Poetry painted onto Barrow AFC's football pitch

Barrow AFC's pitch has been painted with poetry written by local men

Photo: Colin Aldred

Features

Taking poetry to the people

Professional boxer and former Young Birmingham Poet Laureate Matt Windle has been working with a group of ‘hard-to-reach’ men in Barrow to help them get creative through words, as Helen Bartosinski reports.

Helen Bartosinski
3 min read

BarrowFull is a Barrow-based organisation working with local people to foster everyday creativity and pride of place. As an Arts Council England Creative People and Places (CPP) organisation, the charity promises that “everyone in Barrow will have the opportunity to experience and be inspired by distinctive arts and culture in their local community”.

And our latest project is indeed distinctive. We have spent the week putting the finishing touches onto a poetry ‘installation’ which has been painted onto the Barrow AFC football pitch, using the linesman’s paint and machinery. And, amid last minute concerns about the weather, the final work was unveiled on Wednesday evening (5 June), coinciding with Arts Council’s gathering of CPP organisations taking place in Barrow-in-Furness.

Reaching out to local men through the spoken word

Like all 38 CPP programmes, BarrowFull works with people who have historically been the least engaged with the arts and culture. This poetry initiative is part of a larger Barrow Dreams project in which ‘hard-to-reach’ local men have been working with professional boxer and former Young Birmingham Poet Laureate Matt Windle to create the poetry together.

Over the past few months, Matt has worked with the men, helping them to be creative through words. His time in Barrow saw him explore short forms of poetry and spoken word, running sessions specifically designed to engage everyday people, regardless of whether they have a history of being creative or whether they have ever put pen to paper in their lives. 

As part of this, the men have been writing short-form poetry onto everyday objects – everything from beer glasses, to boxing gloves and T-shirts. These objects – works of art – with the poetry painted onto them will now go on display to the public in the Forum Theatre in Barrow.

Continues…

Matt Windle, poet by day and boxer by night

You don’t need qualifications to be creative

So, what inspired Matt to take on the project? “One of the things I’m a huge advocate and supporter of is to give men a platform and feel confident”, Matt told me. “Poetry can sometimes seem arty, but I’m a completely ordinary person, and I’d like other ordinary men to know that the arts and culture can be for regular people. You don’t need a degree or a GCSE to be creative.”

And how did Matt find the work on the project? “I quickly learnt that Barrovians are rightfully proud of where they are from, and this project allows them to show that off. I [was] alongside the members of the group every step of the way and with over 16 years’ experience, I [was] confident that I could help even the most reluctant writer to create pieces of work that they can be proud of.”

Matt’s words echo the aspirations of our Creative Director, Daniel Tyler-McTighe who said: “This project is all about meeting with men in the places that they feel comfortable. In the same way that we often take over the Town Hall, opening it up to the public with our colourful and exciting events such as Festival of Colours and A BarrowFull of Christmas, we’ve taken the words of Barrovians and emblazoned them across their beloved team’s football pitch.”

Helen Bartosinski is Communications & Marketing Manager at BarrowFull.
 barrowfull.org.uk/
@BarrowFull