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Posted by Apples and Snakes on 24/10/11

Hosted by Apples and Snakes, Shake the Dust is a massive youth poetry competition that involves people from the spoken word world at every level. In this blog post, Apples and Snakes' Digital and Marketing Assistant Dan Simpson lays out the competition process and sheds light on its role in empowering poets and educators alike.

It’s been a busy few months as Apples and Snakes have been gearing up for the launch of Shake the Dust. Shake the Dust is a massive and ambitious project that involves people from the spoken word world at every level . In each of the nine regions of England, five teams of eight young people will work with a Poet Coach and a Shadow Artist to write, learn and perform their words. Each team will go on to a regional slam final, where the highest scoring team will progress to the National Shake the Dust Weekend at the Southbank Centre in London.

Though the focus is on the young people taking part, there are also fantastic opportunities for artists, teachers / educators and the general public to see what it’s all about. There have been Open Artist Masterclasses run by Jacob Sam-La Rose and held in conjunction with our Venue Partners in each region. I was lucky enough to take part in the London Masterclass in September along with Lisa Hitchen who wrote up her experience – read about it below. The next Masterclass is on Tuesday 25 October at Nottingham Playhouse by the way! Next week also sees the start of Open INSET training sessions for teachers, educators and youth workers interested in working with and supporting young people to develop their creativity, self-expression and confidence through poetry and spoken word. You can find out about all upcoming events on the Shake the Dust Events page.

The next step for artists is recruitment for Poet Coaches and Shadow Artists, which has just started. Artists will work with young people aged 13 to 16 from February to June 2012, delivering creative and interactive poetry workshops, leading to group and individual performances at the regional slam finals in June 2012. Selected teams will then go on to the National Shake the Dust weekend in London in July 2012. Check out the Poets page for more information about this brilliant opportunity!

We’re delighted that Lisa Hitchen, one of the participants of the Open Masterclass in London has blogged about her experience. The rest of this post is reproduced with permission from a longer, original blog post, which can be found on Lisa’s website here. Lisa is a journalist and writer based in London and is at the beginning of her career in performance poetry. She wants to work in schools with pupils on writing skills and speaking out, using their own words and feelings. You can contact her on lfhitchen@gmail.com.

Having attended Jacob Sam La Rose’s poetry and young people masterclass, I get the feeling that many performance poets are in touch with their inner wisdom. I can’t pretend that I got to know anyone that well during one energy-charged day of learning how to run your own workshops so why do I think this? Because standing up and speaking out with your voice and words and trying to be real, authentic, true and new in the way you tell it is big stuff. It takes a kind of courage to do that. If you are going to sound genuine, you have got to have dug down.

So I met with two women that both left school at 14, disillusioned with poetry then but now back into spoken word. “My poetry has given me a voice”, one said. She wanted to use it to challenge and encourage children through a medium they enjoyed not through analysis of ancient poets in dusty textbooks. And then there were two male primary school teachers running hip hop sessions in their lunch hour, seasoned workshop teachers working in schools and students unions and other beginners like me.

We went through loads of diverse practical exercises. Too many to write here but useful to try and test them. Only through practice can you see how they work and how difficult they might be for students. What was great about Jacob was that he constantly ‘checked in’ on all of us as we tried out group exercises, as he would do in the classroom. This helped us to keep on focus and on time but it also showed that he was present and committed to the group and to the session.

Jacob also reminded us of the enormity of what we are doing when we work with kids in this way: “That is humbling and powerful work that we are doing right there” and: “This is one of the few places where students can express their true feelings and be applauded for it”.

He ended the session by asking us: “What is your USP? What is your niche, what can you offer and what work do you want to do?” For me I see a natural link behind using poetry in a therapeutic context in schools, in workshops and in the community. And not just for kids either. I have written loads of stuff on motherhood and its daunting and difficult as well as fantastical and enriching journey. I reckon there are parents out there that would love to workshop their journeys too. If you are one of them, let me know.

Thanks Lisa! So Shake the Dust really has started – with artist development and training for educators, and the promise of some phenomenal spoken word from the young people of England, this will be an incredibly special project. Stay up to date with all the opportunities and news on the Shake the Dust website.