Jackie Kay – Scotland Unwrapped

I was Scotland’s Makar from 2016-2021, our equivalent of the Poet Laureate. I love how democratic the word Makar is, how it literally means ‘maker.’ I like the idea that our bards make things, that poetry is as practical as it philosophical, as essential it is elegiac. One of the highlights of my time as Makar was writing to the Scottish Government to ask them if they would consider a poem an ‘essential’ thing for the planned baby box full of essentials – a lovely idea inspired by Finland. To my surprise, they wrote back saying ‘Yes’. I wrote a poem called Welcome Wee one; every baby born in Scotland receives a copy.

Over the course of my long life in writing, I’ve been passionate about the public role that poetry can play – to move the goal posts, to shift the parameters of poetry’s pitch. I’m fascinated by the many stories poetry tells, and in the way that poems mirror our times. Poetry reflects the past and illuminates the present. Scotland, a relatively small country, is a country rich in writers. Literature is in Scotland’s DNA, shot right through the soil. I’m excited to introduce you to a wonderful range of writers who have all luckily landed on earth at the same time.

The writers and creatives I’ve chosen for my strand on the Scotland Unwrapped series are fascinated by the complex issue of identity, in what makes us who we are. What even makes us Scottish? What are the things that unite us, rather than divide us?  What are we made of? Scottish writers are at the coal face, asking the questions.  Every so often the country unwraps a new batch of brilliance, so that we are constantly on the verge of asking if we are living through yet another renaissance.

My first event opens with three spectacular poets. Michael Pedersen’s open-hearted, gut-wrenching poems display a huge vocabulary for love; Hannah Lavery has an acute ability to interrogate Scotland’s past, her work is a powerful meditation on race, nationhood and belonging; and William Letford, formerly a roofer, teaches us that ‘memory is alive inside us’ and that we need to discover what is truly essential to our lives.

I’m looking forward to celebrating the launch of my new book May Day with the sublime Suzanne Bonnar whose voice links the blues of the 1920s to the Scottish jazz of now. My new poems cast an eye over several decades of political activism, from the international solidarity of the Glasgow of my childhood, through the feminist, LGBT+ and anti-racist movements of the 80s and 90s, up to the present day and Black Lives Matter.

Woven through the collection is a suite of lyric poems concerning the recent death of my parents: poems of grief and profound change.

Later, I’ll enjoy uncovering the soundtracks to our lives with author Ali Smith, who lights a way through these times we live in offering us companionship in all forms. She weaves the past to the present so that when we read her, we feel we hold all of time in our hands.
Scotland Unwrapped is a treasure trove of writers and musicians who will help us to find purpose and meaning in these surreal and disjointed times.