December Project Celebrations

George Garrett Travelling Man with

St Vincent Primary School

On 8th December we started the day with a 'Hunger March' recreated by St Vincent Primary School to celebrate their George Garrett - Travelling Man publication. Our Garretteers have been delivering writing workshops with years 4,5 and 6 since September which culminated in a book launch at the Women's Organisation Building. George Garrett (Actor, Paul Duckworth) even made an appearance to congratulate the pupils! You can read the publication here

What's Your Story? with Advance PSS

& Brothers of Charity 

Later that day, the WoW team went to Thingwall for the Brothers of Charity & Advance PSS What's Your Story? celebration event. Curtis Watt led a fantastic showcase performance with the group featuring poetry, movement and music.

What's Your Story? Stroke Association 

On Friday 11th, we travelled to Manchester CityLabs to watch a performance from our What's Your Story? Stroke Association group who had been working with Chris Mellor to produce creative writing from their life experiences. The group read from their publications and told stories. A very moving event.

- WoWFest 2016 Announcement -

WoWFest 2016 is all about exploring the future past and present (well, it’s all relative isn’t it, Einstein?) through sci-fi, super heroes, graphic novels, comics and…a Time Machine! What can sci-fi teach us about climate change or our climate of fear; what is the long term effect of smartphones and surveillance? We’ll be featuring the best of SF classics, voying into the wonderful world of Afrofuturism, Cover Girls and Girl’s Comics, technologies for creating and living, and, as ever, tilting to the future with a whole star ship full of new and up and coming writers. Countdown begins now…Lift Off scheduled for May 2016.

Black Poppies Unveiling!

Saturday, 19th December 2015

1pm at Liverpool Central Library, William Brown St, L3 8EW

Free Event. All Welcome.

In commemoration of the black contribution to World War One, over 100 black poppies have been hand crafted by members of the public under the guidance of renowned artist Faith Bebbington. Faith has taken these poppies and created a stunning art work that will be on display in the hub of Central Library as part of the City’s Weeping Windows experience. Weeping Widow is the iconic poppy sculpture that is currently cascading down the pillars of St George hall. 

 

The Black Poppy sculpture idea arose out of a Writing on the Wall heritage project which focuses on an archive of letters and documents highlighting the plight of black soldiers, seafarers, and workers in Liverpool following demobilisation in 1919. This archive contains the testimony of men from the Caribbean, West Africa and other colonial territories, who had fought for England on land and at sea during the Great War and were then left stranded, destitute and subject to racial violence on the streets of Liverpool.  The documents reveal a plight of daily racism and loss of jobs because of the boycott by white workers, a boycott often supported by the trades unions. This tension led to the race riots of 1919, which resulted in many serious assaults and attacks and the murder of Bermudian seafarer Charles Wootton. The Black Poppy sculpture is designed to raise awareness of the events of 1919 and the historic experience of Liverpool’s black community and to highlight the sacrifices made by Black families during the First World War and the period that followed. 

Writing on the Wall have been working with a group of dedicated volunteers drawn from the local community who catalogued and digitized the archive to create a dedicated website. The documents can be viewed at www.greatwar-to-raceriots.co.uk. A selection of the archive is on display of the third floor of central library.
 

  

Black Poppies Arts & Crafts Workshop

5th December at Kuumba Imani at 10am-4pm

You are invited to take part in this exciting free workshop with artist, Faith Bebbington to make Black Poppies for our exhibition to be displayed at Liverpool Central Library. This is part of Writing on the Wall's From Great War to Race Riots Archive Project which explores a fascinating archive of letters and documents highlighting the plight of black soldiers, seafarers, and workers in Liverpool following demobilisation in 1919.

All Welcome. If you would like to book a place for this workshop

please sign up using our online form here

If you have any queries, please email info@writingonthewall.org.uk

Pulp Idol 2015/16 Book Launch

Celebration Event: Thursday 10th December
The Music Room at The Philharmonic Hall, 7.30pm. Free 

Come down to the beautiful new Music Room at the Philharmonic Hall to celebrate local writers. 
12 writers made it to our Pulp Idol final and have had the opportunity to work with established editors before getting their work published. With great success from previous finalists Pulp Idol is an inspiring opportunity for writers. Pulp Idol focuses on supporting new original voices and getting them heard. We provide a platform for up-and-coming writers, helping with exposure to new audiences and providing contacts with key publishers and agents. Join WoW in celebrating their fantastic work over a few drinks and live music.

On the night we will also be holding a Q&A with previous Pulp Idol winner, John Donoghue to discuss his debut novel, The Death's Head Chess Club. The Book has just sold to America and is being translated for Norway, Poland, Italy, Greece, China and Brazil. It's an incredible tribute to the success of our Pulp Idol novel writing competition.

John says, 'I really do feel that, to a great extent, I owe this to Pulp Idol. My agent (Carolyn Whitaker from London Independent Books) contacted me after seeing the anthology of the finalists' first chapters. It was she who managed to get me in front of a highly respected editor, Ravi Mirchandani, leading to the subsequent book deal.'

Black Poppies Workshops

Internationally renowned poet Levi Tafari is exploring the lives of men and their families stranded in Liverpool after WWI and responding creatively through story-telling and poetry workshops in Liverpool Central Library every Saturday throughout November. All welcome to join the sessions, find out more here 

Here is some of the work that has been created in the first session by participants...  

My War

By Pat Dinsmore 

You want me to fight for this country,

I am important, I matter

We suffer, we hope for a better future

To be important, to matter 

I draw on my recourses, my strength 

To carry on being important, to matter 

I return from my exertions in the bleakness

To be important? To matter?

No, it is more than bleak here

Aggression from my fellow man

I’m not important, I don’t matter   

------

Fear and Loathing in Liverpool

By Owen Allen

I arrived today 

But the promise of arrival faded into the truth of my pitiful situation

With an almighty crash like a wave on the Dockland stone wall

I realised there was nothing here for me 

No love, no warmth, welcome or friendship

Instantaneously I have become viewed as a parasite 

My heart is heavy and my soul is torn

How can I be viewed as worse than a stray dog!

Why am I being treated so? Alas, I don’t know 

All I know, are hateful stares and insults by tongue 

In a language I am unfamiliar with 

I am experiencing terror now 

I have no lodgings and it is well past the witching hour

As I walk these streets barefooted and ragged trousers 

I resemble little of the conventional native philanthropist 

I resent into the labyrinth of darkness

Maybe, just maybe this darkness will be my friend


------


Validation
By Janaya Pickett 

My ancestors where fragile,
Like a baby,
Defenceless,
That almost didn’t happen.

Yet my great grandparents’ eyes met
And their parents’ too:
Loves that stretch back
As far as I can imagine.

In whatever way they came up,
Everything was against them:
Time, the tide, their tan.

Here I am

By proxy of ghostly histories.
Tales more spectacular
And grizzly
Than any Tolkien could muster;

Of black heroes
And goddesses
And the darkness that worked against them,
But never won

Because here I am.
Feeling a million years old,
I nurse my daughter:
That ancient practice

Protected at great length
By the light and lives
That we now speak of in the past tense.
Unbreakable codes,
Unquestionable Strength.


--------


Black Poppies 
By Eileen Kyriacou

Like steadfast pillars, they stood in unison.
As brave soldiers, they were enslaved by war.
Some boys not yet men, when they took up arms.
They fought so that others could live in peace.
Not compelled they showed legion for the country.
Did anyone note that bravery in their eyes?
Who’d contemplated plight of their families?
Wives and Mothers left minus their brave men.
Children kept pining for much-loved fathers.
For those left behind still the battles raged.
Who stands at their graves now and sheds a tear?
Gallantries of the brave weren't in disguise.
In the majesty of black now, all are portrayed.
For their blood flowed too in those rivers of red.

BLACK POPPIES

Creative Writing Workshops with Levi Tafari

Saturday 7th and 14th November at Liverpool Central Library
Saturday 21st and 28th November (Venue TBC)
Guided tour of the exhibition, 1pm. Creative Writing Workshop, 1.30-3.30pm

Writing on the Wall present a fascinating archive of letters and documents highlighting the plight of black soldiers, seafarers, and workers in Liverpool following demobilisation in 1919. This archive contains testimony from men from the Caribbean, West Africa and other colonial territories, who had fought for England on land and at sea during the Great War and were then left stranded, destitute and subject to racial violence on the streets of Liverpool.

As part of the Weeping Window experience, Writing on the Wall invites you to join internationally renowned poet Levi Tafari in exploring the lives of these men and their families and to respond creatively through story-telling and poetry. These creative writing workshops will be include a guided tour of the archive. Join the team for all four workshops or simply drop in for one.

Check out the new From Great War to Race Riots website - www.greatwar-to-raceriots.co.uk 
 

For more information contact WoW on
0151 703 0020 or info@writingonthewall.org.uk