By Eileen Earnshaw
The newly formed Falinge Writing Group took a tiny walk onto the wild side at their workshop on Thursday with the help of the amazingly talented Joy France and her partner in prose, poetry, rap and all things literary Rick Maxwell A.K.A. Skully The Mad Hat. This was the first of many hoped for workshops that will be led by her over the coming months at the Falinge group.
Joy discovered her voice and performance poetry in her late fifties. She has since become an extreme example of how creativity can change a person, normally a quiet retiring person, she demonstrates that age is no barrier to embarking upon a new creative endeavour and that post- modern literature in all its various new and exciting forms can be for everyone. Joy won the Culture Hero of Slam in 2013 being the first older person to win this highly prestigious award. She does however, still find performance uncomfortable at times, but even so, she takes every opportunity offered to share her talent. These opportunities also include the creation of art installations for exhibitions. She has done a T.E.D. Talk and participates in ‘rap battles’ in which the opposing poets battle it out with words, a highly entertaining and exciting experience. She is the resident poet in Afflecks Palace in Manchester’s Northern Quarter which is a venue well worth a visit.
Joy’s workshop entitled ‘Twist’ explored methods of pushing creativity into the absurd. It was a master class in how writers can observe daily life from a different point of view, in identifying the magic in mundane objects and situations, encouraging the members to develop for themselves a uniqueness of style that separates them from the mundane.
In the coming weeks the group will be launching a pamphlet containing their work done over the last few weeks on Climate change. On this particular project, the group have benefited from a series of six workshops facilitated by Seamus Kelly. The launch will take place at Falinge Park on the 17th of March when members will perform some of the work contained within the book followed by a celebration lunch.
Facilitators in the next few weeks are Eileen Earnshaw who will lead on the 3rd of March the subject being Spring and on the 10th of March when her subject will be ‘How to present your poetry and prose on stage’.
Falinge Writing Group meets weekly at 10 am to 12 noon every Thursday. For further information contact Eileen.earnshaw@yahoo.co.uk.
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