Here are some of the beautiful poems and illustrations created at our My Ancestors were French workshop at Creator College for Refugee Week.
Click on an image to enlarge and scroll through…
It was really good to meet and chat to Jack and to talk about guitars, poems, Creator College and the workshop. Here is Jack’s evocative poem…
Fields
Rolling Colours
Forged by thought
Lordless lonely long nights
Open
Mountain ancient lost
Keepers of the beautiful
Life stained, the eternal
Thunderous ink clouds
Smudged dirty impenetrable
Lovers of misery
Lingering over buildings
By Jack Beaumont
Here are Sydell’s Poems, for our Hull Refugee week workshop, beautifully written in gold…
The Auricula Suite
I am drifting
I am following
Following the crowd
Crowds of leaves
Leaves are descending
Descending into fear
Fear of unknown
Unknown language spoken
Spoken broken words
Words of foreigners
Foreigners are scary
Scary foreign lands
Lands of people
People of England
England is beautiful
Beautiful green land
Land of unknown
Unknown foreign people
Horse
Shimmy, gallop
Bolt, shake, natter
Beauty, gentle, innocence, pride
Wild
Fig
Sweet, fruity
Velvety, soft, moist
Sweet, nature, touchable
Luxury, tempting
Edible, juicy
Exotic
What would you take with you?
My Nanas necklace
Three Words
The dog slept
The dog woke
The dog cried
The dog barked
The dog wagged
The love lasts
The love eats
The love gives
The love grows
The chef baked
The chef cooked
The chef chopped
The chef fried
The chef tired
The chef rolled
The chef proved
By Sydell Faith
Anne’s evocative poem from our Refugee Week workshop at Creator College spans a year in a life…
Sink or Swim
I’ve no choice
They are shooting
Jump in now
Water so cold
Border far away
I am frightened
Please save me
Here’s the shore
Gasping, moaning, exhausted
A new future
One of happiness?
One year later
No – I am hated
They despise me
Take their jobs?
Take their girls?
It’s not true
I need help
To feel safe
To learn English
Get a job
Bring my family
All I need –
A peaceful life.
By Anne MacNamara
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
There were some amazing poems and art created at our My Ancestors were French workshop for Hull Refugee Week at Creator College yesterday. These guys Craig and Joe produced an awesome human beatbox rap. Keep an eye on the blog for more photos, work produced and film coming soon.
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
Here we are, we’re getting ready for our My Ancestors were French celebration event tomorrow, May 4th.
We’ll be setting up the venue, Willerby Methodist Hall, from 2pm and meeting up with the team from Lincoln University who are coming to film it.
The event kicks off at 4 pm when Amanda and Louise will be delivering a workshop, and then from 6 pm the exhibition will be open. There will be viewings of Quentin’s project films and Richard’s photos will be displayed with all the poetry, art and stories created at the workshops.
There will be an auricula theatre and flower display with Abby’s illustration and the Huguenot painting. To top off the day there will be a live performance of The Auricula Suite starting at 7.30 pm.
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.
Come and join us…
Would you like to come to a free, fun, no pressure workshop Saturday May 4th at Willerby Methodist Hall, Carr Lane/Willerby Square HU10 6JP 4pm – 5.30 pm
We will be using 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.
Free of charge. It will be easygoing and there will be 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’
All welcome
Find out what went on last time – you can see reviews and photos of our previous workshops here
Part of a series of workshops, which will contribute to the archive of stories and work created for the ‘My Ancestors were French’ project.
Lonely
Silent morning
Couldn’t understand anything
Words rushed straight through
Lie
Family
For ever
Never there again
Will always be gone
Why?
Home
Sweet comfort
Heart belongs there
Will always belong there
Me
Past
Never forgotten
My town stands
Will be there forever
Victory
By Charley Parkin
Freedom
How wonderful
I am leaving
To a better place
Home
By Joe Bastable
Flight
Very high
Flying so swiftly
Want to be here
Peaceful
Skyrim
Bloody death
Kill all enemies
Makes me feel happy
Dragons
The world is crazy
Obama can’t handle it
There is no food left
Bombing
Horrible noise
Running for ages
Lungs are burning up
Fear
By Ehren Lewis
Plunge into darkness
History is changing
The devil’s there
He always is
He taunts me
It’s so strange
Stop, listen, silence
Gun gets fired
Just get away
No turning back
Everything is destroyed
Forgive and forget
Can’t do it
Must say goodbye
Devil is gone.
My Ancestors Were French 
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