WRITING COURSE- The Albany Summer 2018

Lunch Tree.
Here....
... we sat under God's mighty yellow sun :  munched crisps and snacks and lunch fluids. Tautly, listening to  the brilliant writer - Wyl Menmuir. a Booker nominee among other accolades

Cars need constant fuel. Trees relish water. Constancy, is life. As writers we are read and cherished so WE must  upgrade and improve. Attending a three session upgrade course ( in education)  recently was that sort of ongoing line of cables, tree barks and twisting oxygen. Ferns.
 I was, personally,  recommended by Exile Writers Ink!...
Did not know what to expect.
What a beautiful experience.
To illustrate.
First day I got in the wrong train and was running late. Got a call from Fay Lant the co-ordinator from  National Literacy Trust. She was as calm as Lake Victoria..... and upon arriving a glass of cool water handed to me...what else do you require on a June, warm summer course?
It was the World Cup season too.
Three sessions just galloped away like horses

After wards, I felt there was no end;  just a journey needing engaging more gears and carrying on.
 My first and general impression was BASICS.

Who are we personally, why are we writing? What do we want to do? Teach? Achieve?

Seasoned writer and performer, Laila Sumpton gave a hands on approach on how to be effective in schools. She was grilled and asked so many eager questions. Cool under pressure, Laila did not disappoint. Another lecture from Spread the Word, director, Ruth Harrison, Likewise proferred, offered, gave info and materials...
Constant hammering and fiddling with fundamentals of preparation, thinking, drafting, engaging, communicating and come the day of actual delivery ( third session practicals at Holmleigh Primary School in Hackney), it was like a new day. And this freshness, this constancy and permanent growth,  is what I will personally take away

YOU GO WITH AN INTENT TO GET THIS AND END UP GETTING THAT AND WHAT ELSE?

Ooops....there is always the social , human level. Nothing beats social interaction. For me ...
Meeting new people. Engaging. Networking. Getting inspired.

While doing presentations - Laura Knowles , so well prepared treatise was an inspiration and a game changer for me...she was told to to prepare a one page teaching plan and came with a very well done business plan, almost...

So was Jay Hulmes, below with Laura.
Whose collection of poems I do not regret purchasing.

 A well chiseled insight into transgender and gender feelings and thoughts. Writers are informers, fi true, as they say in Jamaica. Below The only Jamaican- Guyanese  in the course had an interesting book, which I am currently enjoying reading.

Shelaagh's La Petite Negress, is a long "lyrical adventure written in verse..."- and just like Jay Hulmes and Laura Knowles, were part of this very interesting cluster of writers I shared those three memorable sessions.

This author, above,  grew up in Nigeria. As an African,  I enjoyed her consistent, light, easy going sense of humour.

Here with Costa Rica writer, Lester Gomez...

LAST SESSION- 15 MINS DELIVERY - AT HOLMLEIGH PRIMARY SCHOOL. 

 Holmleigh class teacher, dishes feedback...

Gomez, Samira Saleh and I,  shared same class and had contrasting presentations. Here each of us had a 15 minute gig to do what will normally take an hour or more.. The echo of the experience is not what Samira did. What did she do? Her prison experience. A small photograph of incarceration. Shown to the pupils. Minimalistic panorama. Or what Gomez offered. A picture of a bird. A talk about Costa Rica. Revelations. His "Central America" accent and we foreign born authors. Or my guitar, mount Kilimanjaro tales or the Shakespeare inspired poem on a Brazilian Pandeiro. Not just that. It was what the children wrote as feedback.

https://youtu.be/pQnvDzH-aMw

That sealed the bliss. Summed up things. It is not what you know, how you write or who you are. It is what BENEFIT children get. How their perception is enriched. That is what writing is about. What do readers see?

Samira Saleh ...Iranian author

Edin Suljic- who we shared the Shakespeare 400 years memorial in 2016-2017. The man in glasses and the science of words...With us was Shamim Azad, the Bangladesh author- who once again shared a journey. Shamim made us laugh with her use of words and tongue twisters.

 She does not take herself too seriously. And what I recall is her use of "Curry English" to describe accented languages ...the margarine and cheese  of literature.

Meanwhile,  World Cup- Russia 2018 was riding high. Some of us would  rush to pubs expecting England to repeat the 1966 story. But it wasn't to be...and life matches on.

The last Day. From left back row : Samira Saleh, Laura Knowles, Shelaagh, Dr , Shamim Azad, Lester Gomez, Jay Hulmes
Front : Wyl Menmuir , Freddy Macha

Brushing shoulders with Mr Menmuir and Mr Gomez...
TOBE CONTINUED