Our dedicated website to the growing project is here!
March 8th at Westgate Unitarian Chapel- Clara’ Clarkson’s Women and catacomb tour
An incredible opportunity to hear performance readings by the Cuckoo’s Egg cast dressed in period costume of Clara Clarkson’s diaries and other extracts from other historical documents that tell the story of these incredible women and how they are linked to the chapel and to Wakefield.
A visit to the catacombs will follow with further readings from Mary Shelly’s Frankenstein. Mary was a frequent visitor to Wakefield to visit the influential women from our city.
Keep scrolling down!
DTC has secured funding to continue this amazing arts project; research, story telling, spoken word, talks, marches, community events, workshops, blue plaques, and more!
A series of workshops from May until February are now posted so that you can join in all of the dates, or as many as you wish. Pay as you feel donations will go towards Civic Society Blue Plaques.
Here’s the link to our facebook page, and below, the flyer of workshops and events.
https://www.facebook.com/events/629206057413244/
for more information email forgottenwomenwake@gmail.com
facebook Dream Time Creative
PDF FWW events Springs, library carers TAB
DTC goes to the Houses of Parliament, June 20th, 2018!
Baroness Alice Bacon’s legacy continues in an afternoon tea event, hosted by The Alice Bacon Trust, Normanton Town Council and Dream Time Creative. Held at Normanton Town Hall, where her Blue Plaque will be placed, the Friday 1st June event, held between 1pm and 4pm will include an official welcoming of the plaque with an unveiling at 3pm.
Guests from the local community will be invited to share their memories and stories of Alice and the Forgotten Women of Wakefield project will be performing poems about her set against the backdrop of an exhibition dedicated to her life and legacy.
The Broadsheet of Alice Bacon is produced by the whole team but special thanks must go to Steve Williams for his design and main article writing. Sarah Cobham provided the editorial comment and the initial ideas/design whilst the photographs of the artifacts have come from the archive collection put together by Sarah and gifted from Valerie and David Box, of Altoffs.
https://www.facebook.com/events/2071182483142178/
DTC has secured funding to continue this amazing arts project; research, story telling, spoken word, talks, marches, community events, workshops, blue plaques, and more!
A series of workshops from May until February are now posted so that you can join in all of the dates, or as many as you wish. Pay as you feel donations will go towards Civic Society Blue Plaques.
Here’s the link to our facebook page, and below, the flyer of events.
https://www.facebook.com/events/629206057413244/
Women’s Voices Ring Out!
INVISIBLE Disabilities
A free 5 week course for women only
Creating My Time Capsule
Come and create your own Time capsule using group activities, crafts, creative writing and mindfulness.
A commitment to the five sessions will focus on the creative recognition and recovery of our strengths, capturing our individual stories so that they are not forgotten, creatively leaving behind a legacy for future generations of girls and women.
https://www.facebook.com/events/130056871175373/
Wednesdays Sept 5th, 12th, 19th, 26th and Oct 3rd 10 am-12 pm
@ Customs House Studio, WF1 1QB
To register email shannonwishon@hotmail.com
Funded by
6 Free Course Sessions (Completed!)
https://www.facebook.com/events/207479666477006/
A series of workshops for women in a safe and inclusive space designed to allow for creative expression. Each session will range through a different creative activity such as art, poetry writing, drama and will be loosely linked by the theme ‘Persephone’.
Persephone was the goddess of the underworld and as she returns to the earth she brings light and growth with her. She is Spring. So, just as our own mental health keeps us in darkness during the dark side of the year, this gentle course will enable us to ‘feel better’ through connection with creativity.
This course is free as it is funded by The Post Code Lottery.
Commissioned by Wakefield Libraries and delivered by writer and poet Sarah Leah Cobham, this workshop is open to all ages, abilities and interests.
Plus… It’s FREE!
To book contact sarahcobham@hotmail.com
The final Group poem from the session-
The March 2018 Artwalk
Join this powerful group of Women as we perform in and around the Hepworth Galleries.
The Unrulys are a combination of women who mostly participated in the Words For Well Being project delivered by Sarah Leah Cobham of Dream Time Creative who had been commissioned by the Well Women Centre to guide a group of new and emerging Spoken Word Artists through different stages of development to enable them to perform at the Wakefield Lit Fest 2017.
Now firm favourites on the Spoken Word scene in Wakefield and beyond, the Unrulys will take you on a journey that will pull on your heart strings and make you laugh until you cry.
https://www.facebook.com/events/139096430107230/
#truthbetold…..@ Wakefield Rhubarb Festival!
Friday 23rd 1.30 – 2pm in The Mini Tent!
Truth Be Told… it’s Wakefield Spoken Word Artists being all vocal about food and rhubarb!
Hosted by Simon Widdop, the very best of new, emerging and established Wakefield Spoken Artists will take you on a delightful journey around Wakefield.
Saturday 24th 1.30-2pm in the Mini Tent
Truth Be Told… it’s The Unrulys being all vocal and a good job too.
Hosted by Sarah Leah Cobham, a powerful group of female spoken word artists will entertain you with their take on life, food, drink, love and laugher… woman style!
Sunday 25th 1.30-2pm in the Mini Tent
Truth Be Told.. it’s the Truth Be Told Founders being… well just all vocal!
This team of visionaries will take you on a journey of discovery with their eclectic, egalitarian style.
Pack Up Poetry Workshops
November 19th 2017- One off workshop!
Interested in learning about how women found their voices during the early days of the suffrage movement? A day of spoken word, drama improvisation and exploration of the woman’s voice which will embolden your own understanding and connection with your female ancestors. In preparation for a public performance dedicated entirely to Female Performers, this workshop will take you through all the skills you need to deliver, with confidence, you spoken word piece on the theme of Suffarage.
From initial writing, including writing skills and poetry techniques, being in your body to enable you to own your space, your words and your feelings, you will be taken through the whole process, so that, by the end of the day you will have a crafted piece of Spoken Word.
The morning will be dedicated to writing, whilst the afternoon to performing.
Open to women only and accessible to all levels of writing and performance experience.
The cost of the day is £25 per person. Spaces limited to 12 so booking and advance payment is essential.
Please bring your own lunch, drinks and snacks will be provided.
https://www.facebook.com/events/804893386355798/
Dot Art Workshop- July 28th 2017
Did you know that all dot art pictures tell a story?
Come and learn what the traditional symbols mean, learn to read them and tell your own story by using the traditional methods of the Indiginous Aboriginal People of Australia.
https://www.facebook.com/events/926671894138535/
Delivered by experienced facilitators Sarah Cobham and Shannon Wishon, this 30 hour course will enable you to understand how to create a positive, inclusive environment to support mental health and emotional well being both in the workplace and in community groups.
With an emphasis on creativity and emotional intelligence, the course’s key aims are to empower the voice, extend and bed in facilitation skills and enable participants to engage in a positive and self reflective manner which will, in turn, give them the skills to enable others.
Summary of course content:
- Power in groups and the need for equality in peer contexts
- Tools for maintaining equality in groups
- The group contract
- Safety of group members
- Self care – why it is important
- Tools for self care, including: relaxation skills, body work and affirmations etc.
- The history of peer-to-peer support
- What is a ‘peer’? What is creativity and why is it important to me? What is peer-led creative expression?
- Being a facilitator in a peer-led creative environment: what the role entails, the skills needed
- Reflective practice
- Structure and rituals in groups
- Learning styles and participation methods
- Designing and delivering a peer-led session (session length: 15 mins per group member)
- What’s helpful and unhelpful when giving and receiving feedback
- Facilitating in pairs: why; the advantages and challenges; how can we work together?
- Models of group development – critical reflection
- Dealing with difficulties and challenges in groups
- Owning and celebrating my own power/owning and celebrating the power of others
- Analysing my strengths and areas for personal development
- Planning for the future: what next; future opportunities and support
- Creative expression and learning opportunities throughout the course, including: role play, drama, creative writing, visual art, crafts, dance, music, song etc.
Women’s Voices Ring Out!
Wednesday October 3rd, 2018
@ Customs House, The Springs, WF1 1QB
7-9pm
A Women’s only space for a
“Share a Slot” to express yourself creatively; your Spoken Word, your Poetry, your Dance, your Art, your Drama!
Bring a friend along. £3 donation
www.Dreamtimecreative.wordpress.com
facebook Dream Time Creative
WVRO June 6th 2018
Another fantastic evening with the Women of Wakefield learning, sharing and caring about one another to empower and enable their voices. A huge thank you to Mestisa https://mestisa.bandcamp.com/ for the incredible sounds, Jasmine King for bringing her unique style and stories in Spoken Word, and to the Forgotten Women of Wakefield Project speaker Sarah Leah Cobham for telling us about Suffrage Florence Beaumont and why she deserves a Blue Plaque, and all of the women that attended!
@CreativeMindsWakefield #suffragefund People’s Postcode Lottery
A wonderful evening of music, spoken word, learning about the creative projects and humans in Wakefield and sharing.
JASMINE KING
Jasmine is from Ossett, West Yorkshire . She loves all forms of creativity, whether, written /Spoken word, Art, Music or Drama. She has written poetry and stories since at school and has had poems published in school magazines. She teaches creative writing and was nominated for prizes at the Forward Press grand slam, with work being published as a result.
Jasmine has had poems published In various Anthology’s and Magazines under her alias’s, Mary Jayne Evans and Julia Evans. A contributor to the Ilkley Literature festival Jasmine appeared on Poetry Please with Rodger McGough.
Jasmine was a pandemonium poet with A Firm of Poets during 2015-2016 and has performed at various Wakefield Lit Fests.
MESTISA
In 1999 Ana Luisa and Barbara met in Leeds at one of the open mic nights at the The Grove and they’ve been playing together ever since forming the core of Mestisa and have over the years performed with a wide range of talented musicians. Currently they perform as a quartett with Mike Sandell (“The Metronome”) on bass and Brendan Bach on percussion. Mestisa regularly perform at festivals, charity events, and have even provided the entertainment for the Ambassador of Mexico!!
Of German-Bolivian origin, Barbara has been playing and singing Latin American folk music alongside her father since the age of 4. Much of her musical influences are based on her father’s 1950s repertoire and her own journeys to Peru and Bolivia in the 1980s and in 2009 and to Cuba in 2007. Barbara plays guitar, charango (a 10 string ukulele type instrument) and a range of percussion instruments, including the Andean Bombo (a bass drum), guiro (a Cuban instrument used to produce the cha cha cha sound), cajon (a Peruvian box drum) and maracas.
Folk music has always been present in Ana Luisa’s life. She was born in Pirque, a little village at the foot of the Andes outside Santiago, Chile. She grew up listening to the music of the local singers; Cantores Populares, who performed an old Chilean folk genre that cultivates décima and improvisation, known as Payada, accompanied by the guitarron or guitar. Her mum was a keen singer and many nights were spent at home with friends and family singing cuecas, tonadas and the well loved tunes of the Argentinian zambas and chacareras. In the following years Ana Luisa taught herself to play guitar and started singing and playing the popular tunes of the great Latin folk musicians and protest singers like Victor Jara and Violeta Parr
WVRO Wednesday April 4th 2018
Here’s the facebook link!
https://www.facebook.com/events/348905258940453/
A wonderful evening of music, laughter, poetry, cake, story telling and inspirational speakers in a women only space join us to hear:
Genevive Walsh (Spoken Word)
The Hedging Besties (Music)
Jill Clake (Inspirational Speaker)
Along with YOUR Creativity. Poetry, music, prose, drama, dance!! What ever you want to share in the Share a Slot sections that are dotted throughout the evening.
WVRO February 2018!
https://www.facebook.com/events/151219058934336/?active_tab=about
Another astounding evening celebrating the creativity of Wakefield Women we welcome Rose Condo as our inspirational Spoken Word Artist and Loz Campbell as our wonderful musical artist.
This non-judgemental, safe, creative space has been available for women since 2014 and it supports and encourages those who have never had an opportunity to speak their truth creatively before and to share their work in our ‘Share a Slot’ sections which run through out the evening.
We ask for a £3 donation on entry and, on this occasion will be asking for further donations for Rose’s Award Winning Show
Rose Condo and How to Starve an Artist
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4arDNyfKiQk&list=PLqStrpVFbAVoLokvbPd4mSsmTW_I4tx5a&index=1
Dominic Simpson photo credit
How To Starve An Artist is an innovative, passionate and entertaining show that blows open ideas about creative nourishment. Through story and spoken word Rose explores the theme of feeding one’s inner artist, whilst simultaneously preparing and serving food to the audience. Audience members are given a ‘Starving Artist Kit’ as they enter, containing items to help inspire individual creative activity.
How To Starve An Artist premiered at the PBH Free Fringe in Edinburgh 2016. The show was Runner Up Best UK Spoken Word Show for the 2017 Saboteur Awards in London. The show sold out at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, and has toured to York, Lancaster, Durham, and Blackpool with upcoming dates in Wakefield and Lincoln in 2018. Rose presented the show at Canada’s 2017 Winnipeg Fringe Festival, earning a four-star review and inclusion on UMFM’s list of the top ten Fringe shows. Rose is collaborating with fish90 productions on a film version of the live show.
Rose Condo is a writer, performer and multiple slam winning spoken word poet who hails from the Canadian prairies. Longlisted for the inaugural Jerwood Compton Poetry Fellowship, Rose has featured at festivals and events across the UK, including Lindisfarne Festival, the Ilkley Literature Festival Fringe, the Huddersfield Literature Festival, performances for Amnesty International, and supporting Shane Koyczan (presented by Apples & Snakes and Say Owt – York) and Hollie McNish (presented by Evidently – Salford). Rose programmes and hosts Queenie’s Coffee House Nights at the Lawrence Batley Theatre in Huddersfield, and runs creative writing workshops for young people and adults.
www.rosecondo.net
Prairie Petal Art
Loz Campbell
After storming onto the music scene at the tender age of 15; Loz Campbell has continue to grow at an incredible rate. With 2 EP’s and now a debut album under her belt, quoted as ‘the unstoppable gigging machine’, ‘One to Watch’ and ‘Ridiculously Talented’, her highly reviewed debut album, ‘Green Eyes’ offers something for everyone. Her style has been compared to 90’s bands such as Nirvana and Garbage.
With the title track launching the band onto stages such as O2 Academy Leeds, she can switch from emerging grunge rocker to seducing a room with her gentle vocals and deep music.
December WVRO! https://www.facebook.com/events/804893386355798/
Bi-Monthly, WVRO offers an opportunity for the women of Wakefield to share their creativity in our Share a Slot section, be it Spoken Work, Drama, Music, Art, Dance or Performance in a supportive all female space.
Customs House, The Springs Wakefied, WF1 1QB
Donations on the door are welcome!
Please email Dream Time Creative Founder, spoken work artist and writer, sarahcobham@hotmail.com for a slot or more details
A wonderful event for Women Only to share their creativity.
Share a Slot – for YOU – just let us know as you arrive. One poem or 3 minutes xx
Our guests this evening include:
Amy Charles whose story about her Medical Breast Conditon is inspiring and insightful.
Jane Muller who will delight us with her percussion playing, music and song. Jane sings and plays djembe, performing with established singer songwriter, Ali Bullivent, as part of The Imba Basi Band. She also plays with SONGO Drumming Project. Recently she has provided vocals for The Captain of the Lost Waves and is working on her own songs, composed with the help of a ukulele and a little life experience. Lyrics first. Melody follows.
And Zodwa Nyoni who is a playwright and poet based in Leeds. As winner of the Channel 4 Playwright’s Scheme she was Writer-in-Residence at the West Yorkshire Playhouse. She has previously been Apprentice Poet-in-Residence at Ilkely Literature Festival (2013), Leeds Kirkgate Market (2012) and Writer-in-Residence at I Love West Leeds Festival (2010). She is currently under commission at The Tricycle Theatre and Theatre Royal Stratford East.
Work includes: Ode to Leeds (WYP), Weathered Estates (City of Culture 2017/Hull University); Borderline (Young Vic ‘5 Plays’ season); Sister (Ilkley & Beverley Literature Festivals); Nine Lives (Leeds Studio – UK Tour, Oran Mor & West Yorkshire Playhouse); Boi Boi Is Dead (a finalist for the 2015 Susan Smith Blackburn Prize West Yorkshire Playhouse, Tiata Fahodzi & Watford Palace Theatre); A Letter To You (Manchester Royal Exchange); Tangled Roots (Trinity Arts & DePaul University, Chicago); Come to Where I’m From (Paines Plough and WYP); The Night Shift (Young Writers’ Scheme, WYP / BBC Writer’s Room) and The Povo Die Till Freedom Comes (Square Chapel & The Bush Theatre).
Radio includes:
Love Again – Sonnets in the City (read by Maxine Peake – BBC / BBC Philharmonic)
Past Event Highlights
October 2017
August 2017
September 2016
June 2016
May 2016
The Words For Wellbeing group perform at St Austin’s Theatre as part of Words For Wellbeing Cabaret at Wakefield Lit Fest, 24th September 2017
The Words For Well Being Project came about as a result of 3 years of working with women who were challenged with emotional and mental well-being issues and that had accessed the Express Yourself Creatively courses delivered by Creative Dream Time via the Well Women Centre. It’s aim was was to empower the female voice and work through emotional states and unblock that which stops us, as women, speaking our emotional truth.
Delivered over 10 sessions over 5 months and dovetailing into the 2017 Wakefield Lit Fest, the women have been taken on a journey of self discovery and have accessed different experiences that have enabled them to write, express and perform creatively. The celebration event in the afternoon of the 24th September was well attended by family, friends whilst the evening event, a performance, on a stage, lit and using microphones, to up to 100 people was nerve wracking. 80 percent of the WFWB women had never written poetry before, never mind performed, so the standing ovation for them at the end of their 15 minute performance was well deserved.
As Kate Fox (poet) says, ‘Women are often labelled as being unruly once they have found their voice and know how to express themselves well in public’ if indeed this is the case, then Dream Time Creative is proud to have launched another set of unruly women onto the public stage.
Video and Filming Credit to the amazing Amy Charles Media.
http://www.amycharlesmedia.com/
[youtube https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=kM2-kJR_VlY&w=560&h=315]
Where are the women from our past who have influenced the creative and cultural landscape of this city?
Lost and Forgotten.
Dream Time Creative is working in collaboration with WMDC to bring to life, through dramatisation and spoken word, the stories of three women from Wakefield’s past who have had a positive impact on the lives of women today.
The aim of the Forgotten Women of Wakefield Project is to leave a lasting legacy through Blue Plaques, films and archive materials that will be housed both at The History Centre and Museums and Libraries, of three influential women from Wakefield, whose work impacted on the lives of ordinary women in our Merrie City and to give voice to their contributions through out 2018 which is the 100 year anniversary of the Representation of the People Act where some women were given the right to vote. Universal suffrage came 10 years later and saw women win equal voting rights to men.
Our objective is to bring the stories to life of those three extraordinary women through dramatic interpretation and spoken word and to further give voice using spoken word to other women from our city’s past who have also helped to shape the cultural landscape of Wakefield. We will be showcasing, through a series of exhibitions, performances and spoken word events around the city, these stories in the run up to a day of celebration at Wakefield One on International Women’s Day March 8th 2018 and beyond!
- Forgotten Women of Wakefield- from March, we will be focussing
on these these women-
Florence Beaumont
Louisa Fennell
The Gissing Sisters
If you are interested in getting involved, see the flyer above or go to our facebook page
https://www.facebook.com/events/2010305579009741/?active_tab=about
Course Dates-
Unless otherwise stated all sessions will take place at Custom’s House, The Springs,
WF1 1QB (opposite The Wakey Tavern)
Session 1 10am- 12pm Friday 20th April – Vision, Planning, Targetting and tasks. Sharing what we already know.
Session 2 10am – 12pm Friday 27th April – Library Archive Visit
Session 3 10am – 12pm Friday 4th May – Deborah Scriven visit to talk about Florence Beaumont. All sharing tasks
BREAK – 3 weeks
Session 4 10am – 12pm Friday 1st June – Report back. Spoken Word Workshop. Task setting
Session 5 10am – 12pm Friday 8th June – Report Back.
Spoken Word Workshop. Looking Forward
The facebook events page: https://www.facebook.com/events/2324374774455456/
Thank you for the Wakefield Express’s support of our project! Here’s the link:
https://www.wakefieldexpress.co.uk/news/their-works-live-on-so-must-their-names-wakefield-s-forgotten-women-1-9020592
Thank you to the Hepworth Gallery Wakefield for supporting us too!
Here’s the link!
A huge thank you must go to Joy Bruce for the incredible sashes the FWW group wore on Thursday and will be wearing today at The Hepworth event. Without her vision and crafting skills we would have been stuck!
Illustration by Steve Williams for the Five Towns Brewery Beer being launched on IWD March 8th, 2018.
The first woman we are bringing to life is Dame Alice Bacon, who was born in Wakefield but lived and worked as the Normanton Labour MP. Alice had a huge impact on the way the comprehensive school system opened up opportunities for both women and men. She also pushed through the private bills which made abortion legal and was at the forefront of changing perceptions about homosexuality for the better.
We will be presenting an interpretation of her life, alongside our own spoken word pieces written in response to her legacy as part of the International Women’s Day Celebrations at Wakefield One on March 8th 2018 followed by the unveiling of a Blue Plaque to provide a permanent reminder of her legacy.
Complimented by our ‘Poets in Poll Booths’ events, travelling exhibitions and vlogging, which will take place through out 2018 we will also be going into schools and engaging with the Art Walk to allow us to collect stories about how other women from Wakefield have contributed to the cultural landscape over the past 100 years.
With the support from the Civic Society, the History Archives and Libraries and Museums, 2018 will be dedicated to the 100 year anniversary of the Sufferage Movement.
Here are the poems created by the Poets in Poll Booths on International Women’s Day
Winter 2018 Sessions
Emotional Intelligence Project focusing on the six senses.
Our work at Field head continued on Friday afternoon with a series of workshop based on the sense of smell. We were exploring how smell evokes memory by engaging with different flowers, herbs and perfumes. As we shared those stories we drew the things that gave those memories to us. By extending our vocabulary we were able to express, oftentimes, inner feelings and to own them. This session was incredible powerful and produced some stunning ‘in response’ pieces.
Moving to music and dancing with scarfs inspired the following black and white pictures from our visit to Field Head on the 9th February 2018. Being ‘in the body’ is vitally important to well being and mental health so by exploring the sense of hearing and touch in tandem we were able to create an opportunity for participants to explore their feelings in a gentle and supportive way.
Using exotic scents to stimulate memory we responded using the medium of pastel and paper to create a piece that worked as a metaphor.
Using images of Barbara Hepworth’s Sculptures as inspiration for our own pieces and using key words to help describe what the sculptures might be trying to express or say and how they speak to us. Create sculptures out of clay and explore how the clay feels in our hands, what stories and feelings they evoke.
Autumn 2017 Sessions
Using meditation to start, each group was bought into a state of mindfulness where they were able explore the themes of Creation from the Indigenous Australian Aboriginal stories. The traditional didgeridoo is used to both invoke atmosphere and as inspiration for traditional ‘dot’ artwork to take place.