Led by acclaimed poets Caroline Bird and Selina Nwulu, The Water Replies invited people and communities across North Kent and South Essex to get involved in creating a collective response to life living and working by the Thames Estuary.
The resulting works formed a part of the Estuary 2021 programme through an online exhibition and posters in sites across the region.
Creative Journaling
Between March and August 2020, hundreds of people living along both sides of the Estuary have kept creative journals, using words, photos, drawings, collage, poetry, and prose, to explore local relationships to the river and how the water impacts the rhythms of daily life. The completed journals were collected and presented as part of Estuary 2021.
Guide To Teaching Poetry
We are also producing a publication with poets, Caroline and Selina to help teachers and educators to become more confident in developing new approaches to teaching poetry in schools.
This free resource will be available to all schools and colleges across North Kent and South Essex, and will feature ideas, suggestions and provocations that can be used to engage and inspire both young people and teachers with poetry.
The book will be complemented by an online teachers’ pack of practical creative writing exercises and workshop templates designed to bring the book to life in the classroom. These online resources have been devised by Caroline and Selina to work within the curriculum and support Ofsted requirements.
If you would like to receive more information about the book and the teachers’ pack, please let us know at info@cementfields.org.
The Water Replies is an Estuary 2021 project, led by a partnership between Estuary-based arts organisations Metal, in South Essex, and Cement Fields, in North Kent and supported by Creative Estuary.
