West End Writes Spring Celebration

New Writing North at the John Marley Centre, in the west end of Newcastle, is home to a group of writers who are challenging perceptions of who gets to be a writer or artist.

West End Writes Spring Celebration is an event that brings together writers and artists who have been part of New Writing North programmes in the West End over the last three years. The two-hour free event will showcase new and original writing, artist publications, a film and artworks.

The west end of Newcastle is one of the most culturally diverse areas of the North East of England. Its people are brimming with stories to tell. Through a series of programmes run by New Writing North and their team of writers, communities here have found new and imaginative ways of expressing themselves.

Most of these writers were new to creative writing at the start of their programmes. Some of the writers in this programme speak and write in English as an additional language. All of them have found powerful and profound ways to express themselves and their individual creativity.

The event will include two 30-minute sessions of readings, performances and a short film. In addition to these performances, visitors will be able to see a collective art publication, a series of multi-artform self-portraits and have chance to meet and speak to the featured writers and artists. The community of writers and artists who will be part of the event are:

• World Writes is a group of multilingual writers who speak English as another language. The group supports multilingual writers to create great art, decentre the English language, champion marginalised voices and build safer creative spaces for migrants, immigrants, refugees and asylum seekers. For West End Writes, they are sharing work produced as part of a multilingual creative language exchange. This project took place as a series of online workshops with writers from all over the world, writing in twenty different languages. Exploring the theme of cities, the artist publication on display playfully explores how language interacts with body and place, shape and sounds.
• Remembered West is a group of writers aged 50+ who meet weekly to share stories. For West End Writes 2025 the group have each created a multi-artform self-portrait. These are made up of audio recordings, personal artefacts and written reflections on their life story.
• Creative writing drop-in meet at St James’ Church, Benwell. This dedicated group of writers have produced an anthology of their writing called This is the Place. Readings of which will be part of the performance in the main hall.
• A group of South East Asian women aged 50+ who meet weekly. The group has created a multi-lingual poetic documentary اپنی آواز (‘Apni Aawaaz’, Our Voice) which explores their experiences of moving to Newcastle, their treasured friendships, memories of their native countries, and their reflections on family life. The film will be shown as part of the performance in the main hall.

In addition to the sharing of this new work, there will also be readings and performances by: Safa Maryam, Kema Kay and Malya Bhattacharya, who all have a connection to the communities in the west end of Newcastle.

Programme:

4pm event starts
4.30pm – 5pm first 30 minutes of performances
5.15pm – 5.45pm second first 30 minutes of performances
6pm event finishes

The event will take place at Studio Deco in the John Marley Centre. It is located to the left and through the double doors after you come in the main entrance.

Find out more about our West End Writes programmes.

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