Documenting the life of a community poet
This piece first appeared on Wales Arts Review in December 2016. What is the role of a poet in modern society? Sophie McKeand writes about the overwhelming challenge facing artists today: to speak up or stay silent? The Politics of Authenticity I’m writing this at 5.30am on a Friday morning. Later today will involve catching the train to […]
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I’m going to post some pieces written for other publications here over the next few weeks, so that they’re all in one place. I’m going to start with I Am Taliesin, which first appeared on the Dark Mountain blog as part of their ‘The Mythos We Live By’ series. This week we continue ‘The Mythos We […]
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Over the last week I’ve been fortunate enough to work with local young people at two National Trust properties: Tredegar House in Newport and Chirk Castle, on the north Wales border. Organised and facilitated by Literature Wales as part of the Young People’s Laureateship, each residency lasted two days and a lot of fun was […]
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I was born to the sound of starlings murmurating across the north Wales coastline. The Rebel Sun rode low in an early February sky as the Irish Sea gnawed across my ribcage. My hair was knotted seaweed. Water swelled sand dunes into my belly & a flock of seagulls took up residence in my mouth. […]
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Sunday 14th May was International Dylan Thomas Day with some wonderful events happening across Wales, the UK and beyond. I love Dylan Thomas’s lyrical approach to poetry (and life) and so being invited to be part of the celebrations was an honour. It can be too easy at times to get caught up in all […]
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It’s Easter Saturday and I’m on the train home from Cardiff where I’ve been performing alongside writers I have a lot of respect for including Clare e Potter, Dan Tsu and Philip Gross for All That The World Allows. The event, held in Bute Park, was part of a Tree Charter project organised in association […]
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I’ve been thinking a lot lately about what it is to be a community poet. Stitching it into poems, I’ve tried to understand the compulsion to go and work with community groups – to face the judgements of strangers and still feel the need to share poetry and the spoken word. I often feel apprehensive […]
Read MoreI’ve been blogging recently about working as a Writer, Community Arts Practitioner & Educator (in Y Gogs) and received a number of supportive and positive replies. The latest blog, a radical proposal for community arts and education also received a largely positive response but there was one element to the proposal that seemed to cause contention […]
Read MoreMovement & Process (work in progress): a piece created by Sophie McKeand & EunJin Choi at National Theatre Wales Summercamp 2015. In protest.
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