Talking About My Amazing Poetry Session At The Hackney Empire

So, a few weeks ago, I went to The Hackney Empire for another session / course, this time it was a poetry session. I’ve been wanting to talk about this for a while now. I’ve been talking about my play writing course I did a little while ago but this one’s a bit different . This one was just a one off session, I think they wanted to get some feed back from us, whether they should actually turn it into an actual course . I actually really loved it. There were only five or six of us there so it was easier to get to know everyone . The session was really interesting in itself, I picked up some new poetry writing techniques that I didn’t even know before . Everyone was really lovely, I made some new friends . We were all just sharing our snacks.

We got to go out for a little break, so I went out and I hung out with my friends. Me and him, we were just chatting and I was reading some of my demented poems to him, people were walking past and thinking ” what on earth ”. I’ve written all these poems about bloody jungles and I have figured that most of my poems are about people who absolutely despise one another and they’re stuck in a jungle (I’m A Celebrity Get Me Out Of Here) for weeks on end, and apparently, I can write hundreds of them without fail . But yeah, he was sitting there laughing his head off. Bless him but he was being a supportive friend. It was a lovely day, the sun was out, we were all just enjoying the sunshine, why not ?, it was such a nice day, why would you stay indoors when it’s such a nice day outside, but yeah no it was amazing . I feel like I might have been driving him mad the whole time but that’s just what you have to put up with. If you’re my friend, you’re going to have to let me riddle you with demented poetry or I would tell you some of my demented stories, I love being a storyteller, I know all the good, interesting stories .

Me and one of my other friends had some very interesting conversations . We had a very creative conversation . She was talking to me about what stuff she was studying in her third year, she studied film and she came from a very creative family, she was just really interesting . It felt good talking to someone who was really creative and actually had something interesting to say. That was one of the most coolest conversations ever, we were literally talking about pop culture throughout the whole session. Then we were talking about Kate Bush. My helper was wondering what we were even talking about. I have no idea why we were talking about Kate Bush during a poetry session. I mean, it did have some kind of relevancy because when Kate Bush was younger, she used to write poetry so it’s not like it wasn’t relevant, there’s a reason. A few weeks ago, I introduced her to Sparks and I don’t even know if she’s listened to it yet, I sent her this Spotify playlist so I’m just waiting for her response and I’m going to find out what she thinks. I sent her two pictures of them, there were photos of the Sparks brothers, both from different decades, when they first started in the 70s all the way up until the present day and she said that Russel reminded her of a mix between Andy Warhol and Benedict Cumberbatch and it was so funny . But yeah no, we get on really well with each other, we’re both really creative so we have a lot in common . We were both on the creative spectrum.

We also did some warm ups and we played some games to just freshen up our minds before writing . We did some free writing . Free writing was something I did a lot of, especially at the Hackney Empire Writers Room. Free Writing is basically just a writing exercise to help you to get in the groove of writing . So you just write and write as much as you can, without there actually being an idea, you can write the same word all over and over again if you want to, that’s just what you do. All my free writes are demented, At the Hackney Empire Writers Room, I did a free write about being stuck in a car traffic jam and suddenly, Pierce Brosnan drives past in a car, singing the bloody first verse to Mamma Mia, then he gets out of the car and starts dancing and then cats are running in the streets and all hell breaks loose. That’s pretty much what I came up with. I have no idea how I even came up with that, I guess it just shows you what was going on in my head at the time.

My free write} { Warning, this free write contains strong language} Enjoy

I was awaken from my slumber by this strange man singing and shouting outside of my house. I had no idea who this man was until I realised it was David Tennant, what the bloody hell is he doing outside my house?. The next thing you’re gonna tell me is that he used to be a priest. I couldn’t hear the normal sounds of nature, like birds. All I could hear was ” KILLING ME SOFTLY with his song !!!” god I think I might be going mad. I would contact my therapist but he’s a busy man. Also he says he’s been experiencing the exact same thing, maybe I’m not so mad after all. Honestly, who the fuck brought him here, screaming like a bloody bird. Honestly, can you be a bit quicker? . Why not?

” Because, I’m a fucking vicar !!!!”

So that’s what I wrote, a very ensemble piece. Yeah, I honestly don’t even know what I was thinking. These are just the things that are running through my mind every single day. That priest bit was quite ironic because if you think about it, David did play a priest in Inside Man, I think that’s where I got it from. Yeah no, this has to be one of the most demented pieces I’ve ever written. The fact that it came out during the poetry session just says a lot . Whenever someone tells me to do a free write, it’s garanteed to be demented, no doubt .

I really loved this poetry session, it’s called The Taste Of Poetry if any of you are wondering what it’s called . I made some new friends, I learned a variety of different poetry techniques, it was just absolutely amazing .

Me and my friend were also talking about what plans we had for our future, what we were thinking of doing. There was a sheet of paper with all these options of what you can get a chance to do. We stumbled across a thing called Show Case, so basically, you do this nine month course and then at the end of the year, you either get to go up on stage and perform your piece or you can get someone else to do it, but if you do want to do it yourself, then you can do this course where over time, you can do your own performances and you will be used to being in front of large audiences even if you haven’t done it before. This sounds really cool, I’d love to give it a go. I can’t do these sorts of things because I have much confidence and I don’t even think I have what it takes, I stutter a little bit as well so that doesn’t help. If I didn’t have any of these problems, I would drop everything and I would do it in a heartbeat . If I could get over it and not be anxious or shy about large gatherings and reading my own pieces of work in front of loads of people, then I’ll be doing it all the time, the fear won’t be there anymore because I have this mind set where I’m like ” Oh okay, well if I did this then I can do this ”. So yeah, I love that there are so many opportunities for young people, especially in theatre. So yeah, I’ve got a lot to look forward to in the future, it’s all so exciting .

This poetry session was so fun. That’s just what I love about these kinds of things, like meeting new people, making friends, learning new things, and just having fun. What I love about being an artist is that when doing this, you can truly be yourself without someone slandering you for it, you can just be you . Me and my friend were talking about how with being a creative person, you can create something really magical and you get to create that world with all these amazing characters, you’re going on a journey with them and the actors get to be fully immersed in that world. Then she said ” artists don’t have to worry about messing up but the actors do if they’re not giving the directors what they want ”

Thank you so much for reading this post, I hope you all liked it. I’ve got so much more to talk about but I feel like if I kept talking then I’d just be rambling on so I’ll just keep it short. I hope you all have a lovely day, love you guys.

More work to come here on Big Blog Theory