May Newsletter
May 2022 newsletter
Dear Friends,
If it be known as the merry month of May, it certainly hasn’t disappointed! There’s a palpable glow radiating from LGP HQ as we take stock after our Takeover weekend at Brighton Festival’s Riwaq stage on Hove seafront, and that’s not to be confused with the minor cases of sunburn some of us developed. We gathered in force; volunteers, parents, carers, siblings and friends, writers, poets, musicians and most importantly, the children and young people who contributed their remarkable energy and passion to readings, performances, Q&A’s and workshop activities. We’ll be compiling a rich archive of the weekend’s events, a creative chronicle of the work our young people produced and paying tribute to the fact they played a major role in the delivery of the Takeover, but for now, here’s a few of our highlights.
The Poetry Takeaway
Michale Bolger, proprietor of the world’s first mobile poetry emporium, recruited poets David Attree and Phoebe Wagner as his guest chefs to help train apprentices in the art of cooking up verses on demand. Takeaway customers equipped the young writers with a few special key words and true to the fast food model, an original work was dispatched within the time it takes to fire a pizza.
“I got the most beautiful poem and it genuinely made me cry!”
Poetry Takeaway customer
“My daughter hasn’t stopped writing since she took part in the Poetry Takeaway workshop yesterday! An experience she won’t forget.”
Parent of Poetry Takeaway participant
Ask the Author and Open Mic with AFLO. the poet
Children’s author Emma Shevah uses wit and humour to unpick some of the deeper issues surrounding individuality and identity that confront young people in today’s society. Emma’s books include ‘How to Save the World with a Chicken and an Egg’ and ‘Dream on, Amber’ and she discussed her techniques for building characters with one of our youth board members, Bara’a, in a Q&A featuring readings from her work.
AFLO. the Poet mc’d the open mic session on Saturday afternoon hosting a medley of talent and performance from spoken word to song interspersed with her own original compositions. A ‘takeover’ in the truest sense, children and young people brought their personal messages to the stage, showcased prodigious musical ability and charmed audiences with comedic delivery, which as one audience member put it:
“Listened to some incredible and funny stories, lots of jokes and a great atmosphere!”
Roots and Routes
LGP workshop leader and Birmingham’s former Poet Laureate, Roy McFarlane, took to Hove beach to help aspiring young poets find inspiration and fuel confidence in his masterclass in onstage performance technique. Channeling the five p’s; pause, presence, pace, practice & perform, Roy guided participants in the art of public reading to share their creative writing to full effect. Asked about their favourite bit? “Learning how to read on stage” and “Reading in front of people” were just two of the takeaways mastered in such a short time and testimony to the fact we can all write and perform with the right guidance.
Amplified
Sunday’s live performances culminated with Amplified, our third time producing this uniquely moving event which opens a window into the lives of young people owning their individual challenges and aspirations. Working with LGP mentors over two intense weekends to build their narratives and develop onstage confidence, six young people aged 12 to 19 years took to the stage, inviting the audience to share their journeys of self-discovery. World Poetry Slam Champion Kat Francois hosted the pre-event workshop and presented the live performance declaring “It was a joy and a pleasure to be involved in Amplified.Thank you for asking me to be part of it, such amazing young people all of whom were very inspiring.”
Amplified unearths emotions in us all that can’t be underestimated. Maybe because there’s something in each of the young people’s stories that resonates with us, it’s a particularly powerful event that it is a privilege to be part of. Just a few of the responses from the audience reflected exactly that:
“Thank you for sharing your raw truth, wide open hearts and shining souls with us all. You really inspired me to express myself in even more authentic and creative ways.” Amplified audience member and LGP takeover audience
“I didn’t expect to hear that today. Loki’s story really choked me up. I was crying. It really moved me and it gives me hope for the future.” Amplified audience member
“The young performers at Amplified were AMAZING! Fantastic to see. Funny, emotional, just wonderful!”
We look forward to sharing a film documenting our young speaker's experience of participating in Amplifie with you in the near future.
And in other news…
Little Green Pig’s stunning Letters to the Earth banners will be featured in the Queen’s Green Canopy Project, sited along Jubilee Way at Warren Hill car park near Eastbourne, the perfect place to enjoy a walk over the extended bank holiday weekend.
Our After School Club members recently joined the global Letters to the Earth campaign, writing personal messages to our planet, its creatures and inhabitants in response to the climate and ecological crisis, capturing their hopes and fears for the future. Letters to the Earth is a collaboration with Culture Declares Emergency with our club members joining thousands of voices across the planet including indigenous activists in the Amazon and Philippines and campaigners including Yoko Ono, Kae Tempest and Mark Rylance.
Their inspiring letters have now been printed onto banners, using monoprinting, screen printing and block printing, in workshops with artist Cath Bristow from East Side Print, which blend beautifully into the South Downs landscape and are well worth a visit to see their amazing handiwork.
Thank you to the East Brighton Trust for making the workshops and banners possible.
Queens Green Canopy Project.
A variety of art works, created by the pupils from
schools of the Coastal Schools Partnership, situated
along sections of the Queens Jubilee Way.
SUNDAY 5th JUNE 2022 | 12noon
Free Parking provided at Warren Hill, BN20 7TZ
Picnics, families and dogs welcome.