We are incredibly excited to announce that SlamFresh has just been awarded a 15K grant from Arts Council England! We will be running poetry writing and performance workshops in 5 schools around the North East, working with over 100 young people to develop their writing and oracy skills.
The sessions will be run by Rowan McCabe, Donald Jenkins and Tahmina Ali. Each group will be guided through the process of writing and editing their own poetry. They will then perform this at a gig in an out-of-school venue. The whole project will culminate in a masterclass facilitated by World Slam Champion Kat Francois. This will be followed by a final showcase event at Live Theatre Newcastle in summer 2023.
The 5 schools involved are:
- Mortimer College in South Shields (October to November 2022)
- The Grange Learning Centre- Witherslack Group (November to December 2022)
- Burnside College in Wallsend (November to December 2022)
- Cardinal Hume Catholic School in Gateshead (January to March 2023)
- Sacred Heart Catholic High School in Newcastle (March to April 2023)
Lindsay Warren, the Curriculum Leader for English at Burnside College, had this to say:
“Our pupils always have great ideas but sometimes struggle to have the confidence to articulate them. Working with SlamFresh is a unique opportunity to really take those ideas from page to stage. I can’t wait to see our pupils’ confidence flourish alongside their creativity.”
There’ll be lots more updates coming soon. For now, we just want to say a big thanks to ACE and our partner schools. We can’t wait to get started.
Spoken Word Workshops 