Now that the first stage of our My Ancestors project is complete we are taking a break from this blog while we plan out the next stage. But there is lots going on over on our Rich & Lou’s Loudhailer website, so you can follow our blog there Loudhailer Blog http://loudhailer.net/
Thanks! Rich and Lou Duffy-Howard Visit our Loudhailer website
Goodbye Loved Ones
I’m leaving now
I’m going away
To my lovers
I can’t stay
It’s not you
It’s just me
A new country
That is me
A fresh start
A new life
A different culture
Will shine bright
Goodbye my friends
I’m going now
A new life
I start now
My name is Lily
I’m a flower
With flower power
With my personality
I shine bright
Share my story
It’s my life
In new places
I share life
What I have
Is my personality
I am polite
In new places
What I offer
It’s my name
Lily the flower
By Lilybeth Goodwillie
Ilona wrote and read these beautiful poems at the My Ancestors were French Refugee Week workshop at Creator College…
Heart
Emotional mirror
Squeezed so tight
Will it ever recover?
Shattered
Forget your mother tongue
And accept strange sounds as yours
No choice left for you
Three Word Poem – The Air
The plain lands
And doors open
The air here
Smells so different
Vast flowery meadows
Lively smelly farms
Bread just baked
All is missing
Instead of all
Smog and dust
And fish shops…
So very strange
Why would you
Leave all this
And swap it
To such uncomfort?
“Some things happen
Time to go.
Try to find
Eager for experience”
Letters
Through the door
They pop inside
To make me
So very happy
“We send you
All our love
Just stay strong
‘Til the end”.
Every single postman
Bringing the letter
Made every morning
So much bearable.
Then the letters
Slowly got rarer
‘I’m still here!
I still remember!’
No more letters
To fill me
With home strength
For the end.
Yet, can’t stop
Thus I’m made
To find strength
Closer to me.
Ilona Urbikaite
We had a fabulous session at the My Ancestors Were French Exhibition, Workshop and Gig for Refugee Week on Wednesday. A big thanks to Alan, Mal and Sally at Hull’s Creator College for hosting the event.
There were some amazing and very evocative poems and art produced in the workshop that Louise & Amanda ran in the afternoon. Adam Wilson is the artist in residence at Creator College. His is not an illustrated poem, but a poemed illustration, ‘Stranger’.
Strangeness made Stranger
Language gap broadened
Nuances subtly lost
Meaning crisply missed
It’s a poem, set to music, have a listen…
My ancestors were French,
And, for what it’s worth, faith ruled their lives.
Me, I’ve never been to church, and I haven’t been good.
But I’ve made my mark,
And I got in trouble,
Listening to my devil in the dark.
Y’know I’ve always landed on my feet,
And I’ve got a sense of history.
Yeah I’ve always landed on my feet,
And those flowers take me back…
The devil inside, he’s sittin’ on my shoulder,
Pushin’ me out so I’m sittin’ on a boulder
In the middle of the lake.
And the devil can’t swim,
So I’m feelin’ brave and I’m gonna get him.
It’s gonna get colder, if he falls in the lake.
He’ll be off my shoulder, off my back.
There’ll be no more trouble,
Gonna make a fresh start.
Stop listenin’ to the devil…
Gonna listen to my heart.
Gonna listen
To my heart.
© 2012 L. Duffy-Howard, Corey Clough-Howard
Would you like to come to a FREE workshop and exhibition on Wednesday June 19th 2.30 pm – 4.30 pm at Creator College, 6-8 King Edward St, Hull, HU1 3SS, UK
We use music, poetry, local film and storytelling to look at what it feels like to come to live in a strange land, and how music can bring people of different cultures together, overcoming adversity and creating something good and new.
Run by Mandi and Lou, it will be easygoing and there will be tea and biscuits. All welcome, just come along on the day but note that there are stairs up to the venue.
It’s all part of the Heritage Lottery Funded All Our Stories scheme, in support of BBC2’s ‘The Great British Story – A People’s History
Part of a series of workshops, which will contribute to the archive of stories and work created for the ‘My Ancestors were French’ project. https://myancestorswerefrench.com/
There will also be a free My Ancestors were French gig (The Auricula Suite) at 7.00 pm. All welcome, come and join us!
Please note that there are stairs up to the concert room, and as yet no lift.
Click here to see the full Refugee Week Programme
Thanks to all who have been to our workshops. We thoroughly enjoyed meeting everyone. There was lots of excellent conversation and the amount of superb work created – poems, stories, drawing – was amazing.
Quentin made this short film of Amanda and Louise and the participants at the Willerby Methodist Hall session, so you can see what went on.
We used music, poetry, local film and storytelling to explore the themes of the My Ancestors were French project. It was easygoing, no pressure and we had lots of good discussion over tea and biscuits.
It’s all part of the Heritage Lottery Funded All Our Stories scheme, in support of BBC2’s ‘The Great British Story – A People’s History’
Work produced at the workshops are displayed at the project exhibitions celebrating the stories uncovered and work created for the ‘My Ancestors were French’ project.
Richard took the photos.
Chinquapin
Rugby
Very hard
Physical contact sport
Determination, courage, smashing barriers
Committed
Chile
My ancestors
Great great grandad
Weird being part Chilean
Hot
By Elliott Windley
Israel
My ancestors
Persecuted in war
Curious to know more
What happened?
Jewish
Interesting culture
Remembering the past
To understand my history
Family
By Rachel Artley
Friday morning
My Ancestors were French
I’ve learned lots of things
Like the particular power
Of the auricula flower
And the memories it brings
Earthquake
Natural disaster
Can’t go home
Wish it never happened
Devastation
By Joe Galloway
Valentina is in England. In folklore the full moons have evocative names which are connected to the season such as Wolf Moon & Sturgeon Moon. The spring moon, when the Auriculas are in bloom is known in as The Flower Moon, and sometimes the Full Corn Planting Moon. Moons come and go and Valentina finds solace in the nature and the English woodland; in the trees and animals in the wood. The seasons turn, the full flower moon comes around again, and the Greenwood is good.
The flower moon is rising
Deer startle up on the hill
It reminds me that I’m far from home
When the clear night air is still
And cool is the spring here
When the hare runs along the hedge
My pretty flowers still bloom for you
With a green and silver edge
And the flower moon is full
The flower moon looks bright tonight
And the flower moon is full
Now I sleep alone I lay down in the greenwood
Now I sleep alone I lay down in the green leaves
By the time the harvest moon comes around
And the fox hides down in the field
There’s fire in the air and there’s storm in the hills
But my heart is still not healed
And it hurts deep down inside
When I think of the love that we lost
Oh my broken heart is still not healed
I lost love’s battle without a shield
And the harvest moon is full
Yeah the harvest moon looks bright tonight
And the harvest moon is full
Now I sleep alone I lay down in the greenwood
Now I sleep alone I lay down in the brown leaves
When the planting moon comes round again
And the badger hunts in the wood
I remember the beautiful flowers of home
But life out here is good
And the planting moon is full
Yeah the planting moon looks bright tonight
And the planting moon is full
The flower moon is high tonight
The flower moon looks white tonight
The flower moon is bright tonight
And the greenwood is good!
The next chapter of our Auricula Suite tale…
In our next song, many years have passed by, and Valentina embraces life in England, growing roses in her English garden. Millais’ painting is full of coded messages – the Victorian concept of ‘the language of flowers’. Red roses symbolise passion. In Millais’ painting of the lovers standing by the wall the young woman is trying to make her lover wear the white scarf that would protect him from persecution and possibly death, and he, despite his love for her refuses to renounce his faith. Here Canterbury Bells signify faith; and Nasturtiums, patriotism. Valentina settles in the East Coast of England, she marries and has a family. But she never did forget Raoul.
I work the land here, I rise each morning
I thank the Lord and reap what I have sown.
I left my homeland, but kept my God-fear
I looked up to him when I set off alone.
I’m long since married; I have three daughters,
I love them dearly and we are family
And my garden is full of roses
I give them water and feed them tenderly.
My husband loves me; we work together
And spend the evenings until the fire burns low.
But when my candle is pale and smoky
I think back to you, I never let you go.
.
Our last embrace by the wall,
You kept your faith, you would not lie
The broken bell signalled your fall,
I never knew if you would live or die
In the darkness we lay down in the heather
One kiss to last forever, before I went to sea.
My eldest daughter, she looks so like you.
But home is here now, what is and what will be.
.
I made my life here; I rise each morning
I thank the Lord and reap what I have sown
I left my homeland but kept my God-fear
I looked up to Him when I set off alone
.
I made my life here; I rise each morning
I thank the Lord and reap what I have sown
And in my garden, my English garden
I tend my roses, and water them…alone.
© 2012 Lou Duffy-Howard
Auriculas grown and photographed by Richard Duffy-Howard
Anything could happen…
Madness and the wind are blowin’ over the sea
Don’t look back, don’t turn around Jack
The waves are comin’ at me
I can see the whole wide world out there
When I’m working with the crew
But I’m heading down the cargo hold
My sight’s set on you
Madness and the wind are blowin’ over the bay
I said don’t look back don’t turn around Jack
We’re heading out to stay
The coastline of East Anglia
Is coming into view
But I’m heading down the cargo hold
My sight’s set on…
…How you look today
And where you lead I’ll follow
There’ll be a price to pay
But I don’t care about tomorrow
I’m heading down the cargo hold
My sight’s set on you
© 2012 Lou Duffy-Howard
Auriculas grown and photographed by Richard Duffy-Howard
Our project film ‘Stranger in a Strange Land’, shot by film maker Quentin Budworth, was featured in this lovely big colourful two page article in the Hull Daily Mail yesterday.
Thank you to journalist Will Ramsey.
Quentin and Rich were guests on BBC Radio Humberside’s Breakfast Show last Saturday and talked to presenter Carl Wheatley about the film. Thanks to Carl and producer Steve Redgrave.
Thanks to Lucy Lyon who featured the film on the Hull Daily Mail website last week. You can read the article here.
There were one or two uninformed comments and this little heart warmer from redfraggle73…
Tuesday, February 05 2013, 9:08AM
“This is fantastic and a great piece of sociological reporting as well as art. Hull is, at long last, a diverse city and will become more so in the future. I’m excited and proud to see our city celebrating this and giving residents an insight into how life is for people when they arrive in this city. The global movement of people is a fact and is of benefit to all of us living in this world, be this out of choice or to flee persecution. The ignorant racist comments written here, as well as those I see so often written in response to other articles, just show the authors to be uneducated bigots. I suspect these people are happy to be called uneducated bigots, but I feel that someone should at least point it out.”
My Ancestors Were French 
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