This workshop is for people who want to learn about how poetry might be used to support processes of change and activism. In the first hour we will explore how poems have been used to speak truth to power and lift up seldom heard voices. In the second hour we will help you think about how you might use poetry with the people you work with to support them to share their experiences and inspire change through writing poetry.

The workshops will be similar but each will explore a different theme or issue of social significance. You may take the workshops as a sequence or only attend one.

The first two workshops will be run online and the third will be run in-person at the Edinburgh Futures Institute.

The Eventbrite linked on this page is for the in-person session – follow this link to register for the online sessions on 31 October and 7 November.

Facilitators

Professor Sam Illingworth works at Edinburgh Napier University and is a world-leading expert in the intersections of poetry, research, and pedagogy. He is also the founder of Consilience, the world’s first science and poetry journal. Find out more about Sam and his work at www.samillingworth.com.

Dr Autumn Roesch-Marsh works at the University of Edinburgh as a Senior Lecturer in Social Work. She is Co-Director of The Binks Hub, which seeks to co-create research with communities using arts engaged methods to promote human flourishing. She recently worked with the Scottish Poetry Library on a Poetry for Wellbeing project for Social Workers. You can access the resources developed for this project here: Running Your Own Poetry for Wellbeing Workshops – Projects – Scottish Poetry Library