Writer’s workshop

Nine of us met at the Coffee lounge for this workshop lead skilfully by Monirah. We shared the space with another group of writers – novelist who meet every third Saturday of the month.

We began with a quotes exercise. Each person wrote a quote and passed it to someone else who wrote about what the quote meant to them. The next exercise was to describe a box, any box. We picked out words or phrases that we liked from each others  boxes, and used them in our final exercise to create a piece of writing.

I am always amazed by the quality and diversity of pieces created from these workshops. Thank you very much Monirah. There will be no workshop next month as the group will be performing at the MAC as part of Celebrating Sanctuary on 16^th June 2.00-3.30. July’s workshop will be at The Stageside Restaurant on Saturday 21^st, and will be lead by Jude.

May’s Meeting

Another stimulating meeting with about eighteen of us present. We had the pleasure of Gary Longden who spoke to us about his work with Radio Wildfire, Behind the Arris and Garyswordz.  Radio Wildfire is a spoken word internet radio channel that welcomes submission of work for broadcast. The other two sites are reviews of spoken word events and listings of spoken word events. He stayed with us till the end of the meeting and shared some of his own work. His first piece aboutBirminghamwas in the style of cinquaine. His second piece was a humorous look at the café culture in Café Blend.

Ita brought in newspaper articles of her involvement in the Olympics poetry project to share with us, and Tessa dressed her in a garland.

The dominant theme of the poetry was the ups and downs of life.

One of the nice things about meeting at Stageside is that we can hang around and chat after the meeting. The buzz continued well past thetwo o’clockofficial end of the meeting.

First writing meeting

Our first writing sub-group meeting took place on 22 April at the Stageside Restaurant 12-2 p.m. The first gathering was small but beautifully put together and we look forward to the next one. It will be at The Coffee Lounge, where we had the Valentine’s evening, on 19th May at noon. As we cannot use Stageside for the June gathering either Tessa is happy to offer a jaunt out on her narrowboat as inspiration for the writing on that day. Just a thought. Maybe the rain will have ceased its weeping by then – who knows?

April’s Meeting

With the absence of our three chair persons, there was little in the way of business notices so we were able to progress quite quickly into sharing our work. With 14 attendees we were able to read two pieces each.  We had two young visitors, one of whom, though only 9 years old, read her work with wonderful assurance. We had more prose pieces than usual, which is interesting. The first of the meetings at which we will write on the day was confirmed for Saturday 22nd afternoon and we are asking everyone who has ideas for workshop exercises to bring them to next regular meeting on a card so we can build up a bank of tried and tested ideas for future use. Several people offered ideas at the meeting, which led us to realise what a depth of experience we have between us.

Ita’s Olympic Selection

 Ita entered a National Lottery and Nationwide Arts Programme competition called WINNING WORDS to find 12 poets to represent the 12 regions of theUK, with a view to creating a National Poem for the London 2012 Olympics and Paralympics Games. The poem will be showcased in the Olympic Park during the games and afterwards.

Ita was delighted to be chosen to represent theWest Midlandsregion, and has already had a meet and greet session with the triple jumper Nathan Douglas. This was covered by the press and by BBC TV in theMidlands.

Writers Without Borders wish Ita well for the next stage.

Milorad’s Book Launch

On Friday 3 March Nine Arches Press held an event to celebrate Milorad Krystanovich’s life, and to launch his latest collection of poems, Moses’ Footprints. Milorad was a founder member of Writer’s Without Borders. He died last year and is a sad loss to the group.

The event, held at The Moseley Exchange, was attended by friends, fellow poets and those who love Milorad and his work. Some of the region’s most acclaimed poets read their favourite poem from the collection, against a backdrop of some of Milorad’s projected photographs. (He also had a passion for photography).

 Below are a couple of sites with more information, and a few pictures from the evening.

Nine Arches Press  

Gary Longden’s review of the evening

March’s meeting

March’s meeting was full of surprises. The sun was out, we had a large attendance, three visitors, two new members signed up, and Ali brought cake!!

After the focus on business in February’s meeting it was lovely to get back to hearing member’s writing. There was a real theme of pushing personal boundaries, of meeting challenges and of self-empowerment coming through many of the pieces, and as usual there was humour and love, lots of love.

Reminder that our next meeting, sharing our writing, is on the second Saturday, April 14th and not the 7th. Also that 2012 membership fees are due if you haven’t already paid yours and that from 30 April updates and other information will only go out to paid up members.
 
Next readers group meetings – open to members only
Sunday April 15th – Sharon Olds poetry
Sunday May 20th  - poems on the theme of cities  
Readers group meetings start at 7.45 and are open to all members but, as they take place in Jo’s house, please let Jo know in advance if you are coming and bring photocopies of 2-3 poems by published writers (not your own writing). 

Next storytelling cafe event: Sunday 25 March – Hope and Glory, 5 – 6.30 in the Ikon cafe. Best to phone in advance and reserve a seat as there is limited seating and the first month was extremely well attended. Food is served (Spanish tapas) from 4-5.
 
Birmingham Book Festival performance: At our last meeting we chose the theme for this year’s performance – CELEBRATION. We also decided to ask forSouthBirminghamCollege as the venue. Sue and Sayyara have a second meeting with BBF on 30 March where we hope to be given a date for our event, then we can confirm the rehearsal date etc.