Health Beat Poets

In this episode Helen chats with Hazel Hammond about being 'Not the Same Poet, Always An Artist' exhibition 

Hazel Hammond has been a poet and an artist for over 40 years. In 2018 she had a stroke and now lives with Aphasia, a condition shared by over 350,000 people in the UK and affecting their ability to speak, write and read.

In this episode Helen talks with Beth Calverley - Poetry Machine. exploring collaboration poetry in places of work including: learning, care and play, helping to express what matters.  

Bio: 

Beth Calverley is a poet, creative coach and founder of The Poetry Machine. Her poetry lives and breathes, holding your hand through crisp emotional landscapes.

Beth co-creates poems with people via her supportive practice, The Poetry Machine. She collaborates with places of work, learning, care and play, helping people to express what matters to them most.

She collaborates with places of work, learning, care and play, helping people to express their thoughts and feelings.

One of Rife Magazine’s 2018 influential young people in Bristol, Beth was a Roundhouse Slam Finalist 2018 and a Bristol Life Awards Arts Finalist 2020. She is Poet in Residence at UH Bristol & Weston NHS Foundation Trust and was published in These Are The Hands, the NHS anthology endorsed by Stephen Fry and Michael Rosen.

Beth has performed at iconic venues such as Birmingham Hippodrome, Bristol Old Vic and London Roundhouse. She has worked with the BBC, Sky, Oh Magazine and The Prince’s Trust, among many other brilliant local and national organisations.

In this episode Helen talks with T.S. Idiot. Exploring creative poetry production and our writing through journeys in mental health. Recorded outdoors with background sounds of the city.  

'Sadness and joys are congealed in the cracks of life' - T.S. Idiot

In this episode Helen discusses storytelling and menopause with storyteller poet and performer Kat Lyons. They explore the craft of storytelling and putting on a show 'Dry Season' exploring perimenopause. 

In this episode Helen is delighted to talk with poet, librettist Claire Williamson about creative writing and health. Claire generously shares a masterclass on writing through and writing slant to express our words for therapeutic purposes. 

These times tough times of sharing sorrow in our words can be insightful and uncover joy. 

Claire Williamson has an MA in Literary Studies, (UWE), and is a Senior Fellow of Higher Education Academy and was Programme Leader for the Msc in Creative Writing for Therapeutic Purposes at the Metanoia Institute in London for ten years. She is currently studying for a PhD in Creative Writing at Cardiff University. Claire has worked closely with Welsh National Opera since 2003, writing the words for Cradle, Cardiff City Songs, Billy and the Dragon and The Merman King.. She is also involved in musical collaborations including ‘Home by Christmas’ which was performed by 350 singers at Colston Hall to commemorate 100 years since the outbreak of WW1, and she was nominated for the British Composer Awards in 2015. Claire has written chapters in academic books on themes of creative writing and health. She is the author of four collections: Visiting the Miotaur, Split Ends, Ride On, The Soulwater Pool. Individual poems have appeared widely in magazines. Claire is also a member of ‘The Spoke’ poetry group, well known for their electric readings, with Bob Walton, Abeer Ameer, and Elizabeth Parker.

In this episode Helen discusses with performance and slam poet Callum Wensley about writing and performing the many characters of grief and mental health.

Bio: Callum is a non-binary poet and performer. They are representing Bristol in the next Hammer and Tongue National Slam Finals alongside Jemma Hathaway, and later this year they will be working on a poetry and music collaboration with their friend Tom Robertson. Their candid and emotive poetry performances are available on-line including BBCUpload - What to Do When Your Child is Hurting Themselves. https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07vsc9c , Sunshine - https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/p07vsbhj

Callum is a performance and spoken word event host. 

Social media - 

Instagram - @callumthepoet

Twitter - CallumThePoet

In this episode Helen is in conversation with J T Lewis, poet, conservationist, spoken word artist and NHS worker dog borrower and tea-drinker. 

They discuss Jessi's 'Take' on Poetry and Health... What inspires our writing, 'Creativity is the last rope to hang onto, not just in the times we can 'write well' but those bruised, desperate times when much else in life has fallen away...yet our creativity lives within.' . - J T Lewis

'Poetry with Goats is a project I started a few days after I got my first diagnosis back in March 2020. I volunteer to help look after goats in a woodland and, in the first lockdown, it seemed the, erm, obvious thing to do to read poetry to them. I may have just had a cancer diagnosis and the world may have been seemingly falling apart, but there's always the woods, and goats and poetry.' 

Her Blog - Cancer in the Time of Covid - Writings about life, illness and adventure https://jtlewiswriter.com

In this episode Helen is talking with poet Pauline Sewards about writing about people in our care without appropriating their stories. they also discuss the linguistics of work. 

Pauline currently lives between Lincolnshire and Bristol. She founded Satellite of Love Spoken Word events. 

Her two published poetry collections are This is the Band published by Hearing Eye Press and Spirograph with Burning Eye Books 2020. Pauline is currently one of the leading writers on women's working lives - she co-edited Magma 74 The Word Edition. Recent publications include a poem in Messing Up the Paintwork - a tribute to Mark E. Smith with Penguin Random House and a poem in Witches, Warriors and Workers an anthology of working class women's poetry in Culture Matters. 

Social Media links - 

Instagram - @Paulinesewards

psewards.cigcartel.com

In this episode frenetic poet Sam J Grudgings talks with Helen about finding poetry through fairy tales, horror, punk and addiction... Listen in to a lively discussion on performing tales and truth. 

"Sam J Grudgings is a  queer poet from Bristol, England. His debut collection “The Bible II” is due out with Verve Poetry Press in November 2021. Until then he can be booked for boardroom meetings, pyramid scheme recruitment drives, satanic rituals and children's birthday parties." In the meantime his work can be found in Riggwelter Press, Nine Arches and Cipher Press.  

Sam runs workshops on performance as well as campaigning for the recognition of lived experience in professional & academic circles. He endeavours to bring poetry to everyone, by collaboration efforts with musicians, dancers, artists & initiatives in local communities.

@storygiverpoet for twitter  

@samjgrudgings for instagram

In this episode Helen is talking with Stephen Lightbown about poets shifting access to online events, and writing authentic human endurance stories.

Stephen Lightbown is a Bristol based poet who writes extensively but not exclusively about his life as a wheelchair user. His debut collection, Only Air, was published in 2019 and his follow up collection The Last Custodian, will be published in June 2021.

Stephen was born in Blackburn, Lancashire. In 1996, aged 16, he experienced a life changing accident whilst sledging in the snow and is now paralysed from below the waist. Stephen writes extensively but not exclusively about life as a wheelchair user.

He has spoken at events across the UK and at festivals such as Shambala, Womad, Verve Poetry Festival and Lyra Bristol Poetry Festival. In addition, Stephen has read internationally in San Antonio, Texas.

In this episode Angie Belcher a stand up, actor, poet and comedy educator talks with Helen about writing and performing comedy. Join us for Angie's lively discussion on, 'Trauma is a natural bedmate to comedy'.

Our interview took place in the garden with a background of city sounds...

Angie is an expert communicator she regularly compere’s Glastonbury Festival’s raucous Cabaret Tent and is an accomplished stand-up comedian and writer ("Highly recommended, go see her”, Phil Jupitus) her  show “Mythical Creature” won North East Theatre Guide’s best show at Edinburgh Festival and she gained 3rdPlace in What The Frocks’ best UK Comedy Newcomer competition 2015. She also runs her own daytime Comedy company, AFTERMIRTH which provides daytime comedy events.

Her theatre writing credits include "What Has Shakespeare Ever Done for us?" a piece of public flash theatre which was created to pop-up around Bristol to promote The Bristol Shakespeare Festival 2013. Her play “Waiting For Pedro” premiered in Bristol in 2019.She also write site specific monologues, this year being asked to write one for Broadmead Shopping centre which was performed flash-style to startled shoppers.  Her 4 part comedy drama “My Funny Valentine" was featured on Radio 4 and she was a finalist in the Sit-Com Trials showcases for new writers. She also writes for corporate clients, having written odes for all sorts of clients from Cider shops to Audio Visual companies and regularly writes corporate virals and promo film scripts. In 2012 she commissioned by the city of Bath to write poetry to welcome home the Olympic Gold medalist Amy Williams.  Angie also relishes sharing her unique take on creative ambition and personal growth through motivational speaking and lecturing, her bravery seminar is currently touring the UK.

Angie is also Stand up comedy lecturer for world renowned circus School, Circomedia and is Associate Lecturer in writing comedy for Sit Com and Sketch as the University of Worcester. She is often called upon to provide comedian in residency services, recent clients include Bristol University, Can’t Sit Still Theatre Company and Salisbury hospital.

A proud graduate of The Institute for the Development of Human Potential, she holds a masters diploma in Humanistic Psychology for Facilitation, Leadership and coaching.

You can find out more here