My name is Amanda Beckford I am a Poet and a Writer. I was born in Homerton Hospital in Hackney on the 15th of December 1987. I’ve lived in East London all my life. I went to three different Primary schools. I remember always finishing my work before the others, and then becoming bored and making trouble. Even now, I never sit still, I’m always multi-tasking.
I didn’t speak perfect English but Jamaican patois, and being of mixed ethnicity seemed to cause conflict. I didn’t look or sound, like the regular black-British girl. I was taunted at school. I’ve been included in every ‘coolie’ joke under the sun. Being sensitive, I found that these comments began to affect my behaviour over the next few years. At home, and back home, I was a Jamaican-Indian, not a hard-working Indian slave or an ‘unskilled labourer’ as the word suggests. My parents reassured me that it was just people hadn’t come across people that looked like me, that I was no different. Yet I felt different, and had little real friends. This made me want to research my family history and my ancestors. I wanted to know who I really was, and where my people came from, and why I looked different.
At secondary school I became very active. I was a member of the student council, l and became the president for three years. I also got into youth parliament and debated at Cambridge University. I began to explore human rights, and learnt how to argue and fight for a good cause, to make change. I felt I had the skills from n early age to recognise right from wrong. I ensured I used everything I had to express a solid and sound and justified argument.
My tutor, and maths and statistics teacher, Mr Keys was a disciplinarian, he would have you stand behind your chair for the entire lesson for questioning his decision, and then have you look up, and publicly read aloud the definition of an argument. He introduced me to Socrates and Plato, and I developed an interest in Philosophy. We all felt that he was just extremely strict. Later I saw that he was shaping all of us, developing our reasoning skills and critical thinking. He put me forward for my Maths GCSE in year nine, I was one out of a handful of people in my year group, I got a grade C.
That year I got into rap music. A group of guys in my year rapping in the canteen, I felt I could do better so I challenged them. We agreed to write something new and have a lyric battle at the lunch-time, we did and I won. I realised that I enjoyed writing rhymes. I was quite good at English and I particularly liked Shakespeare and poetry, or books about revolutions and struggles. I felt that within my lyrics I had the freedom to say anything it was a way to be heard and tell my story. Later that year I auditioned for a Poetry Slam Project. Here, I found my home, a place where everyone was understood and treated equally. The poetry workshops gave my lyrics and music more substance. We lost the competition but my poetry coach Peter Kahn, encouraged me to continue writing even after he returned Chicago. I began performing on occasional open mic nights.
My initial goal was to become a prosecution lawyer, like Marcia Clark, and to then excel as a high court judge. In my family you were to become a doctor, scientist or lawyer. Being an artist was unheard of. I had to pursue my love for art behind closed doors, within my little free time and was rarely encouraged. I felt I was fighting against myself, and I struggled to accept it. At the time there was an emphasis on achieving five A-C grades. Yet coming from the Caribbean meant that you were supposed to get ten. I knew education was very important and would ensure that I would have a better future, so I put poetry aside which was very difficult, and focused on the GCSE’s.
I studied at Westminster Kingsway College I read a lot of books on black history, religion, sociology and psychology. I enjoyed learning, but felt that there was more to life and knowledge that I needed, and that wasn’t directly taught within the classrooms. Philosophy armed me with the skills to help me detect flaws and also the truth within books, and determine good knowledge. So I strongly believe you need to a combination of both teachings in order to be educated properly.
Unfortunately life took a toll and I stopped working as hard as I did, I began evolving it different ways. My education was suffering. I had dropped from 5 A-levels to two and one AS. I left with ok grades in Philosophy, English Language and Literature and Drama, but I could have done a lot better. I had still done enough to get into all the Universities I applied for. I started performing again and began drafting my first novel. I was able to represent Hackney and London in Wales and I also got to travel to Chicago and perform out there. I worked alongside the poet coaches within secondary schools, teaching creative writing workshops in preparation for the Poetry Slam event.
I started my degree at the University of Greenwich. When I applied I still had the family pressure of doing a heavyweight degree like the sciences or maths. In my heart I wanted to do Creative Writing. I was able to do a joint honors degree in both Creative Writing and Philosophy. Once again my creative side shone brighter and I did better in Creative Writing I have had my work published in magazines and newspapers, but haven’t published my own body of work yet. I wanted to be at my best before I did so. I wrote across all genres in my field, so I’d hopefully have a strong foot in the door once I do release my work. My aim is to create unity against violence via the arts, and educate Black people about their history.