From Fact to Fiction

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BBC Radio 4 is a radio channel that started transmitting on the 30th September 1967. It replaced BBC Home Service.

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Series in which writers create a fictional response to recent headlines.

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From Fact to Fiction: I know how it sounds

I know how it sounds

BBC Radio 4 - From Fact to Fiction, I know how it soundsSearch BBC

"Sir says some man from 'Real Men Cry' is coming in to speak." By Vanessa Kisuule.

What can a classroom of black teenage boys teach an expert in men's mental health?  Read by Harold Addo and written by Vanessa Kisuule.

By Vanessa Kisuule.

Sir says some man called Laurie’s coming in to speak.
We don’t know no one called Laurie.
The girls don't have to give up their lunchtime for this.  To listen to some man called Laurie from some company called 'Real Men Cry'.

What can a class full of black teenage boys learn from an expert in mental health, on International Men's Day?  

As Bristol's City Poet, Vanessa Kisuule's poem 'Hollow' on the toppling of Edward Colston statue gained over 600,000 views on Twitter in three days. A veteran of the UK's spoken word scene, she has won more than ten slam titles, including the prestigious Roundhouse Slam for 2014.  She has been invited to perform all over the world from Belgium to Brazil to Bangladesh.  Vanessa has two poetry collections published by Burning Eye Books, 'Joyriding the Storm' and 'A Recipe for Sorcery' and her work was Highly Commended in the Forward Poetry Prize in 2019. She is currently working on an essay collection and her debut novel.  

Vanessa Kisuule combines warm humour with measured emotion and has "the ability to articulate feelings previously considered ineffable; a skill as rare as it is wonderful".

Reader...Harold Addo
Producer...Mary Ward-Lowery

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