I’m sure you’re all aware of the recent devastating events that have taken place in Haiti recently. The country has been torn apart by a brutal earthquake and its people are in need of our thoughts and support more than ever right now.
With that in mind I would like to begin this newsletter with the poetic though of the month.. It is called “A Cry from Haiti” and is by Chaouki Mkaddem. I’m sure you’ll all agree it echoes our feelings at the moment.
A Cry From Haiti!!
If someone asks me,
Where I am from,
I will answer: I belong to the earth,
I belong to the whole world,
But today I am particularly Haitian.
The disaster shook my body.
Haitian tears blended into my blood.
My heart is hurt!
The loss was so great,
Because of the earthquake.
I cannot surrender to this fate..
It’s no good to wait!!
Let’s make their mourning evaporate,
By rushing and being the first to donate.
By Chaouki Mkaddem
We would like to take this moment to send our deepest condolences to the victims and their loved ones who have been involved with this earthquake. We should all do our best to help the relief effort.
At this point I would like to provide you with an account of some work I did recently. It was a great experience and I hope I get the chance to replicate it by working with some of you
It’s that time of the year when everyone is back in the swing of things and that’s no exception for me as part of E1top (Each One Teach One Productions) and Ipoetry TV.
Yesterday I was fortunate to be part of “Say Hello” an event for the entire family in Richmond Upon Thames - hosted by the Mayor Cllr Celia Hodges and Deputy Mayor Cllr Ben Khosa.
Music, dance, storytelling and arts activities, along with the various cultural and information stalls and a variety of food from around world was the order of the day.
By providing the storytelling, I got to work with a lot of young enquiring minds. Telling a mixture of Aesop’s fables, Anansi stories and tales from around the world while using movement, percussion and song to bring the stories to life always gets the creative juices going.
Audience participation brings out the best in storytellers' and this event proved to be no exception. I could not hold back on incorporating poetic verse as part of my set and as I looked out to the faces in the audience and saw their responses I felt their enthusiasm rub off on me.
During another part of the set, with a group of young people, we used percussion instruments to provide a soundtrack to a story that was to do with the rain, thunder and an animal’s cry. The day was for adults too. It’s rewarding when they enjoy stories so much they come back for more or ask you if you’re doing another set but most of all when they themselves participate..
Overall, it was an experience that confirms we all have so much to contribute to each other‘s performance in order to make for the truly memorable experiences. The team will definitely be going to more events this year. Even if we cannot get to yours feel free to send us a review for consideration in our forthcoming newsletters.
A final note - The Ipoetry TV team would like to thank all of you who have so far submitted entries to our first competition event! Please keep them coming. As a humble gesture on our part we will be donating 10% of the proceeds of the competition to the people of Haiti.
For this and other competition details go to
http://ipoetryreviews.com/competitions.html
Until next time!
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