Volunteer for the Leeds Lit Fest?

Headingley LitFest is one of the groups represented in the team behind the brand-new Leeds Lit Fest which begins 6 March 2019. Here's a message asking for volunteers:

We're inviting you to come along to a briefing which will take place on Monday 25th February, 6pm for a 6.15pm start at the Leeds Library. Please note that the Library is NOT Central Library but the subscription Library that is on Commercial St next to Paperchase: https://www.theleedslibrary.org.uk/.

The full Lit Fest programme can be found here: https://www.carriageworkstheatre.co.uk/whats-on/festival/. It would be a good idea just to have a look and familiarise yourself with what's in the programme and what events you might be interested in helping out at.

If any of you are on social media, please follow us @LeedsLit and help us spread the word and if there's anything else you can do to promote the festival to family, friends and colleagues that would be really appreciated.

We are also looking specifically for photographers to document the festival so if you have any expertise in that direction please let me know.

If you can come along to the briefing night then please email enquiries@leedslitfest.co.uk

Best wishes and we hope to meet you soon.

Wild Weather Indeed!

Gail Alvarez writes:

The poetry assembly at Spring Bank primary school on Friday 8^th February was aptly themed on Wild Weather.  Which, as parents of year 3 blew in on Storm Erik, was a curtain-raiser for the tales to come of gales, tornadoes, blizzards, flooding, rain and much else besides. 

Luke Wrankmore, James Nash, Sarah Hawes

A burst of sunshine illuminated the packed  hall where the entire school was assembled to hear the youngsters perform their own original poetry.  Thirty parents, fifteen staff and all your peers from reception up to year 6 form an intimidating audience when you are only rising seven.  And rising in confidence too under the calm support of LitFest-commissioned local writer and poet James Nash, supported by LitFest volunteer Rachel Harkess. 

James introduced their work and got them reading out favourite lines or sometimes the whole poem, nerves banished and pride in their achievements clear on their faces.  Imagine being asked to imagine yourself as the weather, with opportunities to create or destroy, to entertain or spoil.  We had humour, pathos, violence, caring, disaster and luck. 

“Their confidence has grown, sometimes amazingly so, over the project,” said Luke Wrankmore, year 3 teacher who always enjoys working with James.  He had had parents coming in to tell him of youngsters talking excitedly about their work at home, growing interest in writing and increasing confidence in reading aloud to them.  And this was clearly confirmed by the many parents in the audience.  “Much more enthusiastic about his writing.”  “So pleased with his confidence in reading his own work out to me.”  “She has been writing her own poetry in bed.”  “For the first time he has learned the whole thing off by heart so he can recite in a language he didn't speak before we came here last September.”

Sarah Hawes, new headteacher at the school, was really delighted with how the youngsters performed.  Although she has worked with authors and poets before, she had really appreciated the difference these poetry workshops made as they led to other skills encompassed by reading aloud to a large audience. “I am so impressed with the improvements in language used, the collaboration with other children in the class and the different dynamic in their work together.”  

She felt that “Poetry is often under-rated and yet this project has been able to contribute to our school community, with year 2 looking on in anticipation of being able to do the same next year.”

And what did they like about the project?  The usual comments about getting to know how to write better, how to perform their original words, enjoying learning and using new vocabulary as well as being proud to share with classmates.  “I don't know if I've ever met a poet before!” kind of sums up the novelty of the encounter deepening the learning.

Final word to one youngster, when asked if he had enjoyed the work. “Yeah!!” with such emphasis  that he and his body language couldn't speak more clearly.

Grateful thanks once again to the Inner North West Area Management Committee for granting us the funding to support this work.

Cabaret Thirty returns

Cabaret Thirty last year

 

Headingley’s contribution to the first Leeds LitFest is

Cabaret Thirty 2019

 7.30pm Friday 8 March

Headingley HEART Centre, Bennett Road, LS6 3HN

YOUNG FILMMAKERS - LATEST NEWS - MARTHË TAYLOR AND KAREN BRIDGETT WILL BE SHOWING CLIPS FROM THEIR SHORT FILM 'RUN KARA'. This previews at the Harrogate Film Festival on Sunday.

Do you still love to tread the boards? Love open mic events? If you are under thirty, or okay if you look under thirty, this is your chance to perform. It could be original poetry, short stories or song lyrics, or stand-up comedy, in a group or on your own. 

If you think you’ve got it, then flaunt it!

At the last Headingley LitFest, there was an astonishing range of acts for this wildly popular event. There’s no age limit for the audience. Get in touch now to make sure you are on the list if you want to perform. 

Contact wilcocks@ntlworld.com with all the details.

Poet Kirsty Taylor at Ralph Thoresby School

New poet Kirsty Taylor is working with young people in a series of after-school poetry workshops at Ralph Thoresby high school. Kirsty is a freelance poet, sometime teacher, new contributor to Radio 3's The Verb where she tells the untold stories of children growing up in the care system.

Kirsty Taylor poems on PoemHunter - 
https://www.poemhunter.com/kirsty-taylor/

Carnival of the Animals at Shire Oak Primary School

Poetry assembly at Shire Oak Primary School, Thursday 6^th December 2018

The audience came in  – a score of parents, some grandparents, some small siblings – taking their seats for the performance by Mr Martin's year 3 of the poetry they had carefully crafted over the past three sessions. The theme this time was Animals, and the audience – which included classes 1, 2 4 and 5 - was given the challenge to guess which animal was being described.  We learned what they liked, where they lived, what they felt or did.  A good stretch of the imagination for anyone and inspiring for the classes that we hope will be able to follow on this work in future years.

Some youngsters read their whole poem, some just their favourite line. And although a couple of the children had been in tears of fright in the final rehearsal they still rose to the occasion and delivered their own work with confidence and brio.  This opportunity is about far more than just writing their own poetry, it is about developing the panache to deliver it to a large audience of peers and other school staff filling the school hall.  At eight years old, not bad!  The work is inclusive too, with children of widely differing abilities able to contribute and grow.

As Ian Martin, class teacher, said “This work gives my class the focus, motivation and the opportunity to make them believe they can write, and do, things that people want to listen to. It's great that they get to perform in front of their parents and others too.”

The assembly is the culmination of the work they develop through drafting and editing with James Nash, the professional writer and poet whose work with this school over the years always creates a sense of anticipation.  He was described by headteacher Jane Devane as 'a long-term friend of the school', adding that “Working with a real poet helps our children to see writing as exciting and something they can do. Marvellous.”

We visited a huge range of environments – the deep blue sea, the jungle, the wild, the zoo, the desert, the forest.  We had a wide variety of creatures too.  The blue-tongued skink and the pangolin were rather exotic, but we had plenty of others – kangaroo, otter, brown bear, rhino, shark, a wonky starfish  and a cheetah for starters.  We had a twitchy nose, a dream of eating fish, sleek fur, shiny green eyes, sharp teeth and a talent for remaining hidden.

Some of the individual imaginative lines from the children:

I can see grass waves

I look like a rock with a horn

No one can see my face - I am a star fish

I am the colour of a chestnut

Slimy fish wet fish

I'm a fast climber

I can camouflage

I want to fly but I'm scared of heights

I am the colour of rocks

Sharp claws to rip my prey

… and their opinions too

Working with a real poet was great.

It was fun!!

I learned how to write a poem

I have seen how important it is to edit and redraft my work to improve it

I loved being able to show others in the school what I can do

I will remember that this project was ACE!

Once again, thanks are due to the Inner North West area management committee for supporting this work.