Healing through poetry: A workshop for beginners with Ross Wilcock

Poetry has long been used to give shape to experiences that can be difficult to name. Research into poetry-based interventions and expressive writing suggests that writing can support emotional processing and wellbeing, giving us another way to reflect on what we have lived through and what we want to carry forward.

In this one-hour workshop, queer disabled poet Ross Wilcock will invite us to explore healing through poetry.

We’ll use poems, conversation and writing prompts to move between past and present: reflecting on the experiences that have shaped us, noticing where we are now, and imagining the ways we might want to move forward.

Running through the workshop will be the idea of consent not simply as something we give or refuse, but as something that shapes how we understand ourselves, occupy space, recognise our own wants and limits, and relate to other people.

What do we carry with us from previous relationships and experiences? What does it mean to listen to ourselves in the present? How do we make room for our own agency while also recognising the needs, boundaries and autonomy of the people around us?

Poetry gives us a way to approach these questions indirectly, imaginatively or personally. Your writing might draw on your own life, invent something entirely fictional, or go somewhere unexpected.

There will be opportunities to write, talk and share work with the group, but sharing is always optional.

The workshop is for adults aged 18+ and is particularly welcoming to disabled and neurodivergent people.

It is designed as an introduction to writing poetry, with a small group of around 10–15 people so there is space to write, reflect and talk together.

Project Ability is an accessible arts venue, and we want the workshop to work for people with a range of access needs. More information about the venue's accessibility is available here: https://www.accessable.co.uk/glasgow-city-council/access-guides/project-ability

If you need any accommodations, please get in touch with Iris at [email protected] and we'll do our best to make them happen.

On Tuesday 17 November, we'll return to Project Ability for an evening of poetry and spoken word.

The open mic is a separate event and will be open to performers and audience members alike. You don't have to attend the workshop to take part, and attending the workshop doesn't mean you have to perform.

Details and booking for the open mic are available here: https://www.eventbrite.com/e/from-the-page-to-the-stage-a-poetry-and-spoken-word-open-mic-tickets-2000287268065?aff=oddtdtcreator

The workshop may touch on experiences of relationships, boundaries, bodies, autonomy, change and difficult periods in our lives.

You will never be asked to disclose a personal experience. You can respond to prompts autobiographically, write through a fictional voice, change the subject completely, or choose not to respond to a particular prompt.

This is a creative writing workshop rather than a therapeutic or counselling session.