Local poet Saida Chowdhury performed spoken word from her debut collection, "Broken Minds", at Verve Open Doors Poetry on Tuesday 21st January in Birmingham.

There was a full house in the Birmingham Jewellery Quarter featuring established poets like Andrea Gardia, DK, Mickey Angel and the current Birmingham Poet Laureate Ayan Aden (pictured with Saida Chowdhury).  The event was showcased by Rick Sanders from Brum Radio.

"It was the first time I have ever appeared at Verve Poetry & Spoken Word" said Saida Chowdhury "and I was not certain what to expect.   Everyone was lovely and made me feel very welcome.  It was a safe and incluwsive space and the venue was absolutely rammed!  It was a full house!  It`s so lovely to see that poetry and spoken word is so popular in Birmingham."

Saida`s book, "Broken Minds", will be launched in May at Heath Books in Birmingham and Saturday Books in Dudley.  Saida will be working with Birmingham and Solihull Mental Health NHS Foundation Trust to empower Birmingham residents on matters affecting mental health and removing the stigma in accessing help and support.

Saida is a member of the South Asian Women`s Writer`s Group with Wolverhampton Poet Laureate Dr Kuli Kohli.  Saida believes in empowering women from the community to speak out and get help when required.  

"There is no stigma in asking for help" explained Saida Chowdhury.  "We are all human.  We are all broken and there is a Japanese word, Kintsugi which means "Golden Joinery".  It`s a traditional Japanese art of mending broken pottery and ceramics using either precious metal liquids or lacquer with gold dusting.  Kintsugi beautifies the breakage and treats it as an inspirational part of the object`s history and the broken pot not as something to discard but as something more precious than it was before".  

Saida was born in Bangladesh and came to the UK as a baby before growing up in West London.  She moved to Birmingham over 18 years ago after getting married and is the mother of 2 teenage boys.    

She began using poetry over 20 years ago after witnessing the injustices of the aftermath of 9/11 and trying to understand the root causes of the injustices that exist in the world.  

"Putting pen to paper was my outlet" explained Saida "and soon developed into a passion for addressing my thoughts on love, life and sadness".