Working The Blanks: Week One

As the first week of my poetry residency comes to an end, I'd just like to write a brief summary of the goals I've set myself, the things I've learnt, and the hopes I have for future weeks. I was made to feel  welcome straight away, and I'm really happy with the start that I've made.

Aims and Goals
The first thing I did as a part of my new position was to set myself some overall aims, and some month-by-month goals. With almost complete freedom of direction, and with so much inspiration on hand, it was important to outline the key things I wanted to achieve and cover over the next six months. I also asked the Museum for their aims, to make sure they were getting something from the residency too.

My overall aims are to:

1. write 10-20 poems about the pen trade in Birmingham 
2. reflect both on the factory then and the Museum now 
3. engage with stories, memories, people, and traditions
4. interact with museum staff, volunteers, and visitors
5. write poems of varying styles and forms 
6. create a handmade pamphlet of poems 

The Museum also want me to: 

1. generate website content 
2. put out a regular social media presence, updating on developments, breakthroughs, snippets, ect.
3. host poetry readings and writing workshops 

I have kept the month-by-month goals more broad at the moment; I will define more specific items at the beginning of each month. Generally, I would like to work towards running workshops in January and February, and hosting poetry readings in March and April. My goals for November were to: write an introductory blog post; have the basic research done; have started a bank of ideas; complete my first poem. I have met the first three already, and will begin working on the last goal next week. 

Things I've Learnt

As this was my first week, it was mainly about settling in, and then beginning my research. In terms of settling in, I've learnt how and where to access information, on the Museum's digital database, library, and collections. In terms of research, I've learnt a huge amount of things about the Birmingham pen trade - it's all so fascinating!

Here are a few of my favourite facts so far: 

• at the height of the pen trade, around 3/4 of everything written down across the globe was done so with a Birmingham pen 
• Mitchell's 'Alphabet' pens were embossed with different letters, of which the 'J' was so popular (think John, Joseph, James), that it ran to 65 series 
• the first pens were more decorative than practical, made of ivory and tortoiseshell with ruby and diamond tips

Outlook 

I'm really happy with the progress I've made so far, and I'm really positive that I'll meet all my goals this month. As a lot of this week was taken to read rather than to write, I'll be taking another few days next week to work on getting the first poem done. The poem will follow the evolution of the pen from the prehistoric to the industrial, and the transition from natural materials to steel manufacturing. 

Photos:

All of the above photos belong to me. 1) The Brian Jones room at the Museum, 2) the calligraphy activity table, 3) the Hinks-Wells 'Star', with Queen Victoria nibs