February 2025 Newsletter
Photo: Young people aged 12 to 19 pose together as a group smiling and with thumbs up alongside Story Mentors and workshop leaders under a colourful sign that reads "AudioActive"
Welcome to our first Little Green Pig newsletter of 2025!
We've returned refreshed from half term and we have lots of stories to share with you from across our programme, including a short documentary film telling the story of the inspiring Amplified in Worthing project.
At Little Green Pig, storytelling is always at the very heart of what we do and we know that stories can be told with words and writing but also through pictures, sounds, movement and so much more. We've got exciting new storytellers joining our team this term as part of our Arts Council England supported Story Journeys project that is now well underway.
This Thursday will be World Book Day and you can listen online to our BBC Radio Sussex interviewwith Little Green Pig Ambassador author Dorothy Koomson and our Worthing young writers as they discuss the power of diverse stories and reading books.
Read on to discover our latest stories and how you can get involved in our next chapters too...
MEET OUR NEW TEAM MEMBERS
Emma Joy Edwards to lead our Eastbourne young writers
Emma Joy joins our team of writer workshop leaders for 2025. We look forward to the exciting plans she has in store for this new club, starting with a 'characters' project!
She is a writer, performer, director and half of acclaimed double act A&E Comedy. They have written a number of scripts for theatre, film and television. Emma has created shows for young audiences encouraging imagination and mischief and devises interactive experiences designed to get people involved and spark joy. She has a Masters with Distinction in Comedy Writing and specialises in teaching script-writing, story and comedy. Her favourite word is ‘kerfuffle’.
Meet our new Regional Producer!
Laura Halliwell has stepped up into the new role of Regional Producer for Little Green Pig. Supported by public funding from Arts Council England, Laura will focus on our programme and outreach in Eastbourne and Worthing for the next year. She's hit the ground running relaunching our Eastbourne club this month! Laura brings experience of managing and delivering creative community and education projects for over 20 years. She has worked with Trestle, Little Angel Theatre, Bureau Of Silly Ideas, Brighton Dome & Brighton Festival. When not organising and running arts projects, she might be found tinkering with puppets or hanging about by the sea. Laura's favourite word? 'Glow'!
WATCH OUR AMPLIFIED PERFORMANCE PROJECT FILM
In December 2024, one of our flagship projects Amplified returned - empowering eight young people to shape and share their personal stories on stage. In partnership with AudioActive Worthing, we supported and mentored young creatives to tell their stories through rap, music, poetry and spoken word. From sharing stories of friendship and foster families, to finding fame and facing fears, discover their journeys through the project from blank page to performing on stage in this 10 minute film made with Lacera Films.
Thanks to Mario at Lacera Films and Arts Council England, we have captured the journey of our eight young creatives who took part in Amplified 2024. Follow them from blank page to stage in this short film!
LEARNING PROGRAMME HIGHLIGHTS
FROM MAPS AND MYTHICAL MONSTERS TO MOULSECOOMB COMICS
Discover what we've been up to across our After School Clubs. Lots of local artists have been visiting our young writers to inspire their creativity lately!
Image: Two comic strips hand drawn in pencil and pen show rainbows and characters sunbathing, cherries and characters eating fruit in a graphic style by children
Moulsecoomb Club are settling into a fantastic new location within Moulsecoomb Primary for their weekly sessions. They've been creating their own comic books this term. Illustrator and graphic novelist Coco Kirkland visited the club to share his inspiring top tips and some stylish stickers too in a special workshop. Watch this space to see the finished comic creations published...
Image: a child wearing a green school uniform proudly holds up a collaged creature that they made with hand drawn elements and different textures
Writers at Worthing Club are working hard on fantastical creatures right now. Starting from playing a game of 'heads, bodies, tails', the children at this primary club have dreamt up the characters of their imagined mythical creatures across several sessions. This week, local illustrator and animator Sam Harper Holding facilitated a fun workshop in multimedia collage. A few of the results are pictured above! These will help illustrate the children's words and stories in the coming weeks.
Image: A child works at a computer to create a complex design on screen, moving the mouse to make it. A close up of one of their designs - a dog made up of different geometric shapes is also shown.
Whitehawk Club are part of an exciting collaboration at the moment called "Second Sight"- a project fusing heritage archives and modern technology including VR! Led by digital creatives Jess Starns and Thomas Buckley, the children have been exploring Hove Museum of Creativity's heritage magic lantern slides and bringing them to life using their own storyboard ideas and using 3D CAD modelling skills. More to be shared about this project come Autumn.
Image: Primary school children draw with pens and look on as an adult artist draws alongside with them on a large piece of paper. Images of hand drawn children's maps float above their heads.
"One day I was drawing a map and I slowly looked at it seeing all the bright colours with mythical animals and great people. 'I wish I could be in this map', I whispered. Then the map started to glow very brightly and to shake, and something started to pull my hands and suck me in..."
extract by a young writer as part of the Maps project
Workshop Leader Natalie England conceived a creative cartography and maps making project last year which has been repeated by many of our other clubs too now. Imagination Station (in Central Brighton) are busy working on their new worlds now which they'll publish into a printed book, supported by local author and artist Helen Cann. Worthing Club writers published their fantasy maps into a book that can be viewed online here.
Last month, writer and Little Green Pig Ambassador Dorothy Koomson spoke to young writers and teachers at The Laurels club in Worthing about the impact that diverse and representative stories can have on their engagement with reading. Learning Manager Nikki also features on the show that you can listen to.
To hear what the children, teachers and team had to say about stories, reading and representation, listen to the BBC Radio Sussex show here.
Image: Author Dorothy Koomson poses in front of children's library books smiling and wearing a colourful knitted scarf.
GET INVOLVED - UPCOMING OPPORTUNITIES
There are a few tickets left to come to our fun fundraising quiz event, raising money for the work that we do! Join us on Friday 14 March, 7pm at Lighthouse in central Brighton for our famous quiz "When Pigs Fly". Tickets available here for £27.80 each (£25 plus booking fee).
This event will raise money for our work with children and young people across Brighton, Worthing and Eastbourne. There'll be a raffle too and we are currently looking for donated prizes for this, so if you're a local business or have contacts at a local business who may wish to donate something please do get in touch with us.
Image: An adult Story Mentor in a yellow cardigan is sat with other volunteers and staff, laughing in a room where green bunting and food is on the tables.
Become a volunteer Story Mentor or Illustrator Mentor with Little Green Pig? We are open for more people to get involved in inspiring and supporting our young writers across Sussex. We're especially looking for more Mentors to attend our after school club in Worthing on Mondays. If you're able to travel there/live locally, we'd love to hear from you? Find out more and get in touch with Volunteer Manager Sally here.
What will you be up to this World Book Day on Thursday 6 March? It's a fantastic time to focus on the power of reading and stories - something that at Little Green Pig we're passionate about all year round.
Take a look on our social media on World Book Day to hear about some of our community's favourite book characters and what books means to us. What book character and story would you choose?