Published 20.05.2021
by Kids’ Own
by Kids’ Own
A children’s arts organisation and publishing house.
A children’s arts organisation and publishing house.
Kids’ Own is delighted to announce a range of online events and masterclasses in partnership with Creative Donegal, Sligo County Library, and Leitrim Libraries for Cruinniu na nÓg which takes place on the 12th of June this year.
All of our events are for young people aged 14-18 and will provide exciting opportunities to work alongside high-profile artists and writers based in Ireland and the UK, to try something new and test out some of their ideas!. All of these workshops will take place on Saturday the 12th of June. The times and order of these events are listed below and all bookings should be made through the Eventbrite links below. Consent from a parent/guardian is required for participants under 18.
Scroll through the flyers below for more on each event!
11am – 1pm Creative Writing with Anthony Anaxagorou: Join poet Anthony Anaxagorou to explore creative writing, with a focus on building in interesting and unusual imagery, phrasing and narrative into poems and prose. Participants will explore more figurative ways of using images, symbols and inferences in their writing. Poems will very much be focused around exploring participants’ own lives, experiences and sensibilities.
Anthony Anaxagorou is a British-born Cypriot poet, fiction writer, essayist, publisher and poetry educator. His poetry has been published in POETRY, The Poetry Review, Poetry London, New Statesman, Granta, and elsewhere. His work has also appeared on BBC Newsnight, BBC Radio 4, ITV, Vice UK, Channel 4 and Sky Arts. His second collection After the Formalities published with Penned in the Margins is a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and was shortlisted for the 2019 T.S Eliot Prize. It was also a Telegraph and Guardian poetry book of the year. In 2020 he published How To Write It with Merky Books; a practical guide fused with tips and memoir looking at the politics of writing as well as the craft of poetry and fiction along with the wider publishing industry.
11am – 1pm Filmmaking Workshop with Paul Mahon: Participants will explore some fresh ideas and approaches looking at how technology and collaboration can be used to create fun engaging art projects. We will look at how using what you have at your fingertips is the best thing for moving your ideas forward; whether it’s a camera that’s lying around the house, a smartphone, or your webcam, as well as tips and tricks on how to get the best out of free or cheap software.
Paul Mahon is a multidisciplinary filmmaker & Visual Artist from Kilkenny whose work encompasses Directing, Producing, Editing, Motion Graphics, Music Composition and Photography.
2 – 3pm Celebrating your identity with FeliSpeaks: The workshop will focus on encouraging the participants to celebrate their identity online. Participants will work through the process of identifying and writing their identity, and how reflection can effectively communicate their identity through their work. They will develop skills and language to effectively communicate their identity online and realise why this is important for their growth as artists and people.
FELISPEAKS is a Nigerian-Irish Poet, Performer, Playwright from Co. Longford; currently living in Maynooth town, Co. Kildare. FELISPEAKS has been nominated ‘Best Performer’ by Dublin Fringe Festival Sep. 2018 Judged for her performance in ‘BOYCHILD’, a co-written play by Dagogo Hart and herself. As well as being a Member of the Poetry Ireland Board of Directors, Felicia is amember of the Poetry Collective, WeAreGriot. FELISPEAKS’poem: ‘For Our Mothers’ is in the Ordinary and Higher Level English Leaving Cert Curriculum 2021 – 2024.
2-4pm: Poetry and Performance with Ella Frears: Through a series of low pressure writing games and exercises we’ll produce poems for performance on a digital platform (audio/video). Looking at examples of other poets and how they present their work, we’ll discuss what we think is most effective and how we’d like to communicate our ideas to our viewer/listener.
Ella Frears is a poet and artist based in London. Her debut collection Shine, Darling (Offord Road Books, 2020) was a Poetry Book Society recommendation and was shortlisted for both the Forward Prize for Best First Collection and the T. S. Eliot Prize for Poetry. She is a trustee and editor for Magma Poetry and has been poet/artist in residence for Tate Britain, the National Trust, conservation organisation Back from the Brink, K6 Gallery, The Observatory, the John Hansard Gallery and Royal Holloway University physics department where she was writing about the Cassini Spacecraft.
4:30 – 6pm Creative Writing with Donegal Young Writers: Writer Mary Branley, and the Donegal Young Writers group will co-host this creative writing session, and will be joined by members of the Young Writers group in Derry/Londonderry! The group will draw on their own experience and development as writers, specifically the reading and performing of their work in a group and in public, through their participation in the Young Writers project since 2018. The group is currently looking for new members so this is a great, no pressure opportunity to see what it’s like to be part of a writing group.
Mary Branley is a Sligo-born poet, author, and musician. Mary has facilitated children’s writing with Kids Own Publishing Partnership, since 2001 on over 30 book projects. Her third poetry collection is scheduled for publication with Lepus Print in 2021.
Mary will be joined by writers aged 13+ from Donegal and Derry, who have recently been published in the book On the Brink.
If you would like to attend these events, please click on the Eventbrite links above.