Hearing Your Call To Write
Two years of lockdowns and we thought we’d now be free.
No, no, no says the petrol, gas and electricity.
The government doesn’t care and that’s a fact.
You will work, work and work and pay loads of tax
Two years of lockdowns and dying to be free
Now we’re out, they’re just taking all our money you see
Lockdown kept us silent and treated us like slaves
Now they’re taking all of our money, even though most of us
behaved….
Dawn Ashwell.
25.3.2022
Today I put the TV on and something really important was said.
The top world scientists had found a cure and covid was finally dead!
Everyone was told to wait inside until the authorities delivered THE pill.
Once swallowed you will be completely safe as the virus it will kill.
Now everyone had taken it and the authorities said “you are free,
But please don’t go completely wild and try to behave sensibly”
Street parties were organised and celebrations galore.
Families visited their loved ones and the grandkids who they adore
Beauty spots were busy such as the countryside and sea.
Pubs and restaurants packed, people craving human company.
And all of the people were happy because the world was a better place.
Because they now placed importance on human connection and not just the rat race.
And now the people knew how that horrible covid life could be.
They were all just so appreciative and happy to finally be FREE.
Dawn Ashwell. 29.03.20
Creative Writing Workshop – Digging deeper
For women from African, African Caribbean, and Asian Communities
We are starting our second series of creative writing workshops to support our community of writers to dig deeper into their writing experience, gain more knowledge and practice their skills and new ideas.
The aim of this series of workshops is to support improving your writing skills and to help you complete at least one piece of work that is ready to publish or submit.
to create more in-depth stories, novels, and poems. We focus on improving your writing.
This six-month programme will cover:
The programme starts on 26th November 2022 and runs fortnightly from then with a break over the holiday season. Time: 10am – 12 o’clock (2 hours) via Zoom.
Frequency: Fortnightly – see dates below.
| Dates in 2022 | Dates in 2023 |
| 26th November 2022 10th December 2022 17th December 2022 Two weeks break for the holiday season | 7th January 2023 21st January 2023 4th February 2023 18th February 2023 4TH March 2023 18th March 2023 1st April 2023 15th April 2023 29th April 2023 13th May 2023 |
Groups will be kept reasonably small to all enough time to support each person to receive support and develop their creative ideas.
The programme is run by two tutors both published writers.
The cost is £500. per person.
If you are interested and would like to join us editor.sanroopublishing@gmail.com
Each year we run our Women’s Poetry Competition in Leicester as part of our celebration of Black History Month (BHM) in the UK.
The readings and competition were held last Saturday 29th October 2022 at the African Caribbean Centre in the City of Leicester.
It was a wonderful occasion where we not only listened to some great poems and found out some of the stories behind the pieces shared with us, but we also got the audience to write some poetry as well. Some people surprised themselves. What a fun time we had.
Each year we ask those submitting work to write to a theme. The theme this year was Still I Rise taken from the title of the inspiring poem by the same name by Maya Angelou.
Thanks to our sponsors this year Leicester City Council, Serendipity, and Inspiring You CIC.
This year’s Winner was Valerie Walbrook with her poem I am Black History.
Carolyn Turner (last year’s Winner) was the Finalist this year with her poem Battercry.
Other women poets recognised on the day for their submissions, receiving ‘Poem of Merit’ were:
* Nelista Cuffy her poem Mother of Mine, You’re Missed.
* Pratibha Savani with her poem Empowered.
* Jacqueline Samuel with her poem To Love Ourselves.
And finally, we are excited to share our new YouTube channel where you can see and hear these wonderful poets read their poems. Click the box below.
Celebration of Blacko Females Voices – Still I Rise
You are invited to take part in a Women’s Poetry competition.
The theme is ‘Celebration of Black Female Voices – Still I Rise’.
Poems should be 30 lines or less (with a title and author’s contact details at the bottom).
This competition opens 26th August 2022
The closing date for submissions* is Saturday 8 October 2022
Competition winners will be invited to read their poems at an event on Saturday 29th October 2022, 1pm – 3pm at The African Caribbean Centre, Maidstone Road, LE2 0UA.
*Submissions should be emailed to:
editor.sanroopublishing@gmail.com or africancaribbeancentre@leicester.gov.uk
or in you in the area you can hand your submission in at the African Caribbean Centre.
Due to popular demand, we’ve decided to open up our six-month Creative Writing workshop for women, to a wider audience. Following our amazing six-month creative writing workshop last year we have been frequently asked when are we going to run another programme.
We are excited to announce that we will be starting our next programme in February.
The programme will run online fortnightly (so every two weeks.) There may be the occasional face-to-face meeting if this is allowed.
We will have a Facebook group for support and information where we focus on helping you edit your work and get feedback.
If you’re interested in joining, please drop us an email at projects.inspiringyou@gmail.com
The cost is £336. per person.
Our first session starts on Saturday 12th February at 10am.
