Community Arts Partnership launched “Local and Vocal” last week, an inspiring anthology of poems written by school children as part of the Poetry in Motion Schools Project.
The launch of Local and Vocal took place at the Ulster Hall Belfast and children from across every county in Northern Ireland read from a selection of their poems that appear in the anthology on stage. Local and Vocal is the first poetry collection produced by Community Arts Partnership, following the merger between New Belfast Community Arts Initiative and Community Arts Forum.
The Poetry in Motions Schools (PIMS) programme aims to develop the creative abilities of young people and enable their poetic voice through language and image. We achieve this through workshops conducted in schools by published/producing poets. These facilitators help to foster creativity via the spoken and written word. The poems are compiled into an anthology, published yearly.
Conor Shields Director:
Local and Vocal represents our first Poetry in Motion for Schools programme to reach beyond Belfast, out across the whole of Northern Ireland. We have worked in primary, secondary, grammar and special schools with young people aged from six to sixteen. We are delighted to read and hear the work of our new generation of poets. Their poetry gives us a glimpse of their lives: from dreams and visions to homes and families and offers a reflection of all our lives.”
Poetry in Motion Co-ordinator, Chelley McLear:
The poems take us into personal lives and to issues which affect us all. Here you will find adventures in myths and fairytales, and stories about the possible and the seemingly impossible. Reality and imagination blur their edges and create wonderful new worlds within these pages. These poems explore the lives we know and many other more magical and mystical experiences.”
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