6 Degrees of Connection

At the end of 2013 I was commissioned by Tyneside Cinema to write and perform a poem as part of a conference about young people and engagement in specialised cinema. You can read about the event here.

It was a pleasing mixture of fun and terror writing a poem based on the conference as the conference happened. Since then we have developed a publication which combines a revised version of the poem, alongside prose which summarises some of the learning from Tyneside Cinema's Young Tyneside programme and the evaluation of it by Morris Hargreaves McIntyre, which can also be downloaded from the Tyneside's website here. This was published in 2014 but for some reason I did;t put this blog up then. Better late than never.

The publication, Six Degrees of Connection: Towards the Absolute Alrightness of the Kids, can be downloaded from the Tyneside's website or in the Publications section of the Thinking Practice site.
The poem got shorter after the actual event because it takes longer to write something short than something long, as anyone who's tried to write something good knows.

Video evidence of the reading of the original version exists, but I'm not telling you where. It probably goes without saying, but I am very up for being asked by others to do this sort of thing in interesting places and interesting situations.

The Infinite Town

Above is a photograph of a poem I was commissioned to write by Stockton-on-Tees Borough Council. It is inscribed in a large plinth on the High Street, part of a huge redevelopment of the town centre. From the summer, an automata in the shape of a train will arise from the point (once a day, in Trumpton-style).

The poem was one of a number I wrote in response to the commission, and was chosen by the panel overseeing the redevelopment. The poem had to do a number of things (some for the commission, some for me):

• Be memorable but not too simplistic - some people will see this a lot and I wanted it to strike them differently over time
• Have local relevance and reference, but not be backwards looking
• Not be trite
• Have a slightly 'civic' tone
• Have a kind of density to it.

So if you know Stockton you may pick up references to the Infinity bridge, which you can just about see from the plinth, the Tees, and the town's firework tradition. (Starting with the invention of the safety match.) It was also, of course, part of the birth of railways.

I actually did't know this was in place when I first saw it, on a shopping trip just before Xmas. I think it looks rather handsome, if I may say so myself. It's also a rather odd feeling to see your name in such a permanent-looking site.

It was very kind of the Council to put a big bow on it too. I think this was just for Xmas: