The Colour of Chalk

On a rather lively Saturday morning in July as the heatwave arrived on our shores, Alinah Azadeh took a walk up towards Seaford Head with writer and educator Dulani Kulasinghe, to hear her poetry on the climate emergency through a personal lens – and to learn about how Dulani’s own cultural heritage has influenced her writing on home, belonging and the legacies of empire within the Sussex landscape.

Dulani Kulasinghe is an American of Sri Lankan heritage living in Brighton. Her writing explores contested histories and belonging. Her education work supports Brighton & Hove's anti-racist school strategy through training and curriculum interventions around Britain's colonial past. She is a recipient of a Developing Your Creative Practice grant from Arts Council England and a Shifting the Gaze bursary from Writing Our Legacy/South Downs National Park to explore new stories in the Sussex landscape. Dulani was commissioned to write a site-responsive poem about the Chattri Memorial as part of Witness Stand, a Brighton Festival 2022 production. She is part of the inaugural cohort of New Writing South Fellows, a member of Writing Our Legacy and a core writer on the We See You Now project.

Dulani’s narrative poem Letters Home, on the Caribbean soldiers stationed at Seaford Head during WW1, will form part of the We See You Now audio anthology across the landscape, as will Alinah’s poem, If You Can Imagine, a creative response to recent huge chalk cliff falls through the Seaford Archeology project.

Books recommended:

In company with the skylarks, Alinah takes us on a Summer’s walk along the meanders of Cuckmere Valley to the sea, at the heart of Seven Sisters Country Park, with fellow writer Razia Aziz - to share her work and explore the landscape of family, honouring mothers, writing outdoors, seeing life from all sides and nature’s role in healing trauma. ‘Nature doesn’t see the divisions we see’

On a clear, warm Summer’s day in 2021, Alinah takes a walk from Birling Gap with writer and artist Josephine Hall up onto the Seven Sisters cliffs to ask about her creative work, her relationship to the sea and to edges, ancestors and migration. They speak of writing, walking, activism and the restorative power of the coastal Downs through these intense times of change. Josephine also shares her poetry, and her book recommendations are listed below.

Josephine Hall is a writer and artist, living in a brown body. She grew up in rural West Cornwall and is currently based in Brighton. Her creative work explores themes such as identity, nature, adventure and healing and her sense of belonging is constantly shifting and redefining.

Writer and artist Alinah Azadeh introduces "We See You Now", a project dedicated to bringing together diverse writers to share their reflections and create new work inspired by the landscape of the Sussex Heritage Coast, taking in Seaford Head, Seven Sisters, Cuckmere Haven, Birling Gap and Beachy Head.

Every month, Alinah will be bringing you a new podcast with one of the writers who will be sharing how their connection with this magnificent stretch of coastline in southern England has been shaped by their upbringing, identity and background.

Books recommended by Alinah this episode: