How Poetry Helped Author Brian Sankarsingh Find A Sliver of a Chance
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During Black History Month, we celebrate the many achievements and contributions of Black people and their communities who, throughout history, have done so much to inspire change towards a more culturally diverse, compassionate, and prosperous world.
FriesenPress is honoured to have assisted many writers of colour with sharing their stories over the years. In celebration of Black History Month, we’re amplifying the voices of some incredible Black FriesenPress authors.
Reading poetry has the special ability to help us see the world a little differently. A phrase, an observation, a feeling — sometimes a single line is all it takes to cast the familiar into an entirely different light.
Writing poetry also has this effect. When health equity advocate Brian Sankarsingh returned to writing after a long hiatus, poetry was the medium that sparked numerous marathon creative sessions. To his surprise, a lifetime of experience spilled onto the page.
A Sliver of a Chance: Insights and Observations of a Canadian Immigrant is the book that emerged out of those unplanned writing sessions. The book chronicles Brian’s experiences as an immigrant to Canada from the Caribbean island of Trinidad. Through verse, Brian “dives into the heart of the most challenging issues facing our world today,” including systemic racism, the legacy of colonialism, and the Black Lives Matter movement.
What began as a personal creative endeavour with no expectations is now an award-winning poetry collection that’s connecting with readers. We recently spoke with Brian about the subconscious desire to write that led to his book, how the important message of Black History Month is reflected in his work, his advice for aspiring authors, and much more.
Your website and author bio mention your love of poetry fell by the wayside as you forged a new life and career in Canada. How did you rediscover that passion of yours, and how did it lead to A Sliver of a Chance being published?
I used to write poetry when I was 17, 18 — a very young person. My friends used to say, “This is fantastic — you should become a writer!” That was always in the back of my mind, but it was never something that I envisioned being possible.
I’m from Trinidad, in the Caribbean. When I was growing up in Trinidad, we were not extremely poor, but we weren’t extremely rich, either. That vision of what becoming a writer could look like … it was just a fantasy.
Fast forward to me moving to Canada. I started working in banking and moved from Toronto to Calgary, where I lived for a number of years before moving back to Ontario. Moving back to Ontario would end up being a significant thing for me, because the job that I ended up in happened to be something that I’m very passionate about, which is advocating for people who face barriers to health and wellbeing. I work for an organization called the Alliance for Healthier Communities, and this organization represents a number of community health centers throughout Ontario. Those organizations care for people who face daily barriers to receiving good healthcare — something many of us take for granted.
My work started to take up a large part of my life — but that, eventually, is what led to me start writing again. At the end of 2019, I started writing and collating poetry with no particular end in mind. And then at the beginning of 2020, with the pandemic hitting, I was encouraged not only by the people at my work but by my family, too, to publish a book.
In October 2020, this book came out. That journey, in and of itself, has been extremely eye-opening and fortuitous.
Your book explores your perspective on many contemporary issues, including systemic racism and the legacy of colonialism. How does the medium of poetry help you shape your perspective about these topics?
The messages of this book were things I didn’t even know I had inside me to share. This book came into being in huge spurts of writing. I would sit down and write like the devil was pursuing me. In a six-to-eight-hour period, I would bang out 15 or 18 poems, put them into the folder and say, “Yep, that’s good. I’ll come back to them [later].” And when I went back to all of those poems, I saw themes in them — racism, politics, colonialism. That’s why I decided to use these themes to separate the different sections of this book.
When I started writing, I didn’t care who heard the message. I just felt the importance was to get the message out there about what I felt about the topics of racism, politics, colonialism, and the impact those things can have on us as human beings. Poetry can reach into a different part of the human soul than an essay. I felt that poetry was the way to tell this particular story and to bring these themes to light to share with others.
After one weekend of writing, I told my boss about all the poems I wrote and he said, “I can’t even write a paper without going nuts about it. I don’t know how you do it.” I don’t either! [Laughs] All I know is that it’s there, and it’s got to come out.
As you rekindled your love affair with writing, what drove you to write this book?
Trinidad had only just gained independence from being a British colony when I was born. It moved away from the monarchy eventually and became a Republic, but the effects, the impact, and the negative power of colonialism that was placed among the population — both the Black population and the East Indian population of Trinidad — was there specifically to sow divisiveness. Being a person of colour with Black family, I always kind of struggled with the question of, “Why are we arguing amongst ourselves?”
When I went to visit my friends in Trinidad, I remember saying to them that you folks are fighting amongst yourselves — Black against Brown — about your colour. You’re fighting for no reason. And now there’s a word for that: it’s called shadeism. But back then, for me, it was just a commentary on what I saw was happening. The impact of all of that, and then moving to Canada and having times in my life where I encountered racial prejudice of some sort here, those experiences are what fuels my writing.
If folks reading A Sliver of a Chance could take one thing away from the book, what do you hope that is?
In the spirit of Black History Month, I want people to be able to realize that we need to have unity, but in that unity, we need to recognize that there are groups of people in this country who face barriers because of their race and colour. And those barriers may not be there intentionally. There are systemic barriers, and more and more as people — Black people, Indigenous people, people of colour — find their voice and speak out against these things, they are being addressed. But we need to listen to their voices because the problem is that systemic racism is so intertwined in our society that it’s hard for people to recognize it. And that’s why the racism section of this book is so large — because it is, quite literally, such a big thing.
I’ve tried to have discussions with white people in the town I live in who will unequivocally state to me: “There’s no such thing as racism or systemic racism in Canada. Those things don’t exist.” But my retort to them always is: how do you know? That system was built for a white Canadian. It was designed for a white Canadian, by a white Canadian.
Here’s another example: I was invited to speak to a group of bankers about this very topic because of A Sliver of a Chance. It was very interesting to hear them say that they actually do respond differently to a person based on who they are and the colour of their skin. That’s something they recognize they have to change. And so I would say to [the group of bankers]: that is the root of systemic racism. You often don’t even know you’re doing it, but you have to allow people of colour — who are the people facing these barriers on the whole — space to speak up and say that.
This book addresses the struggles wrought by systemic racism. It points out where it came from through our colonial past, and talks about the burden of colour that exists in such a system. When I talk about the burden of colour — which is one of the poems included here — it’s because it genuinely is a burden sometimes for people. And to me, my biggest message is that all Canadians need to understand that. I believe that only when we deal with systemic racism can we have true unity in Canada.
The title of your book is one of measured hope — why did you choose A Sliver of a Chance as the title for this work?
I didn’t! [Laughs] I had no idea what I was going to call this book, or what this book was going to be. However, I did have someone — an immensely talented graphic designer named Phil — who was going to create the cover for me, and to get inspiration he read the book from beginning to end.
He brought back two different covers for me (the cover we chose was the one that he was hoping I would choose) but he also brought me a question: “Have you thought of a name for this book?” And I said no. “I’ve got one,” he says. “That poem you wrote, ‘A Sliver of a Chance.’ That hit me. When an immigrant comes to Canada, that is what they come here hoping for. They escape to Canada, and they see Canada has that sliver of a chance, the smallest smidgen of an opportunity to have a better life.”
He hit the nail on the head. That was the reasoning behind that poem. I came up with the name, but never saw it as the name of the collection until my friend Phil suggested it. And then it just kind of clicked.
What would your younger self think about modern day Brian, who published a book of his own poetry?
The younger me would absolutely be shocked that I actually was able to do this. He would not believe it.
The reviews I’ve received on this book from people — not just about the content, but about the look of the book and the quality and the editing — have been so positive. I don’t know how else to say it: I am super-duper proud of this book.
What advice would you give other aspiring authors?
Start now. Don’t be like me and wait! [Laughs]
I’ve talked to so many people who have told me that they write, but they don’t know if what they write about will have an audience, or if anybody will want to read what they write. And I always ask them, “Do you want to write because you want to become famous? Or do you want to write because you want to share something you’ve experienced with others?” If you want to do it for the latter purpose, then do it now. If you’re writing to become famous … you may need to restructure your thinking on the subject.
For me, I had this message and I wanted to get it out there. And though I wish I’d started earlier, I don’t regret starting when I did. It happened that all of the things that needed to fall into place, fell into place. I found FriesenPress. I found my friend, Phil, who designed a beautiful cover that is very meaningful. And I had these poems that really struck a chord with many people when they read it.
So, start now. You don’t need an audience of millions. If you can just positively change one life, it would be worth it. You don’t know until you try so you have to start now. You may just want to do it all on your own, or do as I did and look for a publishing partner and self-publish. I decided to go with FriesenPress instead of two other options because of the discussion I had with the person who reached out to me. They were very understanding and empathetic about the work that I was doing. That meant a lot. It meant that when I spoke to FriesenPress about my passion for this work, [they] mirrored it back to me.
However you do it, it doesn’t matter. Start small, start big. Start now.
What’s next for Brian Sankarsingh? Are you working on any additional projects that you’d like to share with us?
Yes, absolutely. The day I received the copy of A Sliver of a Chance and I held the book in my hand, I realized — first of all — that I could do this. But I also realized that I had way more to say. And so, almost a week to the day after holding my book for the first time, I came up with another idea that I started to really allow to germinate in my head. From November 2020 all the way through 2021, I’ve been working on this manuscript. Two weeks ago, I actually put the last poem into place. The book is tentatively called Enslaved: A Chronicle of Resistence. It is a book that does something in poetry that I have never seen out there before. Through an eclectic mix of prose and poems, it tells the story of enslavement and the enslaved people that were taken from the African continent to America. It traces the roots of the systemic racism we see today.
I would say it’s 98 percent complete, but that’s the next one. So, when I say “start now”, it’s because there’s always something else there. When you start, you may realize that you have way more to tell than even you know.
A Sliver of a Chance is available now.
Visit brianthepoet.com to learn more about Brian Sankarsingh and the book.
