Sharing poetry at City of
Leeds
Wednesday 19th
March
Sally Andrews writes:
 |
| Michelle and Junior |
Such poetry from a lovely
group of youngsters! “As good as
we had heard yesterday from the Writing for Survival event held with a mixed group
of creative writers from Headingley and Osmondthorpe,” said a member of the
audience. True, and so encouraging to find young people prepared to read out
their own work: emotional, beautiful, tense, personal.
“I laugh – and I survive” said S. A good metaphor for life. And he spoke of his enthusiasm for writing poems that could
be used as the lyrics of a song, encouraged by Junior Willocks, international session musician and producer, working with the likes of Damien Marley and Ellie Goulding. Junior is a local lad, growing up in the heart of Leeds and attending Harehills dance company, Northern Contemporary Dance school and dancing with the orginal Phoenix dance company.
Survival is not a word used
often, but we all find ways to survive” said K, as well as telling us about
Elizabeth I – who survived her father, smallpox and the Spanish and French
wars. A young man who integrated
his love of history into a third poem about 1945 and the gas ovens. “I’m next! I’m next! I’m next!” was a panicky last line –
chilling.
L spoke of hardship and the
great ambition you need to survive, whilst S’s ‘Born a Survivor’ was a poem of
praise for the woman who helps others despite her own difficulties and
tragedies.
One young man told us of his
lonely time living in a refuge, not able to attend school for a year and a
half. How soul-destroying that is for a young boy? He, almost casually, related
his recovery from swine flu, which put him in hospital for a month, and his unsupported
mum into a great fright. Poetry has the power to release dark tales.
D had only recently arrived
here from Sicily and had written all her poems first in Italian so she could
get the words out before translating them into a shortened form of English. Her beautiful smile lit up when we gave
her praise for her English, coming on by leaps and bounds in the way that
poetry often releases young people’s restraint or lack of confidence with more
formal or lengthy writing. As her teacher said, “Today she has smiled and come
out of herself.”
M had said of himself “I
can’t write, I can’t write” but the poetry workshops had given him a space to
come and enjoy listening. He got
there in the end, writing his own poem and he was so proud of it.
As regulars at a
long-established dance club which clashed with the poetry workshop evenings,
two youngsters were nevertheless fired up by Michelle coming into their lessons
and igniting the spark. This encouraged them to drop off their poems anyway and
come and share them with us. Dance
came second today.
We heard more – the young
boy who wipes his mother’s tears from his face in case someone thinks he has
been crying. Or the poem Anne
Boleyn wrote to Katherine of Aragon, describing her as “a good enemy” and pleading
that her daughter (Elizabeth) “must survive.” “His smile traps faces” and “home was the place where he was supposed to feel loved”
told a dark tale. “Surviving the loss of a phone, or your trainers – that’s not
surviving. Surviving is escaping a
tragedy, an earthquake, a fire.
That’s real survival.” An
old head on young shoulders.
Our thanks go to teacher Kathleen
Gallagher for enabling this work and
to Michelle Scally Clarke, performance poet, who has worked so hard across the school to get these
and other young people to believe they can do it. “It’s so important to
celebrate young people’s voices, and to develop their skills in presenting
themselves working in groups and with audiences. Everyone has a powerful story
to tell. Poetry helps you find the
rhythm, see the person”
Note: Michelle is currently Poet in Residence at Space 2 in Leeds and Writing Facilitator for First Floor at the West
Yorkshire Playhouse as well as the Ilkley Literature Festival. Her biography is
published in Tangled Roots, published in 2013 as an anthology which explores
six mixed race/Yorkshire heritage artists. She is working on a new commission for a play/musical.
Michelle Scally Clarke comments:
This year’s slam with City of Leeds moved me in a way the other slams had not. I think it was the theme ‘Surviving’, for City of Leeds boasts the most dynamic, diverse, smiling, happy survivors, each person a story that has a different taste to the last, all unique.
Most of the pupils I worked alongside were survivors. There was a young Year 8 girl who rarely came to school, but came in on the day of the poetry workshops because the teacher had said she would like it. She wrote about surviving the fact that her brother is in the army, how he loved and looked after her, and she allowed me to read this, then read it after herself to the class. The classmate who wrote about her best friend surviving cancer, her best friend sat right next to her, the roar of empathy of love and claps from fellow classmates.
Spoken word has a great impact with the students - it is a great way to begin creative writing and free writing; it allows you to speak to the page, it allows your voice to be owned and heard, it allows for writing and literature and language to be enjoyed first then learnt. This is very important if English is not your first language - it wasn’t for ninety percent of the students I worked with. It allows for praise and for people to see the truth of you. These pupils humble and inspire me with their stories, poems and songs,and I have no doubt that all will continue to perform, write and grow.
I would like to say a massive “Thank you” to the Headingley LitFest and funders for enabling this valuable work each year.
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