Wonderful youngsters

Sally Andrews writes:
Monday 27 January finds St Chad's school assembly hall crammed with 160 keen pupils and their teachers listening in rapt attention to some of their peers in Year 6 read out poems written with the inspiration of James Nash, local writer and poet working in the school as part of Headingley LitFest's support for community schools.

Once again the compelling gaze of the sightless clay eyes of a terracotta head used by James inspired children to write about the current LitFest theme of 'Surviving'.  They wrote movingly, with wide-ranging vocabulary and read out their work with such mature assurance that it only served to illustrate the value of such opportunities to extend their experiences of poetry, poetic imagery and performance.  

As Holly said, “It was very inspiring to hear and see a real poet; it made me want to write more poetry.”  Her classmate Hajra added that “Planning the poem and setting out my ideas” had also been exciting. Their class teacher, Ms King, was delighted in the spur for her “pupils to keep writing poetry after James has left his mark on the school” and headteacher Mrs Pratten praised those “wonderful youngsters who showed courage in sharing their work with everybody and who had written in such a thought-provoking way.”

Jo Shapcott – multi-award-winning poet in the main LitFest on 20 March 2014 – it seems you have a lot to beat!

Programme brochure is being printed!

Exciting eh? They'll be given out at Headingley Farmers' Market on Saturday 8 February - and that's just a start. In the meantime, see the preliminary programme at www.litfestprogramme.blogspot.com

A warning from matron

Update on the LitFest's Wartime Hospital at Beckett Park project:

The illustrated book containing the true stories which have been collected and the discoveries which have been made over the past year or so - some of them extraordinary - will be launched at a very special evening on 21 March at the New Headingley Club in St Michael's Road. During the event, at 8pm, a group specially created for the occasion called Vedettes will give a performance based on some of the stories. You are being warned now that the club is liable to be packed out - so tickets will issued nearer to the date, even though entry is free - with a collection. You can book your place now by emailing headingleyhospital@gmail.com

Matron and nurses at the 2nd Northern General Hospital, Beckett Park, Headingley in 1917

Two heads are better than one

Sally Bavage writes on ‘Surviving’ at Brudenell Primary

As James Nash, local poet/writer working for the first time for LitFest with Brudenell Primary School, said of his storytelling sessions here: “I told Year 6 stories; their stories were better than mine!”  Monday 9^th December and yet another marvellous afternoon where young people shared their ideas with fellow pupils, parents, teachers and visitors, using a microphone and standing centre-stage to read out to an audience of 100 tantalising excerpts from their vivid tales woven around a clay head. 

Adventures, accidents, tragedy, terror, jollity, journeys – all here.  The clay model carries scars; speculation ranged from crashes to war, from falls to wounding, from kidnapping to family rescue from a cooking pot!  Dreams and nightmares.  Beautiful descriptions of candyfloss clouds, sun-drenched beaches, menacing streets.  From Scarborough to New York to Transylvania – we were taken along a global journey ourselves.  We look forward to seeing the whole stories on display later this year.

Headteacher Jill Harland commented afterwards: “Having an inspirational author work with our pupils has raised their ambition and love of literacy.  Some have been speaking English for less than two years – and now see where this work has taken their language development.”  Teacher Rachael Mann told us that “The event really inspired the Year Sixes to write more, and present their work confidently in front of an audience.  The language used in the stories was excellent and I think events like these really encourage children to have an interest in writing.”

We can leave the final words to some of Year Six themselves: 

“Working with James improved my writing as before he came I didn’t know how to start a story.” Asiman

“He inspired me to write more stories.” Maham

And, simply, “It was fun!!” Aryaan.

Draft Calendar for 2014

The calendar for the programme of the 2014 LitFest is almost in place, with only a few gaps for extra events to squeeze into - final version in a week or two - so far we've got (in the order of the calendar, and without some of the final titles), Climate Change (with Café Scientifique), Film at Heart (Caesar Must Die), Alison Taft's new novel, Irish Arts, Words on Tap Special (with Matthew Hedley Stoppard), Trio Literati, Malcolm Lowery poetry, Italian Classic readings (Dante and Bocaccio) at the Salumeria, Let Me Speak (creative writing group at Heart, with friends from Osmondthorpe if possible), The Return of the Soldier (Rebecca West, lecture by Dr Richard Brown), Leeds Combined Arts event, Jo Shapcott, Grand Launch of the book of stories from the wartime hospital at Beckett Park (together with a performance based on some of them from the Vedettes - Leeds Met students), Ridiculous Witches with Sarah Shafi, Surviving the Publishing Industry (workshop with Alison Taft), house events including one on little-known war poets, Theatre of the Dales, café events at Mint and Lento on North Lane, Scriptophilia with Peter Spafford and Richard Ormrod, a literary walk around Headingley and West Park, poetry slams at City of Leeds and Lawnswood Schools and Aritha van Herk at Heart.

'Surviving' at Spring Bank

Sally Bavage writes:

Macabre? Not a bit of it

Class teacher Jo Ward and her eager class of Year 5 filed in to a 200-strong packed assembly hall at Spring Bank primary school on Thursday 21^st November to read out the poetry they had carefully crafted in workshops led by James Nash, a well-known local writer and poet.  This was LitFest’s second collaboration with the school; year 6 “have not stopped talking about it since last year” and Jo herself “jumped at the chance” to work with James.  “He gets so much out of them, all of them; I don’t know how he does it but he generates huge leaps in confidence and performance.”

Working with a professional poet, supported by mentors Alice and Giulia from the local Older Wiser Local Seniors (OWLS) – who also read out their own poems – the children created some imaginative and powerful writing that quite took your breath away at times.  A clay head of a child, with some scratches on the cheeks and a crack across the skull, formed the stimulus material.  Macabre?  Not a bit of it: the youngsters saw through the cast eyes of the child and explored what that child might see.  From shaking sheets of paper held in nervous hands, they used the microphone with quavering voices.  But not for long!  The shyness vanished very quickly and the poetry they had created soon flowed out in front of teachers, friends, family and visitors.

The LitFest theme for this coming year is ‘Surviving’ and will include, next March, our researches supported by the Heritage Lottery Fund on the Wartime Hospital at Beckett's Park in WW1.  But for today, our young writers were taking a wider look at what surviving could mean.  In worlds where families are fractured, fight, leave, lose lives or hope. But our clay child observed it all and lived on, dreaming of a better future.  Confidence in writing and in creating the voice of an observer outside the self were strongly developed under James’ gentle support.  Only one young man was too shy to read his poetry; his friend volunteered to read it for him.  So we can add teamwork as well. 

“Again, well done to all the children!  They all sounded clear and confident.  I’m XXXX’s father and all I can do is thank you all for helping her improve on her reading and writing, also confidence.”  Parent

“Wonderful poetry by the children.  Really well written and performed.  Lovely and different for them to work on!”  Parent

“I’ve just come to listen to the poems that the children have created and am so impressed by the depth of emotion and expression that James has inspired from the children.”  Teacher