How can we create meaning in our lives and art in a society unwilling or unable to avert the coming ecological catastrophe? Can connecting with our community alleviate this profound sense of loss and grief, offering purpose and a deep rootedness? Working as a community poet is my response to Dark Mountain’s position, and our day will be spent exploring the Art of Community along with using pieces from various Dark Mountain anthologies as inspiration.
‘When the cities lie at the monster’s feet, there are left the mountains.’
www.dark-mountain.net
Workshop at the Ucheldre Literary Society, Saturday 16th January 2016.
10am – 4pm. £15/£10 students and concessions.
Ucheldre Centre, Millbank, Holyhead, Anglesey, LL65 1TE.
Tel: 01407 763361
www.ucheldre.org
Sophie McKeand is a freelance writer and workshop facilitator from Y Gogledd Cymru. She regularly works with organisations such as Literature Wales, Arts Council Wales, Oriel Wrecsam and Age Cymru, and is particularly interested in working with marginalised groups. The psyche is a powerful tool for transformation, and Sophie believes the creation of art plays a crucial role in the evolution of communities.
Sophie worked as part of the core Dark Mountain team from 2012 to summer 2015 and remains a committed Dark Mountaineer. She was longlisted for the Poetry Society‘s National Poetry Competition in 2014 and her writing can be found in publications such as Poetry Wales, Dark Mountain, Earthlines and Tears in the Fence. Sophie has performed at festivals and events such as Wenlock Poetry Festival, Green Man, Wilderness, Dinefwr and the Gelynion/Enemies Project (curated by Poetry Wales), as well as being writer/producer on various projects for National Theatre Wales TEAM.
www.sophiemckeand.com
“Sophie writes poems in which strange, old, true things are forced into contact with the present. They twist and turn and you never get quite what you expect from them, which is what gives them their power… some of the most interesting poems I’ve read in a long while. Genuinely original.”
Paul Kingsnorth
“An allusive, restless sensibility turned outwards to the world; her words have heft, they grasp their way out of poetry into landscape.”
Jay Griffiths