Always on
This project successfully funded on 19th July 2023, you can still support them with a donation.
This project successfully funded on 19th July 2023, you can still support them with a donation.
Aim: To create poetry experiences to meet ourselves, each other and the wild, in ways which inspire us to deep and sincere conversations.
My name is Jamie Colston, I am a poet, participatory facilitator, systemic constellations practitioner, community ceilidh organiser, imagination activist and parent of two young people.
Why now?
Turning 43, and raising older young people, has had me thinking this year, what do I leave behind of me on this earth when I die.
In 2023, I launched the work I intend to do for the next 7 years, offering Poetry experiences, Systemic Constellations and Community Ceilidh events. This work, together, offers practices and experiences that cultivate active hope and action in these uncertain times.
This launch also coincides with my son's work experience week (UK schools support young people to have a week in a professional work environment as part of their pre college/university experience) and I am passing on a generational gift, like my father did for me, of hosting him and another friends daughter, for a week of creative and curated professional experience.
What do the poems offer?
These poems help us see ourselves and each other in the context of a larger and radically more inclusive world view. Including our physical bodies and our relationships with each other. Including our ancestors and their stories, the wider ecological world we are part of, and our grandchildren yet to be born (in a collective sense).
Some poems are like prayers or hopes, which we can live into. Others are expressions of the feelings we can experience as human beings, and exploring ways out of the patterns of life that can feel unresolved, welcoming more inclusion and greater understanding. Some are meditations and inquiries.
Mostly I hope these poems offer people an occasional smile, tears and/or relief. Unexpected encounters and experiences in wild places, and some practices of welcoming more of our sensing capacity, which help us navigate the uncertainity in life.
What is the money for and who am I working with?
I am seeking to raise £15,000 (or 1000 pre sales), to create a series of twelve poetry experiences, which will be released as audio and video recordings. Additionally we will create a number of remixed versions of the poems, with music and soundscapes for a number of project funders.
To record the poems I will be working with Daniel Martins (https://dmcreates.co.uk/about), an exceptional artist, photographer and videographer, alongside my son and a friends daughter on their work experience week. (11 days)
We will also be producing a remix version of the poems with other friends; musicians, adventurers, dancers, and film makers. (4 days)
The money will contribute financially to the preparation and delivery of the project over a four month period (24 days).
Quotes
"Jamie's poetry reflects a truthful and healing mirror to our world and is built upon his expertise in building radically inclusive environments."
Maria Pattinson, Theatre Director and Systemic Constellations practitioner
"When I listen to Jamie's Poetry I feel met and seen in my humanness. It helps me notice more about the subtleties of my experience and then often magically guides me to places of solace, liberation and being-with. His poems help me shift from narrowness to expanding into healthier ways of relating to the world."
Arne Drews, Facilitator and Gestalt-Coach