Poetry Residency at Grainger Market

'With sour dough, tea steeped and pastry rough, a single lunch hour's never long enough'

In March of this year, Newcastle City Council and Newcastle University began searching for a poet in residence to take up post in the busy alleys of Grainger Market as part of Newcastle Poetry Festival. With the festival's theme being 'In / Out of Place', the poet would be expected to engage with visitors, stallholders and other market staff to create new work based on this important cultural landmark.

When I saw the commission opportunity, my head was immediately buzzing with all of the stories that must be contained within the brains of everyone who uses the market! After an application and interview (which involved having a rough plan of how you wanted to use the time and what you might produce) I was thrilled to be awarded the residency and I started work on it in mid-April.

Market Memories

One of the requirements of the residency was to spend at least five days in the market itself, and so with the help of the brilliant market inspectors team (who take care of the smooth running of the market - everything from litter and first aid to helping deliver large scale events) I set up a little stall outside the weigh house and began speaking to passers-by about their memories and views on Grainger Market. I had rolls of paper where people could add their thoughts with fat marker pens or post-it notes, and any worries I might have had about people not being that interested quickly disappeared as I had people from all walks of life come up and say hello!

In quieter periods, I went around to stallholders and learnt all about the history of their shop, how long it's been in the market, and any secrets or rumours they knew that the general public wouldn't (if they were willing to tell...).

As the residency progressed, I moved away from information gathering and started to create work. I chose to still be present in the market as I did this, and actually invited people who stopped to speak to me to sit down and read / critique my work, which was a pretty nervewracking but very worthwhile experience.

Market Sonnets

When I was planning what I might use the residency to create, I discovered that the market has fourteen entrances or 'gates', and immediately thought about writing sonnets. It really appealed to me to write love poetry about such an important part of the city, to connect the landmark to a history of sonnets, to play around with form and structure... I predominantly write free verse poetry so this would be a healthy challenge for me, too.

As the residency progressed, some themes started emerging; I wrote a sonnet about the matchday atmosphere on a busy Saturday, the food stalls, fresh fruit and veg, going down into the air raid shelter, market myths and legends, weaving in as many stories shared by visitors and stallholders as I possibly could.

Newcastle Poetry Festival and The Late Shows

The residency culminated in two really great opportunities to share my sonnets-in-progress and talk a little more about the process behind them: once at Newcastle Poetry Festival which took place at Northern Stage, and the second in the market itself as part of The Late Shows a week or so later.

It was so much fun to talk to the public, fellow poets and the residency funders about what I'd got up to, the people I spoke to and what I'd created. I didn't have everything finished at that point but had enough sonnets written to share a few with both audiences and they seemed to go down really well.

Sharing my work at Newcastle Poetry Festival (left) and The Late Shows (right)

The loveliest moments for me were when I was able to share the poems with market visitors and stallholders as works in progress and get their spontaneous reactions. One man was so moved by the pieces and told me 'I don't normally understand art, but I understood that', which proved to me that I'd done my job, creating pieces that reflect the true experiences of people who use the market and not something flowery or literary just for the sake of being so.

The plan now is to make some public art with the sonnets (hopefully situated in the market itself) as well as a booklet / publication of them all, so watch this space and I hope to be able to update this page soon with where you can find them!

An enormous thank you to Alison Flanagan Wood and Jane Rose of Newcastle City Council, Theresa Munoz at Newcastle University and the tireless market inspectors and stallholders who welcomed me into the market and helped to make my residency a success.