Testament of Youth

5 May 2022

Sally Bavage writes:

No, not the wonderful WW1 memoir by Vera Brittain but a finale to the series of creative poetry writing workshops at Ralph Thoresby school, headed up by Testament. This internationally acclaimed poet, writer and performer worked with a group of 20 young writers ranging in age from 11 to 15 to encourage them in writing about their own ideas. To find light in the darkest of times, to create original writing and get the power of the words down on paper. Then to share them, after some rehearsal, with a whole year group. In the drama theatre, on stage in front of spotlights. So no pressure then!

I was in awe of the composure and clarity of the performers themselves, a humbling experience to watch the confidence of these youngsters just grow as they took to the mike. Would you have done that at their age?? And what an experience to take forward into their futures – writing words that were carefully crafted, performing them to a theatre full of peers, knowing that your voice matters.

Testament himself also shared with the writers and the audience some details of his own journey through young years that were not easy. How he was proud of his mixed Ghanaian and English family and cultures – and how facing up to challenges made you stronger. As an ordinary boy from a London school he now has an extraordinary career performing and writing for a wide range of international media, even recently teaching Poet Laureate Simon Armitage to beatbox for a BBC Radio 4 programme. He was Channel 4 Writer in Residence at the Manchester Royal Exchange Theatre in 2019 and his show 'Orpheus in the Record Shop' opened at Leeds Playhouse in 2020.

He thoroughly enjoyed his time at Ralph Thoresby and commented:

• 'Hearing a young person (who not part of the original writer’s group) be unconfident about what they wrote, then receive praise about it, and then have the courage to share it in front of the whole year group in the hall.

• A young girl who is part of the writers' group - initially skeptical about writing in this new way - who was really buzzing about what she wrote and performed.

• Having the mix of students who were working with more established writers was great and seeing how their peers respected their work.'

Headteacher Will Carr commented that 'The pandemic had affected the social and emotional health of many students, and having such a brilliant opportunity to explore personal fears and feelings was a massive bright spot and a lifeline for particular students.'

And deputy headteacher Steve Hackshaw : 'Kate always does some fantastic work to support these young writers.'

And Kate Wolstenholme herself: 'What Testament drew out of the kids was phenomenal. I loved the positivity he built at the start of the performance - the idea that expressing yourself is scary, the idea that any one of the audience could be a successful artist, that this is possible. 

The work produced was excellent - imagery, dystopian settings and the scope of their imaginations were all utilised in a stealthy and non-threatening way. Andy made a point of making each of those pupils feel special and seen - something they will never forget. I sometimes feel like I have the best job in the world when I hear creative pieces performed by these amazing young people. Having seen Testament perform on our Arvon residential trip, I knew how powerful he would be - he exceeded my expectations. His linking of Hip Hop to dystopian literature was a perfect way of conveying the power of language and creativity to our young people.

Ralph Thoresby have a history of offering space and inspiration for creativity – I’m really proud of this. Sally Bavage, of Headingley LitFest, has invested many hours of her spare time to allow us to pay for professional writers to give workshops and performances. I’d like to say a huge thanks to the festival team – and especially Sally - for their support'.

Grateful thanks are given to the Outer West Area Management Committee of councillors, whose funding for a visiting poet allowed this to go ahead.

Unsung Sports

Chapel FM's Celebration Event is on Thursday 12 May, 7.30 - 10.30pm, at the Irish Centre on York Road, Leeds.

Headingley LitFest contributed to the funding of this. See you there.

Full details -

https://allevents.in/leeds/unsung-sports-celebration-event/10000315198636607

UNSUNG SPORTS  What do you love about your sport? How did you get involved? Fancy talking about it, writing about it, helping to write a song about it?

UNSUNG SPORTS is an arts project that celebrates sports in Leeds. Not the sports that talk the loudest, but the well-kept secrets. I’m working with 3 brilliant artists – photographer Lizzie Coombes, film maker Emilie Flower, and musician Dave Evans - to create:

• A SONG ABOUT YOUR SPORT

• A FILM ABOUT YOUR SPORT

• A PODCAST ABOUT YOUR SPORT

• AN EXHIBITION OF PHOTOGRAPHS OF PLAYERS AND SUPPORTERS

And we need your help! If you’d like to know more, please email me, Peter Spafford:  spaffordpeter@gmail.com / 07590 028327 COMING UP IN 2022

JANUARY: Lizzie takes photo-portraits of players at training venues

FEBRUARY: Peter & Dave run creative writing and songwriting sessions

MAY: Final social event showcasing photos, films, and songs

UNSUNG SPORTS aims to celebrate the range of amazing sports that happen in our city, tell the stories of the people and communities who play them, and attract more people to forms of physical and social activity they may never have dreamt existed!

Iby Knill

 

 

 Headingley LitFest was one of many organisations which were addressed by the seemingly indefatigable Iby Knill, a Holocaust survivor who has died 77 years after her liberation from a concentration camp. Aged 98, she died on Easter Sunday, the same day she was freed from a death march from Auschwitz, in Nazi-occupied Poland, in 1945. Born in 1923 in Czechoslovakia, she moved to Leeds after marrying Bert Knill, a British soldier, in 1946.

Read our blog report from 2015, entitled 'The Woman Without A Number':

https://headingleylitfest.blogspot.com/2015/10/indefatigable-in-spreading-message-of.html

Quarry Mount Primary School pupils explore Space. 31.3.22

Mary Francis writes:

It was a magnificently sunny, snowy morning when Year 5 pupils at Quarry Mount Primary School shared some of their poems in assembly with the rest of the school - though sadly not their parents, due to Covid-19. 

They had been working over three sessions with writer and poet James Nash on exploring the theme of Space, then coming up with ideas around that theme, turning those ideas into poems, then editing and rewriting them until they were happy with a finished piece of work.

The pupils were very impressive and had obviously learned a great deal. The deliveries of their work were splendid, with some good, strong and seemingly confident voices. Their poems seemed to go down very well with the rest of the school.

Some good lines -

Millions of stars around me/ shining like a torch in the darkness/ blinking in front of planets

I can feel fear as my friends and family plunge into eternal darkness of Space

I am moving into the dark away from the stars/ Behind me all the planets/ Venus, Earth and Mars

        …. as through Space I roam

I can see darkness in Space/ I can smell the dust, smoke and gas

The young poets had been very engaged and had enjoyed the sessions.

James managed to collect some feedback from them -

Best thing about the project - 

Learning how poems work - sharing them with a group - learning how to write a poem - transforming a story into a poem - learning the features of a poem

What they learned - 

How to set a poem out - how to turn ideas into a poem - facing challenges in writing > perseverance - the things that make a poem a poem

Why it was good to share work with other pupils -

You can hear what needs to change - it’s good to share ideas - helps you make it better - people can get inspiration from you

What they will remember about this project - 

How to start a poem - how to make a story into a poem - features of a poem - how to make a poem interesting - how to edit and redraft to make a poem

James adds:

One of the strengths of the poetry projects in primary schools is how we work within the curriculum to build on it and underpin it. The children had had a visit from a planetarium two days before I came in so were full of facts and information. Together we went on a poetic space journey and they rose to the challenge.

On the morning of the sharing assembly seven of my young poets read their poetry to the rest of their class whilst I did a session on performance skills with the remaining four. In the assembly these four and some others from Year 5 read their space poems and haikus with grace and confidence.

Comments coming my way from staff including the Year 5 classroom assistant 

‘you always get the best out of the children’ 

and ‘how brilliant to see the children grow in confidence during the sessions’.

It was great to see how attentive the rest of the school were with the performances; they clearly got a very strong message about poetry, spoken word and creativity.

Wild Weather at Spring Bank primary school

Sally Bavage writes:

We basked in hot sunshine at an outdoor assembly. In March! But Wild Weather poetry followed a study of the topic in the previous term, and then minds had turned more to hurricanes and tornadoes, along with snow, blizzards and torrential rain.

Our outdoor sharing of the work class 3 had written, redrafted and produced in best copy was a glorious morning in the safety of an outdoor assembly to which parents could finally attend in these allegedly post-Covid times. As usual, James Nash, local writer, author and our commissioned poet, had started with these seven- and eight-year-olds exploring inspiration and ideas and trying out some lines. They crafted their ideas by drafting and redrafting – and they had actually thought this was both essential and fun.

Finally, they had carefully rehearsed their presentations to the full class and appeared so confident in reading out their best work or lines to the invited audience of parents and other school staff. As one little girl confided to me afterwards, she had been terrified – but her confident performance and smile after her turn showed how valuable the experience had been. Another was keen to show me how she had typed up her work and others showed me the illustrations they had made for their clearly-valued poems.

Headteacher Sarah Hawes was once again so pleased with the work and the obvious joy on display. And class teaching assistant Katy commented on the “quality of the language that the youngsters had used” in their work. She knew from past experience that this shows up in their work afterwards, as well as “the increased self-confidence in themselves and their work.”

Teacher Luke Wrankmore with James Nash

James collected feedback from the petite poets together for Headingley LitFest:

Best thing:

Editing – changing things to make the better

Redrafting and putting into verses

I loved writing out my ideas

What I have learned:

Poems don't have to rhyme

Poems are GOOD

Sharing with others:

Show other people how you feel

Gaining in confidence

What you will remember

How to create a structure for a poem

Better at sharing

Thank you for another excellent workshop this week. We have had parents evening this week and several parents told me how their children have been writing poems at home - so you've definitely had a positive impact once again!

Luke Wrankmore

Class teacher

James has such an easy relationship with these small writers; they trust him and take their cue to perform with extraordinary aplomb - and it is hard to believe they are only seven or eight years old! One line from a poem: 'I come every year to blow your socks off' may have been about the wind but I think best describes the effect that James has on the young people. 

Ekphrasis: A Poetry of Seeing

 

Ekphrasis: A Poetry of Seeing – Douglas Sandle

 

Richard Wilcocks writes:

 

Douglas Sandle is a retired chartered psychologist, researcher and academic who worked for much of his career in art, design and architecture at what was once Leeds Metropolitan University and is now Leeds Beckett. This history was very apparent in Headingley Library on Thursday 10 March when, with the help of a Powerpoint display, he revealed the depth of his knowledge.

 

He made it clear that there is nothing new about Ekphrasis, travelling back to Ancient Greece to make his point by reading a few lines taken from a lengthy section of Homer’s Iliad which describe the shield of Achilles. The word was originally applied to the skill of describing a thing in vivid detail:

 

And first Hephaestus makes a great and massive shield

blazoning well-wrought emblems all across its surface,

raising a rim around it, glittering…

 

The word gradually became used just for poetry (sometimes prose) which describes, or is inspired by, works of art. After showing some entertaining examples of works of art which employ optical illusions, he moved on to more modern examples of ekphrastic poetry, beginning with a poem inspired by a painting by the French artist Jean-François Millet, entitled Man With A Hoe. Written by the American poet Edwin Markham, it caused something of a sensation after it was published in the San Francisco Examiner and led to a debate on the conditions and exploitation of agricultural workers at that time. It was used in campaigns to support Labour rights and for better working conditions, which led to changes. 

 

 

Man with Hoe

 

After seeing the famous Landscape with the Fall of Icarus by Pieter Breughel the Elder on the screen and listening to Douglas Sandle’s eloquent commentary on the poem which refers to it – W H Auden’s Musée des Beaux Arts, we moved on to a survey of Ekphrastic poetry today. He mentioned in particular the contemporary competitions for Ekphrastic poetry, including one by the Poetry Society which included children and younger writers. Carcanet Press in 2015 published a glossy 100-page book of poems  by Owen Lowery, along with the art works by Paula Rego which had inspired them. There was a special mention of the online monthly publication The Ekphrastic Review, founded by ekphrastic writer Lorette Lukajic, which has published two of Douglas Sandle’s own poems.

 

One of these was Liquorice Allsorts, the poem inspired by the Patrick Hughes work of art with the same name. Another was inspired by one of Hughes’s ‘rainbow’ paintings – Leaning on a Landscape. He read several poems with Manx connotations which connected with his own childhood, then arrived at a group of images by his sculptor brother, Michael Sandle RA. One of these, Der Trommler (The Drummer), which is exhibited in Tate Britain, I found particularly memorable:

 

 

It comes from a distance far away,

resonating in the head. A troubled rumble

that grows into a drum deep boom.

The drummer marches and treads into view.

Closer now, his hands flick, wrists rotate,

his helmeted and faceless head

stares down at his muscular body,

solid and taut as steel.

This is no dancing rhythm or playful beat,

Nor a rat- a-tat- tat for acrobatic tricks,

But a doom-laden call to arms,

Its awesome prescience echoing

by the rivers and dark marshes

of the Styx