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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 the context. As discussed previously, our initial scope of delivery was for three groups across Middlesbrough, Redcar & Cleveland. Our requested maximum was 36 people and we were tasked with delivering to 198 people. The brief was to deliver to groups in Middlesbrough and Redcar…
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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 difficulty with films like My Left Foot is that they had a tendency to vacillate between the disabled experience as “inspiration porn or an object to be pitied.” It is easier to picture a time when our bodies were not impeded before a “one day”…
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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 two monster trucks and a giant see-saw, or becoming the first human cannonball to plop like a sugarlump into the cauldron of Krakatoa, or be frozen in a vat of semi-runny Sainsbury’s strawberry jam, so that you can be defrosted like Demolition Man. In reality…
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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 flicked by the subconscious like Subbuteo players minding the goal. You might worry for the words terribly until they kick the ball into the network of the mind of someone else, everything until then feels somewhere between manager and parent. Learning to write and then…
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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 war and the importance of being a caretaker of both the land around us and one another. Of the many things Ernie has told me about, one thing that caught my attention toward the end of our time was the mysterious marble block that appeared…
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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 friends, family, money and resources as well as preserving physical and mental capacities and preventing cognitive decline. In a similar way to inviting an electrician over to change the channel on the tv only to change it back, I felt like I was excess 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 with – either handed up down, or spur of the moment were “Shy kids get no sweets” and “Mobile phones are not the be all and end all”. I was on my own as Emma’s car had taken a turn for the worse. I was…
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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 participation. In our first workshop, it was half term, so many of the usual people who come along to Senses were unable to come to our session. This means we ended up with one participant who had two carers with him, Kale. I will write…
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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 space for communities to gather, keep fit and connect. During our first week, we explored the haibun which is a combination of a descriptive paragraph of prose followed by a haiku. This combination is said to be among the earliest examples of travel writing in…
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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, these health benefits can empower school pupils with self-expression, offer organisations a less stressed and more creative workforce and to an older generation, a chance to grow in confidence, to connect, reflect and to enjoy themselves. As Emma and I are both delivering writing, painting…