These are Speaking Volumes’ current and upcoming projects.
Breaking Ground Ireland On Film
Fifteen writers from different generations, backgrounds and heritages on film reading their work and speaking about what being part of the rich diversity of Irish culture means to them – watch Breaking Ground Ireland On Film here.
Women Speak Volumes Between Generations
A new hybrid project that aims to amplify the neglected contributions of pioneering older Black women creatives and inspire the next generation to develop their own community.
In partnership with Words of Colour and the George Padmore Institute, and generously funded by The National Lottery Heritage Fund.
Breaking Ground Ireland Live
Following the success of Breaking Ground Ireland – commissioned to champion the diversity of writers on the island of Ireland – we are producing events with featured writers across the UK for Breaking Ground Ireland Live. Find out more here.
Celebrating The Complete Works and Mapping the Future
Speaking Volumes is working with programme director Dr Natalie Teitler to celebrate the revolutionary initiative The Complete Works and the recent anthology Mapping the Future through a series of commissioned videos, events and workshops featuring poets who are alumni of the programme. Find out more here.
Women Speak Volumes Live
Women Speak Volumes Live saw programmes of creative writing workshops in Leicester, Plymouth and Sutton, encouraging older women to discover and develop their creativity. Their work has been collected together in a pamphlet which you can read and download here. Three younger women were commissioned to read and respond the older women’s work, and videos of their poems can also be seen here.
Beyond Literature Borders
The five organisations that have been awarded a Beyond Literature Borders grant of £7000 to create a new international project have been announced. Find out who they are and what they are going to do here.
Your Local Arena – Live 2023-24
Your Local Arena is back!
Following on from the online series, co-produced with Lucy Hannah, we are bringing a new live series of panels and poets giving contemporary responses to the archive of BBC Arena films.
All You Can Do Is Hum
All You Can Do Is Hum is a dynamic spoken word/music performance by Joshua Idehen. Exploring his own experiences of isolation and a sense of not belonging, the show invites audiences to come together to ‘spin grief into joy’ through the power of words and music. Inspired by Nigerian churches, Idehen’s charismatic ‘sermon leader’ will transform strangers into a united ‘congregation’, lifting his audience up through the creative magic of poetry and energetic beats. Find out more here.
SongMaps Rye
A new pilot project based in Rye, Sussex: SongMaps is a series of five workshops bringing artists from poetry, music and the visual arts together with inter-generational participants from Rye to address the issues that are most pressing to coastal communities on the front line of climate change and rising seas.
In partnership with Strongback Productions.
Women Speak Volumes
Women Speak Volumes is a free Inspiration Bank, a first step in helping older women to tell their stories in whatever way they want to through the inspiring stories of those who have, and still are, leading this way – discover these inspiring stories and inspirational women here.
Breaking Ground Ireland
Speaking Volumes is proud to have produced Breaking Ground Ireland – a new resource celebrating 80 writers and illustrators from ethnic minority backgrounds – in association with Cúirt International Festival of Literature and National University of Ireland Galway. Learn more here.
Not Quite Right For Us
To mark our 10th birthday, Speaking Volumes has published an anthology of forty writers whose work challenges the mainstream, responding to the theme ‘Not Quite Right For Us‘, with events and a podcast series – find out more here.