Finding the Words to praise an amazing project - by Gemma Saunders
We’ve all listened to our grandparents’ tales of a time gone by. We sit cross legged at their knee, hanging on their every word, mesmerised by their stories. Their own eyes glaze over as they reminisce fondly of their adventures. Everyone deserves the chance to have their story heard, to be listened to by an adoring audience. And Winchester-based students have been working on a project, Finding the Words, to do exactly this.
Students of Winchester university, past and present, have been breathing fresh life into the memories of older generations. As part of Finding the Words, Anvil Arts enlisted Creative Writing students and the residents of Applewood Care Home (Bramley) to take down the memories of the elderly and transform them into poetry.
Anvil Arts is an educational charity and it is due to their funding, creation and development that Finding the Words was made possible. The project has been nurtured by Flis Pitman, Community Engagement Manager at Anvil Arts and guest lecturer at the University of Winchester. Flis is passionate about making the arts available to everyone, including the elderly and those with mental health issues.
Mollie Russell, a third-year English Literature and Creative Writing student, also plays a key role in the project.
“As far as I’m aware, Finding the Words has been running for three years. A couple of years ago, a call was put out for a note taker,” she reminisces, so I applied and Matt L.T. Smith, a Creative Writing graduate who acts as Creative Lead for the poetry, appointed me in the role.”
Mollie has worked with Finding the Words for two years now and hasn’t looked back. Her and Matt work together to make sure the voices of the older generations are heard. On a weekly basis, they visit Applewood and encourage the residents to speak about their memories. Mollie smiles, “They are always willing to join in. We visit them for about an hour and encourage a discussion. We usually have a theme or starting point to jump off with and start things.”
Mollie’s role during these discussions is to take notes and write them up. These transcripts then get turned into poetry. “It’s called facilitating,” she explains, “we’re not the first to do it. Previous poets have worked in prisons and schools, but we chose to focus on those living with Dementia.”
Matt often writes the poetry, but Mollie gets involved in several cases, too. The finished product can vary from week to week; sometimes one poem is produced, but sometimes several shorter pieces are created.
The poems from the previous week are then read back to the residents during the next session. Mollie describes this as her personal highlight of the project. “The best reaction is when they recognise their memory from the week before. The look of joy on their face as they exclaim, I lived there! And we say yes, it’s your memory. There’s a really positive reaction to it. We do have a laugh with funny stories.”
The poems are then compiled into a paperback collection and given to the residents to keep. The project branches into several other avenues, as Mollie explains. “A musician will then come in for a six-week period and make music from the poetry. A dance teacher (from Winchester based group, Interg8 Dance) also gets involved to make the experience interactive.”
The residents are all involved in this, and the final result is a show hosted at The Anvil in Basingstoke. They read their own personal memory aloud and their families are welcomed to come and watch them.
The whole project is funded by Anvil Arts and managed by Flis Pitman, who Mollie describes as being at “the heart of Winchester.” Mollie calls working with Matt and Flis on the project a really enjoyable experience and outlines the project’s future plans with optimism. “Flis is looking to expand the project, potentially getting more care homes involved. She’s also looking into getting the poetry compilations published and producing professional copies.”
Finding the Words is about more than recovering the forgotten words of those living with dementia. It helps the residents of Applewood rediscover their past and reconnect with those around them. The best tales often come from those who lived in a different day and age, and Mollie, Matt and Flis really help give voice and heart to these.
Photographs by Sean Dillow/Anvil Arts
Back to blog