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Several months have passed since our final session together and the data is in. I launched a book (Popular Song), I taught a new course on poetry for Killingworth Library and New Writing North and guided students through countless final projects and dissertations. Like any useful and actionable data reporting, it’s worth highlighting some of […]
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Mobility, the body and new thinking In an interview in The Dark Horse, the poet Karl Knights who lives with Cerebral Palsy, spoke about his disability saying that as a young man, “I resented being told I should write about my hospital experiences … I wrapped my disability in imagery and metaphors,” and that the […]
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Ooooooooo Fair warning: This post discusses death and end of life care. If that’s not for you, then perhaps skip this post and read the next one. When I was first asked about planning for eventual death, the mind wanders and you inevitably start thinking about how you might like to die yourself. Something involving […]
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Rivers of Life and Meaning “Pathmaker, there is no path, You make the path by walking. By walking, you make the path … ” Antonio Machado Working in children’s theatre for the first time, I had to learn the ropes. First comes the writing, you open the computer and your fingers dart across the keys […]
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Back in the Habit We’ve been working with Senses for six sessions and our time with the group has come to an end. We’ve talked proverbs, we’ve made journeys of our lives on carbon paper, we’ve learned about growing up and switching lanes, we’ve lino cut, we’ve collaged and we’ve talked about life after the […]
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Week one, group two… This week I was assigned a second group by the council. Wellbeing Plus is a lovely group of folks based in Redcar who have an established small crafting group that meet on Fridays. The Joint Strategic Needs Assessment is focussed on “promoting independence for older people”. These include increasing access to […]
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Week Two This week we used the work of American artist Ed Ruscha as a starting place, thinking about sayings, advice and proverbs that we might consider passing on to the next generation. Between last week and this week Nancy Sellars wrote a stellar poem on Elvis Notepaper. Among the sayings the group came up […]
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During week one, how did we do? We had two workshops. Having anticipated a turnout of 65 for both, giving us a total of 130 participants, we ended up with 3 participants in the first workshop and 39 in the second. Using our workshop model from earlier, we can establish an expected participation vs actual […]
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First Steps into a Workshop We are working with a group at Senses in Skelton. Karen Winspear is an almighty energy, charming, highly organised, charismatic and absolutely passionate about health and wellbeing. The centre was started with a grant, then the pandemic struck and through it all, Karen has made a bright, beautiful and welcoming […]
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How does workshop size effect delivery? How accurate is evaluative data about large workshop groups, compared to smaller workshop groups and how do we know? There is plenty of research pointing to the benefits to arts activities in reducing stress, lowering blood pressure, improving cognition and boosting confidence and creativity. As a writer in residence, […]