Follow the trail, discover the words and art installations telling the story of Ealing with Poetry High Streets.
Saturday 22 November saw the launch of the final installations in this series at Oldfield Circus – an illuminated sign ‘How Far’ and gilded lettering ‘Oldfields Love’ in the bakery window.
Over the past 14 months Ealing Culture has been working with poets, creatives, local businesses and the people of the borough to engage in conversations, provide creative workshops and engage with the local community to uncover the stories and voices on our high streets. We commissioned three local poets, Laurie Bolger, Mr Gee and Shagufta Iqbal who facilitated workshops and conversations and created some brilliant poetry as part of the project.
The Oldfield Circus launch completed the series, there are now six installations across three high streets in the borough – Hanwell, Pitshanger Lane and now Oldfields Circus.
On the day we were joined by Mr Gee who shared his work with a local audience. A huge thank you to everyone who came out and joined us despite the rain! Thank you to the Town Team who hosted us as part of their Your Voice Your Town and Christmas lights switch-on celebrations. We were joined by Councillor Blerina Hashani, Cabinet Member for Thriving Communities, who kindly gave us her time to introduce the project. As well as Mr Gee who opened our launch with his poetry, we were joined by three residents who also shared their work – Ewa Zaniewska, Georgia Hunt and Kasia Paszek.
Thank you to everyone who was part of the event. Thank you to all of you who braved the rain and helped us celebrate and thank you to the UK Government’s Shared Prosperity Fund who funded the entire project.
But that’s not the end – now everyone can join in and follow the trail across the borough. See the map below and choose your starting point or meet some of the poets in our videos.
Share your photos of the artworks on Instagram and tag us @EalingCulture. We’ll repost our favourites – why not even share your poems in the captions?
Find out more about Poetry High Streets.
Shagufta’s workshop was a wonderful introduction to poetry and the creative process involved in writing… I was amazed at how broad a spectrum poetry can cover in both genre and style of writing, opening up what felt like a very daunting art form. Throughout the entire session there was no judgement, only support and encouragement and this provided the group with the confidence to share our poetry out loud with each other at the end. It was an excellent experience, both liberating and fun.
Community art projects like this can bring local people together from different backgrounds and give them a space to freely express how they view their local community or themselves within it. It’s a chance to meet the people you share the same area with and it gives us the opportunity to try something new.
Michael Ostrolenk, Sound Recordist and Hanwell resident
