‘Poetry Changed Me’: Katy Else
Katy Else is a South-West Shadow Poet on Shake the Dust. Katy tells us how Poetry has changed her… “At school I loved English, fantasy fiction and wild stories but it wasn’t until I hit my teens that I really started writing. I used to be all Gothic and write by moonlight and larva lamp, and what...
Poet, Sebastian: Slam in Germany
Poet, Sebastian 23 tells Shake the Dust about the Slam Poetry Scene in Germany : “When I came into the German Poetry Slam scene in 2002, people told me that I was putting energy into a thing that was way beyond it’s climax. Until then Poetry Slam in Germany had been growing for eight or nine years...
Shadows in the Light
One thing that is unique about Shake the Dust is that up and coming poets get a chance to work with more experienced poetry workshop facilitators. My coach Mike Parker has gradually given me more and more responsibility, and as a result my confidence has grown both as a poet and a person. I hooked...
Rebecca Tantony: A Love of Words
When I was seven I wrote a poem called, ‘How the Wind Blows’. It was pretty self-explanatory. It talked about how the wind blows, and how in its ‘blowing’ it was able to get everything moving. People walked to work faster, trees rattled excitedly like old bones or false teeth; when the wind blew the...
Robinson Roams
Hi there! I’m back again and for my third blog I bring you news from one of the five North East teams. A few days ago I was kindly invited along to Our Lady and St Bede’s School is Stockton to see how poets Alfie Crow and Sophie F Baker and their team were coming...
Slämärit: Slam in Finland
Shake the Dust asked the young people from the Finnish slam group, Slämärit, how they started writing and performing poetry in the first place. One young person told us; “it was because of my great Finnish language teacher, they made slam poetry seem very interesting, so I wanted to try it myself. I had written...
Slämärit: Leena Heikkila tells us about youth slam in Finland
I’m an International School teacher in Finland, teaching kids between 6 and 18 years old. Through Netlibris I got to hear about Lynk Reach London Teenage Poetry Slam, and with Arja Kangasharju, we contacted Jacob Sam-La Rose, met him, and got hooked! Then we started to get Slämärit going and made it nation wide right from the beginning! Slämärit...
Keiran Jones: “Old School”
I can remember being about 10 years old and we had a poetry workshop in school with a guy whose name slips my mind. But at the age of 10, names are unimportant. I just remember him being very tall and eccentric with greying, red hair and glasses that looked like they could have been...
Yorkshire’s Shaking Up
Hello all, it’s Hannah here, blogging to you on behalf of the Yorkshire & Humberside region. Shake The Dust spirit is spreading through my veins and I’m honored to drop you all an insight on how our teams are shaking. First up, a small introduction. I’m Hannah Robinson, a shadow artist and digital champion, from...
Magical Moments
The second Shake the Dust development day for Poet Coaches and Shadows took place yesterday at the Nuffield Theatre in Southampton. It was great to catch up with each other and share our experiences so far. Jacob Sam-La Rose, the artistic director of the project, is a firm believer of trying all the exercises yourself...
News from The West Country!
Hello! Katy again from the South West! So by now everyone pretty much has the final 8 Poet Stars to perform their vocal magic down here at the fantasticaly, funky Barbican Theatre on June 15th! My Youth Group, Voices for Change, with Poet Coach Sally Jenkinson and myself Katy Else as seen in this lovely photo have been busy writing, performing...
Taking Steps as a Shadow Artist
“I used to think poetry was just standing on stage and saying loads of stuff, but it’s so fun. You can even dance to it.” - Shake the Dust workshop Participant. Acting as a shadow artist on Shake The Dust has been anything but easy. Two and half months in, it’s safe-enough to book a tattoo artist...
