Out of struggles for Commonword to do more to support its black and Asian writers came Identity. It was initially set up and run by Lemn Sissay in late Eighties but has been facilitated by many others since.

Members of this workshop met every Wednesday evening to hone their writing and performing skills, to grow bolder in their creative efforts, to talk about the craft and argue the finer points of literature. Attending week after week created a community and contributed to the success of a significant number of black and Asian writers based in Manchester and in the north of England, leading to careers in writing and the arts where they might not have done otherwise. Identity’s emphasis on poetry as performance transformed Manchester’s spoken word scene, taking their work all over the city to branch libraries and local community centres and to stages in city centre venues such as the Green Room (currently Gorilla), The Frog and Bucket, the Night and Day and Band on the Wall, having a lasting influence on the Manchester’s live literature scene to this day.

Identity is still running on Wednesday evenings (currently online due to current covid-19 pandemic). If you are a black or Asian writer interested in joining this group, go to the Facebook page or email us.

Former Identity members from the Eighties and Nineties include Cindy Artiste, Trudy Blake, Shamsa Butt, Akiel Chinelo (Scorcha), Saqib Deshmukh, Millie Henry, Sonia Hughes, Zahid Hussain, Merrie Joy, Shamshad Khan, Segun Lee-French, Fitz Lewis, Tang Lin,  Permjit Loomba, Peter Kalu, Victoria McKenzie, Cheryl Martin, Gladstone Menzie, Courttia Newland, Carlene Montoute, Quibilah Montsho, Deyika Nzeribe, Ayo Ogolo, Elaine Okoro, Diké Omeje, Qaisra Shahraz, John Siddique, Karline Smith, Lemn Sissay, Parvinder Sohal, SuAndi, Tina Tamsho-Thomas and Kakoli Thompson.