S14, Ep6 How To Fail: Warsan Shire
How To Fail With Elizabeth Day
Sony Music
4.8 • 9.4K Ratings
🗓️ 15 June 2022
⏱️ 61 minutes
🧾️ Download transcript
Summary
I'm biased but oh my goodness, I love this guest and this episode SO much. Ahead of Refugee Week, which runs 20-26th June, it is my honour to welcome the poet Warsan Shire to the podcast. Warsan was born in Kenya to Somali parents. She migrated with her family to the UK at the age of one and her powerful poem Home - which opens with the line ‘no one leaves home unless home is the mouth of a shark - has become the unofficial anthem to raise awareness of the refugee crisis. She's also a frequent collaborator with Beyonce - her poems are featured in the singer's seminal visual album, Lemonade. Now, at the age of 33, Warsan’s first full length collection, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head, has just been published to critical acclaim.
Warsan joins me to talk about her failures in everything from breastfeeding to maths. We also talk about her eating disorder and her 'failure to control it'. We discuss what 'home' really means and what it is to be a refugee. And yes, we OBVIOUSLY talk about Beyonce.
Warsan is a beautiful, powerful communicator and this interview made me think and understand better. I hope you like it as much as I do.
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Warsan's poetry collection, Bless the Daughter Raised by a Voice in Her Head, is available to order here: https://www.penguin.co.uk/books/111/1119216/bless-the-daughter-raised-by-a-voice-in-her-head/9781784743703.html
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How To Fail With Elizabeth Day is hosted by Elizabeth Day, produced by Naomi Mantin and Chris Sharp. To contact us, email [email protected]
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Social Media:
Elizabeth Day @elizabday
How To Fail @howtofailpod
Warsan Shire: @warsanshiree
Transcript
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| 0:29.4 | in terms of light. |
| 0:30.4 | Hello and welcome to How to Fail with Elizabeth Day. |
| 0:47.6 | The podcast that celebrates the things that haven't gone right. |
| 0:52.0 | This is a podcast about learning from our mistakes and understanding that why we fail ultimately |
| 0:57.6 | makes us stronger. |
| 0:59.5 | Because learning how to fail in life actually means learning how to succeed better. |
| 1:05.2 | I'm your host, author and journalist Elizabeth Day and every week I'll be asking a new |
| 1:10.3 | interviewee what they've learned from failure. |
| 1:14.0 | Worse and Shire is a poet and like all great poets, her work cuts straight to the heart |
| 1:20.9 | of human experience. |
| 1:23.0 | Her words reflect our current world but her poems also possess a timeless quality that |
| 1:28.5 | ensures their power exists long after the reading itself has ended. |
| 1:34.5 | Born in Kenya to Somali parents, Shire migrated with her family to the UK at the age of |
| 1:39.8 | one. |
| 1:40.8 | At 15, a poetry workshop at her local youth club changed her life. |
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