Air Pollution - POEM & DANCE

Written by Cecilia Knapp

 

And still the traffic comes

like rolling waves.

The smoke in our throats.

The chaos and the weather.

The oil burning on the wind.

 

The trees sleep in the parks

and line our streets like veins-

silently doing their work.

 

You have the right to breathe in your city.

 

I did not know her

but I saw her young face

on every front page.

 

The dense city wind ripples

the newspapers.

 

I did not know her.

Didn’t know anyone who knew her.

But I have walked her streets for years

noticing the lines of ancient trees retreat

as they are hacked. A disappearing act,

each one a green light going out.

 

We need to breathe.

 

(Read as though news reader:)

Ella Adoo-Kissi-Debrah, who lived near the South Circular Road in Lewisham, south-east London, died in 2013. An inquest had found air pollution “made a material contribution” to her death. In 2019, Lewisham Borough declared a climate emergency

 

It is our right to breathe.

 

Picture this;

A single hot air balloon

suspended in the sky,

Like a bright pin.

 

Now picture eighty thousand more

Each balloon, a tonne of C02

hanging over our homes.

 

Let us breathe.

Let us walk to school.

 

The traffic idles, stacked and stationary

The south circular pulses slow and thick.

The trees are felled to stumps.

 

A young girl chokes on her own hometown.

 

Tell us, is this still our home?

 

Home is the market’s colour and noise

Home is our parks and our hills

Home is the faces we know on each corner

Home is the smell and echo of the shopping centre

Home is school kids with dreams, spilling their laughter into the streets

Under the pools of orange light

Home is our streets

Home is us

Home should be safe

 

In our wildest dreams,

The trees stay standing,

all thirty five thousand.

Their ancient networks

hold hands beneath our feet.

 

Picture this;

The streets are green.

Trees and trees and trees.

The canopies.

In this dream

the sun streams through

like hands reaching hands

And we are shaded

And we are sheltered

And we are breathing

And they are ancient

And they are ours

 

Let the trees transform the air

Let them offer their lessons

Let the branches move like melody.

Let the air be uncomplicated.

Let us breathe.

 

Are these dreams too wild to believe?

 

We offer the new ways

We want the old gone

We want a clean lavender sky

each morning. To see through the fog.

 

Outside my window,

I see new trees planted.

Thin and young but managing

against the city wind.

Is this not hope?

Close Your Eyes - LIVE POEM

Written and Performed by Charlotte

 

Close your eyes and imagine

imagine a world where people are equal

imagine you didn’t have to try so hard

imagine if standards neva existed

now wake up

the fairy tale you had neva existed

sorry you missed it

cos a place like that was long far gone

long far drifted.

 

Now tell me: where is your heart?

where is your home?

shouldn’t have to be looking for a park that I used to know

cos as you cut sharp with a pain that was neva told

you don’t feel the guilt

‘til you’re on the street all alone

looking for my heart cuz

home is where the heart is

but right now my heart is looking a lil’ crowded

unnecessarily

buildings, plazas, centres

creating them confidentially

cos you don’t want the people to know

all of this is just for show.

 

All this trend making for nothing

I wish these bucket hats could just add up to something

and when I want to buy sustainable clothes

the prices laugh at me as I fold – hahaha

but what’s so funny about trying to help but you can’t

oh, right I didn’t think so

as you sit there contributing to the man

oh, so well

not knowing better just trying to provide

not trying to confide in a topic that can

oh so swell …. and its ok

but what’s not ok is blissful ignorance watching the world as it fades away

 

Why can’t I breathe?

why do I struggle again and again on repeat?

why is it that my children will grow up with asthma?

not knowing what attacked Ya

Cos it’s a common factor

knowing that I’m going on in life feeling the air getting thicker

feeling my lungs getting sicker

and my chance of suffocating not replicating times when hope was bigger

why can’t we be free?

why are we struggling on repeat?

that fact that our air is getting taken for granted

imagine all these trees that god has planted.

 

We need help, we need you

we need help, we need you

no not the one that screws

not the one that cares about only food

but that one you

that wants the old not the new.

Air - SONG

Written by ESKA, Louis Hackett & Cecilia Knapp

 

It takes some vision

Now to walk a new direction

Change the air that’s circulating

In the place where I live

 

We’re on a mission

With bold imagination

Stopping traffic ‘cos it’s polluting

In the place where I live

 

I’ve got the right to breathe

In my own city’s streets

That’s why we’re sounding the alarm

Counting on you, counting on me

Are these dreams too hard to believe?

 

CHORUS:

Feel a change in the air

Let these lungs breathe it in

Make a stand?  Yes we can!

Let’s do it right now!

Right now, right here, right now!

Let’s do it right now!

Right now, right here, right now! Ah! Breathe!

 

Home is children spilling laughter in the streets

Home is thirty-five thousand trees in my neighbourhood

Breathe!

Walking to school or a carpool

An electric ride – cleaner, greener, safer in my neighbourhood

Breathe!

And I bet you saw her face

Young girl’s story was on every front page

Ella Adoo Kissi-Debrah, won’t you say her name!

Ella Adoo Kissi-Debrah! Say her name!

 

CHORUS:

Feel a change in the air

Say her name!

Let these lungs breathe it in

Say her name!

Make a stand?

Say her name!

Yes we can!

Let’s do it right now!

Right now, right here, right now!

Let’s do it right now!

Right now, right here, right now! Ah!

 

TRUMPET SOLO

 

CHORUS:

Feel a change in the air

Let these lungs breathe it in

Make a stand?  Yes we can!

Let’s do it right now!

Right now, right here, right now!

Let’s do it right now!

Right now, right here!

[Say your name!]

 

Feel a change in the air

[Yeah, yeah! Say your name! Yeah, yeah!]

Let these lungs breathe it in

[Yeah, yeah! Say your name! Yeah, yeah!]

Make a stand?  Yes we can!

[Yeah, yeah! Say your name! Yeah, yeah!]

Let’s do it right now!

Right now, right here, right now!

Let’s do it right now!

Right now, right here, right now!

Ah! Breathe!

What Do You Think Of…? - LIVE POEM

Written and Performed by Shawyan

 

What do you think of when you hear the word ‘oxygen?’

I think of the words air, breathing, and freedom.

But, here’s the thing;

in present day Lewisham, Oxygen is being slowly taken away from us,

dissolving like salt in water, replaced by CO2, car emissions and methane.

People have lived off oxygen for thousands of years; it’s the number one rule for survival, and now, it’s slowly deteriorating like a candle blown out.

If we carry on like this, the new generation isn’t going to look so bright.

Young people of the future, breathing in the new mustard gas.

So do whatever you can.

As a human; someone who has to inhale every second of the day

without a thought about it.

Ride your bike instead. Walk instead.

Just do anything that you can do that will fix this; as a community, as one.

Together, we will put a stop to this.

War Cries - LIVE POEM

Written and Performed by Edie

 

You bruise me,

pull me apart and stitch me back together,

full of tower blocks; a prison with full locks,

a bustling, cognitively overloading mass of malevolence

and financial inequality, you humiliate me,

my culture, my people. my home, my air,

you waste your breath deciding my future.

 

I want to run, to breathe, to fight, to fly,

to be important and completely insignificant all at the same time.

 

My trees have been ripped out.

I shout. I scream. I bubble and burn under your gaze.

 

My world is one you are burning

the haze ripples and the smog cripples.

 

There is a necessity for my fury.

Lewisham is a way of life.

It’s the people. It’s the crown.

It’s the hive of activity,

and definition of your misery.

 

Knock it down and rebuild.

Our blood stains.

We never leave.

These streets are the veins of our bodies.

The veins of our communities.

 

Let us tear their façade

because behind their glare they are scared.

Let us tear at the world and rebuild our own,

full of trees, bees, song, and rhyme.

Blue skies and wayward highs.

The crown and sceptre in hand.

We will rise. You will hear our war cries.

Culture - POEM & DANCE

Written by Cecilia Knapp

 

So it’s happening now

The clock spinning in the air, thick

The high rises thrown up with cheap brick

The piles of rubbish in the quivering wind

And nothing grows through concrete.

Buy and buy

With wages small

What we need to be safe is

bought up to sell back to us all.

 

The rot has set in

The lies and fires

and oceans rising

And when the floods come

It’s us, not them

Who’ll bear the water.

 

What happens if we do nothing?

 

We want space

We want to breathe green

 

We want food to eat

That doesn’t harm the earth

We want to have what we need

What we all deserve

 

We don’t want to clothe ourselves

In the exploitation of others

Or be kept down

To drown in work

To make someone else rich

Every day the same

7am wake up in this mess

And chase the bus, stressed

Down the smoke smudged street

 

What if new ways can be found?

And we understand

That what keeps us all down

Is what keeps the planet down

That justice for us

The people on the street

Is justice for the planet too

That this isn’t only storms and weather

This is me and this is you

 

So come on

Give your voice

That bright and powerful thing

That rings like a bell through morning

Carrying, carrying

Big and glorious

 

We are myriad and many

We are loud and powerful

 

It’s not too late to try

It’s not too late to change their minds

It’s not too late to survive

The dream future is alive

Our hands can make a blueprint

Bluer than the clearest sky

 

Outside my window, I see a future

That belongs to all of us.

Future Culture - SONG

Written by Eska Mtungwazi, Louis Hackett & Cecilia Knapp

 

We’re gonna look to the future

‘Cos it’s not too late to turn the tide

Live in a beautiful world worth fighting for

So let’s keep hope alive

We can imagine that we could do better

Find new ways to make a change

Create a future that’s good for all of us

Learn from all our yesterdays.

 

Blue and green ball in the universe

You don’t even know how beautiful

Find another world? it’s a fantasy

‘Cos it’s our only world

There’s no Planet B

 

And know your voice is powerful

If you are old or you are young

We’re marching on from here to hope

The future is in everybody’s hands

 

CHORUS:

Still hold on to the dream

When we all have what we need

Keep hoping for justice

Justice for us all

 

So we better pay attention

To the groaning of the Earth

All the lessons we’ve still got to learn

‘Cos Future Culture needs a change of living

Future Culture needs a change of mind

Voices singing out loud and glorious

Standing on the side of life

 

Blue and green ball in the universe

You don’t even know how beautiful

Find another world? it’s a fantasy

‘Cos it’s our only world

There’s no Planet B

 

And know your voice is powerful

If you are old or you are young

We’re marching on from here to hope

The future is in everybody’s hands

 

CHORUS:

Still hold on to the dream

When we all have what we need

Keep hoping for justice

Justice for us all

I Am Here To Beg - LIVE POEM

Written and Performed by Hannah

 

I am here to beg

because I am terrified.

Imagine growing up knowing

Humanity is set to die

So I send out a plea,

as someone who’s seventeen,

someone who was born into this crisis,

born into this messed up scene;

Stop toying with my emotions leave my mental health alone.

I am so so far out of my comfort zone.

Why are we standing here

Saying it how it is?

Ecocide is genocide

Let. Earth. Live.

 

The rich few are compulsive liars.

They’ve known for decades about the nightmarish wildfires.

business carries on as usual

Thriving in blaming the climate on the people

While funding oil leaders say

Turn off your lights do your bit

Hypocrite.

 

Powerful media is twisting the narrative

Politicians billionaires the oil industry

Are committing crimes against humanity

And yet society is judging me

As a dangerous radical eco mobster

While the rich few sponsor

5 million climate deaths in 2021

What side of history are you on?

 

Climate activists

Are peaceful and compassionate

For life on this incredibly beautiful planet

We want action on the truth,

action on the science.

We want you to listen to our unpopular defiance.

Because it’s now or never.

Life or death.

It’s your future too.

I protest for you.

 

There’s a fire in my heart.

A fire to fight,

a fire for justice,

let’s pull together for what’s right.

 

I believe in you.

You are not too small.

We can build a new system,

make the old one fall.

We can shut down fossil fuels,

we can make change that’s drastic.

We can tell the truth and end all the plastic.

Join the climate movement

I will welcome you with open arms.

Wherever you come from, whoever you are.

We need you yes you! So we can start

To win

Love is action.

 

Your wildest, brightest dreams

Can change this story

of existential catastrophe.

Let’s stop sliding down

this slippery slope.

Let’s abandon doomism.

Let’s bind ourselves to hope.

Waste - POEM & DANCE

Written by Cecilia Knapp

 

Outside my window

The piles of rubbish are retreating

We’re inching down these mountains

We are finding new ways

We are showing we can

We are thinking of tomorrow

We offer our hands

 

But the towers in the distance shout money! Money!

And still we are told to need and need

And still we are told to consume and compete

Take and take and throw away

More will make us happy, more will fill us up

What we have will never be good enough

 

And the piles rise

And the piles rise fat and fast

With what cannot be re-used

With what won’t last

And the piles rise with stuff

That was made at what cost?

The towers in the distance are laughing at us

Coughing out their smoke

With their arms wide around their money

While there are people going hungry

 

So the lorries roll on up

And as they come, we fill them to the top

And still the fires burn

The rubbish smoulders in Deptford,

Grey flowers hang in the Lewisham sky

 

And still the rivers choke

And still the smoke

And still we’re running

out of room

out of time

 

Close your eyes and imagine

The new ways

 

Picture this

In this dream, the fish live

happy in clear water

We can see them, you and me

Darting like an arrow

 

In this dream the hills and planes of waste?

All gone

And in its place

Only what gives itself back

back to the receiving earth

 

In this dream; a fair chance for us all

Just to have what we need

To be safe

 

What if?

 

Let the river move

Let the water do its work

Let the green shine undisturbed

Alive and believing

Let the air hold nothing but us

Let us trust

Let us re-invent

Let us share

Let us make

Let us come together

Let us create

The new ways

Waste - SONG

By ESKA and Cecilia Knapp

 

Still we need and need

‘Cos what we have will never be good enough

Consume and compete

‘Cos what we have will never be good enough

Take and throw away

‘Cos what we have will never be good enough

‘Cos more will fill us up

Will what we have will ever be good?

 

CHORUS:

And the grey flowers hang

Hanging over Lewisham sky

Rubbish burning up yeah

Rubbish burning up yeah

See the smoke rising high

 

And what of our dreams

Should we throw them away?

Oh what a waste!

What a waste!  What a terrible waste!

 

Piles rise fat and fast!

‘Cos what we have will never be good enough

With stuff that won’t last

‘Cos what we have will never be good enough

Things we can’t re-use

‘Cos what we have will never be good enough

And made at what cost?

Will what we have will never be good?

 

REPEAT CHORUS

 

Still I have a dream

‘Cos what we have is so good you know

Ocean’s clear and clean

‘Cos what we have is really, really good you know

Endless fields of green

‘Cos what we have is so good you know

The air is oh so sweet

‘Cos what we have is so good

 

REPEAT CHORUS

 

That’s all I have to say

‘Cos what we have is so good you know

Yes, we have got to change

‘Cos what we have is really, really good you know

No, things can’t stay the same

‘Cos what we have is so good you know

So, we gonna find new ways

‘Cos what we have is so good

 

REPEAT CHORUS x2

 

What a waste! What a terrible waste!

Metanoia Clouds My Mind - LIVE POEM

Written & Performed by Rofeda

 

Metanoia clouds my mind

cautiously trying to find

a solution for mankind

we need to be refined

humanity begins to decline

as i start to remind them

but they appear blind

to the gravity of the undefined

emergency that they leave behind.

 

Running out of time

politicians committing crimes

simultaneously creating this deadly paradigm

working class’ inability to climb

trapped in the suffering clime

council flats covered in dirty grime

bitter feeling of emptiness, raw like lime

whilst the rich remain in their prime.

Development - POEM & DANCE

Written by Cecilia Knapp

 

We are standing in the shadows

Dazed by the criss cross of cranes

The sky strains

Outside my window

the buildings block the sun

 

They are carpeting the green

With grey

They are felling the trees

Hear the noise of the machines

And watch the sky sway

 

And still they go up

Up and up and up and up

Land bought and hoarded, up

Buildings hastily thrown, up

cheap, unsafe

In place of parks, instead of space

Sold off to line a deep pocket

Somewhere far away

And these streets, this home, once ours, once yours,

Now you can’t afford.

Tenants trapped in sky high rent

Houses impossible to own

Meanwhile

There are people who cannot heat their homes

There are people with nowhere to go

 

Close your eyes and imagine.

Homes we are safe in

Homes we have space in.

Homes we can heat.

Homes that blend with our streets

Our clouds, our air

Homes that are kind to our planet

Homes that are fair

Enough for everyone to have their share

No matter who you are.

Homes that are ours.

Homes that last.

 

There is a new way-

Enter it with me

Where our dream future

Isn’t just a dream

Isn’t just an echo in an underpass

It’s here, it’s lasting

And the people who make this borough

You can hear our heart beats blasting

Through these streets we call home

Building (Foundations) - SONG

Written by ESKA, Laura Mtungwazi, Cecilia Knapp & Damon Frost

 

We’re standing in the shadows

Dazed by the criss-cross of the cranes

[Where, where are the new ways?]

They’re felling ancient trees

Whilst carpeting the green with the grey

[Where, where are the new ways?]

 

BRIDGE:

The deeper we dig will determine

The higher the building will stand

And we want a home that will last

Home that is ours, home that will last

So, do you know what you’re building?

Is it standing and rooted in love?

Without limits we can all touch the sky

All touch the sky, all touch the sky – high!

 

CHORUS:

So we gotta lay firm foundations

[Oh wow! Build a home that’s gonna last!]

Firm foundations

[Oh wow! Build a home we can call ours!]

Firm foundations

Oh wow!  We can touch the sky, oh we!

Heh (heh) heh (heh) heh!

 

Still they go up and up

land bought and hoarded, hastily made

[Where, where are the new ways?]

 

In place of parks instead of space

Sold off to line deep pockets

Somewhere far away

[Where, where are the new ways?]

 

REPEAT BRIDGE

 

REPEAT CHORUS

 

MC BREAK: Written & performed by Dylan

 

If I say Lewisham, you say home

Lewisham (home) Lewisham (home)

If I say Lewisham, you say home

Lewisham (home) Lewisham Woo!

 

If I say home, you say Lewisham

Home (Lewisham) Home (Lewisham)

If I say home, you say Lewisham

Home (Lewisham) Home (Lewisham)

 

REPEAT CHORUS x2

 

If I say Lewisham, you say home….. etc

Outside My Window - LIVE POEM

Written & Performed by Dylan

 

Outside my window I see a sea of green trees covered in leaves

white clouds in a sky as blue as the deepest of seas

water that’s waste free flows through the stream so fast

pollution and rubbish a thing of the past

that’s what I wish, though that’s not what I really see when I look out my window.

 

I know that’s high expectations however whilst we’re waiting staying patient

all we want is a slight showcase of changes because we’ve been at the same slow pace for ages

nothing has been changing all voices muted yet we’re still at the same amount of pollution

from production and commuting

all we need is a promise of a promising future

but just words won’t cut

we need to actually do stuff

because we’re close to the point of no return

and what I envision as an image of the future makes my stomach churn

just close your eyes and image the dark years to come

and the fear that runs in the veins of those who know that they could have stopped it

but didn’t because all they had in mind was profit

that relates to when we say home is where the heart is

however some don’t have a home because others are so heartless

and they’re polluting the air at least their building apartments

yet most can’t afford them even after working our hardest

however just remember that we can weaken the powerful

we can speak for us all we can stand tall and together we won’t fall

we can be the voices even through all the noises

we can be the loudest even when everyone is shouting

we can move mountains just believe it, don’t doubt it.

Convergence - POEM & DANCE

Written by Cecilia Knapp

 

So close your eyes and imagine

 

We can

 

Have the courage to see a future

that is better for everyone

 

Our wildest dreams

Don’t have to be dreams;

Outside our windows;

Air to breathe

Clean streets lined with trees

Clear skies

Homes that survive

And a kinder way to live our lives

 

The future is coming from all of us

We are powerful together

We are enough

 

This is our home

So let us move from here to hope

For a new Lewisham.

Convergence (New Legacy) - SONG

I think it’s time for a new Lewisham

Where the trees are green and there is no pollution

[I think it’s time for a new legacy for this town]

I think it’s time for a new legacy for this town

[I think it’s time for a new legacy for this town]

I think it’s time for a new legacy