Lawrence Hoo
Doctor of Letters
Monday 14 November 2022 - Orator: Professor Steve Eichhorn
Listen to the full oration and honorary speech on Soundcloud
Vice-Chancellor,
Dr Hoo!
I thought I’d get that out of the way early on.
A Time Lord.
Lawrence is a Time Lord. Let me explain.
I first met Lawrence having been encouraged to attend the launch of CARGO – Charting African Resilience Generating Opportunities.
Immediately, I saw in his eyes a passion. I also saw mischief. Like the Dr Who we know on TV. Here was someone, I thought, who could really make a difference, and if I was going to get involved we were going to have a lot of fun and mischief doing it!
I’m always drawn to the maverick. Those who think differently. Lawrence is definitely one of those people. Whenever I come out of an encounter with him – be it in person or online, reading one of his many great poems, watching “Inner City Tales” on Youtube – I learn something, and it’s usually profound.
Two of the things I have learned from Lawrence are that he is someone who does things, and he does them on his own terms.
We came to a working relationship and the thing that underpins how we do it independently, but in agreement with each other. It can be summarized in just one sentence.
“Seek forgiveness not permission”.
Lawrence doesn’t wait to be given permission. Some people say “You have to bring everyone with you” when you bring in change. Lawrence does that rather uniquely, and in a very profound way. He does things, and people just want to follow.
Lawrence makes a huge difference in his community. Be it taking on the fact that the red light district was operating outside his school, that known paedophiles were being housed next to a nursery, that the Council for years had never fully acknowledged the role of the city in the transatlantic slave trade. Wanting things to happen, Lawrence mortgaged his own house to pay for an exhibition – HooStory. He knows the history of this city’s involvement in the trade. He also knows the history of the inaction of many to address it. He’s a Time Lord. He’s been there at the beginning. He’s not just a campaigner. He's active.
We talk about decolonization, but I know Lawrence doesn’t buy that word or term. He wants to take us back to a time before colonization. Telling stories and journeys of those of African descent before colonization happened – origin stories. Telling those stories as his people, his ancestors, would want them told. Not skewed through the lens of colonization. Travelling before that time.
Telling the stories of resistance, resilience, of the achievements of people of African descent.
Lawrence wants us to time travel. All of us. Everyone, as it’s all of our stories.
“Everything came out of Africa if you think about it Steve” – he once said to me.
Unfortunately people get misrepresented. Their stories don’t get told. They don’t get to speak. We often talk when we meet about the latest case of police brutality and racism against Black people – people of African descent. About the lack of justice for them. But not those who are in the main news spotlight. It’s happening here in Bristol. Lawrence knows them.
‘Ras’ Judah Adunbi
Antwon Forrest
Takayo Nembhard
K-Dogg
All these men should be crossing the stage here and be named. What CARGO and Lawrence is about is giving opportunities for them to do that.
But let’s travel back in time in Lawrence’s own life.
“From as far back as I can remember I was labelled a mischievous boy. When I was just looking for adventure, a place to belong, a life to enjoy.”
Lawrence’s words, not mine.
Lawrence didn’t get the opportunity to go to the school that had given him a place here at the top of the hill. He was turned away, they denied him his place because he didn’t look right. He had the wrong colour skin, came from the wrong bit of the city.
Lawrence is mischievous, but that was mistaken for being badly behaved. You see – misrepresented.
Lawrence was denied the opportunities that so many take for granted. With a childhood of growing up in care, being moved from school to school in his early life, Lawrence expresses a life of struggle and extreme resilience in his writing and poetry. He’s lived it.
His poetry speaks to the heart of the matter, not flinching from the realities.
It takes us back in time, but is in the present. His past. His present. He recognises the issue of the day, but also the connection to the past. His present. His past.
He travels through time and space like the Dr Hoo he is.
Let us now travel back in time and right a wrong that should never have happened. The moment is now.
Vice-Chancellor, I present to you Lawrence Hoo as eminently worthy of the degree of Doctor of Letters honoris causa.