In the summer of 2021, the Scottish Poetry Library was approached by Capability Scotland to help them incorporate poetry into their programme for celebrating their 75th Anniversary. Capability Scotland delivers care, support, and education for disabled children and adults across Scotland.
The original approach was for the production of a poem. However, following a discussion with their staff team, including chief executive Brian Logan and communications officer Daniel Autumn, we were keen to explore the opportunity for a more participatory and audience engaging activity with young people supported by Capability Scotland.
We agreed to develop a pilot project of workshops at Stanmore House School in Lanark, working with the Head Teacher Michelle Eckford to produce a tangible learning experience for the young people supported at the school.
After careful consideration we commissioned Daniel Serridge, a storyteller and community artist, to bring life to the written word. We were keen that he partner with a poet to support knowledge exchange and professional development. Daniel wanted to work with poet Leyla Josephine, and the pair of them met with Michelle in September to plan three workshops to take place at Stanmore House School in October – all the while mindful of COVID-related health and safety guidelines. Michelle explained the range of complex needs of the pupils at the school, and the parties agreed to manage two workshops a day for three separate days, taking into account the ages and caring support for the young people involved.
The workshops guided the pupils through a series of sensory stories: one about a shipwreck at sea, another about being lost in the desert, and the final about camping in the jungle. Within each story a poem written by Leyla was introduced, which acted as the focus for each workshop.
Daniel and Leyla recorded a conversation about the project as a form of reflective practice, which you can listen to at this link:
Below is an edited transcript of highlights from their conversation:
Leyla
How did we run it?
Daniel
Well, I suppose we had a first meeting. Didn’t we have that initial meeting together at Stanmore to find out a little bit about the pupils and to speak to Michelle, who was the Head [Teacher] there and the project was an attempt to look at the way I work and then look at the way you work and see how they can work in that particular context. So my work focuses on story, and story runs through this the thread that holds everything together. But within each of the stories that I tell there are these sensory experiences, so we started to explore the question: how do you make a poem or poetic experience – be sensed or felt on a level that’s beyond the 3rd? We comprehend in terms of our normal understanding of how language and word are understood, and using that as a jumping off point, we actually combine the use of story with also thinking of a kind of world experience and a kind of elemental experience, so we would try and transport the other groups or from where they were to a different part of the world – their story in that place – and then relocate them there and within that there was a part of the landscape or part of the place that spoke, and spoke with a piece of poetry, which you wrote.
Leyla
We kind of went to lots of different places…we were thinking about how COP 26 was in Glasgow at the time, or it was kind of the run up to COP 26. We were thinking about nature, and we were thinking about how we could use different landscapes to tell different stories. So, we went to the jungle. We went to the desert. And then we were shipwrecked as well. So, we had like lots of different stories with lots of different sensory experiences. All kind of that focused on the elements. The only element we didn’t do was air, but I feel like there was a lot of air in all of them.
The themes were very, loose… having a Piña colada party in the jungle was a loose link, but it’s fun, right? And I think that was the thing. Our main aim of the whole project…was to just provide a really fun time and also, that was kind of our starting point from everything was, how can we make this enjoyable and how can we actually make memories with these young people? And I think that was always the driving point for us, which I think we’ve definitely achieved. I think also the staff of the school had a really good time as well, which was a bonus…But any of those little relationships – little positive relationships you build with the young people, or you’re able to provide a space where new experiences can happen. That was really exciting as well.
Daniel
And for me, it’s about sort of shifting the energy of a space. That’s not to say that Stanmore House isn’t filled with energetic people…You can bring an energy when you’re in outside practitioner as well, because you’re coming at it from a new perspective, and you’re bringing something new. So the idea of transporting groups from the classroom to a space that we had not altered… we were able to think of how we took over the whole school and or the journey from one classroom to another. And be silly. And I think that was what was important.
I think it can sometimes feel like silliness isn’t welcome in in these spaces or in spaces where you’ve got to be walked down the corridor in a very sensible way. So to change that…felt important, and actually felt like a kind of key part of how we thought about the sessions.
Leyla
… You know, inserting poetry into these moments as well, and {what] we were kind of trying to figure out is how can you expose people to poetry that you know can’t can understand, they can’t experience it in the same way that the intentions behind art are…what it’s written for? We had this microphone that had a great echo on it and it also lit up, so that really assisted those moments and those moments were really kind of quiet… we weren’t really sure where to go with poetry.
We were thinking that maybe we could write poetry with some of the young people up, but it just became clear to have everyone on the same level to have everyone experience coming from the same kind of point, it would have to be something that was laudable… and in the future we’re thinking about how they could maybe experience it [poetry] come through like cutting out shapes or putting poetry with different fabrics… it was really cool to watch them respond to hearing poetry in that way.
…in a lot of my workshops I don’t really think about the body or I don’t think about how to interact with the body. And actually, to go into a space where the body was our first thought that everything was about how can you experience it with the body that you live in… and I had to think of my own body in those moments…and that’s definitely coming up workshops from a different angle, which was cool. Have you any like standout memories from our sessions?
Daniel
It was definitely when pupils would do something that you didn’t expect to happen. I think if it clearly about him and the songs that he would come out with too…so at one point [a pupil] starts singing Baby Shark and Twinkle Twinkle [Little Star]…there was there kind of repetitive chant that happened, but he just picked up and went with and continued to do and it demonstrated to me that things had landed, and he could contribute and could partake in and it was nice to be able to respond to that and let it happen. And so when that does happen, it feels like that’s the true nature of the kind of experience…So definitely his jumping in with songs was my takeaway.
Leyla
Yeah, I had a really lovely moment. I think it was the first week. I don’t think it was the first group that we had, but I just had a really like nice interaction with one of the young people with a boat like because we had the message in a bottle.
And when we were shipwrecked, and just having like the cold glass bottle up against his face, and in that moment, like you know, we aren’t speaking, but we definitely have a connection, and we’re definitely communicating. And I thought that that was the moment for me that. Things clicked into place and I was like this is just a different way of communicating, which was really cool for me as someone that communicates so heavily with word to actually like reflect on that actually is possible to communicate in lots of different ways. And so that was definitely a memorable moment for me.
Daniel
Absolutely…It’s a slightly different movement, but with story it’s all I do is talk. It’s very much are talking medium, but when you were talking there I thought about the sand on the feet again and how you for a good chunk of time were getting down and just picking up a big handful of sand and letting it run through people toes, or you’re holding it over someone’s foot to go through and you’re just having this moment. Not even looking at them in the eye. You’re experiencing them face to face. It’s based on foot, but everything just has to sort of slow down and you just have to think about the experience that person might be having and making that as rich as you possibly can, and then you’re right, you’re right in saying that there’s a communication that happens that is different. It’s out of the mainstream, and it’s only when you do it, do you discover that that can exist on parity to a mainstream audience.
Leyla
Yeah, and like how? How do you write a poem like because that’s what poetry is, right? It’s about communicating an idea, like how do you communicate an idea without words, which I think it’s a really interesting concept of how you could write poetry without words.
Daniel
Yes, but it could be a question to push forward for the future. I mean I suppose the temptation would be to take those experiences and try to put them down on paper, wouldn’t it? But actually if you’re removing from me, you’re removing from the experience of that intimate moment, or all of those intimate moments.
Leyla
Yeah, like when does it? Because that that’s the thing. When does it then change into different art form or when does it change into another form because you could say that dance is like communicating an idea with the body or in a different way. But is that poetry? I don’t know. I think everything could be poetry…
Daniel
I’ve worked with dancers in this context before and especially with Sense Scotland…and it was really interesting watching her respond physically because she did not have any qualms with grabbing getting in, holding, touching. And there was this intimate relationship that was happening instantly that moved beyond any kind of preconceived ideas of what people can and can’t do. We can discover this by trying it, doing it and seeing what takes place in the interaction pictures, and I think that’s happening here as well, and that’s happening in the work that we’re doing and that’s just really exciting…
I was thinking as well just about the intimate moment and how what I like about this work is obviously got a support worker that works with the individuals and sometimes they get left with an object to an experience that they can replicate and keep doing whilst one of us has moved on…I had questions about how it was going to work, how poetry is going to work in that, in that in the context and it was probably interesting because it challenges my prejudices in some respects, because I know that my form is a lot with word, but I know that I can deviate from it. The story is the thread and I’ll jump back and forth and I can communicate well… the poem exists on a piece of paper and it is what it is, and I wondered how much flexibility there would be once a piece of poetry lands on the page and so I was like, well, how do we navigate that? But I think actually what’s happened was in the moment of the telling things would certainly shift and jump about and that was that was that was quite exciting.
Leyla
… I think if the whole thing had been like a strict poem, I don’t think it would have worked as well, but it was just like an energy shift. I suppose which the young people could feel.… and the next question, I suppose, is why did we do it? I think that one of the reasons obviously, is because we really care about accessibility.
What I do, I’m and I know you do, is I’m always interested in challenging myself to work in new contexts… So that was like a big thing for me. But also I really admired the school…It’s just like such a lovely vibe, like when you walked in It was just so welcoming and it really felt like it was really like people-centric as well, and that was a really like strong reason to do it I think…there is this joy everywhere. Lots of laughs.
Daniel
So what we going to do next?
Leyla
…I think we’ve got a quite formal meeting where we’re going to kind of talk about our findings, and then I think if we were to work again in this context at the Scottish Poetry Library, I think we both got quite excited about thinking about how we can write poetry that is tactile and, and you know whether that be we are looking through what was it you said that we should get the word ‘look’ and then look through the word look sounds like that…
Daniel
And sounds you know and the way that letters and words together create sound. And then how do you make that an experience that you have, visually and sensorily that beyond the them all at the same time,? Its own words become playful in their own kind of sructure in the way that they’re laid down…I’d be really interested to speak to someone that works in these contacts on a research level and understand how this type of work and what is happening to the pupils at the particular time because you hear, sort of anecdotally what’s going on, but it would be really interesting to speak to somebody who has a research background, and looking at something more, more, perhaps more rigorous, I guess, would be quite easy. That’s just that’s just my own personal interest.
Leyla
I feel like if there was a researcher in the room measuring people’s experiences, we would definitely have to have our names included as well…It was so nice to work with everyone involved, and we’re really looking forward to see what the next step is.
Daniel Serridge is a storyteller, community artist and facilitator who creates vibrant and exciting storytelling projects for all ages and abilities. He tells stories and helps people to tell theirs, supporting everyone to see their experiences as pieces of artwork waiting to be told. Through a combination of the personal and the folkloric Dan explores the power of metaphor and meaning that sharing stories can hold.
Leyla Josephine is a poet based in Prestwick. Leyla works in lots of different social contexts, encouraging participants to find their voice through creativity. Leyla has led on community projects for The Scottish Government, The Edinburgh International Book Festival and The Mental Health Foundation amongst others.