What's Your Story? with Reece Goldstein

What's Your Story? is a creative writing course for adults which consists of 24 weekly 2 hour sessions. During this course, the participants have been learning about various aspects of creative writing including prose, poetry, spoken word performance, short stories and script writing.

The previous What's Your Story? project has focused on working with group who suffer mental health, stroke survivors and refugees. The current course is aimed to work with unemployment adults, an issue I can strongly relate to having faced the realities and struggles many go through in life without work. Unemployment affects approximately 3 million people in the UK alone, a country still facing recovery from a recent economic crisis.

The class originally consisted of 22 people who I am proud to know. Over time, each participant has demonstrated their true character, revealing their individualities with growing confidence during the process of the course. Some have previously engaged in some form of creative writing or performing arts i.e. poetry, short stories, drama etc and others have or wish to participate in literature as an art form.

The group has been very considerate and respectful towards one another as well as towards me in the duty of facilitating the sessions. Despite the fact that some may not feel like them usual selves on occasions, due to various reasons, the group as a whole have seemed to be very keen and willing to engage in the activities. The group have a very positive attitude towards the course and the people around them.

Attendance of the participants has had a variation of positive and negative statistics. Due to the nature of courses in general, the numbers have diminished to a smaller portion of attendees, though this has linked to various reasons including personal commitments, health issues, finding work and simply a lack of money to cover travel costs. Some of the class members can only find it possible to attend on occasions, because of their commitments on the day, and some are available to attend on a weekly basis but sometimes have to leave early.

Each tutor contributed interesting sessions each tailored to their given subjects, being professionals in the creative industry themselves. Sarah MacLennan taught prose, Mandy Coe taught poetry, Curtis Watt taught spoken word performance and Maurice Bessman taught script writing.

Sarah gained an interest in poetry at just 8 years old, where she was exposed to creative writing through myths and poetry with her grandparents. She now works as a lecturer in creative writing at John Moores University and the Open University. On top of this, she runs the Dead Good Poets Society, a local open floor poetry event where I first had the pleasure to meet Sarah in my late teens once I started writing poetry myself. I've always know Sarah to be very honest, friendly, laid back and supportive with myself and others in their work. She is very talented as a writer herself, though this ceases to diminish her attention to detail, giving very constructive feedback and assistance to all. If you were to follow any writer that Sarah has worked with, you would see the a distinctive amount of progress and knowledge they have gained. I am grateful for the confidence and maturity in both my writing and performance that I have gained from Sarah and would highly recommend her as a tutor for any creative writer.

Mandy Coe is a prize winning poet and author of 6 books. She has a high reputation in children's poetry, running workshops in various communities and age ranges. Mandy added a positive contribution to the group with her uplifting attitude, equal approach and welcoming personality. Though Mandy is more renowned for her work with children, she did a great job running a class for a mature age group and ensured everyone was involved in the actives. Despite only teaching two sessions, it was amazing to witness her flexibility in teaching and her poetic flare and influence with the people in the group.

Curtis Watt is a Liverpool based artist who engages in many art forms including performance poetry, rapping, beat boxing, music and acting. Reputed as one of Liverpool's most versatile artists, Curtis has worked internationally on both stage and screen as well as running a variety of creative workshops across the country. Curtis took a dynamic approach to his sessions with the class, providing a very enjoyable experience with the group. His sessions ran more like a workshop than a lesson or lecture, presenting props and instruments in order to inspire the group in finding their unique performance delivery. He taught the group the principles of delivering rhythm and acting in performance/slam poetry, and how to build structure on using these elements in spoken word. He demonstrated an enthusiastic and charismatic attitude towards his work with the group who all wrote and recited their own piece of spoken word poetry. Although most of the group were used to more traditional forms of literature, they enjoyed working with Curtis and working out of their comfort zone.

Maurice Bessman is a script writer who has worked in TV for more than a decade. He has previously written episodes for many British television shows including Hollyoaks, Brookside and Holby City. Maurice took a more formal approach to the class, delivering a series of lectures using clips from films and TV shows to demonstrate examples for his subjects. Maurice presented a knowledgeable analysis of his topics, focusing on characters, story lines and the criteria stories need to create a novel, play, film or TV show. Maurice has always given intelligent detail to his topics when teaching the class, always keeping them interested with his approach. Since Maurice's time teaching, pretty much every member in the class has started their own ideas for a script, even the writers that didn't originally work on stories have been making a keen effort on their script. Maurice has been very helpful to the class as individuals, offering constructive feedback to everyone's script ideas.

Overall, I believe the course has been a great success. The class have started their projects and seem to be making great progress, all taking in a lot from each lesson. They began as strangers and have evolved to friends. It's clear that they are thoroughly enjoying the course with their attitudes towards the work. One student is also in the middle of getting their first published book. It's been a great privilege meeting and working with the class and tutors as a whole. I've enjoyed working with the writers and wish them all the best in future. I'm looking forward to seeing their published work and seeing all their hard work pay off.

Reece Goldstein 

Support The Casa

The Dockers Dispute of 1995 – 1997, was a monumental battle by a small group of sacked Dockers to fight for their jobs, and their rights after being locked out and sacked by management. In lasting for two and half years it was also one of the UK’s longest running disputes. The sacked Dockers were small in number, but due to their commitment, and their inventive and often inspirational tactics, they punched far above their weight, industrially, politically and culturally. Ultimately they lost the dispute, but their fight has had a much longer social and cultural impact than could have been expected.

I was a supporter of their fight for justice and the return of their jobs. I was on the picket line almost daily, and took part in organising many, many demonstrations, activities and events to support them. I had just returned to University when the dispute broke out, and often found myself dashing away from mass meetings to get to lectures, or spending time I should maybe have been studying to organise support.

The younger sacked Dockers transformed what could have been an isolated ‘traditional’ dispute, into one that had a worldwide impact. By hacking the Calvin Kline logo to create their own distinctive T-shirt, they’d already caught the eye locally. When Liverpool Football Club legend Robbie Fowler pulled up his LFC shirt to reveal he was wearing the sacked Docker’s ‘CK’ underneath during a game being broadcast to millions, it pitched the dispute into the international limelight.

The dispute, from the T-Shirt, to benefit gigs, to an appearance in a KLM video shoot, used cultural activities in ways not often seen by trades unions and workers in struggle. In the final years of the dispute a creative writing group was formed. The idea came about to write the film of the dispute. Over a few months Liverpool writer, and supporter of the dispute, Jimmy McGovern was persuaded to join and oversee the script, along with Irvine Welsh.

I was so proud to be part of that group. Meeting weekly we were, in effect, privileged to take part in a year long masterclass with Jimmy McGovern in the art of script writing. Channel 4 came on board and the script became a film, which was broadcast to 1.6 million people, and went on to be nominated for a BAFTA. An excellent documentary, Writing the Wrongs, was made to accompany the film. It was an incredible time, and one I look back on with immense pride.

But the end of the campaign wasn’t the end of the impact of the struggle. Two major cultural institutions emerged from the end of the dispute – The Casa and Writing on the Wall.

The writing group, consisting of eight Dockers, four of the Women of the Waterfront (all Docker’s wives), Jimmy McGovern, Irvine Welsh, myself and David Cotterill, another of WoW’s founders, were paid over £100,000 by Channel 4 for the film. We all signed it over to help the Dockers set up The Casa and The Initiative Factory. The Casa has become a vital resource for many, many people over the past 15 years, providing an advice service, resources for organisations, and a venue for many events, including Writing on the Wall.

Writing on the Wall was born from discussions amongst a number of people involved in creating the film ‘Dockers’. We are probably one of the only ‘literary’ festivals to have been born from a strike, and we’re very proud of our history and tradition that, like the Dockers during their dispute, and The Casa over the past 15 years, has sought to give a voice to working class people in Liverpool.

The Casa have always been supportive of Writing on the Wall and our events and activities. We know how hard it is to keep your head above water when money is always too tight to mention. We are saddened to hear that The Casa is now in danger of closing its doors, and delighted that Brian Reade, a great friend of WoW who has appeared many times at our festival, has stepped up to organise a benefit concert to raise funds to keep The Casa open.

It would be a tragedy for Liverpool if The Casa was lost, and that is why WoW are making a donation towards their fighting fund, and are urging all our supporters to buy tickets for the benefit gig (Philharmonic Hall 17th April), make a donation, and spread the word to friends, family and workmates to work together to keep this great institution in the hands of the great people who have kept it running since 2000.

Mike Morris 

WoW nominated for Women In Business Awards

We are proud to announce that our very own Co-Director, Madeline Heneghan has been nominated in the 'Outstanding Leadership & Management' category for the Women In Business Awards.

Downtown Liverpool in Business are teaming up again with the Women’s Organisation to celebrate female entrepreneurs and business owners from across Merseyside to host the third annual City of Liverpool Women in Business Awards.

"I am delighted to be part of the Women In Business Awards this year. It's great to be alongside such inspiring women who make a difference in our City." - Madeline Heneghan 

Please take a minute to vote for Writing on the Wall and spread the word! 

The 12 Days of Xmas: The Stroke Association and Writing on the Wall’s Xmas Show

Some of the cast can’t walk, most of them have limited use of an arm or a leg, or both, three of them can’t speak and they all get tired very easily. Not really who you’d audition for a major performance, but then this is no ordinary cast. In fact, the opposite: they are extraordinary. They are Stroke Survivors.

Our partnership with The Merseyside Stroke Association began with a 12 week writing course, a performance and publication of a book, and continued with the writers taking part in a poetry performance during our festival in May and a big showcase of our work later in the year.

During the poetry performance held in Homebaked Anfield, me and their coordinator Kate Charles, both munching away on the freshly baked cookies created by the stroke survivors, hatched a plan for a Xmas Panto. The group were keen to continue working creatively, we wanted a new experience for them, collaborating to write and perform a show would be a progression of the work they had already developed.

As soon as we got started we quickly ditched the panto idea (insert your own joke here). Panto is one of those things that looks easy and yet is incredibly hard to get right; it’s all in the timing, apparently. Anyway, a Xmas show seemed within reach. I say that, but creating a show with a specific deadline – the clue’s in the title and no-one’s going to move Xmas back a few days because the script isn’t quite ready – is a form of madness. A deadline to deliver to a guaranteed audience of over 100 people pitted against a group who have never done anything like it before, who also, judging by their timekeeping, live by a different clock to the rest of us. It can’t possibly work, and yet it must. There’s nothing like a deadline to focus your mind, and out of this madness most often some brilliance is born.

First day, 15 people. Wow, they’re keen. Director Carl Cockram (Unity Youth Theatre Director) gets the first workshops going. Some fun exercises, lots of ideas, good writing. Three weeks in we are very pleased to welcome to the group Chris Mellor. Carl recommended Chris. Brilliant he says – can create a play in a couple of hours out of a box of scarves. Mmm, I’m hoping for a bit more. Chris’s CV speaks for itself; musical director for stage version of Willy Russell’s ‘Our Day Out’, and much, much more.

Chris puts the writing to one side and soon we are all walking round the room being told to stop and start, stare at a bean bag and look angry at each other. Round and round we go, and soon a chemistry begins to develop, an awareness of space, of sound and silence, a unity of movement.

Freeze-frame. A series of tableaux, expression through a series of snapshot images. Suddenly, for a moment, the group look like theatre. Maybe, just maybe... And the group gets bigger. Funny that, it reminds me of our Garrett project, where more people were joining towards the end of the course than at the beginning. Most courses tend to lose people.

Amidst all the ideas thrown in, one stands out as the glue that can knit the show together – a rewriting of the 12days of Xmas, stroke style:

‘On the first day of Christmas my true love gave to me, A bath seat to make me comfy.’

‘On the second day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Two rubber gloves...’

‘On the third day of Christmas my true love gave to me, three Get Well cards…’

‘On the fourth day of Christmas my true love gave to me, Four walking sticks...’

‘On the fifth day of Christmas my true love gave to me,

Five Golden Chairs

Four walking sticks

Three get well cards

Two rubber gloves

And a bath seat to make me comfy...’

You get the idea.

Brilliant.

So Chris, working his backside off whilst simultaneously flying by the seat of his pants, now begins to coach the group through a series of scenes that will be performed in between each line of the song. Cue more hard work and laughter.

Pamela sends through a poem, which Chris sends to me. Between us we finally work out that the emoji’s included aren't just decoration, but are designed to be displayed as part of the poem. Very clever. Pamela is one of three in the group who, as a result of the stroke, can’t speak; they have aphasia, a condition described as ‘a communication disorder which makes it difficult to read, write or speak’, or, ‘an acquired language disorder caused by damage to the brain’, or, more pertinent, I think, as ‘a condition that affects a person's ability to communicate, not their intelligence.’ It’s not just about being unable to speak, it’s about memory and sequencing. Most clear was the frustration it brings to those who have it in trying to translate their thoughts into something others can understand. Pamela used this to create a poem during which the rest of the group joined her on stage, each using an emoji to express her feelings, and that of other stroke survivors. Wow!

A manic day of rehearsals on the big day. Paint, tutus, coffee and biscuits. The tinkling of the piano as Barbara practiced for the final sing-along punctuated Chris’s entreaties and directions – like trying to herd cats, we thought at one point.

Break a leg, I said, to each of the performers as they trooped out from the ‘green room’ to the stage. They bore the expression of soldiers heading for the wrong end of a firing squad. The hall was packed – family, friends and public.

The show revolved around Bill, in his wheelchair in a day centre. The assumption from all was that Bill didn't like Xmas. The very beautiful and graceful ‘Tankerbell’, i.e. Dave Blood, waved his wand and the show began with a brilliantly funny scene featuring Bill in a ‘bathtub’ wearing a petal adorned shower cap. Bill has a naturally ability for comedy – king of the one-liner. And so the laughter began, and continued, although punctuated by many serious and moving poems and stories of the effect of a stoke, throughout each scene; Linda’s amazing ‘One Direction confession’ poem, ‘Putting On the Ritz,’ and the ever graceful staff and volunteers from The Stroke Association in the Tutus performing with the very game Chris Larkin, the Deputy Head of Operations for the North West, who, after pulling off an amazingly natural pirouette, may want to consider an alternative career in ballet. In fact, we’re not sure we did get the Tutu back from him before he left!

In the final scene Bill, all alone now, finally revealed his true festive nature, his wheelchair lit up with  lights, his hat all singing and dancing, and the whole cast joined him and led the hall through a series of Xmas songs. Gusto, I think would be the word for the singing. Only Chanel from WoW didn't join in – probably needed a few more drinks.

Such a performance is hard to capture on paper (Look out for the video coming soon). An achievement for any group to do, but a mountain climbed, again, by the stroke survivors. I admire them. I could see many of them, particularly the new ones to the group, were very challenged by the process, and at times had to force themselves to take each step. It’s a long journey, and not really one with a hope of full recovery at the end. But taking each step can be transformative. I loved this project. Chris did an amazing job within a very short space of time and was such a good person to work with. We’re all very proud of our partnership with The Stroke Association – it’s high quality work that has a real positive impact on wellbeing, and me, Chris, Carl and the rest of the WoW team. We’ll settle for that.

                                                                                                                  Mike Morris