TheFED Writing Festival 2009
Saturday 21st November
Faraday House
(48-51 Old Gloucester Street, London WC1N 3AE)
Were you there?
If you have any pictures, writing,
comments, suggestions or video clips
PLEASE SHARE THEM WITH US!
You can send them via email to:
or by post to:
25 Cumberland Road
Sidley
Bexhill-on-Sea
East Sussex
TN39 5BU
Lucia and all in the Fed
Below is a poem Carlos wishes to share in dedication to Fedfest 2009
Brother & Sister Fed Friends
On the eve of our 15th anniversary
our flag riding on the word
of wind with sunshine
water opens beautiful
world of friendship across
the water of time
those who can recognize
each sentiment of our heart
created a poem for the
people that rare
the element of roses
drum melody
as Sly and the Family Stone
call out Stand! as a midget standing tall
and the giant he's about to fall
dreaming of a colorful
journey
we must live our life
beginning to end no one
else can do it for us
a sweet sofrito which
is our foundation
Bread is Rising
El Pan que se Sube
A flower is blooming
as solid as a
peace banner
now with echo of
sixty words rhythm
I speak to my own spirit
and my mind I am
conscience as life
humble me to be
peace and love
Bread and Roses
© 11/21/09 Carlos Raul Dufflar
From Andy Smith's 'Spiritual Path-Working in Metaphor & Myth-making using words & pictures' Workshop
All our lives have a tale to tell. I have grown up with anxieties all my life. It has been a long hard thing to come to terms with. My problems started from being over-protected as a young child. I was unable to come to terms with knowing and liking myself. People frightened me. From a young age I had no self-confidence whatsoever. At the age of 19 years old I had a clinical breakdown, which included medication and shock treatment. It has taken many, many years. I've also had other health issues. I had a very bad marriage, had two boys and then had another child at 44 years old. He is my life-line. Then I got throat cancer when he was 7 years old. He has pulled me through so many bad years.
He is a miracle and put my life in perspective. My eldest boy suffers from schizophrenia, but my Ryan is there always to lead me the right way ahead. For my latter years, why did I worry for so, so long? I now realise we lose so much time on all the bad parts which have been over the years. I believe that EFT (Emotional Freedom Technique) helped me so much to come to terms with what went wrong.
Jan Humphreys
From Jan Hedger's 'Come Shopping with Me' Workshop
Empty Shop
Walking into an empty shop
On the wall canvas clean
Stood waiting for dressing
A beautiful scene
Brushes dancing
Yellows, blues and greens
A light reflects shadows too
Transforming a beautiful scene
Of landscape of an empty shop
Into a world of mystic shadows of colour
The question is who this elusive artist is
Spot Lamp
Spot light beam light
Dark and dreary room shine
Brighten mosaics cold
Hard shining pattern into gold
Life of busy, warmth of colours
Greens, olives, browns.
Nick Crump
From Derek Smith's Poetry Workshop
Sweets in my Pocket
The mission today is to go into town
An exercise in PR; they call it
Whilst I live in fear of losing my legs
One doesn't share that of course
Part of a soldier's dress code
Is the wearing of a confident smile
No sooner had we jumped from the truck
Than they were there; the children
My forced smile relaxes a little now
Tousled, dark-haired children;
The innocents; wanting only security
And the sweets from our pockets
Clinging to my roughened combats
Jabbering away; no pause for breath
Clamouring for individual attention
A few English words; intermixed
With their own foreign tongue
They learn fast, these children of war
But I am not their teacher.
Jan Hedger
From The Vale House Project Workshop
Hi there,
I'm a student from King's College London and attended the Minifest 2009 on November 21st.
I wrote a creative writing piece in one of the afternoon workshops (Vale House Project) and didn't get a chance to give in my work so I was told to e-mail it. :)
So here it is. The stimulus title was 'Freedom.'
Freedom of what?
Thought and reason;
Floating and circling, free from censorship.
No consideration or barriers,
But a string of words made by one and meant for one.
No time limit or restriction;
Not pinned down or making to understand;
But the simple act of thinking,
Enclosed and forever sealed.
No sound but still the volume of a life.
No one can stop it;
No thing can quiet it;
No man can perceive it;
Being, living and free.
Thanks for a very interesting workshop and a generally stimulating day!
Regards,
Roseanna Cooke
Attendee Feedback
"I have popped my evaluation form in the post to Lucia, but I still wanted to say what an inspiring day it was, and to thank everyone who made it so and those who did the hard work organising it. I am a member of Bradford Resources Centre in Bradford and as a member I can book their meeting room. It's large and basic... (best for the summer months), and has access to a small kitchenette; it's near the Centre of Bradford with cheap curry houses.
If Fed members are interested in using it for a meeting I can do the booking.
Best wishes, Bruce Barnes"
"What a great day we all had this year! Due to my 'Londonphobia' HA HA I had not attended the last couple of mini-fests. It took a bit of getting used to at first and there was a general feeling I felt that no one was quite sure who was organising what but once we had all done our first workshop of the day it seemed to work on its own.
It was great to see a lot of familiar faces again and I enjoyed catching up with John, listening to Lucia's beautiful songs and taking part in the traditional 'Performance Evening'. While it is fair to say that there was not as many people as I expected this year, I think a lot of this is perhaps down to the recession and that some people think that a 'one dayer' cannot be as successful as the old weekend format.
I thought that myself before this year and said so on here. Having attended this years event however I think BOTH formats can be made to work successfully. Two and a half days is nicer because there is more time for social contact and networking but I did manage to chat to quite a few new people while I was there so it's not impossible to enjoy the social side of it as well.
I made a beeline to go to Roger Drury's workshop in the afternoon because, in all the fedfests I have previously attended, it dawned on me that I had never gone to one of Roger's workshops! Must say that I am glad I made that decision to as our small group had a great discussion about the new fed and how to take it forwards.
As an avid Youtuber myself, (search for Maybrick44 to see my video's) I suggested that the fed could start a Youtube account. Accounts are free to set up and can be monitored (or not). If all of the groups in the fed had access to uploading to the Youtube site, we could keep in touch so much easier and help top bring back (if any of it has been lost) that close feeling of togetherness that we have had in the past. Each group could use a very cheap camera (all of my films have been made on a £79 digital camera) to make 'video blogs' occasionally to update all of us on group activities, news and achievements etc and this way our friends from the U.S could keep in regular contact with us all too.
Anyway, just a few thoughts. Good to see all of you again and I wish everyone at the fed a Happy Christmas and a successful and creative new year.
Love to all,
Tony May xx"
"What an amazing day! Meeting friends, meeting new faces - good to see the young people from both sides of the pond!
Great workshops offered and the performances were outstanding!
Everyone be very proud!
My personal thanks, for allowing me to present my own workshop, really enjoyed doing that and what great descriptive writing it produced!
Thanks to Ashley for updating the website so promptly - all you performers, get your work on the Gallery - it's too good for once a year!
Jan Hedger (GROW)"
"Many Thanks and congratulations to all who worked to put on the magnificent event yesterday. It was very good to re-connect with the Fed and great to see many old comrades still keeping the flag flying.
Here is a simple video about the re-published Republic of Letters.
The Republic of Letters from Richard McKeever on Vimeo.
It is based on a couple of conversations and a short piece of the discussion session. Do pass on the link to other members and groups - it is a simple process to grab the code to embed this video on other websites or blogs if you want to.
There are many other Fed stories to be told I'd be keen to connect up and see if we might work together to find ways to tell stories online. mckeeverrichard@googlemail.com
Thanks
Richard McKeever"
