Lemn Sissay wants your family stories

Post calls for contributions to his new storytelling website with Brighton Festival

British and Ethiopian writer Lemn Sissay MBE, has launched Tell Me Something About Family today (Fri 7 May).

The new website has been created with Brighton Festival 2021.

It will help Sissay to create a new piece of work from the public’s recollections that will “light up the world with stories and phrases about family.”

From his own experience of growing up in social care, Sissay is asking the public to tell him something about their family via a written submission on the website.

Visitors to the website can share their stories which will be added to location map, with visitors able to weave through towns and countries.

Sissay has invited friends and colleagues as ambassadors, including the writer and comedian Henry Normal; author and TV presenter Baroness Floella Benjamin; professor of social work Dr Adele Jones and performance poet/author Laura Dockrill who have shared their stories.

He said: “It could be a memory from childhood. It could be a phrase that your father used to say that you thought everybody said, but then you discover they don’t! It could be the smell of your mother’s cooking. Include something that represents family to you, whether good or bad. There is something beautiful about hearing people speak honestly about the things that really matter, and we have learned in this pandemic that family really matters.”