Poetry in The Community 2008

Life Lines and Springboard

The Festival will continue to engage older people and the mentally distressed by setting up group workshops and individual sessions at venues accessible to beneficiaries, like day centres and homes. Sessions will be based on a wide variety of writing forms and techniques, like journaling, free verse, song lyrics, haiku, word splurges and short stories. Whenever feasible, and given the nature of the project and its beneficiaries, the participants will read or have read their work at a specific “Community Programme” event at the Festival.

Life Lines
The poet Brenda Read-Brown will continue the successful Life Lines project, with 16 days scheduled to work with older people at venues accessible to beneficiaries, like day centres and homes.
You can read some of their work on our Life Lines Poems Page

Springboard
The poet Sally Givertz will spend 16 days working with the mentally distressed at venues like Breast Cancer Haven in Hereford and Herefordshire Mind Day Centres.

The Altered Book

A new project launched in 2007 called The Altered Book with poet Graham Hartill and artist Jeanette McCulloch. Altered Books are a form of collaborative art whereby people use a variety of art materials to convert a published book into a sculptural object. Graham and Jeanette worked with members of the community to transform well-known poetry texts into altered books.