Thursday, 24 February 2022

Next Meeting: Thurs 17 March 2022

Next meeting of Dalston Writing Group will be, very much as the header of this post suggests, on Thurs 17 March, 6.00 to 7.30pm. Our regulars have been on fire so far this year, coming up with astounding pieces of fiction in the 40 minutes or so we spend writing. Stay tuned for details on what we'll be up to in March... 

Parrett Women's Poetry Fiesta: Poetry and Painting Workshop with Geeta Roopnarine

You can register now for what promises to be a fascinating poetry workshop run by prize-winning painter, sculptor, poet (and Dalston Writing Group regular), Geeta Roopnarine.

Geeta will draw attention to how rivers have been captured through paintings by artists globally across the ages, and encourage us to compose our own poems in response. The workshop explores connections between the visual and emotional domains.

Picture This...

A picture, as the saying goes, tells a thousand stories. (Or does it show them? Hmm.) For our last session we made use of two collections of London photos, and the exercise generated some fantastic results.

Here is a selection of photos taken by Bob Mazzer on the London Underground in the 1980s.

And here is a collection of photos of Hackney in the '80s.

(These were discovered in 2016 in the basement of the Rio cinema in Dalston, and formed part of an exhibition at Hackney Museum in 2019. The image below was taken in 1985, possibly in Hackney Downs.)


Pick a pic from the links above and see where it takes you. For further inspiration, try any of the following prompts:

Your character is in this photo. They are describing the moment it was taken, one week after the event.

Your character is in this photo. They are describing the moment it was taken, thirty-two years after the event.

Your character is the photographer.

Your character is looking at this photo as evidence.

Your character is looking at this photo as a gallery curator.

Your character is an author researching a biography. This picture captures a pivotal moment in the subject's story.

Your character has found this photo in the pages of an old book in a box in the attic.

Your character is being asked to identify someone in this photo.

Your character is travelling to a funeral. They are carrying this photo.

Your character is about to destroy this photo.