Checking Out Me History

What happens?

A speaker challenges a selective education and reclaims neglected historical figures.

Big idea

Identity develops through questioning the histories that institutions choose to make visible.

“Dem tell me”

Refrain — Repeated instruction becomes evidence of an imbalance of authority.

“Blind”

Metaphor — Selective education is presented as an obstruction to self-knowledge.

“healing star”

Metaphor — Seacole becomes a source of guidance as well as medical care.

“carving”

Creative verb — The ending presents identity as an active, ongoing achievement.

Form

A performance-oriented poem with contrasting stanza shapes, rhythms and typography rather than a fixed metre.

Context

Agard challenges a colonial education and celebrates histories of Black resistance and care. His chosen voice asserts cultural authority.

Compare

The Emigrée: protecting identity. London: institutional power.

Voice, tone and feelings

Repeated teaching · Mocking and frustrated — An imposed curriculum is made audible through recurrent reports of what is taught.

Alternative histories · Celebratory — Distinct verse passages give neglected figures the imaginative space denied to them.

Ending · Self-assertive — The speaker moves from receiving a history to actively shaping an identity.

Recall

How does the form enact the act of resistance?

Read the full poem in your own AQA anthology. Anthology information and source.