<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
from<\/em> United We stand<\/strong><\/p>\n The Commute<\/strong><\/p>\n 6 o\u2019clock. I would, usually, \u2018In a record breaking 18 hours, Birmingham saw widespread violence and looting across the city.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n That day, \u2018Nick Robinson, 22, who works at Yenton pub in Erdington, told Redbrick how the police had shut down the pub early due to fears the violence would spread.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n 6.30pm, and I took the \u2018The rioters have systematically, with the help of instant messaging, targeted businesses in Birmingham, including Adidas, JD Sports and Maplin Electronics.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n By 7 o\u2019clock, I would see \u2018After another night of rioting in the city, the violence has spread into more districts of Birmingham: King\u2019s Heath, Selly Oak, Harborne, Winson Green.\u2019<\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n <\/p>\n Sophie-Louise Hyde<\/strong><\/a> is an emerging poet and postgraduate\u00a0researcher at Loughborough University. Her part-creative\u00a0Ph.D. study explores the techniques of verbatim in poetry. She is also the founder of online creative writing and publishing platform,\u00a0The Student Wordsmith.<\/a><\/p>\n Note: United We Stand<\/em> is a series is based on the\u00a0real-life interview testimonies of individuals involved in or affected by\u00a0the 2011 riots in Birmingham, England.\u00a0 It is important to note, at this stage, that all participants who took part in these interviews have given me full consent to use their testimonies, anonymously, in the creation of these poems.<\/p>\n <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" from United We stand The Commute 6 o\u2019clock. I would, usually, run home from work at WaterLinks. Mum said, \u2018Don\u2019t\u2019. \u2018Don\u2019t run home from work today\u2019, but I still didn\u2019t feel unsafe. \u2018In a record breaking 18 hours, Birmingham saw widespread violence and looting across the city.\u2019 That day, it kicked off. […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":4,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_et_pb_use_builder":"","_et_pb_old_content":"","_et_gb_content_width":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[7],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-11563","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-prose-poetry"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11563","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/4"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11563"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11563\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11566,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11563\/revisions\/11566"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11563"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11563"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/inksweatandtears.co.uk\/archive\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11563"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}
\nrun home from work at WaterLinks.
\nMum said, \u2018Don\u2019t\u2019.
\n\u2018Don\u2019t run home from work today\u2019, but
\nI still didn\u2019t feel unsafe.<\/p>\n
\nit kicked off. And,
\nI ran pretty fast that day.
\nIt was strange.<\/p>\n
\nbus home, instead.
\nSat on public transport, bus route 50 to Kings\u2019 Heath, but
\nnothing was really happening. Except
\nnameless hoods were holding up the buses.<\/p>\n
\ngangs, forming on Colmore Row.
\nThe effects of Michael Brown in Ferguson directly,
\nAs you walk down the street and it\u2019s been torn
\napart by tensions in the community.
\n\u201cNicking stuff out of Jessops or Tesco, and
\nsmashing stuff willy-nilly.\u201d<\/p>\n