As a graduate of The Writing Squad, I was delighted to get the chance to visit Leeds to take part in a workshop with poet Andrew McMillan and photographer Lizzie Coombes.
At Yorkshire Dance, our base, Andrew shared some poems capturing place and city life, and we discussed them. Lizzie gave a presentation on the history of street photography, from which I learnt a lot. She gave us some tips, and then we headed out into Leeds to take some photos.
It was great to be reunited with my friend and fellow writer Laura Potts. We ate lunch together, and it was lovely to catch up.
Some of the things I spotted and try to capture on our travels were a brolly in a bin, a lone baby boot sitting on a post, a rainbow mosaic, fruit sellers at the market, multicoloured rolls of carpet, many pigeons, and a man working in a sweetshop, who inspired a poem I wrote on our return to the group.
I hope to do something more with these photos, so for now I will abstain from posting them, except for the rainbow above. I performed the first draft of my sweetshop poem to the group, and it received really nice feedback. It may well be appearing online soon, so I look forward to sharing it with you.
I returned to Manchester feeling happy and accomplished, having drunk three hot chocolates, taken lots of photographs, written a few poems including one I really liked, and spent the day with cool people.
Thanks to Steve, Andrew, Lizzie, Laura, Lydia and the rest of the crew for creating such an encouraging and relaxed atmosphere. I hope to be able to take part in many more workshops.
Liz x
