IMAGINE
creative writing
IMagine Background IMAGINE art encounter was a youth arts event bringing young people together to explore and express their ideas about a better future for themselves, their communities and their world. These are the questions that were explored What kind of future can you imagine for yourself, your community and your world? What problems do we need to challenge to create this future? What values are important in shaping the future you imagine? In our “Imagine- Exploring the Theme� pamphlet you can see how the young people started to engage with the questions and issues around this theme. Following on from exploratory introduction workshops the young people divided into groups to use a wide range of art forms to explore the theme further and express their ideas and visions. The young people worked with dance, theatre, visual arts, music animation and creative writing. The creative writing workshop was facilitated by Kristie Collins and Laurel Flynn. Kristie has developed this resource to share a range of ideas and exercises that are relevant to the Imagine questions. Find our more about this event at www.globalfestcork.com following the link for Globalfest 2012
In Our Own Words Non-intellectuals do not exist. Antonio Gramsci
The first step in becoming a writer is to change the way you think about the word ‘writer.’ Writers are not only famous authors or university academics. Words are a part of our everyday lives, powerful tools that anyone can use to think, feel and engage deeply with others. Working as part of a group of young writers gives you the opportunity share your thoughts and experiences, and your vision for the future, for yourself, your community and the world. As spoken word poet Tracie Morris says, “No one can live, much less make art, alone.” First it helps to forget all of the rules you may have been taught about writing. Forget about the fear of making mistakes, and forget about correct grammar, spelling and punctuation. The only way to become a writer is to forget everything and … write, but this is often harder than it sounds. Writing warm-ups are one way of getting started. Writing Warm Up – Exquisite Corpse Each person writes a sentence onto a piece of paper. Fold the paper over so the writing can’t be seen, then pass it on to the next person. Keep the papers going around until everybody has written a line on each one. If you want to create poems with lines that rhyme, re-write just the last word of your line so that the next person can see it, without revealing the whole line. When you have finished read out some of these group ‘poems’. Writing Warm Up – Writing to Music Free writing is writing down whatever thoughts come into your head as you experience them for a set period of time, without stopping to
correct anything or even take your pen off the page. Try free writing to different types of music, for example, jazz, classical, RnB, reggae, and punk, for three minutes. Don’t think about what you want to say – just write down the words as they come. A Note on Dialogic Writing and Scribing It is possible to be a writer without using the written word at all. If you find the actual physical process of writing difficult or limiting, or even if you just prefer the spoken word, you can voice record your work instead of writing it down – this is called dialogic writing. Or you may prefer to have a scribe – someone who can write or type your words as you speak them.
Screenwriting and the lives of young people Dialogue is the encounter between men, mediated by the world, in order to name the world. . . to speak a true word. . . is to transform the world. Paulo Freire, Pedagogy of the Oppressed
A film tells a story through images and dialogue. Dialogue is something that many of us take part in every day, to share our experiences and express our thoughts, feelings and ideas to others. We can use this dialogue from our everyday lives to create a scene for a film screenplay, to tell our own stories. Writing Activity- Life-size movie poster Think about the way young people are portrayed in the films you have seen lately. (Do you think they were accurate? Could you identify with them, or is your own experience very different?) Now imagine Hollywood is making a film about the lives of young people in your local area. What are some scenes that might be part of the film? What would the movie poster promoting the film look like? In
small groups discuss and decide upon a scene as it would appear on the movie poster. Pose yourselves in a ‘movie still’ of that scene. Next, take turns adding dialogue to your life-sized movie poster by acting out the scene and ad-libbing as your go. Don’t make it too dramatic and keep it true to life – your dialogue should be as close to your normal speech as possible. Remember, you want to tell your story, so keep it real! Scribes are writers who transform the spoken word into the written word. You will need scribes in this workshop to capture each dialogue by typing it down as it is being spoken. The best way to do this is to have a projector connected to a computer – that way everyone can watch the scribes at work, filling in words they have missed and correcting any mistakes as they happen. Your scribes will need to be able to type quickly, but you may still have to repeat your dialogue a few times so that the scribes can get it all written down. The written dialogue you have created together forms the bare bones of your screenplay. All you need to finish it is to add more detail. Where is the scene set? What time of day? Include a few lines describing any action that takes place. If you want your finished screenplay to look just like a Hollywood film script, these guidelines tell you how: The heading of a scene should be in CAPITALS and tell you when and where the action is: SCENE 1. INT. CREATIVE WRITING WORKSHOP. DAY SCENE 2. EXT. ENNISMORE RETREAT CENTRE. EVENING INT = Interior (inside) EXT = Exterior (outside)
Put dialogue (talking) in the middle of the page (centre it) Put the name of the character who is speaking in CAPITALS In your description of what’s going on (the action) put character names in CAPITALS the first time we see them in the film, but only the first time Put sound effects in CAPITALS Keep action and description to 4-5 lines, no longer Use font style Courier New or Courier, Font size 12 That’s not the end of your story. What you choose to do with your screenplay depends upon you. You could film your scenes and share them with other young people, and keep working on new ones. Ten pages of screenplay will make about ten minutes of screen time – and that’s a (short) film!
List poems… text poems…poetry bombing Poetry is the way we help give name to the nameless. Audre Lord
Poetry takes ideas, images and thoughts and transforms them into a few carefully chosen words. Writing poetry is a very effective way to explore complex issues relating to social justice, equality and human rights, because it can capture what you feel as well as what you want to say. Poetry is not only another way to express your ideas, but a way to help you discover them - you may not be sure exactly what your thoughts are until you start writing them down. But how do you start to write poetry if you’ve never done it before? One of the best ways is to begin with types of writing you use
every day. Have you ever made a list for yourself? Or written a text? Then you’re already a poet. Writing activity - ‘I believe’ list poem A list poem is exactly that – a list, based on a central theme or idea. It is simple to write but at the same time can communicate very complex thoughts and ideas. To begin a ‘believe’ list poem, imagine that aliens are coming to brainwash you in 10 minutes. Write down all the things that you believe in, that are important to you, so that you won’t forget who you are. They can be a mixture of serious and not so serious ideas. Don’t think too hard about it – write whatever comes into your head, in single words or phrases, without stopping or worrying about correct spelling and grammar. The idea is to get your thoughts flowing onto the page; the editing and correcting of your words comes later. When you have finished, start organising your ‘beliefs’ into an order that feels right to you. Select the ones you want to use for your poem, and expand them into phrases, each beginning with the words ‘I believe…’ You can end your list poem there, or develop it using a technique called question and response. For each ‘I believe’ statement you have in your poem, write a response to follow it, starting with ‘Imagine if…’ If you are working in a group, you can develop a collaborative work from your individual poems. Each person selects an “I believe… Imagine…” pair of statements from their individual poems which, combined together, will form a new poem.
Writing Activity - Text Poems A text poem mimics a mobile phone text – it should be no more than 160 characters. It distills the essence of a poem by capturing its underlying meaning in a few short phrases. The easiest way to write a text poem is on your mobile phone – that way the phone automatically does the character count for you. Your ‘Believe’ list poem is a good place to start when you are experimenting with text poems, because it is made up of several smaller parts already. You can choose a couple of phrases from it, and rework them so that they are no more than 160 characters long. You can also practice text poetry by beginning with poems and songs that have inspired you and rewriting them as a single text message that you believe encapsulates their message or theme. Performing Activity - Poetry bombing Just like a phone text, a text poem is designed to communicate a message effectively because it can be read and absorbed very quickly. You can place your text poems in a public space, to communicate their themes to a wider audience, raising awareness and encouraging discussion. This is known as poetry bombing. Some poetry bombers have used chalk on the pavement, vinyl lettering on shop windows (with the owner’s permission) or slipped poems into books at their local library to spread their ideas and encourage dialogue in their local communities.
Powerful Imagery for Personal Stories Any oppressive social condition, before it can be changed, must be named and condemned in words that persuade by stirring the emotions, awakening the senses. Martin Espada, poet
Poems and stories are a way of expressing ideas and thoughts, but they can do much more than that. They can give people the opportunity to experience what the writer is experiencing, and share in it. The most effective way of creating this experience is to use imagery. An image in writing is not just a visual image (a description of what you can see) but also what you can perceive with any of your five senses. Image and imagination are linked, so someone reading or listening to your poem can use their imagination to experience for themselves descriptions in your poem of seeing, hearing, tasting, smelling and touching. There are many different ways of putting images into words. Literal images are straight forward descriptions of what you experience the bright red car, the smell of cigarette smoke, the rough bark of a tree. Writing Activity - My Community in Images When experimenting with imagery in your writing a good place to start is by looking at something you already know very well, but from a new perspective. We are so familiar with places we see every day that we often don’t really see them at all. Take a large sheet of paper and draw a map or create a collage of your local neighbourhood from memory. As well as marking your map with visible landmarks (the things you can see) write down everything and everyone you might usually hear, smell, taste and
touch in different parts of your local community. These descriptions can be just one or two words. Use these descriptions and their location to write a poem called My Life, beginning with, My life is…like the example below: ! My life is… grey water in the gutter, sticky gum on the park bench, friends calling my name in the street… The Imagery of Values and Emotions Imagery does not only recreate what you are experiencing for your readers. The most powerful tool you have as a writer is to use imagery to allow people to feel what you are feeling. The values you feel to be important (for example love, peace and equality) as well as emotions (such as happiness and anger) are abstract. That means they are impossible to describe literally. Figurative language allows you to describe something by comparing it to something else. Your imagination makes connections and associations between the two different things, even if there is no connection in real life. Martin Luther King Jnr uses figurative language about justice in ‘I Have a Dream’: “No no, we are not satisfied and will not be satisfied until justice rolls down like water and righteousness like a mighty stream…” Writing activity – I second that emotion Take an emotion, such as anger. Now think of the following questions – What does anger look like? What does anger taste like? If anger were an animal, what would it be? If it was weather, what would it be like? If anger were a noise, what would it sound like? If anger was a train, where would it take you? If anger were a person, what would he/she be like? Use your answers to write a poem beginning “Anger is…”
You can also use this exercise to explore a range of values such as justice, equality, peace, friendship and creativity.
Equality, Justice and Personal Stories Writing begins as a personal act. But through writing, individuals can share and argue for what they believe in. . .as members of a community. Ann Watters, Community Service Writing Project, Stanford University
Throughout history, writers and storytellers have played an important part in transforming societies by collecting stories of injustice and advocating for social change. People respond with their hearts, as well as their heads, to individual stories of inequality and injustice told through powerful imagery. The following poems deal with three different situations of discrimination and injustice from three points of view. The first is from someone personally experiencing discrimination in modern-day Ireland: Chav C…..H…….A……..V That is my identity White runners Blond in my hair The Guards like hungry sharks When I’m walking anywhere If they’re gonna call me CHAV I may as well tame it Council Housed And Violent That’s how they frame it But where I live don’t define me So I’m gonna rename it Captive, Hurt And Voiceless
But I’m makin’ my own choices Crucified, Hated And Victimised Everyone believes the pack of lies Caring, full of Heart And Valiant I’ll help you out, you’re grand don’t worry about it © Barry Mac The second is from the point of view of a bystander who did nothing. It is attributed to Pastor Martin Niemöller describing his experiences in Nazi Germany: First they came for the Communists, and I did not speak out-Because I was not a Communist. Then they came for the Trade Unionists, and I did not speak out-Because I was not a Trade Unionist. Then they came for the Jews, and I did not speak out-Because I was not a Jew. Then they came for me—and there was no one left to speak for me. An excellent extended, animated version of this poem is available here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ftOY8wOtq7I The third is from the point of view of a social commentator. It is written by poet Raman Mundair in response to the deaths of two young men, Stephen Lawrence and Ricky Reel, in London in the 1990s. Both deaths are believed be race hate crimes. Elegy to Two Boys Ruptured concrete suburban skin leaks poison that is paved within.
Feet sweet against the sting; you’re cushioned sole up. Your fingertips trace the A-Z veins and change the cartography of the metropolis. Have travel card will travel zones 1-6, the world your oyster, but London killed you. It was like any other day. Nothing unusual, just the same; walking to the bus stop/walking into town after a while it’s a blur kingstonelthamkingstonelthamkingstoneltham nothing unusual, just the same nothing unusual, just the same It was my mate who saw them He said ‘RUN’! I said ‘No! we haven’t done anything wrong.’ Battery acid tongues siren, their unavoidable existence. internal morse heartbeat screams: FLIGHT! trained feet seize up in a fit of dignified pride thoughts like, ‘but they’re as human as me…’ translate into reasoning syntax that escapes like gas into the dense onyx sky and zeros into the void between their eyes. A breath later you are running like the hunted, A breath later you are kissing blood into water, A breath later you are kissing blood into concrete. When it comes it’s not like the movies When it comes it’s like a joke Because you can’t believe that it’s happening for real, you know? And I didn’t see my life flash in front of my eyes
I just heard my mother’s voice ‘Ricky beta… tu kider gay-a? Mai karh tinu ureekdi hai…’ I just heard my father’s voice ‘Stephen, son… where you go? Me still waiting at the door for you to come home…’ ©Raman Mundair Look at each of these poems in more detail, by circling the words and phrases that stand out for you. Think about the overall message of each poem. What do you think he/she is trying to say? Writing Activity - In my Shoes - Creating your own personal story Have you ever been the recipient of injustice? Write about a time when you were judged or treated unfairly, or when you saw someone else being treated badly and did nothing. Don’t just describe what happened but use all your senses as you take yourself back to the scene. Remember what you were seeing, thinking and feeling at the time. Write non-stop for as long as you can about the experience, describing any images that come to mind, using both literal description and figurative language. Looking back over what you have written, circle the phrases that have special meaning for you. Put them together in an order you are happy with to create a poem, song or story. In Someone Else’s Shoes – Telling someone else’s story Look again at Raman Mundair’s Elegy to Two Boys. A poet or story-teller can go beyond writing about their own experiences, using their imagination to relive the experiences of others, and recreate it for the reader. Poet Ali Gadema wrote ‘School Days’ after reading the story and seeing the pictures of Raghda al-Assar, a 10 year old Palestinian girl who was fatally wounded in her school classroom in the Gaza Strip.
School Days A young girl sits at her desk. Summer heat weeps; Sweat drenched air; Dusty humidity of the Middle East. Eurocentricity encapsulates a gulf of madness. Her hair's red, sticky shine, reflects the sunlight but there's no L’Oreal here. No answers. Brown eyes open wide, unblinking, unclosed. Optical nerve isn't dead yet. She was doing her English. Neatly joined sentences punctuated perfectly. Scratched in white chalk on an old blackboard. Stored alongside her loving teacher’s horrified face. The last thing she saw. Blood spattered textbooks. The shocking reality of post traumatic stress disorder suffered by her 10 year old classmates. Empty swings in a War-torn playground. ©Ali Gadema
You can read the news story about Raghda here: http://electronicintifada.net/content/girls-life-ended-israeli-bullets/ 5241 You may hear about events happening to young people in other parts of the world and find it hard to imagine what it would be like to live their experiences. But what if you were there with them? Gadema wrote his poem by looking very closely at the images of Raghda, her school and her community. He imagined himself there with her and described what he experienced. You can use an image from anywhere in the world to place yourself in someone else’s shoes. Writing activity – In Their Shoes Select an image of a young person from another country who is experiencing something that you have never personally experienced. Explore and inhabit the image with all your senses, from the same place as the young person in it. Find an object, a colour or a landmark and describe it. Imagine what you might smell and hear, and what it would feel like to touch the objects or people in the image. Describe the emotions you feel when you are there. Write a story or a poem that includes these details.
Spoken Words to Change the World Hip-Hop culture almost always celebrates the voices of economically and politically disenfranchised communities. As an art-form, hip-hop balances the need for social change with the need to unite‌around a common joy. Jen Weiss and Scott Herndon, Brave New Voices
All over the world, young artists are using spoken word poetry and hip hop culture to challenge negative stereotypes about young
people, express the values that are important to them and to articulate the challenges they face. They use their words to take personal responsibility for a better future and advocate for positive change both locally and globally. In his piece ‘Poet Breathe Now’, spoken word poet Adam Gottlieb describes how words can change the world: Poet breathe now because you might have something to say because peace might depend on your piece because you breathe and that air might help your brain tell your heart to keep pumping one more cycle and that blood might help your lips form one last word that hits the audience hard – because we are all made from the same elements and we all breathe the same air so celebrate our mutual recipes of existence by persisting to stay alive
You can watch Adam performing the entire poem at: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lXIjF0ERvYY and more spoken word poetry from Young Chicago Authors here: http://www.youtube.com/user/siskeljacobs The Gowrie Boys – Challenging Negative Stereotypes in ‘We Belong’ Through their rap “We Belong”, young indigenous Australians present strong positive imagery about their own identity, combining values important to their traditional culture with their hopes for the future. These are some of their words:
So we followed the stars, that serpent’s path We walked that land when the earth was carved So what’s the brotherhood mean to you Well this is the place where dreams come true Stuck together like glue, that’s how we do With the reap-what-you-sow kind of attitude We’re the Gowrie Crew, we’re the best, yes To the brotherhood we belong We dance on the land where we come from Stay strong, pass it on To the brotherhood we belong I’m going back to my natural habitat Rat a tat tat when temptations attack eyes wide open got to watch my own back It’s a big bad world and it’s easy to get stuck So keep your head up when your down on your luck Never give up, never give in Keep the spirit within keep the pride in the colour of your skin I’m Mugubadajari I’m a black man, with a big plan take a risk and extend my wing span modern university is where I’m gonna be my purpose for my people is to get a law degree You can watch the full music video here: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zx9aNcXUWS8 You might also like the hip hop of other young indigenous Australians, such as the Colli Crew: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dsWo9CxqsN8&feature=relmfu
and the Yarrabah Kids, rapping in their local dialect as part of the ‘Young, Strong and Proud’ Project: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CrBuffO0YpI These hip hop artists are challenging negative perceptions of young Aboriginal people as lazy, violent, and directionless. These are stereotypes that are often expressed in the media about all young people. You can also create a piece of writing that transforms these negative stereotypes. Writing Activity - Values poetry collage How to do it: Choose the values that mean the most to you (See list at end of resource), and cut them out. Collect a number of newspaper and magazine clippings and print outs of online newspaper articles about different issues affecting young people nationally and globally that contain both positive and negative portrayals of young people. Cut out any words and phrases that stand out for you. Combine them with your values and place them in a design on a new piece of paper, to create a collage poem. Your poem can be a selection of random words or you can combine them to make new meanings. DAM - Powerful Words for local Change in ‘Born Here’ The group DAM are young Palestinian hip-hop artists. They write in Arabic, Hebrew and English about the Israeli occupation, racism, discrimination, poverty and women’s rights. In Lyd, DAM’s hometown, 15 minutes from Tel Aviv, entering the Palestinian neighbourhood meant crossing 8 train tracks, which led to at least 10 people being killed. DAM’s emotional song and video about life in the area, Born Here, became the rallying cry for reform supported by artists throughout Israel. In response, the Israeli government built bridges above the train tracks.
"When we say Hip Hop is a bridge, we mean it metaphorically and literally," Tamer Nafar of DAM said. This is an extract from Born Here: No, no, in this song no censorship there’s sewage, rail tracks call it ‘architecture’ Add to it white pepper and it will be sneezed from a loaded gun All the things I’ve said have been given voice, and people stand in line who have difficulty in their smile, and smile in difficulty while we have this in us, it’s a rope too tangled “This is not racism, it’s Zionism” Enough. This is ignorance atop ignorance. Our eyes watch, our children seek a future where ‘the sky’s the limit’ A dream now covered in ruins and dust But the light’s not quite extinguished A destroyed house with 8 tracks in the garden Each day, at least 200 trains Behind the ruins, a separation wall You can see the full video here http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zIo6lyP9tTE
Writing Activity - A song that moves me The powerful words of ‘Born Here’ inspired both positive action and more open dialogue. Everyone has a favorite song that inspires them in some way. Choose a song that moves you and while you are listening to it, begin to write. Write what you are feeling and thinking as you are
listening, and what the song says to you. What images come into your head? If you wanted to write a song to change the world, what would you write about? Keep writing until the end of the song.
Intikana - Powerful words for global change in ‘Amistad’ Intikana is a Boricua/Taino spoken word poet and hip hop artist from the Bronx. He writes about issues of global equality and justice and collaborates with other artists world-wide. You can watch Amistad (friendship), his bi-lingual collaboration with Cuban artists about maintaining true friendships across borders, here: http://www.intikana.net/pages/videos/amistad.shtml Listening to this piece, what values does he express? What attitudes and behaviour does he identify as being important for global change? Writing activity - Imagine all the People Think about all of the images, emotions and ideas you have heard expressed by young people all over the world. Free write about everything discussed so far – the particular problems and injustices you would like to see changed, the attitudes and behaviours you can change to bring this about, the things that can only be changed by others. Write about the future you want and the universal values you share with young people from all over the world. Write everything that comes into your mind without stopping. When you have finished, put your writing away for ten minutes. Reread your writing, circling words and phrases that jump out at you. Look back at your earlier writing. See if you would like to use some phrases and ideas for this new piece. Use all of this as inspiration to write a final piece that you will use for a spoken word performance.
Spoken Words to Speak Your World All of us have powerful voices somewhere inside. Louise Dunlap, Writing Activist
In spoken word poetry, the poem is not only the words themselves, but also the way those words are expressed aloud. Spoken poetry is written to be performed, with the performance adding new meaning to the written words. It began as a protest art form, and spoken word is designed to compel the audience from the first line and convey its meaning with the urgent, vital language of every day speech. Just as your poems are an expression of your own experiences, ideas, values and thoughts, your spoken word performance should be true to your own voice. Performance Activity – Finding Your Voice Practice your spoken word poetry aloud, using different line breaks, stressing different words, reading quickly or slowly, breathing deeply or shallowly. Think about where you want to add stresses to convey meaning, where you want to speed up to heighten tension and emotion and slow down to pause for emphasis. Your performance doesn’t need to sound like you are acting out a part in a play. Your spoken word voice is the same as your speaking voice - just ‘bigger.’ Performance Activity – Editorial Circle If you are writing as part of a group, your fellow community of writers can provide a safe and supportive environment for your first performance. Provide a hard copy of your piece to each member of the group. After you have performed they can write on the back what the poem means to them, underline their favourite
phrases, and question the parts where they aren’t sure what you intended to say. You can revise both your piece and its delivery based on the feedback of your fellow writers.
Once you are comfortable performing in front of your fellow poets, it’s time to have your voice heard by bringing your spoken word to a public performance. If it isn’t possible to organise a public spoken word event in your community, you can still film yourself performing your piece and share it with the world.
List of Values from Common Cause Handbook that you can access in full at this link http://valuesandframes.org/handbook/