Our Lesbian Lyric: A Poem for 100 Voices

Our Lesbian Lyric

My project is the creation of a Poem for 100 Voices, recording through workshops and performance the experiences of lesbian women.

I wanted to make this happen because our voices are not always heard; our stories not always shared; our lives not recorded; our loves not projected. I want to hear our voices together.

So each piece of poem created will be incorporated into a whole; compiled and edited with my voice; orchestrated and directed for performance.

Workshops create pieces of the larger poem, and workshops are photographed and sometimes recorded. Creations made in the workshops (these include paintings, reed dollies, Brigid's crosses and cardboard installations) are photographed and some recitations of the created poems have been recorded.

Workshops can be held wherever women gather: I'm happy to work with any number of women, few or many, and the setting can be formal (a conference or seminar) or informal (a cafe meeting, a gathering). If you're interested in hosting a workshop, please get in touch. There is no fee but I may need some petrol expenses and/or somewhere to stay!

Our Lesbian Lyric will be completed at the end of 2014. I'm looking forward to the day when the finished chorus will be performed. When the poem is complete, the artwork (pictures, photos, recordings etc) will be catalogued and archived.

Workshops in 2012:

Lesbian Lives XIX: Workshop Title: ‘Manifestations’

Using poetry, creative visualisation and spoken word, the workshop will explore ways in which we identify and make manifest our personal power (‘our Goddess within’), identifying the masks and presentations that we use to enhance or mask our potential, our personal identity and sexuality.  Participants will be invited to get down and dirty with glue, cloth, paint and reeds to create a personal manifestation of the Goddess within. All materials will be provided.

Cork Women's Fun Weekend: Workshop Title: ‘The Company of Women’

This is a choral poetry workshop, part of a larger long-term project called ‘Our Lesbian Lyric’, in which participants will collectively produce a spoken-word poem – a poem to be read by a number of voices.  Using poetry, creative visualisation and images, the workshop will explore ways in which we respond to, and are enriched by, the ‘company of women’.  Participants can also create their own images as part of this expression, and all materials will be provided.

25th Irish Women's Camp:

An entirely ad hoc set of three workshops using creative visualisation and cardboard, in which women created two poems 'The Company of Women' and 'Remembering Those We've Lost and That Which We Have Lost'. The poems were interwoven and performed at the camp.