The "poetry phase" of Making it Home ran from October to December 2012. Five workshops per group, held in fortnightly parallel sessions in Glasgow and Edinburgh, saw women reading and discussing one poem each week.
Participants explored their reactions to the poetry, and expanded on the images and reflections prompted by the many themes discovered. The rich material gathered during these workshops was intended as the basis for the project's second "film-making" phase: translating the thoughts and emotions discovered through poetry into the language of short film.
THE POEMS
Here they are, in order of exploration:
Week 1: "The Chaffinch Map of Scotland" by Edwin Morgan
Week 2: "No. 115 dreams" by Jackie Kay
Week 3: "Choice" by Ruth Padel
Week 4: "I am becoming my mother" by Lorna Goodison
Week 5: "The Shortest and Sweetest of Songs" by George Macdonald
As weeks passed it became clear that more was happening that just gathering interesting material for film making. Participants left behind their initial inhibitions connected to poetry being "difficult" or "scary". They learned to analyse the poems and their own reactions to the poems. They gained new skills by working as part of a team and completing demanding tasks on schedule. The two groups also overcame negative stereotypes about each other and by November had sent each other welcoming cards ahead of their first face-to-face meeting which happened in Maryhill, Glasgow, in December 2012.
Not bad for something that started out with a bit of poetry.
Click here to see some images from the poetry phase of Making it Home
