About Warrior Poets
All too often, young people in care and young refugees are defined by their past, rather than by the resilience they draw upon in order to overcome the hardships that they have faced at such a young age.
Society often maps a future for them dominated by antisocial behaviour and criminal activity instead of recognising that through overcoming adversity, these young people develop a strength and fortitude that makes them a hugely valuable asset to their community.
Wise Words are partnering with the Marlowe Theatre, Virtual Schools Kent and Kent Refugee Action Network on Warrior Poets - a project through which we are working with young people in care and young refugees to explore and celebrate this resilience.
The young people are working with poets, a projection artist, a musician and a visual artist to create an immersive, sensory landscape of projected words, poetry and imagery that will appear in the Marlowe Studio for Gala weekend, celebrating the theatre’s 5th birthday.
We are delighted to be working with lead poet Joelle Taylor; shadow poets Alex Vellis & Patrick Connolly; visual artist Greg Stobbs; musician Richard Navarro, projection artist Pete Wallace and Lemn Sissay as artistic director.
“I am not defined by my scars, but by the incredible ability to heal.” Lemn Sissay
Stories of Resilience
Throughout this project we are celebrating stories of resilience and have been chatting to people within the community about how the challenges within their lives have given them strength. Below is an opportunity for you to share your stories through our Poetry Competition and some stories we have gathered from people in the community.