When HUNGER speaks with multi-hyphenate Yrsa Daley-Ward, she’s sitting in her flat in New York. She’s been isolating for the past few weeks despite the fact that, at the time of talking, the USA is yet to impose strict restrictions on movement in the Big Apple. She tells me that this is because she’s tuned in to the social media, and is paying attention to what is happening beyond her own social bubble.
Raised in Lancashire (and still impressively retaining a thick Northern accent), the writer and actress started out modeling before she launched her burgeoning writing career, working for brands like Apple, Nike and Estee Lauder in order to make a living. These days, she’s heavily focused on words. Her poetry, which she shares daily with her 160k+ followers on Instagram, touches upon everything from love, mental health to race and identity. She even picked up the Pen/Ackerley Prize last year for her work.
For those that might not be a follower of her digital prose, there’s a chance you’ll recognise her from one of her many acting credits. Over the years she’s amassed a pretty impressive CV which includes appearances in White Colour Black, A Moving Image and most recently the critically acclaimed BBC drama World on Fire, a periodical drama which offers an insight into the lives of ordinary people during World War II. It’s recently been commissioned for a second series.
During a rare moment of downtime, HUNGER caught up with Daley-Ward to speak about how she’s handling isolation and what it’s doing for her creativity.
It’s an extremely interesting time. What do you even make of it? I think New York is behind you guys in London. We’re waiting daily for more guidelines.
We don’t have that enforced yet. People are being encouraged to stay home and those of us that are connected to social media are self-isolating and social distancing, but I do believe that at the time of me talking, the UK are ahead of us. It’s interesting to see what it’s like at this time. You must feel it as well? Like how things change in quarantine and how different it is.
So true! That is exactly what is happening. It’s giving me time to slow down into things that I can give a lot of attention to, because it’s not like I have a million tabs open. You know when you’ve got the tabs in your mind thinking ‘I’ve got to this and this’ and constantly answering emails. I’ve found that I’ve been able to go really deep into things that I have been working on.
I know what that is like, it’s almost like you fatigue yourself. Even when you’re thinking [of what you want to do creatively], your brain is working and you kind of exhaust yourself.
So my whole day is based on a few things that I absolutely have to do. There’s a possibility to really go under at this moment because there are so many negative news stories and so much fear. Fear is palpable everywhere. One thing I knew straight away was that I was going to have to limit how much I’m reading about it, which is difficult because there is information which we need. First of all with social media, I cannot wake up and be looking at that. I don’t have brilliant willpower or anything like that so I have to do things like not turning the WiFi on until midday. Otherwise I’m just going to surf on Google and watch YouTube videos, which is great but then I’m going to start reading about Corona or doing things which take up my brain power. Also, 20 minutes of sunrise helps set your circadian rhythm, so even if it’s just leaning out of the window and getting some daylight on your eyes, that changes your brain for the day.
Absolutely. This is the other thing. I feel like it’s a really blessing to have an online community. I think this is pushing us to connect. To be speaking to people you wouldn’t normally speak to and try things that you’ve always wanted to try. I have found an influx in people connecting with the work. Even when I go on live and talk to people about it and being able to do live readings. It’s been really nice. It’s like a community. We live in a brilliant time when we can connect with someone on the other side of the world through a bunch of mediums.
I think what led me to share my work on Instagram was accessibility. You know how poetry and writing gets taught in schools, it can make some people feel ‘oh this is a bit boring, it isn’t for me’. Instagram is something that a lot of people have access to, not everybody but a lot of people, and especially a lot of people who don’t usually read poetry. I think the main audience are people who didn’t really connect with poetry before.
Well to be honest, and maybe this is going to sound a bit controversial, I don’t really know that it is that important to listen to critique. You make your art, you do what you do, you do what you feel. Your art is close to you, it’s growing. It’s not perfect but you’re gradually getting better at what you do. Whether it’s praise or someone who has not connected with the work, I think as an artist your journey is all that really matters. So I don’t connect much with critique either way, because it’s not about that, it’s about your truth. It doesn’t bother me at all. It is subjective.
Music heavily influences me. As does visual art, painting, portraits, photographs and even graphic design. I’m also inspired by dance and film! Anything that makes you feel something. Being in love!
I have to to save my own mind. I’m waking up and the very first thing is getting pen to paper. I’m even sleeping with the notebook and pen in my bed so that when I wake up, I’m going to write. I force myself to write a couple of pages.
Well there was no plan! The very first thing I thought I would be is a singer, because that was the first thing I was doing when I left school. I was in Manchester singing jazz. I also wrote music, which is basically poetry anyway. I’ve been writing for a really long time but when I was 17 and I started acting I thought I might do both but for me it’s all one, because it’s about story telling of sorts. It’s all a performance. Even when I perform the poetry, there’s a performance to it.
Broadly, I’m really interested and excited to see what is going to happen on the other side of this, and how it is going to affect us. Of course this thing is really serious and it has a lot of implications but there must be several positives that are going to happen as well. In life I’m just looking forward to trying new things. I’ve already made so many lists here! A lot of it is learning new skills, so I’m excited for that more than anything… and seeing people!
