Dream, dream, dream…

The Reader

When I visited Liverpool last month, I spent a fascinating afternoon learning more about The Reader organisation. The national charity ‘builds lively communities that bring people together and books to life’. I met one of The Reader’s employees, Anna McCracken, in the bustling café of the Mansion House in Calderstones Park. She patiently answered my questions, before giving me a guided tour of the building.

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The Mansion House is a home for the community, where people feel a sense of belonging, where they feel welcome to come in and wander. There is an open invitation for anyone and everyone to join a Shared Reading group and to take part by reading aloud, sharing their thoughts, or listening in. There are a variety of options to choose from, including Screamy Reads, for (grand)parents and noisy babies, and groups for people living with dementia.

There’s even more going on outside the Calderstones Mansion House.

Jane Davis founded The Reader in 2002. Jane left school at 16 with two GCSEs. She returned to education as a young, single mum. Click here to hear Dr Jane Davis MBE speak about ‘How Shared Reading Can Help Us Connect’.

From Liverpool to Ledbury

I came away from Liverpool inspired; my mind buzzing with possibilities. Could these opportunities for strengthening community, through belonging and connection, be brought to Ledbury? What about the exciting moves afoot for Ledbury Poetry Festival to move into the Barrett Browning Institute (BBI)? What if the young people from the Monday and Wednesday evening Youth Drop-In at the BBI had a part to play in the new poetry project?

What if…?

What if…?

What if…?

When I researched this Ledbury landmark, I discovered that it has been standing at the heart of our town since 1895, when it was dedicated,

‘…for the purpose of libraries, reading rooms, lecture rooms, classrooms, museums and any other purposes for the advancement of knowledge, literature, science and art among the people of Ledbury and the neighbourhood thereof, and the general public.’

http://www.ledburyplaces.co.uk/barrett-browning-institute/

Ledbury Places – Annual General Meeting

The charity, Ledbury Places (who have entered into the agreement with Ledbury Poetry Festival), held their AGM on the ground floor of the BBI building last Thursday evening (30/01/2020). I’m not a committee member, but I am nosy and so I went along – taking my high hopes with me.

When I arrived, I noticed a broken window, peeling paint, ugly strip lighting. The BBI needs some serious TLC. My enthusiasm was dampened when I considered how much work has to be carried out to make the building fit for purpose… until I remembered Anna McCracken telling me the story of how the Mansion House was totally transformed from neglected old council offices.

During the AGM, I learned more about Ledbury’s literary heritage from Peter Arscott, chair of Ledbury Poetry Festival. I was also interested to hear Chloe Garner, the festival’s artistic director, speak of how the BBI would be put to good use with a wide range of events running throughout the year. The clear intention is for the building to become a centre for poetry.

“This is a project with great potential and we are looking forward to working in partnership with Ledbury Places and other community organisations to make the Barrett Browning Institute building a hive of activity. It will benefit so many people in the community and beyond.”

Peter Arscott, chair of Ledbury Poetry Festival

At the end of the meeting, Peter McCann, a trustee for Ledbury Places, acknowledged the economic benefits tourists would bring to our community when visiting the town for poetry events.

What if … ?

What if there is further potential for the project to benefit the Ledbury community?

A few days before the Ledbury Places AGM, I was talking to a friend, who has served local people for over twenty years. I asked her what she saw, in her role as a healthcare professional, as the biggest need in our community? She didn’t pause before answering,

“Loneliness.”

What if the BBI project found a way to reach out to the lonely?

What if shared reading allowed people to connect their shared human experience and develop a shared sense of belonging?

What if relationships within our community were built and strengthened through poetry?

“… A tough life needs a tough language – and that is what poetry is. That is what literature offers – a language powerful enough to say how it is. It isn’t a hiding place. It is a finding place.”

Jeannette Winterson (quoted by Jane Davis in 2017)

A shared poem

Anna McCracken shared a poem with me on that sunny afternoon in Liverpool, before she left to collect her children from school:

Love (III)

Love bade me welcome. Yet my soul drew back
                              Guilty of dust and sin.
But quick-eyed Love, observing me grow slack
                             From my first entrance in,
Drew nearer to me, sweetly questioning,
                             If I lacked any thing.

A guest, I answered, worthy to be here:
                             Love said, You shall be he.
I the unkind, ungrateful? Ah my dear,
                             I cannot look on thee.
Love took my hand, and smiling did reply,
                             Who made the eyes but I?

Truth Lord, but I have marred them: let my shame
                             Go where it doth deserve.
And know you not, says Love, who bore the blame?
                             My dear, then I will serve.
You must sit down, says Love, and taste my meat:
                             So I did sit and eat.

George Herbert (Source: Poetry Foundation)

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