Our member Kuli Kohli featured on Leavener's Poet's Corner and Disability Arts Online!

Our member Kuli Kohli was selected as the May poet of the month on Leaveners' new Poet's Corner. She had the privilege of being the first guest poet, and now that the month is over, we wanted to share all her work which was displayed on the site throughout the month, and the lovely illustrations which accompanied them. Read her work here, and more about Leaveners here.

Kuli's story and a selection of her poetry have also been featured on Disability Arts Online, a site which showcases and encourages the expression of disability through creativity.

Well done Kuli, what a great chance to showcase your work!

Offa's Press Winter Workshop

On 31^st January, two of our members, Cherry and Kuli, attended a workshop run by local publisher Offa’s Press. We headed off to Pant, a village near Oswestry in Shropshire, in time to start the workshop at 10:30. Luckily, although we’d had some snow and ice in the few days beforehand, the morning shaped up to be mild and sunny.

We started the day with a workshop in Pant village hall, where we discussed poetry on the theme of winter by Western poets. The favourite of the day was Snow Joke by Simon Armitage, which is a ‘gossip’-style poem about a man who ignores police warnings and drives across the Yorkshire moors in the snow, only to become trapped in his car in a snow drift.

They all certainly gave us something to think about when examining how to represent the season in words.  For a completely different flavour, we moved on to the next part of the workshop where we looked at tanka, a traditional Japanese form.

Tanka are 5 lines long, have a juxtaposition of images (usually one from the poet’s surroundings and one about the poet themselves), and use a ‘pivot line’ between the first two and last two lines, which means the poem could be reversed and still make sense.  

We practiced writing tanka about winter to get us accustomed to the form. We had to draw on our experiences of winter, either recently or winters past we could remember.

We broke briefly for lunch to get our strength up for the walk. We went a similar route to last time we were there – through the limestone quarry over Llanymymech Rocks – all the while taking in the winter surroundings. There was plenty to be inspired by, from the gorgeous view at the top, to the snowdrops just coming through.

Although we had to leave at 2pm, the day continued with a further workshop in the afternoon, to work on poems inspired by the walk.

Once again, Offa’s Press delivered a first class personal learning experience, and both our members are keen to go back for the next poetry day, to be arranged for later in the year. You can see our girls’ work on the Offa’s Press website here, alongside other poems from the day.
 

Our girls on the walk around Llanymynech Rocks



Wild Bytes Café and the Black Country Writers Project

Recently, we learned that local community group Our Own Future have launched a project to promote local writers and give them a platform to share their work with a wider audience. Black Country Writers Project is accepting submissions of poetry and prose to display in Wild Bytes Café in Darlington St, Wolverhampton, for customers to enjoy while relaxing at the café.  

Three of our members - Roma, Kuli and Cherry – submitted some work which was accepted to be displayed at the café. Subsequently, they were invited to perform their work at the launch event for the project, which was held on the same day as the official launch of Wild Bytes Café.

On 14^th Feb, after the Blakenhall Writers session, they went along to share work on the theme of ‘love’ – very appropriate for the date! They read their work alongside two esteemed local poets - Jane Seabourne and Emma Purshouse - who had also submitted work to the project. Some of the audience had brought their work along too and joined in with the reading, while our member Amarjit came along to support. 

The café was busy and bustling, and the audience were enthusiastic about the work which was shared. It was a lovely environment and all three of our members enjoyed sharing their work and seeing their work on display.  

The project is ongoing, so if you have some work you want to share to help take your writing to the next level, why not check out their requirements and submit to ourownfuture@gmail.com?

You can read more about the launch event on Our Own Future's blog, where you can see our members performing.

Launching kulikohli.co.uk!

Our member Kuli Kohli is riding high following the success of her debut collection, Rag Doll. This week, she has launched her website, packed full of information about her life and writing.

Kuli’s life has been full of challenge and adventure in equal measure, and her work reflects this dichotomy thoughtfully. Now there’s one central place to learn about all things Kuli!

We’re very proud to have Kuli as a regular and leading member of Blakenhall Writers, and wish her all the best in her continued success.

Why not take a peek at her website and learn more about this inspiring woman?

The lovely Kuli - picture courtesy of Kuli Kohli

Offa's Press Poetry Day

On Saturday 11th October, three of our members - Kuli, Roma and Cherry - attended a poetry workshop and walking day run by West Midlands-based publisher, Offa's Press.

We set off up the A5 for Pant, a village just outside of Oswestry in Shopshire. Unfortunately there was a broken bridge after we’d turned off the main road, so we had to take a short diversion across the border to Wales! But we were only in Wales for a few yards before we saw the ‘Welcome to England’ sign again!

We arrived at Pant village hall and made ourselves comfortable over tea and biscuits. Once all were present and accounted for, we began the first workshop. The theme of the day was ‘work.’

First, we examined poetry about different aspects of work, by such poets as Seamus Heaney and Maya Angelou. They ranged from paid work to housework and used work in different ways. We then did an exercise discussing our best and worst jobs, and knuckled down to write some poetry about work. It was interesting to hear the kinds of jobs people had done throughout their lives.

The threat of rain had cleared so we set off for a walk over nearby Llanymynech Rocks. We wound our way up the hillside, meeting some new personalities along the way!

On the ascent

New friends

Llanymynech Rocks is the site of some old lime kilns, where fertiliser was created by burning limestone quarried from the rock face. We passed by the kilns and the pits before heading up to see the quarry area. There is a lot of remaining evidence of the work which once took place there, including intact railway tracks and metal figures of the workers.

Metal statue of a worker

We settled down for lunch by the large, stripy rock face, where we were joined by some woolly friends! They stole the show as we all marvelled at their black fleeces and friendly demeanour. They live on a nearby farm and are let into the reserve to eat tough plants during winter, allowing wildflowers to flourish in the spring.

Picnic time!

Sheep scaling the dramatic rocks

After lunch we made our way back down the hill, ruminating on the industry which once bloomed there and how it affected the whole community. We arrived back at the village hall for our second workshop of the day, writing poetry which reflected the signs of work we had examined during the walk. It started to rain just as we got inside – what good timing!

There was a brief interlude before we were all due to meet at the local pub for our evening meal, and the three of us were invited my the manager of Offa’s Press, Simon Fletcher, to have a tea and cake break at his house, which was just down the road! We had a pleasant time discussing the day, Offa’s Press and writing in general, as well as admiring all of the artefacts Simon has collected over the years!

We met in the local pub and had a relaxed evening meal, before each having the chance to perform our poetry. Some people performed poetry they’d written during the day, and some had brought poems they’d already written on the theme of ‘work.’

Our girls enjoying the pub meal

For the finale of the evening, we were joined by Offa’s Press poet Dave Reeves, who entertained us with melodic renditions of his West Mids-dialect poetry, accompanied by his harmonica and squeeze-box!

As the night drew to a close we said our goodbyes and set off back through the darkness and fog of the winding Shropshire lanes! Roma entertained us with ghost stories as we laughed about the highs of the day.

All three of us had a wonderful day, and highly recommend going along when Offa’s Press set up their spring workshop.

Blakenhall Writers Autumn News

We have plenty of things going on in autumn so make sure you’re up to date by checking through this post!

September 6^th – Kuli and Cherry appeared at the Stafford Arts Festival, reading their poetry in St Chad’s Church Stafford. The event was organised by the Staffordshire Poet Laureate, and Kuli was invited to do further readings as a result of the great reception her poems received.

October 11^th – We will NOT be having a session in October. This is due to Roma, Kuli and Cherry being at the Offa’s Press Writing Day. We discussed our options at the September meeting and decided this was what we wanted to do. We’ll see you in November! If you want to head along to the Offa’s Press Writing Day with us, check out the details here.

October 14^th – Roma will be reading at Wolverhampton City Voices in the Lych Gate Tavern, 7:30pm, £2.50 on the door. Let’s turn up and support her!

November 8^th – We will be back on schedule with a session on Poetry & Prose techniques. Come along to Blakenhall Healthy Living Centre at 11:00 – 13:00.

Other news!

We will be starting conversations soon about putting together a Blakenhall Writers anthology in the early part of 2015. We will need some funding to put towards this, so any ideas you have, please let us know! Start having a think about what you might want included in the anthology, and we will start discussion in the next few months.

We also want to hear from you about your writing plans. We’ll be tailoring next year’s schedule to what people want to develop, so start thinking about why you write and what your goals are, ready for when we have those conversations.

Take care everyone, and see you in November!

Don't forget to follow us on Facebook and Twitter for the latest news :)

Introducing 'Rag Doll' by Kuli Kohli

We are very proud to share with you the news that one of our members, Kuli Kohli, is introducing her new booklet, ‘Rag Doll.’ The booklet is a tantalising mix of poetry and prose, examining how it feels being an Asian woman living with cerebral palsy.

Kuli has a great track record of publication across a variety of magazines, anthologies and websites, and now brings some of her finest pieces together for this touching and provocative booklet.

 "Kuli Kohli’s poetry has come out of a long process of finding her voice and understanding her life and its imposed limits. She writes fluently in a variety of styles and forms and tells us a great deal about what it’s like to be an Asian woman with disabilities in modern Britain. It is by turns moving and funny. She should be an inspiration to us all." Simon Fletcher - Poet and publisher

 "Lovely poems to move the heart and mind with a rainbow of emotions." Surjit Dhami - Meditation Teacher and Consultant Editor of Universal Target Magazine

To order a copy of this fantastic piece for £3.95, please get in contact via Facebook or Twitter, or leave a comment below.

Three of our members' works at The Poetry Fence at Acton Scott!

If you happen to find yourself roaming around Shropshire, please visit the historic farm, Acton Scott, nestled in the natural beauty of an English countryside. And don't forget to pass by the Poetry Fence where three pieces of poem by our members Romalyn Ante, Cherry Doyle, and Kuli Kohli were featured hanging in a red-silk tie along the fence. 

 Click HERE to check those lovely pieces of poetry.

 Thank you to the poet in residence of Acton Scott, Jean Atkin, for featuring such lovely poetry! Visit the Acton Scott website HERE

:-)