Teenage boys take inspiration from top poet!
A group of 13-15 year olds from Astley Sports College, Dukinfield, recently worked with Groundwork Tameside, library staff and poet Mike Garry at Dukinfield Library to produce a CD of 15 poems about everything from where they live to how they feel about life.
Originally, library staff organised special taster sessions to give the students an introduction into the world of poetry and the lads liked it so much that they came back for more!
The CD, entitled 'Vs' was compiled after a series of poetry workshops at the library. The poems are recited to a background of music and one of the teenagers involved added hypnotic graphics so that the overall effect is really stimulating. The CD is available for loan in all Tameside libraries.
Mike discussed different poetry styles, the structure of poems and, in particular, how to write poetry that people can understand. Mike's work inspired the boys to put their own thoughts and emotions down on paper.
The poetry poject is part of a unique award scheme which encourage's youngsters to improve their area. The community merit awards, organised by Groundwork Tameside's Youth Inclusion programme, enable young people to put something back into the community, by empowering them to take part in projects within their local area. The project was jointly funded by Groundwork and NOF (out of school hours).
Ashley Gill and Martin Evans are pictured with Chris Odell from Groundwork who was closely involved in the project. Ashley said that the project made English easy and fun and taught him that "poetry is not boring after all" and Martin said "I really enjoyed doing the poetry. The poet, Mike, was good to get along with and we had some good sessions. Sometimes the work we had to do was hard but we still got on with it. When doing the project, I learnt a lot about how to wtite poems: we also recorded them onto disc which was fun to do".
Chris Odell was really pleased with the project's achievements. One result has been that the group really want to come to the library now - and they would like to work on another poetry project. A group from Groundwork regularly visit the library now to meet , use the computers and borrow books.
Chris Smith
