces around us, but also to the stories and histories which have shaped those spaces. This is just one of those stories, made somewhere in the past and told here now in the present.
I can place it on a map, but have never stepped foot there...
The sun pours onto the immaculately manicured lawns of Worcester College, Oxford. Seeing the play of shadows on the grass as I peer through the soaring arches, it’s impossible not to be seduced by the ancient majesty of it all...