{"id":187645,"date":"2023-10-04T10:55:19","date_gmt":"2023-10-04T10:55:19","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/newsneednews.com\/?p=187645"},"modified":"2023-10-04T10:55:19","modified_gmt":"2023-10-04T10:55:19","slug":"poetry-anthology-from-white-van-drivers-hopes-to-join-classics","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/newsneednews.com\/world-news\/poetry-anthology-from-white-van-drivers-hopes-to-join-classics\/","title":{"rendered":"Poetry anthology from white van drivers hopes to join classics"},"content":{"rendered":"<h2>No van is an island: Poetry anthology from white van drivers hopes to join classics from John Donne and T.S.Eliot<\/h2>\n<ul>\n<li><strong>\u00a0George the Poet wants to challenge the stereotypes of white van drivers<\/strong><\/li>\n<\/ul>\n<p>White van drivers are &#8216;secret poets&#8217; who are exploring their emotional side and following in the footstep of\u00a0John Donne and T.S.Eliot.<\/p>\n<p>George Mpanga, also known as George the Poet, has compiled a poetry anthology by van drivers to challenge the stereotype &#8211; as they are often associated with\u00a0macho selfishness.<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mpanga,\u00a0whose father, brother and uncle have all driven vans, said there is a\u00a0&#8216;culturally boxed-in perception of van drivers, and a lack of awareness that these people are multifaceted&#8217;.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Two hundred van drivers submitted their poems to Mr Mpanga&#8217;s Poetry in Motion competition &#8211; one of them was David Haworth, 59, an electrician. He said writing his poem inspired by his late father allowed him to tap into his more vulnerable side &#8211; which is something he said he often finds difficult.<\/p>\n<p>Tomorrow evening, Mr Mpanga will choose one of the poems sent in to be the winner of the<span>\u00a0competition. The successful poet will win a new van from Mercedes-Benz, who is sponsoring the event.\u00a0<\/span><\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/04\/10\/76151955-12592411-image-a-1_1696412519140.jpg\" height=\"951\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>George Mpanga (pictured), also known as George the Poet, compiled a poetry anthology by the van drivers to challenge the stereotype of the &#8216;white van driver&#8217; &#8211; which is often associated with macho selfishness<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/04\/10\/76151953-12592411-image-a-2_1696412526648.jpg\" height=\"476\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Mr Mpanga said there is a &#8216;culturally boxed-in perception of van drivers, and a lack of awareness that these people are multifaceted&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mpanga, a spoken word performer from London, said van drivers are underrated when speaking to The Times, he added: &#8216;What they do is part of the wheels and cogs that keep everything moving.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>Mr Mpanga said people often wrongly assume van drivers are non-progressive and white and he wanted this collection of poems to reflect the varied individuals who use vans across the country.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Closet poet Mr Haworth wrote his piece for his father. He added that van driving was &#8216;in his family&#8217; as he used to go to work on sites with his father from the age of 15.<\/p>\n<p>First-time poets Katie Bower, 43, and her fianc\u00e9 Karl Maguire, 47 both run a chimney sweeping company in Surrey.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>For their submission, they wrote a piece inspired by Shakespeare&#8217;s Sonnet 18: &#8216;Shall I compare thee to a summer&#8217;s day?&#8217;<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/04\/10\/76151957-12592411-image-a-3_1696412530149.jpg\" height=\"894\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>Some of the van drivers who have made it to the final of the Poetry in Motion competition\u00a0<\/p>\n<p><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" class=\"aligncenter\" src=\"https:\/\/i.dailymail.co.uk\/1s\/2023\/10\/04\/10\/76151949-12592411-image-a-4_1696412532200.jpg\" height=\"826\" width=\"634\"><\/p>\n<p>White van drivers are &#8216;secret poets&#8217; who are exploring their emotional side and following in the footstep of John Donne (pictured) and T.S.Eliot<\/p>\n<p>Mr Maguire said people are often wrong about the kind of people they think drive vans.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>He said:\u00a0&#8216;We don&#8217;t all go to the pub after work and drink 20 pints. I don&#8217;t drink and we both do triathlons.&#8217;<\/p>\n<p>But he added some &#8216;don&#8217;t really help themselves,&#8217; and said: &#8216;They have to behave better, drive better. But it&#8217;s just a small minority of people.&#8217;\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>The winner of Mercedes and Mr\u00a0Mpanga&#8217;s poetry competition will be announced this evening.\u00a0<\/p>\n<p>Source: <a href=\"https:\/\/www.dailymail.co.uk\/news\/article-12592411\/Mercedes-white-van-driver-stereotype-poetry-competition.html\" target=\"_blank\" rel=\"noopener\">Read Full Article<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>No van is an island: Poetry anthology from white van drivers hopes to join classics from John Donne and T.S.Eliot<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":187644,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[6],"tags":[],"yoast_head":"<!-- This site is optimized with the Yoast SEO plugin v21.8 - https:\/\/yoast.com\/wordpress\/plugins\/seo\/ -->\n<title>Poetry anthology from white van drivers hopes to join classics - News Need News<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/newsneednews.com\/world-news\/poetry-anthology-from-white-van-drivers-hopes-to-join-classics\/\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"Poetry anthology from white van drivers hopes to join classics - 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