Starting in March, I got myself into an immersive journey of writing creatively through the National Saturday Club. From our fantastic trips – Royal Opera House Masterclass and Chelmsford City Museum – to the wonderful guests we received, such as Lu Williams for zine-making and Marina Cusi for writing eco-poetry, I’ve learned that ‘being creative’ can be enhanced by acting, writing, crafting and sharing emotions with others and that this is what makes us special and distinguishes us from others with our originality.

During the National Saturday Club sessions, I learned to be free with my writing and brave with the emotions that I include in my poetry, as well as how to express them in intriguing ways that capture the audience. With all this experience, I was able to write a poem during Marina Cusi’s session that won first place at the Chelmsford City Museum’s competition in the 13-18 year category on the theme ‘Protecting Nature’ and many other poems which were included in the collaborative zine, and our collaborative podcast.

The Water Stirred with Memory

Cries, my dear mother sky, cries…
Her tears form rivers and oceans;
Humans are born,
through troubles and fears.

Soldiers on horseback fall
exultantly, one by one: their
crimson blood mixing in
the rivers; they now carry history.

So valiant these rivers are that
they can impetuously split
continents and countries apart
in borders; people are destined to live in them.

Humans may dust off their memories
of troubles and fears; triumphs and failures
from their past lives: Rivers and waters
never forget. They travel with this history
everywhere around the world, living
with it in the past, in the present, in the future:
All existing at the same time and in the same place

Ada Mazi

As the writing and talking National Saturday Club, we worked collaboratively to create our zine on the theme of the Essex Book Festival ‘This Land’.

We created our individual zines with the help of our amazing guest Lu Williams and shared our ideas with our friends and took their opinions on how we could improve our writing – these included poetry and short stories – then we included our self portraits and creative art, which we were taught by our lovely guest Lynn Excell! At last, we collected these individual zines and stitched them together to form the final product of our collaborative zine.

Within my own work towards the theme ‘This Land’, I included my own poetry: these were poems that expressed my own emotions via the metaphors of nature. In addition, I also included cut outs from magazines that related to my poems as best as possible and a self-drawing of a bird. With my individual zine, I aimed to show the viewers the beauty of poetry and art as well as how I wielded them to tell my own story formed by emotions and my own experience in life.

During our first session with our guest Michelle, I’ve learned that creating podcasts were really approachable and a really nice way to get across ideas, just like writing on paper. With other people in the group, we experimented with different recording devices to record our podcast and planned on what we could include in our podcast to make it interesting, informative and inspiring for the listeners.

In another session, we had an interview with Rob Jelly from BBC Radio 4 and asked him about his job and his daily life, linking it to the Essex book festival’s theme ‘This Land’. During the interview, I’ve learned that listening to the person we interview is as important as the questions we are prepared to ask, since this makes an interview more interesting and allows us to know the people we are interviewing better.

At our last session on the podcast, we decided to record the discussion we had with the group about how our zine’s were progressing and about our initial thoughts on what we think about creativity and on the topics that we might be talking about 25 years from now. In addition, we included two poems written and recited by me and also another poem written and recited by Joe.

Listen to the National Saturday Club podcasts here.

Throughout the process of making the podcast, I learned that working as a group helps our individual ideas to gain a new perspective and a stronger voice.

In my opinion, it is important to share our thoughts on issues, such as climate emergency, through the arts including writing and talking because we might be able to get the attention of the governments and the world to take care about these issues as well as allowing them to see how we feel about it in our immersive writing and speeches. This way, we are hoping that people around the world and the governments will feel sympathy and bring change in the near future: hopefully, this will show that power of words, language and creativity are as important as scientific developments and will encourage people to study and learn more about being creative in different ways to express their emotions, since this is not quite possible with the arithmetic ways of science.

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Not only did the inspirational Caroline Lucas MP join our introductory panel conversation at our 3rd Manifesto for Essex Youth Summit, which took place at Firstsite in Colchester as part of EA Sustain Festival, and which was attended by young people from across the county, we have launched a further two projects for 2024.

First up, is our Spoken Word Power Schools Project, which is taking place in six schools in Chelmsford. Spoken Word Power is a national project led by London-based Eastside Educational Trust that aims to build confidence for young people through poetry and performance.

Having worked with schools in Tendring and Canvey Island in 2022 and 2023 respectively, there is absolutely no doubt in our minds of the efficacy and value of this project. More information can be found at eastside.org.uk/spoken-word-power.

Next up, is our new Writing & Talking Saturday Club, which again is part of a national initiative based at Somerset House. Working in partnership with our host venue Anglia Ruskin University (Chelmsford campus), we are delighted to announce that fifteen lucky Year 9 and 10s will have the opportunity to take part in a series of fifteen free workshops.

Participants will explore a variety of writing forms from poetry, zine-making and blogging, through to creating their own podcast, visiting a local museum, and attending a Masterclass at The Royal Opera House in Convent Garden.

This includes taking part in the Grand Finale in July – a national exhibition at Somerset House, where they and fellow Saturday Clubbers from across the UK will be exhibiting work created during the workshops.

If you know someone who might like to be one of Saturday Clubbers, here’s the link. Remember we only have places for fifteen young people…

25th Edition

Work is well underway for This Land, the 25th Edition of Essex Book Festival.

We will be launching this year’s festival at the University of Essex on 1st June. With Sarah Perry talking about her new novel Enlightenment (already hailed as her best work to date), a Radical Essex Procession, led by 500 flag-bearers, onto campus; a variety of talks, performances, exhibitions and workshops, in the mix, it is going to be a very special day.

If you would like to be a volunteer/flag bearer on the day, let us know via [email protected], and we’ll get you signed up at this end.

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It is open to all 13-16 year olds living in and around the Chelmsford area who are passionate about writing and talking. Our young participants will explore multiple forms of writing, including zine-making, poetry, fiction, non-fiction, blogging etc, and talking, including spoken word poetry and podcasting.

The programme includes two trips to London: one for a visit backstage at Royal Opera House to see its workings, the other to attend the national exhibition of work at Somerset House, which will be showing work from National Saturday Clubs across the UK.

It is free to sign up but please note that there are only 15 places available so if you know someone who would benefit from taking part in the Club, make sure they get in quick. More information about the Club and the sign up link can be found here: https://saturday-club.org/club/essex-book-festival-aru-writing-talking/

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