Medway River Lit is delighted to be holding an exhibition in Medway ArtBox from 31 May - 13 June (during Medway River Lit) and we are inviting your contributions of poetry on postcards!
If you don't know about the ArtBox - you can find out more on the Nucleus Arts website and it's pictured here! It's an old BT phonebox repurposed as a tiny gallery on Rochester High Street. Full of ever changing exhibitions it's always well worth a visit! You can find it outside the Rochester Nucleus Arts building.
Handwriting and the Medway river
The Medway area has a long tradition of words and handwriting. The earliest books were handwritten, and the ‘Texus Roffensis’ at Rochester Cathedral is a fabulous example of the power of handwriting to record and share ideas through the centuries. Did you also know that Medway’s most famous author Charles Dickens’ handwriting was so appalling that even he couldn’t read it? Our new literary festival will celebrate Medway's words now and in the future, as well as this long history of writing and the river.
We want to everyone to be able to get involved, so we're asking for your poems to be displayed as part of our exhibition in the ArtBox during the festival!
Your poem can be about anything - but here are some prompts just in case you need a bit of inspiration!
How does Medway make you feel? Where is your favourite place in Medway? Think of your best day ever. Write about your pet. Write about your family. If you're using a postcard with a photo on - could you write your poem about the photo? Do you have a poem already that would fit on a postcard?
Our exhibition will be open to all, though bear in mind that it will be displayed in a place where it can be seen and read by anyone, so we reserve the right not to display anything too spicy...
You can use your own postcard to write your poem on the back of. You can pick up a blank postcard from Nucleus Arts reception in Chatham, then write the poem on one side and decorate the other, then post it back to or drop it off into Nucleus Arts! Don't forget to sign your work - unless you want to be anonymous.
If you are worried (like Charles Dickens) that your handwriting is not good – you can also print it out and stick it to a postcard like the top example below.
Closing date for receipt of postcards is 30 April.
Please drop off, or send, your postcard:
c/o Medway River Lit Nucleus Arts, 272 High St, Chatham ME4 4BP
How many words can you fit on a postcard?
Here are some examples of the front and back of cards we made earlier, showing two examples of how you could do it - but really, you can do whatever works for you, so long as it's still a regular A6 postcard!
Above: the front and back of two postcards. The top images show a recycled postcard, with stickers put onto an old seaside view and a printout of a poem stuck to the back; the bottom images show a bank postcard with a handwritten poem on the back and a drawing on the front.