Herstory Light Festival 'World of Equals Day theme: A celebration of egalitarian personal and professional partnerships throughout history and today. Join us for a special extended Poems on a Sunday Afternoon, with a warm invitation to join us for the usual shared space, and featuring a celebration of women writers and those who inspired them to make their voices equally heard from members of the Women Aloud NI Collective.
And an invitation to make your own voice heard, with two dedicated creative writing workshops (11am-1pm) with experienced creative writing facilitators - playwright Dr Catherine Kelly, and poet Gráinne Tobin. All is free - register your attendance at your preferred workshop with Down Arts Centre on 028 4461 0747.
More info:
From 2.30-3.45pm – shared spaced. The usual warm Invitation to those in the workshops* and the general public to share a piece as normal for Poems on a Sunday Afternoon
From 4-5pm 'Herstory: Luminescence & Legacy – celebrating those women who inspired courage'. Showcase by Women Aloud NI members – a collective of writers who work to raise the profile of and represent women's writing in Northern Ireland, and who create an exciting programme of events drawing from the membership of women writers – emerging and established - which celebrate our burgeoning local female writing talent.
From 11am-1pm: * 'World of Equals' Workshops. Choice of two. FREE, registration required, contact 028 4461 0747.
Either:
(1) 'Voices of the Future' Creative Writing Workshop
Facilitator: Gráinne Tobin
About the Workshop
You are welcome to come just as you are to this one-off workshop, whether you are a very experienced writer or a total beginner.
Your writing belongs to you. You will be encouraged to share it, but you have the choice to keep it to yourself if you prefer.
Nobody is going to know or care whether you can spell perfectly.
The future and the past seem to be part of the present – what do you think? Could your past self and your present self learn from each other? Could your future self tell you a thing or two? Are all these selves each other’s equals? And what about the people who come after us?
About the Facilitator
Gráinne Tobin grew up in Armagh, and lives in Newcastle, where she taught English in Shimna Integrated College after working for many years in further and adult education in Lurgan. Her books are Banjaxed and The Nervous Flyer’s Companion from Summer Palace Press and The Uses of Silk from Arlen House. She has won some poetry prizes and has contributed to magazines and anthologies, including Word of Mouth (Blackstaff) When the Neva Rushes Backwards (Lagan Press) On the Grass When I Arrive (Liberties Press) Washing Windows (Arlen House) Metamorphic( Recent Work Press) and Something About Home (Geographies Publications). Her work is online in Poethead, Poetry Ireland’s archive and the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s online Troubles Archive, and one of her poems is on a sculpture in the stairwell of Down Arts Centre.
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OR
(2) 'World of Equals' Creative Writing Workshop
Facilitator: Dr Catherine Kelly
About the Workshop
All are welcome to attend this workshop - whether beginner or more experienced writer - all genres. Inspired by her own experience as a writer, and by the idea of equality in regard to the lives of Hannah and Francis Sheehy Skeffington, you can expect lively discussion on the theme, and the situation of women writers, and to create new writing of your own.
About the Facilitator
Catherine graduated from Exeter University with a doctorate in Drama. She works as a teacher and a writer. Plays produced include two for radio and a student performance for Creative Learning at the Lyric Theatre, Belfast. She completed a script for Greenshoot Productions as part of a project dealing with the experiences refugees. Most recently Kabosh Theatre performed her monologues about the Sheehy Skeffingtons. She enjoys working as a tutor in a range of places that includes schools, Down Arts and Open Learning at Queen’s University Belfast.
More info about Herstory Light Festival
More info about Down Arts Centre