May 2026 Newsletter
The month of May is very merry here in Sussex. Brighton is bursting with creativity and expression as many festivals take place. We loved seeing Brighton Festival launch with the 40th annual Children's Parade with Same Sky last weekend - featuring lots of familiar faces from Little Green Pig club members to teachers and families. All celebrating The National Year of Reading.
Here at Little Green Pig, we have our own exciting programme of events happening this month.
From Amplified in Eastbourne to a Zine Making Workshop as part of Brighton Festival and more. You can also watch a newly launched short film about our writing clubs and mentoring.
Scroll on to discover our latest stories and how you can get involved in supporting our next chapters too...
Amplified Eastbourne - Saturday 16th May 2026, 5 - 6pm
@ The Birley Centre, Eastbourne, BN21 4EF - book your free tickets here
We'd love to invite you to be part of the audience to cheer on and support this year's Amplified performers. Amplified is a platform for young creatives, aged 13 to 18, to express themselves through spoken word, poetry, music and performance. Performers Dakksh, Louie, Jago, Gabelle, Rosalie, Savannah, RiRi and Zara will share their own stories on stage, saying what they want to say and how they want to say it. Hosted by Little Green Pig's Young Writers Collective and AudioActive, Amplified performers have been preparing to take to the stage in workshops over the past 5 weeks, with mentoring and leadership from Cate Ferris, Roy McFarlane and Suhayla El-Bushra. Amplified is supported using public funding by Arts Council England.
Join us to celebrate the performers' journeys from a blank page to live on stage and take part in the Q&A too. There will be a BSL interpreter and it is a wheelchair accessible venue. Find out more and book your tickets here: https://www.youngwriterscollective.org/amplified
JOIN US AT BRIGHTON FESTIVAL FOR A FREE WORKSHOP
Make Mini Zines - a free workshop for ages 7 to 13 with Little Green Pig and artist Azaria Franco
Saturday 16th May 2026, 1 - 3pm at Brighton Dome Foyer
Join the DIY publishing revolution and make mini zines with Little Green Pig! Collage, cut and paste, doodle and write about whatever you want to at this free, drop-in workshop.
Artist and creative Azaria Franco and Little Green Pig mentors will demonstrate how to make your own zine. We'll have creative prompts to help you come up with ideas of what to collage, including ideas themed around future dreaming and time travel.
All materials and equipment provided. Everyone aged 7 to 13 is welcome to take part in this workshop, accompanied by an adult. No need to book - just come along. Spaces allocated on a first come first served basis. More info here
WATCH A NEW SHORT FILM CELEBRATING WHAT WE DO
Ever wondered what happens at a Little Green Pig writing club? With the help of local filmmaker Caleb Yule from Stories of Note, we can share an insight into some of the powerful stories that emerge from our weekly after school writing clubs. So that even if you're not aged 7 to 11 in Sussex you can still share in a sense of the magic and imagination that happens at these clubs! Watch this short film featuring Little Green Pig young writers, mentors and workshop leaders in action, and hear how it has helped and impacted individuals' communication, creativity and confidence.
OUR LATEST LEARNING PROGRAMME UPDATES
DIALOGUE & PUPPET PLAYS IN WORTHING
Young writers at the Laurels Primary writing club have been learning about dialogue and bringing their scripts to life with puppet productions. Working alongside artist and puppeteer Darren East, the children's recycled scrap character puppets have been captured in a film that features their original voiceovers. Watch this space for the edited film soon!
"I AM" POEMS AND IDENTITY WRITING
At our Whitehawk and Moulsecoomb clubs in Brighton, children have been exploring writing about what makes them unique. Poetry was created about their future dreams and what makes our human bodies amazing with guest poet Roy McFarlane alongside regular workshop leaders and mentors.
"My future self will love animals and travel around the world. I will grow a garden for birds to visit and flowers to grow in. I will sketch pictures of the unusual plants I see in the wild. I will discover new things no one has ever seen before.
I will write a story of what I have done and illustrate it." Future Self by Ayla
THE WORLD'S A STAGE
Eastbourne writing club have had a brilliant time this term, exploring all things theatrical! The children enjoyed a trip to Eastbourne's historic Royal Hippodrome Theatre and took park in script writing workshops with club leader Emma Joy Edwards. Theatre designer Lucy Bradridge led a set design workshop, inviting the young writers to create their own miniature model boxes and even designing posters for their own wonderfully creative shows.
Little Green Pig writers published in an international anthology
Writing by Little Green Pig writers is part of a new international anthology of youth writing How Can We Make This World Worth Knowing. It launched recently at theInternational Library of Young Authors in San Francisco, with an introduction by Hanif Abdurraqib. Poetry by writers from our secondary and primary clubs in Sussex features alongside 250 other young authors from around the globe.
“When young people are given freedom to say what most matters to them, and then we listen to and even amplify their voices, then they will, and always do, write with their hearts bursting.”
—Dave Eggers & Ninive Calegari
FUNDING UPDATES including a record breaking quiz night!
Our legendary quiz night returned on April 24th at the Brunswick Pub in Hove, which was packed to the rafters for the 12th annual "When Pigs Fly" event, hosted by our fabulous Chair and quizmaster extraordinaire, Pete Lawson.
Our raffle was a huge success thanks to the generosity of local businesses who donated an array of fantastic prizes. Thanks to everyone who contributed.
The event was seamlessly run by our brilliant Board of Trustees. We are thrilled to announce that the night raised £2,564! Our best result yet and every penny will go directly toward supporting our mission. A massive thank you to Pete, our trustees, and everyone who came along. See more photos and read about the event in our blog post written by Director Nicky Crabb here.
New way to make donations to Little Green Pig
We are excited to have a new way you can make donations to Little Green Pig. Check out our new donation page on the website here. Any donation whether a one-off or regular monthly donation will make a massive difference to the children and young people we work with and help us to make sure that we can continue our work.
Sharing our knowledge and expertise with future leaders
We love collaborating with some of the other brilliant writing organisations based in Sussex, and were delighted to be asked to deliver two workshops for Writing Our Legacy about leading writing workshops with children and young people.
Award winning poet and youth and community worker, Dr Roy McFarlane co-led the workshop with our Director, Nicky Crabb, who has 30 years experience of working with children in the arts. In the first workshop they outlined the key skills and knowledge required to work in school and community settings. In the next workshop, they set the participants the task of designing and leading their own workshops in a lively interactive session.
One workshop participant said: "It was a fun and informative session, sparking lots of practical ideas for how to engage young people in expressing their creativity."
A big thank you to our funders and supporters including our regular Fiver Club givers, Gemini Foundation, Arts Council England, Leathersellers' Foundation, John Laing Charitable Trust, Chalk Cliff Trust, Enjoolata Foundation, Hedley Foundation, JJ Charitable Trust and our Big Give pledgers, donors and Champion: AKO Foundation. We really couldn't do any of this without you! You can find out ways to support our work here.