5 hours ’till blast off…

HOORAY

Evening y’all,

I hope you’re excited as we are because in 5 hours time it will officially be Thursday, and after a good nights kip, we’ll be rising to a full day of action over at Ryde School with Cecilia Busby (“Adventures in another world, Creative writing workshop & story telling”) Medina Publishers (“Publishing Presentation”)  Sarah Holding (“The BIG Write”) Julia Golding (“Historical Adventure Fiction, Creative writing workshop”) Hannah George & James Whitehouse (“Writing for the small screen, Presentation with discussion and Q&A”).

What’s more is Word On The Curb will be covering tomorrow’s events, and the festival weekend in general. You might not have heard of these guys but let me tell you… they’re awesome. The young men, in their early 20’s, met during their studies at University and turned their hobbies into a very successful community based project- if you can call it that- Spoken word poets give their say on current political topics and societal issues in a fresh and exciting way, and the team capture it all; delivering snappy little videos that leave you wanting more. So if you have a bit of time to kill, don’t waste it, snack on some of their videos.

Remember, all the writers listed above will also be appearing at the main festival, so purchase a ticket and make sure you don’t miss out! There’s a huge variety on offer this year to satisfy every literary taste. Go to the main website to purchase your weekend pass. Youth passes for under 16’s are only £10 for the whole weekend and give free access to most events. If you’re older than 16 but still a student… you can get a student pass!

Show stopping production by RedTIE theatre’s Helen Reading

With a family history of contact with local theatre on the Island, her Grandmother was a founder member of the Apollo, she first performed here on stage in 1997, playing the role of Jacky in a four-hander called ‘My mother said, I never should’.

She has gone on to provide that learning experience to hundreds of young people. She organises workshops for nine to 19 year olds, summer schools and works within Island schools. All theatre skills are covered including the technical side.

There is an emphasis on political drama in all that she does and she finds that kids appreciate it and engage in political debate between themselves. “Disenchanted youngsters find getting into drama allows them to express themselves and support each other,” she told me.

We are delighted to have Helen on board with the IWLF Schools Programme. She has had a lot of involvement in helping put the programme together. Helen is injecting her creative flare into a Conflict themed performance (this years programme theme for upper schools). The staged production, which will take place at Priory School on Friday 17th October, is based on author Andrew MacKay’s gripping series ‘Young Lions’ and is sure to be an compelling and entertaining watch. The performance has also used samples from this year’s conflict competition entries, where writers from Carisbrooke College and Christ the King College competed from prizes. The Studio School also competed in a Conflict Spoken Word Competition with the 10 finalist’s entries included in the production.

Calling all Buskers- IWLF just got a heavy dose of “cool”

Let’s be honest, the demographic of the IWLF was a little on the grey side, and the lovely people who make it all happen from the 16th-19th October thought it would be “cool” to nudge the ‘age pendulum’ back the other way just a tad. So… A BUSKING SPOT FOR IWLF SCHOOLS! That is super cool if you ask me. Students of any schools/college on the Isle of Wight are invited to get their writing caps on and come up with something beautiful, challenging, thought provoking, striking etc. etc you get the idea- for everyone to enjoy while they’re getting their refreshments at the festival.

If you think you have a gift at using your voice to express words, whether you sing them, speak them or rap them, whether they rhyme or not- then this is for you (just so long as you live on the island and attend a school/college). Instruments welcome.

Contact us below, and tell us your name, age, school and what you’ll be doing (singing/speaking words…).

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Beauty and talent personified in star poet Sabrina Mahfouz

Award Winning performance poet to stun students

Sabrina Mahfouz is currently a Sky Academy Arts Scholar for poetry; an Associate Artist at the Bush Theatre; Poet in Residence at Cape Farewell – a climate change and arts organisation; a Global Shaper with the World Economic Forum and a Writer at Liberty for the civil rights charity, Liberty. Her first collection of plays and poems, The Clean Collection, is published by Bloomsbury.

The award-winning performance poet will lead a workshop at Cowes Enterprise College on writing and performing your own work. The participants will spill their stories onto paper through a number of fun writing exercises and engage in some performance exercises in order to prepare them for presenting their favourite pieces to the rest of the class on Friday 17th October.

Sabrina will also be performing on Friday night as part of the Friday Fringe to the main Isle of Wight Literary Festival.