Wordplay arose out of the 6 year long Writing Lives programme in Broughton, Salford. Funded by the University of Salford, Writing Lives delivered in close partnership with the Broughton Trust and offered local residents the opportunity to participate in regular weekly creative writing workshops and other associated projects/events including:
Broughton Poetry Day
A day of different poetry activities celebrating the literary talents of the people of Broughton culminating in the collective writing of The Big Broughton Poem
Broughton Poetry Day took place twice in the old Broughton library and the new Broughton Hub and was open to all residents alongside the Writing Lives partcipants.
Salford Story Bus
Salford Story Bus offered children, young people and adults an opportunity to experience high quality storytelling activity facilitated by performers, artists, and professional and emerging community writers.
Using a real vintage bus as a time machine fuelled by stories that explore different times and places. The bus picked up a few time travelling passengers who needed help to create the story fuel necessary to return the time machine to its rightful era. The Salford Story Bus experience used performance, creative writing and visual art to transport young participants to magical spaces and to spark their creativity.
The project used a collection of vintage objects (curated by visual artist Suzanne Smith) which were intended to trigger memories and inspire dialogue.
Various events involved children (in primary school settings) being asked to interview “time travelling” passengers before writing and illustrating connected stories. The creative writing activity was facilitated by our emerging community writers, volunteers and professional writers/artists.
Salford Story Bus events were also aimed at adult groups interested in exploring life writing and community heritage. These events were more focused on the use of the object collection
Cartography
An exhibition of different digital storytelling pieces created by local people mapping their memories of living in Broughton. Writing Lives participants worked with film makers and book artists to create short films and stop motion animations that explored personal experiences that reflected some of the different cultures that make life in Broughton. The Cartography exhibition was hosted in the egg space at the University of Salford’s building in MediaCity.
Here are some examples of the digital storytelling work we have done with groups in Salford:
