Fruitful
Kate Braid’s visit to read us her poetry and talk about music yielded an unexpected surprise: she brought her collaborator, jazz musician Clyde Reed. Their openness and connection to each other’s work was contagious. They invited us to try reading as Clyde played improvisational bass on the spot. You can see video snippets of the experiments on our “What did we do this week” page and on our youtube channel.
Kate had this to say about the writers:
I was bowled over: by their kind attention to my teaching and to each other, by their eagerness to engage, and by the way in which they dug in immediately to challenging writing exercises. Their personal courage – a necessity if you wish to write decent poetry – was extraordinary. The work they produced from assigned exercises was far more skilled than the usual first drafts from a university writing class.
I brought with me to the class, the jazz bassist Clyde Reed who often plays with me when I read my own poetry, and this group were uncanny in their openness and ability to work with him after a minimum of direction. Often – reading the exercises they’d just written – their work plus the music, brought tears to my eyes.
This is a truly unique group.
Thank you, Kate and Clyde, for the chance to put into practice much of what we have learned about collaboration, music and transformation in the Voice to Voice project. We are so thrilled to have written and read with you!
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