HATS – WHO WILL YOU BECOME?

Hello & welcome to our hat gallery!

Over the past few weeks, I have been touring workshops with my hats and it has been great fun…

I took the hats into care homes, community centres & my own group workshops in Muswell Hill. I themed various creative writing exercises around them, which included memoir, poetry & story. We also used poetry by Ruth Stone and Ruth Fainlight (below). When we tried the hats on, we imagined who may have worn them – so who did we become when we wore them?
TRY THIS!
Find a hat that has been passed down in your family or in a charity shop. Wear it. Write ‘I am’ in the voice of the hat OR in the voice of the person who used to wear the hat. Free flow, 10 minutes.

Read the two poems below and take lines from them to inspire your own poem, story or memory. ‘ I remember’ is always a good way in.

Enjoy!

Second- Hand Coat
By Ruth Stone
I feel

in her pockets; she wore nice cotton gloves,
kept a handkerchief box, washed her undies,
ate at the Holiday Inn, had a basement freezer,
belonged to a bridge club.
I think when I wake in the morning
that I have turned into her.
She hangs in the hall downstairs,
a shadow with pulled threads.
I slip her over my arms, skin of a matron.
Where are you? I say to myself, to the orphaned body,
and her coat says,
Get your purse, have you got your keys?

Handbag by Ruth Fainlight

My mother’s old leather handbag,

Crowded with letters she carried

all through the war. The smell

of my mother’s handbag: mints

and lipstick and Coty powder.

The look of those letters, softened

and worn at the edges, opened,

read, and refolded so often.

Letters from my father. Odour

of leather and powder, which ever

since then has meant womanliness,

and love, and anguish, and war.

Did you know…?

On 27th March it is National Wear a Hat Day – to raise awareness and funding for Brain Tumour research:

http://www.braintumourresearch.org/wearahatday

World Poetry Day is on 21st March.

CREATIVE WRITES, DATES FOR YOUR DIARY...

NEXT THEMED WORKSHOP MYRIAD OF OBJECTS – Wednesday 25th March, 7.30-9.30pm, Muswell Hill, N10.

MOTIVATIONAL WRITING SURGERY – Saturday 28th March, 2-5pm, Muswell Hill, N10

BLOCK OF THREE WEDNESDAY WORKSHOPS – April 8th, 15th & 22nd, 7.30-9.30pm, Muswell Hill, N10.

All of our Creative Writes group workshops have a maximum of ten participants. No previous creative writing experience is needed, we work with writers at all levels. Booking is in advance only. Workshops take place in Muswell Hill, N10. For Information & Booking: https://www.creativewrites.co.uk/p/bookings-workshop-info-how-to-book.html (you can also find out what participants think of our workshops, on our testimonials page).

On our mailing list? If not, please email: info@creativewrites.co.uk

Bye for now!

Nichola x