Hey Blog! Last Saturday I went into Derby to take part in a unique writing opportunity I’m thrilled to share with you!
The workshop was run by the Standing in this Place team, in association with the Derwent Valley Mills World Heritage site and Legacy Makers, from Nottingham. Standing in this Place is a group highlighting historical comparisons between black enslaved women in the Americas and white mill-worker women in this country. Noting that less than 5% of statues in this country show non-royal women, the final product of the partnership is to erect a statue of one of each of these two groups of women, showing new connections between the two sides of history. Another aspect of the programme is to use young people’s creative writing talent on a podcast – and for this they ran a workshop. Through Mum’s intricate net of spies and contacts, we already knew one of the organisers of the workshop – she has helped out the Watch Group in the past when we need a poetry session – and she offered me a place. I accepted, and took part!
To start with, only four people attended. Too bad for the five others who dropped out. However, this was good as it meant we each had a chance to write, read our own and listen to other’s poems, which is infinitely better than rushing to write and hardly hearing anyone else. There were two separate sessions, run by different people, and in both the quality was fantastic – but I could hold my own and write equally well, just in a different (that is, MY) style. I said as I came in, “If I get the right inspiration, it’ll be amazing – but I can’t do anything without the inspiration,” to which one of the workshop leaders replied he was there to provide that inspiration. Consequently I wrote very well!
First, we met each other in one of the upstairs rooms, to get to know who each other was (I happened to be the youngest person in the room, but no problem!), and then went around the Standing in this Place exhibition. Here we saw the design for the final statue, which worked its way into all the poems, and after tea and biscuits we had the first session, with Tamika Steadman. To start with, we each wrote a word or two which described the sculpture to us. Then we explained why we had chosen that word. Next, we tried to incorporate a few of these words into a piece of writing. All of us either wrote a poem or poetic prose, all of which were brilliant. After reading them out, we had another short tea break and then went on to the other session, led by Quinton Green. This one was started with a quick-write based on prompts from a large prompt book. I wrote another poem at this stage. Everyone’s first four lines were then transformed into a chant – interspersed with question words and repeated lines.
A note here on prompt books and ‘inspiration’ – this is something I might need – if inspiration strikes suddenly, the best thing is to write it quickly in a little book and come back to it later. If you read Winnie-the-Pooh, you’ll understand! (As an aside, I have a friend who came up with the concept of ‘thought-men’, who run through the computer-like mind; and while writing this I had a vision of something like a little cupid who shoots arrows of inspiration – perhaps these are the same thing!) I am also a firm believer that you do not write because someone tells you to or to make money – you write because you have an idea and to let it go would be a waste. If you have to write ‘on command’ your work will be dull, boring and generally not worth reading. This is why I said in a previous paragraph you need to wait for the ‘inspiration’!
You might have noticed that I haven’t included the poems I wrote. Well, there are a few reasons for this. One reason is that the poem is fairly long, but you may get to hear it – for another is that, as I have told you, there is a podcast on which the poems will be performed, and I plan to send mine in. If and when I get news that they plan to air mine, I will add a link to the podcast on this blog. Keep checking it out!