Like a few other library authorities, Worcestershire has a Young Poet Laureate to encourage young aspiring poets. An annual competition takes places each year at which they are chosen. The winner is then paid to write and perform poems through the year at events.
From a conversation with Natalie, who organises it, we thought it might be a good idea to ask for a poem about the collections in The Hive, Worcester’s library and history centre. We invited the current Laureate, C.J., to come for a tour round so they could see the amazing things held in the local studies library, archives and archaeological stores. It also gave us a chance to explain what we did, the importance of the sources, and why people come to us to use us.
It’s not a new idea and others have asked for poems or songs. The band Show of Hands wrote a song for Exeter Museum’s reopening called Home to a Million Thoughts which captures the museum’s atmosphere and what it means to people. Others have got people to write poems or song too, but we’ve never had anyone to do this for us.
Concrete and Gold
After a while we received the final piece – Concrete and Gold. We were blown away with how C.J. had captured our essence. After talking with County Council colleagues (we were very excited wanted to tell lots of people how good it was!) we came up with the ideas of filming it so we could more easily share it. So colleagues who were more skilled at filming and edited helped when C.J. visited. This enabled us to share widely on social media, and the response has been great.
So if you have a Young (or not so young) Poet Laureate in your area why not see if they can write you a poem.
Paul Hudson
Learning & Outreach Manager
Worcestershire Archive and Archaeology Service
CILIP Local Studies Group 