Ballet dancing at Amwell Court, London, early 1990s
Gabby was born in Trinidad and Tobago and moved to East London when she was 4 with her brother and sister, “My mother, a teacher in Trinidad, saw a call for teachers to teach in England. There was the promise of a better life and benefits to help them settle. So my mum had this discussion with my dad. My dad said, ‘I’m not going.’ so my mum said, ‘Cool I’m taking my kids, I’m gone.” Her mum and dad came to settle in London but her dad soon returned to the warmth of Trinidad.
Gabby, moved into an ex social services building with other families. A year later they were settled into more permanent housing in Hackney, “They kept that community because they were all friends and teachers from Trinidad and they lived quite close.”
“I came to Stoke for University, I went to Keele and then I had my child at University, in the third year. I ended up having a year out [after] *laughs* and then staying to teach in the area for ten years.”
“After I had my son, attending different groups helped me to meet new people. They eased the isolation of being a new mum in a place I knew very few people after my uni friends had returned home.”
Gabby lives with her son’s Dad in Newcastle- under-Lyme, “We’ve done that for ten years and we actually get on really well, she adds, “I’m not letting my son grow up without his Dad up until a certain age, he’s gonna have that security.”
“I’ve grown, evolved and changed in this city, I often say I was born in Trinidad, raised in London but turn me upside down and you’ll find I’m made in Stoke-on-Trent. My main identity, the one that people use to introduce me, has changed. I’ve moved from being Gabby the mummy, to Miss Gay the teacher, to Valentine the black woman who owns the vintage shop in Stoke, to GKA Gay the Stoke poet.”
“I feel that through Art people are pushing things forward.” She adds “It’s the artists and creatives who are pushing things forward in Stoke and I think that is really amazing.”
