Workshops were just write for youngsters
Three weeks of poetry workshops with young people have been hailed a success.
Paisley Book Festival writer in residence, Imogen Stirling, held the workshops as part of Create Paisley’s Teach Me Tuesday sessions.
The sessions were part of a wider project Imogen was working on with the festival, which explored‘Radical New Futures’, and that influenced the sessions with the young people at Create.
As well as working with Create, Imogen worked with another group U3A, University of the Third Age, on the project which has resulted in a final poem which was showcased as part of this year’s festival.
Imogen said she was delighted by the success of the workshops and was pleased to connect with Create through her work.
“It was such a pleasure to be involved in Teach Me Tuesday, teaching creative writing and poetry to Create’s young people,”she said.
“I was so impressed by their enthusiasm, imagination and storytelling skills. They were a wonderful group to work with.”
The workshops saw a group of young people use creative writing exercises, discussion and poetry readings to tell their own stories.
Imogen led exercises with the young people and explored themes relating to isolation during lockdown as well as looking forward to the future.
The young people involved took advantage of the time Imogen took to work with them and teach them new skills.
Youth workers at Create were delighted with the sessions and that young people were still motivated to engage in creative writing workshops after being at school during the day too.
Nicola Fergusson, youth worker at Create, said:“I saw the young people adapt to work in a new different way where they learned new skills from Imogen. It was rewarding to see them engage and express themselves throughout the sessions and see them develop as time went on.
“It is great to see the young people take such an interest in the workshops and develop their talents.
Nicola said Create is looking forward to future workshops with Imogen, where she will lead on Creative Writing workshops as part of the Culture Academy starting in April .