I’m thrilled to be working with Courtney Stoddart on a new project open to people of Caribbean heritage, including mixed heritage, living in Scotland.
The Windrush Legacy Creative Reflections project invites people of Caribbean descent based in Scotland to creatively explore our experiences, reflect on and celebrate our roots and our lives in Scotland, share cultural or personal stories and dream into our futures.
The project includes two online (free) creative writing workshops on 30th May and 5th June and culminates in an exhibition at the Museum of Edinburgh and a printed anthology.
Register on Eventbrite
If you’re keen to be involved but cannot attend either workshop, please contact me and to let know: jedapearllewis@gmail.com
Materials to bring to the online workshops:
- A few sheets of blank paper
- Something to write on and with (laptop, phone or paper notebook)
- Coloured pens, pencils or crayons
Please attend all online workshops if you can! If attending with children under 12yrs, or a relative from the same household joining from the same room/device, you don’t need to book an extra ticket for them.
Access
- Tickets are free
- Children under 12 years must be accompanied by an adult. Jeda Pearl is a member of the Disclosure Scotland PVG scheme.
- Automated captions and transcript available.
- Automatic live captions and transcripts are provided via Otter.ai (hosted on Scottish BPOC Writers Network’s Zoom account)
- Audio descriptions will be provided by facilitator
- Participants must adhere to Scottish BPOC Writers Network Safer Spaces Policy
- You do not have to have your camera on
- Exhibition venue space has level access (Museum of Edinburgh access)
- Any other access requirements, please add during registration.
- Any questions – email jedapearllewis@gmail.com
Timeline
- Creative arts workshops: 30th May, 5th June
- Submitting writings and/or artworks: 12th – 17th July
- Exhibition opens at Museum of Edinburgh: 1st August
Details
All workshops are free and participants who would like to share their writing/creations, will have the opportunity to exhibit at least one piece of work at the Museum of Edinburgh, opening 1st August 2023.
Exhibitors will also be paid a fee – we have a budget of £1,000 which will be split equally among exhibitors/households (either as a freelance artist payment or community shopping vouchers). Submission deadline 12th July.
All forms of creative expression, writing and multilingualism are encouraged – spoken word, written, lyrical, image-making… Bring your Scots, Patios, Creole, English, all languages welcome…!
People of all ages (10yrs+ advised) and all skill levels also welcome – we hope to big up an intergenerational group and a mix of professional writers, artists, non-artists, and people who are interested in writing, art and being creative.
This project follows on from the Respect! Caribbean Life in Edinburgh exhibition and your facilitators, Scottish Caribbean writer-artists Jeda Pearl and Courtney Stoddart, are excited to support participants to create a piece of writing (poetry or prose; fiction or nonfiction), general reflections or an image.
In addition to marking the 75th anniversary of the arrival of HMT Empire Windrush, we also acknowledge the Caribbean peoples making their homes in Scotland before 1948.
Celebrating and reflecting on the contributions of Caribbean people to Scottish society who have made their homes in Scotland, as well as their children who were born or grew up, or are currently growing up in Scotland, is a vital part of reflecting on Scotland’s historic and current links with the Caribbean.
Donations: any donations received will be used towards travel costs for low income participants to visit the exhibition; thereafter more workshops and materials, and/or printing more books. Screenshots of the end amount raised will be shared publicly on the lead artist, Jeda Pearl’s website for transparency. Thank you.
Register on Eventbrite
About the facilitators
Jeda Pearl (she/her) is a Scottish Jamaican writer and artist based in Edinburgh, Scotland. She writes speculative fiction and poetry, and her work often traverses/reflects the ‘in between’ and explores the intersections of be/longing, (intergenerational) memory, illness and disability, secrecy and survival. Her work examines the histories, cultures, folklores and languages of her ancestral islands, at times exploring grief and nature writing, often creating magical realist or science-fictional worlds.
In 2022, Jeda was shortlisted for the Sky Arts RSL Award and longlisted for the Women Poets’ Prize. She’s performed on The Big Scottish Book Club (BBC Scotland), at StAnza, Push the Boat Out, Event Horizon, Inky Fingers, and Hidden Door. Commissioned works include Caledonian Library, 3033 (Scottish Storytelling Centre), Acts of Observation (Collective) and her poems and stories are published Rhubaba, New Writing Scotland, Shoreline of Infinity, Aesthetica, and most recently in Glimpse – Peepal Tree Press’ first anthology of speculative fiction by Black British writers.
Courtney Stoddart is an acclaimed Scottish poet, writer and performer. In June 2019, Courtney took part in the BBC Radio 1xtra and BBC Contains Strong Language Festival Word’s First Talent Scheme, making it to the final 12. She was selected to be published in an anthology by Own It! London and edited by Jude Yawson, co-writer of Stormzy’s Rise Up: The Story So Far. Stoddart starred in Hannah Lavery’s ‘Lament for Sheku Bayoh’ for 3 years running at the Lyceum Theatre and has represented Scotland at FLUP! literary festival in Rio de Janeiro, Brazil, whilst also being named as one of YWCA’s 30 under 30 in 2020.
She has appeared on a panel at the Edinburgh International Book Festival, featured on Damian Barr’s Big Scottish Book Club on BBC Scotland and published in Neu Reekie’s #Neu Voices. As of 2021, she was announced as an Ignite Fellow with the Scottish Book Trust, and gained a First Class Masters degree in Creative Writing from the University of Glasgow. Courtney was also recently commissioned alongside Poet Laureate Simon Armitage for the BBC Centenary.
Courtney’s website | Instagram
This project is in partnership with Edinburgh Caribbean Association, ScottishBPOCWritersNetwork, Scottish Government and Museum of Edinburgh.
