Charm Stick

The Story Republic

As mentioned in the previous post I have recently been thrilled to be working with KEAP (Kernow Education Arts Partnership) on the Arts Council funded project The Story Republic. This has seen me work in nine schools across Cornwall, and has involved many more schools than this and lots of other writers and artists. This has led to a wonderful body of work being created by children and teenagers inspired by Cornwall and the poetry of Charles Causley. This work has recently been displayed in a travelling exhibition, which this week will come to The Exchange gallery in Penzance. It will open on the 24th, which is this Wednesday. There is a website for the project, which is now up and running, and there is a library where you can upload your work. Do visit it at www.thestoryrepublic.co.uk

It has been a wonderful project and it feels quite strange that my work in schools for this part of it is over! But here are some photos of the work I created with Constantine Primary School. They are banners showing maps of imaginary versions of Constantine, including pockets containing miniature books of the children's writing. I would also encourage you to watch the video of the work created by Mousehole school in my previous post. There was so much more as well! If you are in Penzance this week do pop along to The Exchange and check it out.

Neverending Chimes - Mousehole School

I was lucky recently to spend a day with Class 4 at Mousehole school near Penzance as part of The Story Republic project I have been working on with KEAP. We spent the morning exploring the village and gathering ideas for interesting poetic descriptions, then in the afternoon we wrote a group poem using them. The children were originally keen to write their own Mousehole version of "As I go down Zig Zag" by Charles Causley, but it ended up being much more dreamy and strange in a wonderful way. The children then worked with artist Jonathan Hayter to create an animation using the poem they created with me as the soundtrack. And now here it is!

Penair Lit Fest this weekend

I will be running a site-specific poetry creating workshop this Saturday at the Penair Literary and Arts Festival, St Clement, Truro - it starts at 11 and is aimed roughly at 9-14 year olds though other ages I'm sure are welcome. So yes do come along and join in if you fancy. I am also giving a reading of my work...

Monorail of the day!

One of my big fixations that has bizarrely not made much of an appearance on this blog is monorails, (I am also very fond of chair lifts and funicular railways). So to start here is one of my favourites - the suspension monorail in Wuppertal, Germany. Opening in 1901 it's the oldest of its kind. And even an elephant fell out of it in 1950 - though frankly with only minor injuries. I wish all cities were traversed in this way...