Beyond Arrivals with Nandi Jola

Course Summary

Beyond Arrivals is a series of six creative writing workshops for individuals resident on the island of Ireland, with a particular interest in engaging with people from global majority communities, asylum seekers and or migrants. This course is intended to promote gender equality, anti-racism and a peaceful and shared society based on reconciliation by offering participants the opportunity to explore their own and others cultural expression in a friendly and supportive environment.

Course Outline

1.TELL ME: exploring prose and poems and types of creative writing. Reading works of poets in the diaspora.

2.HEAR ME: experiment with poetry and prose to express yourself, tell your story and hear other people’s stories.

3.BELONGING: explore and expand your cultural awareness through creative writing, and developing your awareness about ‘belonging’..

4.SEEING: exploring text and context in writing, audiences and how your writing style will find its niche – delving deeper in writing styles

5.BEING SEEN: ‘capture’ your personal story through meaningful images. These workshops will help you make meaningful images using smart phones, a disposable camera or whatever camera you have to hand.

6.BEYOND: workshopping our pieces with feedback and reading to an audience/showcasing

To keep in mind:

• What does writing mean to you?
• What’s the story would you want to write?
• What do you need to keep on writing?
• Discussion: what’s the favourite quote/ why do you like it? What does writing mean to/for you?

Course Outcomes

• Feedback, hearing, ideas, thoughts …
• Writing homework
• Resources

Nandi Jola is editor of Issue 14 Poetry Ireland’s Trumpet, born in South Africa and growing up under Apartheid, she writes and researches about colonial legacies, belonging and identity. Nandi published her debut collection ‘Home Is Neither Here Nor There’ in 2022 and has graduated with MA in Poetry from the Seamus Heaney Centre, QUB.