| I spent my childhood dodging bullets - Bonnie Greer. |
| Wednesday, 01 November 2006 |
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Hornsey and Crouch End Journal
01 November 2006
BONNIE GREER: “All my life has been touched by gangs"
BROADCASTER, writer and critic Bonnie Greer told a Wood Green audience how she spent her early life "dodging bullets".
Ms Greer was interviewed on stage at Cineworld by Tottenham MP David Lammy and spoke of her childhood in Chicago.
The event was organised for Black History Month and Ms Greer, who moved to London in the 1980s, discussed her roots, her work as a playwright and her views on the future of the black community.
Ms Greer spoke about her time growing up in the west side of Chicago in a large family, in an area she described as a "gang neighbourhood." She said: "All my life has been touched by gangs. My father worked really hard to move us out. It was about as rough as it gets.
"I grew up listening outside my bedroom window to gang initiations. That was my early life - dodging bullets."
She started writing on the inside of the paper grocery bags which her mum brought home and it proved to be a way out for Bonnie, who is one of seven children. She said "I was the neighbourhood story teller. I have been writing since I was eight years old. It just happened."
Mr Lammy asked Ms Greer when it was she realised there was "something special about Bonnie."
Ms Greer replied "I haven't got to that point, David." She said she was "lucky" to have a father who encouraged his daughters to do anything they wanted to do and encouraged them to enjoy their education. "He used to say to us, 'what you learn nobody can take from you."
Ms Greer moved from The States to Great Britain in 1986 and Mr Lammy asked her if she was "running to or running from?" She replied "probably both." "I couldn't live in America again...I think this country is decent. I think British people are still decent people. There is still a sense of shame about certain things, and you don't have that in America.
"No British person would say that they were comfortable being a racist, you would never go on air and admit that in Britain."
Questions were opened up to the floor and Ms Greer talked about the importance of good mentors for black people, particularly young black men.
She said: "I totally reject that black boys are off the rails. We need to listen to young black men and we need to see more young black men in power. If P Diddy is your mirror, that is the mirror you are going to take. We need to make a society where there are other mirrors for these guys. That is why we need more black men in public life."
A young boy in the audience asked the final question: "How do you become an MP?"
Ms Greer stepped in to respond. She said: "You get a good education you find yourself an older person you can trust and you ask them questions. And then you look at David Lammy, for example, and you say 'right, David Lammy is this - and I'm going to be even better than that.
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