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POETRY IN MOTION COMMUNITY
Poetry in Motion Community is New Belfast’s literary programme for local writers and aspiring writers.
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Do you have a favourite place in Belfast? Do you have memories of a particular event in your neighbourhood? Share it in a poem. |
NEW BELFAST PUBLISHES A New Belfast Poetry Map
PUBLIC LAUNCH
Thursday 31st March 7pm
Group Space, Ulster Hall, Belfast
Free admission
A New Belfast Poetry Map features fascinating journeys, places, histories and memories of the city seen through the eyes of its people. Many of the poems were collected via public submissions, many others were conceived in community centres, libraries and cafes through workshops conducted by resident poets.
The project was co-ordinated by Chelley McLear, a performance poet with a growing international reputation, and facilitated by New Belfast’s amazing team of poets: Jane Bailey, Jan Melia, David Smylie, Gordon Hewitt, Ruth Carr and Natasha Cuddington.
This is a collection which swings around Belfast’s lampposts draped in memories, dressed in dialect and swathed in a patchwork of pasts.
Reminiscences and observations entwine themselves throughout this collection to stitch an intricate tapestry of the city. Language of a myriad of colours and yarns from many communities weave together stories and voices from all parts of Belfast.
Our poets in residence helped to spin these words into pictures in, and about, a variety of locations; often teasing woolly recollections into beautiful threads.
This anthology follows a trail through our streets carpeted with familiar landmarks and personal histories. Start at the beginning and meander through the many scenes; some now only marked by memory, as the likes of Mickey Marley’s roundabout and the Curzon Cinema disappear into the archives of the city.
This is a geography of times and of places.
This is a poetic map of Belfast.
Chelley McLear, Poetry in Motion Co-ordinator
If you would like to follow a walking tour of poetry through the City Centre, you could follow our itinerary by clicking HERE.
Here is a selection of poems which will take you on a tour of the city through verbal landscapes.
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Starlings Above The Albert Bridge by Alice McCullough
No Alibis by Annemarie Mullan
Silverstream by Albert Haslett The Viewpoint And The Rath by Jonathan Hicks |
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This project was funded by the Arts Council of Northern Ireland’s National Lottery and Exchequer funds, with additional monies Belfast City Council and Department of Foreign Affairs.
If you’d like any further information please email chelley@newbelfastarts.org
Poetry in Motion Community’s poetry collections are featured in the Publication page.