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I have worked, as it days, mainly for the charity
Persula, in a few prisons and safe centres and thought IO aught to share a
little of the experience for others. Perhaps you will be able to draw on our
work. The second page is part of the follow on pack I left at a recent prison
visit. It gives and idea, in fact it gives lots of idea, but doesn’t have my
stores wih it that the ideas bounce off. I need to keep something for myself! I have used completely different stuff in other
groups and tend to tailor my package to suit the needs of the session. If any
of you out there I have worked with want to send me stuff done in the group
or as a result I will bang it in here somewhere. For instance, in a safe
centre for 10 to 18 years olds (I think) we worked on poetry forms like
concrete poetry and acrostics and there was some great things came form it.
Some of the writers had their work forwarded for an arts award. Below is a personification poem from a group I was
with recently. “Hyer” The following poem was written in one of the
sessions with the guys. When Joy
Walks In Bouncing, floating uplifting Smiling ear to ear
Cheesy this grin Colours of joy Orange: Red, orange, yellow Giving happiness High pitched Squeaky
fast Joy says, “I’ve come to change your life” “Don’t give up” Because – joy Dances like Bez Skips like a kangaroo Travels like a VIP Stirring the heart Filling you with joy Adrian
Spendlow and David Moss The brief was to demonstrate our skills in an
empowering way whilst enabling them for their own groups. So each performance
piece was a model with follow on ideas. The person who runs a session with
them was unable to be there that day so, as I often do, I provided a follow
on CD Rom full of ideas and information (That’s what’s on page 2). The tutors were also copying this and were running
off individual sheets for people. The prime areas they work on are developing the
concept of adults storytelling as a social function and gaining ideas for the
‘Storybook Dads projects. The main way we sought to empower them was to draw
on the natural story within us all so they felt that they were already
storytellers and to demonstrate ways that sending recordings home could
develop a two way understanding and development. The music, and perhaps more importantly, overtone
chanting added depth and acceptability to the feel of performance,
introducing new direction to tastes and interests: Aspects of mood were
looked at more deeply than the groups had done before allowing deeper
understanding of and sharing of quite moving poetry from inmates as well as
enabling a future view of more complex/real writing and sharing. We also ran a lunchtime session for tutors where our
ideas were enthusiastically accepted by a busy small group. Here are some of the comments from this latest visit
from some of the guy’s in our groups. - What kind of things did Adrian
and David do? Told stories with added music to bring out the best
in them. Chanting, storytelling and poems David’s weird noises, pretty damn cool that. Guitar, violin, poems and chanting –singing. All sorts. Stories, ghost stories, poems, singing. Told stories, played music, sang, talked. Sang, told stories, gave advice, lifted spirits. What did you like best and why? David playing the violin because it makes me feel
relaxed. All of it I think. It was very different, but good. I would love to learn how to do the chanting. All of it. Guitar because most groups I like are guitar groups There was nothing I didn't like. (all but one said
this) Music and stories cos it was good how they put them
together. I didn’t really enjoy it I am not into that sort of
thing. Everything. It was all good. Something different. It was all good. It all. All was good. The songs and advice. Learning how to construct poems. |
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(Mainly
for the wonderful Persula Foundation) |
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Adrian’s
work in prisons, safe-centres etc |
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Bright
Light Arts |