A Young People’s Poetry Squad for Canterbury?

The Wise Words Festival is developing an exciting programme of poetry inspired events, workshops, talks and installations that will take place across the year. As a part of this, we want to bring together a small group of young people (aged 13-25), with whom we can work to create and commission more events that will appeal to... View Article

The Wise Words Festival is developing an exciting programme of poetry inspired events, workshops, talks and installations that will take place across the year. As a part of this, we want to bring together a small group of young people (aged 13-25), with whom we can work to create and commission more events that will appeal to young people. We also want to provide workshops, mentoring and performance opportunities for this group - making Kent a place where we nurture and support the talent of our young poets.

Where this idea came from:

Together with some great *organisations, Wise Words delivered a programme of performance poetry for young people across 2014 called Spoke ‘n’ Word. Amazing professional poets led workshops in Medway, Ashford and Canterbury which led to young people performing at the FUSE and Create Festivals, Lounge on the Farm and ultimately competing in a Grand Slam Final at Wise Words.

Through this programme we met young people between the ages of 13 - 25 with exceptional talent and ambition. We are keen to make sure that this work continues.

*Apples and Snakes | Lounge on the Farm | LV21 | Revelations St Mary’s | Wheely Groovy

But it’s important that what we offer is what you want…

So please fill in our short survey to help us understand what would be useful to you.

It will take us a few months to raise to the funds for this project but if you are interested in hearing about opportunities between now and then, please join make sure you add your email to the survey above.

And by the way… we don’t like the name Young People’s Poetry Squad so please feel free to suggest another name!

Here are a few links to other similar initiatives that might spark a few ideas and give you a better sense of the possibilities.

Yorkshire’s Young Creative Writers

New Writing Souths Writing Squad

And a short film by New Writing North about their young writers squad…