Loving Nature with Write Yourself Well: A Creative Workshop

Join us to explore how we love nature with Write Yourself Well, a chill in-person workshop to boost your creativity and self-love!

Join Loving Nature with Write Yourself Well!

Get ready for an inspiring creative workshop where you'll connect with nature and your inner self through writing. This in-person event is all about exploring your creativity while embracing the beauty around you. No pressure, just fun and self-discovery. Bring your favourite pen and a curious mind- let's write, relax, and celebrate the great outdoors together! In this artsy-crafty-wordy workshop, Aisha Lama will use collage and visual prompts to help you delve into what you love about nature – including yourself.

This is part of The First Verse: a programme of community poetry events devised and funded by Borderlands, in advance of the first ever South Tees Poet Laureate.

Join the writing communities of South Teesside to look at love through many different lenses. Throughout January and February, you can join taster workshops in Middlesbrough, Marske, Redcar and Loftus led by local writers’ groups Adolescent Hercules, Write Yourself Well, Tell Us a Story, Tees and Empathy, Loftus Writers and Tees Women Poets. Share your words at our Valentine’s Eve showcase of love poetry as we come together for a special edition of TEESMOUTH spoken word cabaret.

Events include:

LOVE LETTERS HOME with Tell Us a Story

Tuesday 13th January, 18:30-20:00 @ Florence Easton Room, Redcar Palace TS10 3AE

A session dedicated to love of place, pulling out the generic threads of love, of home and looking at the letter as a form for writing poetically.

LOVING NATURE with Write Yourself Well

Thursday 15th January, 18:00 - 20:00 @ The Burlam Bear, Middlesbrough TS5 5AF

In this artsy-crafty-wordy workshop, Aisha lama will use collage and visual prompts to help you delve into what you love about nature – including yourself.

BIG LOVE with Tees & Empathy

Thursday 22nd January, 16:30-18:30 @ Smuggler’s Den, 7 Redcar Road, Marske TS11 6AA

What if love is about more than romance and partnership? What might it mean to love in a larger way - Can we love the air, the ocean, the cosmos itself?

LOVE LOST with Loftus Writers

Saturday 24th January, 10:30 – 12:30 @ Loftus Library, Loftus TS13 4PR

What becomes of the broken-hearted? A poetry workshop looking at grief, regret and heartbreak over missing family, romance, friendship and places.

FAN GIRLING with Tees Women Poets

Saturday 31st January, 10:30-12:30 @ Discovery Room, Middlesbrough Central Library TS1 2AY

A riotous look at the role models and celebrity crushes that have defined the eras of our life. Open to cis and trans women, and non-binary poets comfortable in women-centred spaces.

MODERN LOVE with Adolescent Hercules

Wednesday 4th February, 13:00 – 15:00 @ 2B Creative, Hill Street Centre, Middlesbrough TS1 1SU

A fascinating workshop inspired by how ideas of love and love poetry have evolved throughout the ages and across cultures.

For more info and to secure your place, please contact The First Verse project manager Kirsten Luckins on imeldasays@gmail.com to be forwarded to the workshop leaders.