Following the success of 'The Great West Midlands Poetry Relay' during this year's London 2012 Open Weekend, Writing West Midlands has made the complete poem available online through a podcast and interactive map.
The Poetry Relay set off on 23 July from Stoke-on-Trent with poet number one at 8.15am, and at each of the ten locations gathered another poet. A poem was written at each location on the route, and at each location the sequence of poems so far was performed in its entirety. The poems were inspired by the geography of the location and sporting events.
The poets, who travelled together by bus, stopped at Stoke-On-Trent Railway Station, Burton-on-Trent Library, Polesworth Abbey Park, Hatton Country World’s Toffee Shop, Worcester’s Arts Workshop Café, Malvern Hills’ British Camp Car Park, Bromyard Town Green, Highley Leisure Centre, Telford Odeon Cinema and The Pie & Ale House Pub in Stafford on their route around the region.
At Highley, ten carrier pigeons from Birmingham’s Project Pigeon were released, who transported the poems back to their loft in Digbeth and whose order of arrival dictated the final order of the poems.
The relay was accompanied all day by an audio recording crew from Monty Funk Productions, and a photographer. Between them the day was documented and is now available as a series of podcasts, images and an interactive map here.
To find out more about Writing West Midlands, including news about their upcoming Birmingham Book Festival (6-16 October 2011) please visit: http://www.writingwestmidlands.org/.