{"id":1686,"date":"2024-05-21T17:07:18","date_gmt":"2024-05-21T16:07:18","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/feedbackmag.co.uk\/?p=1686"},"modified":"2024-05-31T13:56:22","modified_gmt":"2024-05-31T12:56:22","slug":"denae-wellington-embracing-creativity-and-identity-through-poetry-and-music","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/jusmedia.co.uk\/feedbackmag\/2024\/05\/21\/denae-wellington-embracing-creativity-and-identity-through-poetry-and-music\/","title":{"rendered":"Dena\u00e9 Wellington: Embracing Creativity and Identity Through Poetry and Music"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Sheffield Poet Laureate Dena\u00e9 Wellington<\/em><\/strong> returns to her Jamaican roots, explores her family’s legacy, and talks about what it means to be a black, autistic, and ADHD artist in today’s creative landscape.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

She has been making music for around 15 years but she describes herself as a “multi-hyphenated Jamaican British creative. I’m also autistic, and I’ve got ADHD. So that is a very integral part of my practice as well. But yeah, I’m just a girl!”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dena\u00e9 covers a range of creative fields. She is first and foremost a poet but has also released an album and is about to release a short film. However, making art in this industry isn’t always easy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It can be hard to find your place as a Black Jamaican woman with ADHD and Autism,” Dena\u00e9 says. “It can feel like a really uncomfortable space because of the expectations of what a poet is. I didn’t go to uni to study English; <\/strong>I failed my GCSEs in English. It was just my love of music that brought me to my love for language and into poetry.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

When she was offered the role of the third-ever Poet Laureate for Sheffield, she wasn’t sure if it was right for her. “I was running away from it for a time. For the very reasons that I spoke about, I didn’t feel like I was able or worthy of being in that space. Not having the accolades or the collections, whatever it may be.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dena\u00e9 released her album Good Fruit<\/a><\/em> in 2022, produced by Maurice Fulton. “When I say odd child, he is one of the most eclectic out there. Mad Professor producers I’ve ever worked with. He’s such a dope guy. He is definitely a mad scientist in the studio.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The album is a mashup of sounds with a bit of everything. Dena\u00e9 says, “We drew from so many different styles\u2014from Funkadelic to Aretha Jones, to gospel with the harmonies. The church sounds, when the pastor was preaching, and the breakbeat\u2014it’s just combinations of all the styles we really enjoy.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

The collaboration stretched and improved Dena\u00e9\u2019s song writing, but since the album, she\u2019s focused on her poetry. <\/strong>“I feel like poetry strips you down,” she says. “It’s more vulnerable because I can’t hide behind the music. I can’t hide behind the instruments. All I have are my words and my voice. So I feel like I have to really sit down and think about why I’m telling the story.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Dena\u00e9’s storytelling ability recently took her to Jamaica, the place she was born and spent her childhood. She was returning after 20 years away. “Immediately on the plane, I could feel the stress leaving my body because I knew I was going back home,” she says. “I didn’t know what to expect. But seeing Black faces on the billboards, and just going through those familiar smells of home, it was overwhelming. At the same time, I realised how much time has been lost.”<\/p>\n\n\n\n

With funding from the Arts Council, Dena\u00e9 has been working on a short film called Take Me to the Promised Land in Search of My Mother’s.<\/a><\/em> The project traces her maternal line, looking at the women in her family and their connection back to West Africa.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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Stills from @daughterofthefree<\/a> <\/figcaption><\/figure>\n\n\n\n

READ: Navigating the melodic maze with Feux<\/a><\/p>\n\n\n\n

“It’s been a journey,” she says. “It’s been a lot of digging into genealogy and going back home. As I said, I hadn’t been back home for 20 years. Going back with fresh, adult eyes, you see things so differently.\u201d Danae has also made a poetic short film called Who We Were<\/em>, Who We Became which explores the ‘memories, faith and culture of the Windrush generation’.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

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