Poetry at University station

'Dear Brum' was written by Casey Bailey when he was Birmingham Poet Laureate 2020-2022 as a love letter to Birmingham, to capture the hearts and minds of Birmingham and provide a voice for our citizens to shout about what we love about our city.

It is about creating a moment to inspire the Birmingham community and shine a light on our city, inspiring civic pride not only for the Commonwealth Games, but beyond too. The University of Birmingham was proud to be an official partner of the Birmingham 2022 Commonwealth Games and University station is a perfect home for Casey’s poem to celebrate this moment for its citizens and our city.

Casey Bailey is an award winning writer, performer and educator, born and raised in Nechells, Birmingham, UK. Casey was the Birmingham Poet Laureate 2020 - 2022.

Writer, performer and educator Casey Bailey
Credit: Paul Stringer

Casey’s second full poetry collection Please Do Not Touch was published by Burning Eye in 2021. Casey’s debut play GrimeBoy had a sold out run at the Birmingham Rep in April, 2022. He was commissioned by the BBC to write ‘The Ballad of The Peaky Blinders’ in 2019. In 2020 the poem was internationally recognised, winning a Webby Award. In 2022 Casey won a Royal Television Society award for a film for his poem “Dear Brum”. Casey has performed his poetry nationally, and internationally.

Casey was named as one of the Alfred Fagon Awards’ Black Champions of Theatre in 2021. He is a Fellow of the University of Worcester and in 2021 was awarded an honorary doctorate in Education by Newman University.

Dear Brum - A love letter to Birmingham

Dear Brum (full text)

Of course I’m here writing you again

The marrow in my bones, the fire in my pen

You are the music in my accent, the reason that I sing

Placed like the main attraction, the middle of everything

It’s so appropriate that we sit in the centre of the land

A place that so many can reach but few can understand

You have to really breathe it in, walk amongst these people

In this so called second city, we are more than just a sequel

Original in every way the light that never fades

And yes you heard the games are coming, but my city doesn’t play

So let the flags stream through, but we’ve had a preview

In the city that is home to so many day to day

It hasn’t always done us proud, home of Enoch’s speeches

Rivers couldn’t wash the blood, you can’t dust or clean it

Its legacy lives on, and we’ve definitely moved on

But life is not always a beach, in the city of no beaches

We’ve had our dark Sundays, but Monday brings dawn

So we survive the black sabbaths, where Ozzy was born

Iommi, Ward, and Butler making every song special

Down the road from Iron Bridge, we were forging heavy metal

Where Rowland Hill invented stamps, Where Jaykae makes grime

A place with so much heritage, yet somehow in its prime

Just look at chamberlain square, clock tower rising in the air

And you don’t even have to stare for you to see that it’s our time

And time is precious, with the beauty and the pain that it delivers

Glass buildings rise around me I’m reflecting in these mirrors

When I think of what I’ve lost in this city I get shivers

Shivers, I get shivers

But if I’m the town hall then the city is its pillars

The expertise at the QE cannot be overstated if you understand it

There’s a reason why Birmingham’s the place where Malala landed

When she arrived her life was on the edge let’s not understate it

Fought for girls education then in Edgbaston, she was educated

Proud, that’s the way my city makes me feel

Loud, about achievements that you won’t believe are real

Clouds, can hammer us with rain and make the river swell

But the storm is water off a duck’s back on these Brum canals

I am Leon Priestnall’s words, Jamelia’s superstar

There’s an Annotomix Fox spray painted on my heart

The art, just like the people round here, is eclectic

Putting on a show for years, go and check in The Electric

Respect it, the special kind of story that we write

Give it credit and that’s by the order of Stephen Knight

Keep running, it’s just another lap of Alexander Stadium

Go for gold on the podium

Be Bold, Be Birmingham

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