Join us for a day-long children’s workshop, recreating some of Ted Hughes’ poems about insects, birds and mammals as a collection of original poetry-animals. Hughes’ collection The Iron Wolf maps the habits and ecological relationships of many animals found living along the Rochdale Canal. After walking on the wild side, from 1 Aspinall Street to Hebden Bridge, and reading many of these poems along the way, workshop participants will have the chance to craft a poetry-animal, in response to a favourite poem by Hughes.
After sketching these animals in prose, poetry and fabric forms, we will take them with us, by public bus, back to Mytholmroyd. Once returned to 1 Aspinall Street, we will temporarily install your fabric poetry animals there, as an insitu-bestiary. That is, a collection of real and imagined animals. The Elmet Trust is already excited to imagine how this collaborative compendium will look, inside the house where Ted Hughes was born!
The workshop is for children aged 10+. All tickets for this event must be ordered by a parent or carer .
The event is 'pay as you feel' with funds raised going directly to support the work of the Elmet Trust.
The event will be led by Rachel Hosein Nisbet, Elmet Trust chair, and president of Le Puits, the Story Well. She has given creative writing workshops in the UK, France and Switzerland, including at the Universities of Zurich, Neuchâtel and Lausanne. The workshop is supported by our Elmet Trust member Anita Alzamora-Watson, who will assist during the walk and creative practice.
Detailed Programme:
10:00 Meet at 1 Aspinall Street, Mytholmroyd.
Please bring:
a pay-what-you-can donation for the workshop
a water bottle, and a packed lunch
suncream or a raincoat, as appropriate for the weather on the day
shoes for walking outside, on rough ground, for about an hour
10:15 We will walk to 2 Fountain Street, Hebden Bridge via the Rochdale Canal and the River Calder, reading selected animal poems from The Iron Wolf (1998) enroute.
11:30 After arriving at 2 Fountain Street, you can shape your poetry-animal!
First, picked an animal you liked during the walk. Then, working with sounds and visual imagary this part of the workshop will help you make a fabric animal form, conjouring it from a narrative poem draft you will also shape. There will time for a picnic lunch, too!
14:30 We will return to 1 Aspinall St by bus, to install our bestiary and share lines from the poems you are shaping.
16:00 End of Workshop
