“It's a way for me to survive”
What Steven asked Michi Masumi of the Black Arts Hub, photographer, poet, and PhD student
Michi Masumi is an award-winning photographer and has recently launched the Black Arts Hub at Nucleus Arts on Chatham High Street. Steven met her there and discussed what brought her to Medway, what led her to photography and eventually, what she is studying for her PhD.
Where were you born?
I'm an Essex girl, babes. That's why I have a strange way I talk. I can talk proper English, because my mum, if she reads this, I’ll get ten phone calls saying, ‘You look like you weren’t raised properly. Can you not say water?’ I grew up in London. Different parts. North London originally, then just before I turned 9, my mum moved us to southeast London. I've got the Essex with the Cockney, and then I’m mixed cultured. Technically, it's mixed race or bi-racial. I think most of us are nowadays. I've had a strong influence with the Jamaican Caribbean side of my family and Barbadian, St Lucian extended families. Not so much with my West African family, but I've been surrounded by Nigerian, Ghanaian, South African friends.
What brought you to Medway?
Okay, so an unscrupulous landlady was taking all our money. We were paying £1800 pounds a month. They didn't pay one 1p to the mortgage for three years and put me, my children, and my partner at the time in immediate homelessness. I was very hurt by that landlady. I hope they never do that to another family, but I'm a forgiving person. In the long run, I got out of a really bad relationship. It's win-win sometimes., and I found Medway. I was very naive, as most Londoners are. They won't own it, but I will say us Londoners, a lot of us are very naive. I think that's true because I came from southeast London. I had been there 30 or 40 years, so for me, the Garden of England, as soon as I saw Kent, I said, ‘Oh, it's next door,’ thinking of Bromley and Chislehurst. It is not. It's a completely different culture shock.
We arrived here, and the first seven years was a nightmare hell for us as a family. The racism was just beyond. The consequences are long-lasting for the family, the racial attacks that we endured. I used alcohol, self-medicating from Post Traumatic Stress Disorder from the racial attacks. I kind of was a recluse. I wouldn't leave the house, I wouldn't go anywhere. I wouldn't go to the Co-op. I had to realise I wouldn't live if I continued drinking myself to death. It took two years from making that decision to choose a holistic route and a weaning-off route combined with self-healing and therapeutic behaviour. Journals, gardening, herbal gardening, growing holistic herbs and medicines, then picking a date and having some talking therapy sessions. Then I thought might as well give up the fags as well. I've been sober now for almost three and a half years. I attended online peer support group sessions with Turning Point in Chatham. I did that during covid. It was a great time for me to grab what was there, and it worked for my social anxiety because everyone had to move online. From that, I started learning ways to deal with my panic attacks and severe anxiety breakdowns, thanks to so many wonderful strangers. And I have a heart condition. There were times I wasn't quite sure what was what (laughs).
Poor Medway ambulance, but they were phenomenal. I can look back now and laugh. What I have found is by slowly healing and doing all the creative stuff that I did from a child and started to do as an adult. I slowly got out in the community. I've been on the waiting list with Nucleus Arts for a while. I joined them and just really immersed myself in this rich, wonderful, diverse, under-supported in some ways, wonderful art community in Medway.
I think we've got a uniqueness here. Urban vibe with that rural countryside vibe and beachside vibe. It's amazing at the number of vibes we have, with the nature reserve vibes. Then we've got these little pockets in the summer of like a carnival vibe.
I've had the pleasure of working for a Prime Minister, famous people, celebrities, down to the everyday man and woman. I think there is something unique here. I think we can bring investment and make the community a better space for all. For example, as a parent of a child who spent most of their life in a wheelchair, the lack of disabled access shuts me off from a lot of things, and it shuts her off. We need to ensure that we're providing these spaces, and I think Medway's got an opportunity to start leading rather than following.
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