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If you live, work or study on Castle Vale, here’s a unique opportunity to put pen to paper and share your experiences, memories or thoughts about the joys and struggles of being a child – in verse!

Big Brum Theatre in Education company, who are a resident arts organisation on the Vale, are running a free community poetry competition, and they want YOU to get involved.

Big Brum, who work with thousands of Birmingham school children each year, had the idea for the competition during one of their recent theatre in education programmes called The Child and the Toad. "It’s all too apparent that we adults often forget that children don’t see things the way we do. Or rather, we forget to see things the way they do," said Ceri Townsend, who is heading up the project for the organisation. "But we all have this in common, that even if we are adults now, we have all been children at some point and know, somewhere deep down at the backs of our minds, the experience of seeing life from the point of view of the very young. So think this is a great theme to get everybody engaged and thinking, whatever their age or background, and promote understanding and respect between generations on the estate, whilst having a bit of fun."

And the project has attracted interest from outside the community as well. Charlie Jordan, who is Birmingham’s Poet Laureate for 2008, heard about the project and was keen to get involved. She’s going to be running a poetry workshop at Phoenix Court Day Centre in July for local pensioners. "I'm excited at the prospect of all the stories we'll discover from the older residents of Castle Vale, and really looking forward to hearing some living memories and magical words!"

And the younger generations are being well catered for too. Matt Windle, who is Charlie's youthful counterpart as Birmingham’s Young Poet Laureate, is going to be enticing pupils from Castle Vale Secondary School to get creative with words through his exciting slam poetry performances. Youngsters will get mapping out, and rapping about, the way they see stuff in today's world.

And it’s not just poetry that the project is employing to get everyone involved. Castle Vale Nursery children will be treated to some enchanting storytelling courtesy of Big Brum actors; infant school children are participating in theatre workshops and creating their own paintings and artwork about life in their eyes; a youth theatre performance is being devised for the project in out-of-school hours; and one Year 5 group is even developing their own response to the project in the form of dance!

The inspiration for these budding young dancers, led by Pegasus Primary teacher Kate Hayward, came in the form of a new poem written specially for the project by acclaimed British playwright, Edward Bond. Big Brum, for whom Bond has written a number of major pieces of modern theatre, have been using the poem as the starting point in a number of practical workshops in the Castle Vale primary schools. "The children created some incredibly powerful poetry of their own after working on Edward’s poem This Morning I Set Out for School. They enjoyed it so much they’re spending the rest of the term developing their ideas in other artforms as well – I can’t wait to see them express their ideas in dance."

And there will be a chance for everyone to see and hear the best outcomes yielded by all aspects of the Through the Eyes of a Child project, at a special evening performance at 7pm on Friday 11th July. Hosted by Big Brum at Pegasus Primary School infant hall, the occasion will be dedicated to celebrating the creativity of the Castle Vale community, and will include poetry, performances, and prizes for the overall winners in each category. The audience can expect a wide range of entertainment on the theme of childhood, including theatre, music, art, dance and, of course poetry – including performances by both Charlie Jordan and Matt Windle - as well as all the winning competition entries.

So, if you have a particularly vivid memory from your early years, a passionate opinion about children’s rights or an unusual story from your youth, getting writing now! It doesn’t matter if you’re an enthusiastic amateur writer or a complete novice who’s never written a single word before, this competition is for you and we want to hear from you!

"The most important thing for me as Birmingham's Poet Laureate is that 'everyone' can write poetry!" said Charlie Jordan. "Yes, really... as long as you have a thought or opinion, or have experienced something in life, then you have something to write a few lines about. No one else can express your view on this world and your life better than you can, and I look forward to reading lines from people who've never had that trust that they could write poetry before. We're uncovering a wealth of talent in Castle Vale and some unique voices in this project. And maybe a future Poet Laureate!"

All poems should be submitted to the:
Castle Vale Community Poetry Project,
Big Brum TIE,
c/o Pegasus Primary School,
Turnhouse Road,
Castle Vale,
B35 6PR
ceri@bigbrum.plus.com

Please include your name, address and telephone number with your entry, and indicate the appropriate age category from the following:
a) 7-11 yrs; b) 12-15 yrs; c) 16-20 yrs; d) Adult.

The deadline for entries for these categories is Friday 4th July 2008.

Winning entries will be announced on 11th July.