Non-fiction writing hasn’t really been a focus of mine. Presenting truths and stories in a way that you, and others, can trust is a task that terrifies me, whilst with poetry and music I know that I’ve hidden between intentions and meanings like some scared songbird.
I’ve worked at it, kind of, through education from high school to university – and recently I’ve had the luck to work with Wakefield Literature Festival, a youth-run festival celebrating us getting involved with stories, crafts and all things words. Their activities have been great, from poetry events to songwriting workshops to campfire tales, and I got to write a podcast for their ‘Who Came Before’, based on an inspirational figure of my choice.
Predictably, I chose a song. I wanted to take that inspiration and see if we could physically reach more people, trying to show how the protest song ‘Bread and Roses’ was formed and distributed through feminist trade unionism, through figures like Rose Scheiderman, not just the author and composer of the song. Feel free to have a listen to the stories I try to bring to life (link at the bottom of the page), and do check out the singer Sorcha Hughes, and the prod team at Wakey Litfest – all did fantastic work. Also check out the whole series – each episode is a really personable snapshot of this messy world.
This is a new kind of journalistic writing for me, and I’m very excited to take this further. I’ve got some projects that should hopefully come to fruition at some point soon, but for now I’ll just say thank you for reading, I hope you listen, and I hope you’re well.
Much love,
Isaac@BitsOfPieces
bits of pieces 