Found Voices, a collaboration between poet and playwright Sara-Jane Arbury and Joined Up Heritage, commemorates the centenary of the First World War and celebrates the heritage of the historic market town of Ledbury.
Arbury has created a unique poetic trail around eight key heritage sites in Ledbury using ‘found poetry’ comprising words from First World War poets – famous names and lesser known female writers - and phrases contained in the buildings themselves. The poems created for the project are available for free online and around the Ledbury area in paperback.
“Writing poetry in this way was rather like creating a collage of words in the same way a visual artist might use different materials to create a piece of art, says Sara Jane Arbury. "I spent many hours researching local history and absorbing the particular atmosphere of each building. It was a profound revelation to explore the work of the War Poets – male and female - for the poems in Found Voices. In putting these seemingly unrelated subjects together – heritage buildings and war poetry – I wanted my newly created poems to respect the words of the war poets, but also feel free enough to see what interesting and unexpected results would emerge from this fusion.”
Rachel Lambert, Heritage Development Manager of Joined Up Heritage, who commissioned Found Voices said: “I am delighted with Found Voices. Sara Jane has created a stunning body of work that Ledbury can be proud of. It encapsulates the ethos of Joined Up Heritage and sits right at the heart of our HLF project, connecting our heritage sites literally, creatively and intimately.”
Works featured in Arbury’s poetry for Found Voices include words from Siegfried Sassoon, Wilfred Owen and Edith Nesbit alongside lesser known voices from the First World War period such as May Herschel-Clarke, Eva Dobell, Katharine Tynan, Marian Allen and Geoffrey Anketell Studdart Kennedy - affectionately known as ‘Woodbine Willie.’
Join a special evening promenade performance of Found Voices by Sara-Jane Arbury on Tuesday, November 13 from 7pm to 9pm, starting at the Master’s House in Ledbury and culminating at St Michael’s Church. The Found Voices pamphlet can be downloaded at themastershouseledbury.org/news/
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