Sign up to save your podcasts
Or
Share Michelle Scally Clarke
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Share to email
Share to Facebook
Share to X
Or
Michelle Scally Clarke
In her essay, Both Arms, Michelle Scally Clarke writes about the statue of that name by William Kenneth Armitage CBE, a Leeds sculptor known for his semi-abstract bronzes. It is a powerful public image of compassion, support and welcome, created as a monument to friendship. It resonates for Michelle about her own life journey as a mixed race care leaver who was welcomed and held by Leeds as a child and now an adult.
‘Both Arms” also holds great pride and nostalgia for Michelle, a visual symbol of Leeds as a city of hope for now and the future. Her essay explores Leeds as a city of welcome in multiple contexts - adoption and adaptation; migrants and refugees; traders and artists; students; and Nelson Mandela’s iconic visit to the city in the 1990s.
Michelle Scally Clarke is a writer and performer of drama, creative writing, and poetry. Work includes BBC Contains Strong Language 2023, Space2 2016 performance and workshop focusing on mental health ‘Suitcase’, 2018 cross-cultural play ‘Jeans, Whose Genes?’ and now peer-led Clear Out Your Closer poetry group, focusing on writing for wellbeing.
Writer/reader, Michelle Scally Clarke
Sound designer, Alisdair McGregor
Producer, Polly Thomas
Looking at Leeds is a co-commission between BBC Radio 3 and The Space with funding from Arts Council England.
A Thomas Carter Project for BBC Radio 3.
View all episodes
By BBC Radio 3
4.2
8282 ratings
In her essay, Both Arms, Michelle Scally Clarke writes about the statue of that name by William Kenneth Armitage CBE, a Leeds sculptor known for his semi-abstract bronzes. It is a powerful public image of compassion, support and welcome, created as a monument to friendship. It resonates for Michelle about her own life journey as a mixed race care leaver who was welcomed and held by Leeds as a child and now an adult.
‘Both Arms” also holds great pride and nostalgia for Michelle, a visual symbol of Leeds as a city of hope for now and the future. Her essay explores Leeds as a city of welcome in multiple contexts - adoption and adaptation; migrants and refugees; traders and artists; students; and Nelson Mandela’s iconic visit to the city in the 1990s.
Michelle Scally Clarke is a writer and performer of drama, creative writing, and poetry. Work includes BBC Contains Strong Language 2023, Space2 2016 performance and workshop focusing on mental health ‘Suitcase’, 2018 cross-cultural play ‘Jeans, Whose Genes?’ and now peer-led Clear Out Your Closer poetry group, focusing on writing for wellbeing.
Writer/reader, Michelle Scally Clarke
Sound designer, Alisdair McGregor
Producer, Polly Thomas
Looking at Leeds is a co-commission between BBC Radio 3 and The Space with funding from Arts Council England.
A Thomas Carter Project for BBC Radio 3.
More shows like The Essay
View all
Global News Podcast
7,924 Listeners
Ask Penguin
143 Listeners
Newshour
1,063 Listeners
In Our Time
5,577 Listeners
The Documentary Podcast
1,801 Listeners
Arts & Ideas
303 Listeners
6 Minute English
1,748 Listeners
Learning English Conversations
1,024 Listeners
The Infinite Monkey Cage
1,951 Listeners
Great Lives
488 Listeners
Backlisted
585 Listeners
The Conversation
71 Listeners
BBC Inside Science
411 Listeners
Thinking Allowed
305 Listeners
Curious Cases
760 Listeners
The Audio Long Read
839 Listeners
Front Row
129 Listeners
All in the Mind
61 Listeners
Bookclub
241 Listeners
Word of Mouth
56 Listeners
Private Passions
52 Listeners
The TLS Podcast
181 Listeners
13 Minutes Presents: Artemis II
4,170 Listeners
You're Dead to Me
3,236 Listeners