You Don't Have to Be a Writer to Start a Writing Group ~ by Minnie Birch

photo: jpost.com

As a librarian working in a Male Category C prison, I usually use my space on this blog to update on my book group but this month I deviate a little.

I have always wanted to set up a Creative Writing Group in the prison and my manager has felt the same. We’ve been fortunate enough to be shown some of the writing of residents in the prison and there is some real talent that we have felt the library should nurture. We never seemed to have the budget other libraries did, though; to get in a writer in residence or a one-off visit from a writer to kick start a group. A lot of the things we run are organised in our own time and resources are paid for from our own pockets, and sometimes, if I am honest, you start to just think “oh let some other person take this on. I am swamped enough.”

A trip to London for the Prison Libraries training group had me

Photo: Pexels.com

attend a really inspiring talk by staff at HMP Ford. I left buzzing with lots of ideas and enthusiasm for starting a writing group and, more importantly, I left with the conviction that “you do not have to be a writer to start a writing group.”

I think that has held me back a lot, although I write songs and poems (and have even won awards for doing so) I definitely did not feel confident to lead a group as if I had any knowledge to share about how to write. What I came to realise is people don’t necessarily want expertise from you, they want permission and space and time to be allowed to write – things which are not so readily available in a prison setting.

So, at our first session, we got to know each other, we shared work, we did some writing activities (which I had come across by the power of googling “ideas for running a writing group”) we laughed…we didn’t cry,, but I certainly had a lump in my throat at times.

I believe that everyone has a story to tell, but prisoners in particular have a story, that perhaps if they have a place and a space to tell it, to talk about the who, how, where, what, why of their lives, then they might just find in that telling of their story a new understanding of themselves and their circumstance. 

Not

Photo: Pexels.com

everybody needs that. Some people just enjoy writing. But if there is ever a place to mull over the who, how, where, what, and why of your life... then prison is the place and a creative outlet for those thoughts can be, I believe, therapeutic and make a significant contribution to the rehabilitative culture of the prison.

So, the moral of the story is - don’t wait until there is a professional writer in the building – just go ahead and do the thing yourself – but hey, if there are any writers out there reading this who would like to donate their time to the prison creative writing group we are very open to visitors.

Snowdrops, Chaos, Cake and Emotional Timescales ~ by Minnie Birch

The Prison Book Group is running late. The prison book group

photo courtesy of  91.7 Coast FM

quite often runs late. It is my first day back here after a few days, and chaos has hit minutes after opening the library door. The strangest of things happen here which you take in your stride, but are a stark reminder that you are in a prison, that this is an unusual place to be. Then as the chaos starts to settle, you boil the kettle, gather biscuits and a pile of books, and sit down in the comfy corner of the library, which looks just like any public library, and book group begins.

“How was your week?”

“What’s new?”

“Are you watching the football?”

“Who has read the book?”

And there, all of a sudden, in the most unusual of places you are with a group of like-minded people about to discuss a book.

This month’s book was Snowdrops by A.D Miller. We have been

Cover photo courtesy of Amazon

sent copies of this book from the National Literacy Trust, who run a scheme called Books Unlocked, which is about getting high quality books into prison book groups – they send us shortlisted Booker Prize novels to discuss. 

There are a lot of fantastic organisations that are all too aware that low literacy levels are rife in prison, that many people do not read or struggle with reading, that many never have read for pleasure at all. Encouraging people to develop their literacy skills is a key part of what the library service does, but this scheme is not about that.

This scheme plugs another gap, this scheme is for the readers, people who have spent their lives immersed in a good book, for whom reading has always been an escape, for those who can be “snobby” readers, want to dissect their books apart and have a shared reading experience. That’s who these books are for. 

As a bit of a slow reader myself, I can admit to struggling sometimes to get on-board with the narratives of this sort of fiction. Snowdrops, however, is a quick and easy read. I galloped through it and enjoyed the language and the story line. 

The overall feeling from the group is that it isn’t developed enough, we are left wanting to know a bit more about the place in which the book is set and the characters we are meeting.There’s a feeling the book is autobiographical and we have a lot of discussion around this. 

Then, as is inevitable (and important I feel) in any book group, we digress and we talk about other things. I find there is always something that makes me stop and think. This month my “stop and think” came from someone who was talking about how time has different faces. 

photo courtesy of Pexels.com/John Tong

He says he has been in prison 21 months and it has actually gone quite fast, it doesn’t feel that long, it all feels quite new still and the time is, thankfully for him at this point in his life, passing quickly. But he also mentioned how emotional time is different. He has been in prison 21 months and that has passed quickly, but due to his sentence, he's been away from his wife for 21 months and he says it feels like an eternity. You can see why I need to stop and think on this.

Cover photo courtesy of Amazon

Next month, we will be reading The White Tiger by Aravind Adiga--feel free to read along with us and send us any thoughts I can bring to our discussion. 

Disgrace, War, and Biscuits, Part 2 of Prison Book Group ~ by Minnie Birch

This month we had chosen to read two books, this is never a good idea because it usually means half of us only get around to reading one of the books, then we haven’t all read the same book and it all goes out the window. But that is okay. Book group is mostly about getting together, drinking tea, eating biscuits and putting the world to rights.

Well, I say drinking tea, but we actually have really fancy coffee from a fancy coffee machine! I do not know how a fancy coffee percolator ended up in a prison library and I do not ask, but extremely fancy coffee is the order of the day. I myself just have boring tea, I once had the library coffee and didn’t sleep for a week! So, I only have that on rare occasions where I really don’t see myself staying awake through the session.

The two books we read this month were:

War of the Worlds by H.G Wells and Disgrace by J.M Coetzee.

I was pleased War of the Worlds was on the list. I have never read

it, and it is one of those books that people give you the and-you-call- yourself-a-librarian look if you admit to having not read it.

It is of its time (published back in 1898) and the language is hard to navigate (for me anyway.) I found myself rereading sections, losing the plot line, getting itchy for descriptions to end, and action to begin. In the end, with the book group looming, I chose to listen to the remainder of the book in audio format. This is something I rarely do but something I really enjoyed it. 

The “official report” style of War of the Worlds lent itself well to being read aloud and I found I was able to indulge in the descriptive passages rather than be frustrated by them. The only other book group member who read the book has English as his second language so he, too, found it hard to navigate (although he has a much better excuse than myself, as English is my first – and only – language!) In summary we both felt the same: worth the read, interesting look at humanity, mostly glad we read it, so now we can say we have. 

Disgrace is a Booker prize winning novel and it isn’t hard to see why. It is a short book that packs in a lifetime of stories. It manages to hold up a mirror to you, make you ask questions of yourself, mess with your preconceived notions of right and wrong, and leave you not too sure exactly what might become of characters you’ve gotten to know along the way. 

It was very popular with the group. We are a diverse group both in age, background, and ethnicity; and so far whatever we have read, someone always seems to be able to say “Well this is/isn’t a fair representation – I would know, I lived it in my twenties” or some similar thing. 

We then stopped taking about the book and started talking about each other – which is exactly what a good book group should do, I think. Disgrace allowed me to delve further in to the worlds of some of these people and maybe shed a bit of light on the mystery of how anyone finds themselves facing a prison sentence.

If anybody would like to read along with us, maybe send me some of your thoughts to share with the group before our next meeting-- then we are reading Sinner Man by Lawrence Block and our next meeting is on Monday 20th May.

Minnie Birch is a singer/songwriter from the UK and a regular monthly contributor to Originality by Design. You can reach Minnie by email at minniebirch@hotmail.co.uk

Running a Book Group in a Male Prison ~ by Minnie Birch

The Handmaid's Tale.
   

I read Margaret Atwoods' The Handmaid's Tale back when I was in University. We had a whole module on Dystopian/Utopian texts, which was a dream! The reading list included things like Herland, 1984, We, Brave New World, Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, to name a few. It was a wonderful time. This was exactly what I had imagined it would be like studying literature at University... reading all the classics and discussing them with groups of like-minded people. My university had lots of green space so you could sit on the grounds outside debating the classics. Pretentious, pompous, and just what 21-year-old me had ordered!

     Fast-forward a few years and The Handmaids Tale is made into a TV series (I still haven’t seen it yet!) It is in the minds of many, so when choosing a book with my all-male prison book group, this one comes up as our choice for the March session. I can’t recall the whole ins and outs of the story as it has been some time since I read it, but I flinched slightly at the idea. There is definitely a sex scene.
       Do I want to end up discussing consensual/non-consensual sex with a group of men? What will they make of it? But the book group is a democracy (and if it was only ever me choosing, we’d have been reading every Harry Potter book and mostly having conversations around things like “are you team Edward or Jacob?” so it is best I let them choose.)
     I am, as is often the case, surprised by the response from the group to the book. Even those who haven’t had a chance to read it managed to pick up on the storyline and themes, and we ended up in a debate about gender identity, women’s rights, the feminist movement, and somehow fall down a rabbit hole of talking about a wide range of topics. This is something I find really fascinating

about the group and book groups in general. They provide a safe space for discussion about the most interesting off topic things with people whom you might otherwise just politely pass the time of day.
     I will be regularly blogging a little about my book group meetings and go a bit more in-depth about our discussions, but as this is the first one, I thought I’d just round up by saying a little about who we are - without giving away too much information that would cause a problem for the men who attend or for me. For obvious reasons, we don’t usually talk too much about the residents outside of the workplace.
     The group has been going for just over two years. We have had members aged 28-83! We are a mixture of backgrounds: from East London to Portugal, some of us are avid readers – one currently working their way through Shakespeare’s entire back catalogue --  and some have only learnt to read since coming to prison. 
       Some are serving life sentences, others are repeat offenders, and for some, we find are total fish out of water in the system when a momentary lapse of judgement/concentration has led some to find themselves here. Some have owned businesses, traveled the world, never left home towns, have a family who are no strangers to the prison system, or have a family who have disowned for finding themselves here. Some are fathers, husbands, sons, brothers. Some have been or are addicts, at least one has survived cancer, one has been in the army, and another has been a baker. 
     

We are all different, but we all enjoy cake and coffee and a chance to get together on a Monday afternoon and talk about books.

photos courtesy of pexels.com

Minnie Birch lives in the UK and is a regular contributor to Originality by Design. You can find out more about Minnie and her work by clicking Website

Josie Dear...Why I Decided to set up my own Charity ~ by Minnie Birch

     

     Over the years I have done lots of voluntary work and a lot of that has been in prison settings working on projects that reflect two of my biggest passions: Stories and Music. (I must say I have also had the great opportunity of being employed at different times by wonderful charities and organisations who have paid me to do this work!)
     During these years of working and volunteering, I've had moments where I have had ideas of things we could be doing to contribute to the rehabilitative culture of prisons. I haven’t always been able to action them very easily, or at all, because of lack of funding, or once I get the funding, there are major processes for getting that money cleared and to a point where I can action it.
     When I went to apply for funding, many of my ideas didn’t fall neatly under one bracket. Was it an arts project? A literacy project? Something for local people? My ideas didn’t fit neatly and so this shut me out of being able to apply a lot of the time. My ideas were simply about trying to bring joy to people in challenging times.
     So, I launched my own charity, Josie Dear, and we set about our first campaign. Here are the details of that campaign…
     I have had some great success over the last year bringing performers into prison settings to share their music and their life stories. The feedback has been overwhelmingly positive with comments such as:
     “For an evening I was removed from my stress and worries.”
     “Someone like Joe giving their time to come in and perform for us is really nice. It reminds you there are people who will still do something for you even now.”
     “Music brought us all together. I felt unity here with everyone.”
     Most musicians are willing to come to us for free or for a very reduced fee, but I would love to be able to offer people travel expenses and buy them dinner or lunch at the very least.
     So far my campaign has raised over £400 which allows me to keep putting on events and bringing musicians into prison settings to share their passions and their stories.
     Why did I call the charity Josie Dear?

     “I know you love me, Josie, dear. Your heart was ever fond and true.” These were the adapted words to “I will take you home again Kathleen,” which I had the honour of singing at my Grandma’s funeral, chosen by my Granpa as the perfect way to say goodbye to his little Irish sweetheart of 60+ years.
     My Granma was full of love and joy. If I told you I had a little Irish Nanna who was full of joy and sometimes very naughty, then whatever stereotypes you are conjuring up in your mind, that was my Granma.
     She would dance and sing and make naughty jokes with the lightest heart and this little Irish lilt that never seemed to fade, no matter how long she lived away from the Emerald Isles.
   

 She also wasn’t someone who took any BS. She was forward speaking. You knew if she disliked you and she didn’t have much time for nonsense.
     So, if I wanted to do more to spread some joy but didn’t want to deal with some of the barriers that were in my way, to set up on my own and start making a difference…well Josie, my Granma, seemed the perfect person to do that in honour of.

Spread a little Joy. Cut out the nonsense 😊

Minnie Birch is a singer/songwriter from the UK and a regular contributor to Originality by Design. If you are interested in learning more about Minnie's charity, click JOSIE DEAR.
 

Stories From a Different Viewpoint ~ by Minnie Birch

Sharing stories has always been a big part of my life: from being read to as a child, weekly visits to Abbots Langley Library with my mum, collecting Saddle Club books in my early pre-teens, to working part time in a book shop, studying children’s literature at University, and then landing my dream job as a Young People’s Librarian. Alongside this, I also grew a passion for sharing stories in song and have been performing in bands and then as a solo artist since I was 13. 

When I was 21, I heard about the Charity ‘Storybook Dads’. The charity helps to keep imprisoned parents in touch with their children through the magic of Storytelling. I wanted to get involved and contacted my local prison to volunteer my services. 

The then Librarian, Sue Rickard, said they didn’t have a Storybook Dads project but if I wanted, I could set one up. I hadn’t been in a prison before and I hadn’t set up a small charity project before but I said yes. (I think that’s one of the great things about being 21! Not really questioning how sensible a choice is, or if you really have the time and capacity for something and just saying ‘yes’ and hoping it will work out.) With a lot of help from Sue, I was able to get the project up and running and we’ve now been going for over 10 years! 

So, what do we do? Well, we help parents in prison record bedtime stories and messages for their children. We help men choose stories, support them with their reading where needed, edit the recordings by taking out any mistakes and background noises, and adding some fun sound effects. 

For many families, these CDs are a lifeline that help heal rifts and build vital family relationships. It shows the children they are loved and missed. It helps prisoners feel valued as parents and gives them the opportunity to have a positive impact on their children’s lives.

The project is currently run by myself and is supported by an amazing volunteer named Chris, who comes in weekly to work with the men and another volunteer, Matt, who visits us once a month to help us with the back log of editing. 

These two are a lifeline to the project, kindly giving of their free time, and I am very fortunate to have them on board – it is not always an easy place to work and their flexibility and enthusiasm is vital to keeping things going.

Every year in the UK, 200,000 children experience the imprisonment of a parent. It often leads to shame, guilt, and isolation, resulting in failure at school. These children are three times more prone to mental health problems than their peers. Keeping in contact can be difficult from behind bars; prisoners may be held long distances from their families. Those that maintain contact are up to 6 times less likely to re-offend.

In 2018, 116 men took part in our project. That is something I am incredibly proud of because it has been achieved in a landscape where resources to get things done in prisons are extremely low and, in truth, we have struggled to keep ourselves going. We receive some lovely feedback from the families involved and that’s the incentive to keep trying to find new ways to make this work. We are looking forward to delivering more sessions in 2019. 

If you are interested in listening to one of the recorded stories, please click HERE

To find out more about the charity click HERE

Of course, as a musician when I heard there was a music class taking place in the prison I went to have a nose around…fast forward a few years and I am now also involved in music sessions and music tech classes…but that’s perhaps a story for another blog.

 Glitter courtesy of YouTube

Minnie writes dark, plaintive, beautiful music about life, love, adventures, and fairy tales. Following slots supporting Joan Armatrading and a stint at Edinburgh fringe, Minnie has been wooing audiences all over the place with tours in Iceland, America, Europe, and all over the U.K under her belt. Her debut album received national airplay on BBC Radio 2, BBC 6 Music, and on BBC Radio 1 as Huw Stephen’s Introducing Artist of the Week.

"Her riveting and sometimes shocking lyrics are getting the recognition they deserve."  --Time Out Magazine

"Minnie is quite the wordsmith, knowing not just when to sing, but when to leave phrases hanging to concentrate on the meaning. Silence can say so much and Minnie knows how to use it, almost as an instrument to contrast against not only what is being sung, but what is being played."   --FATEA Magazine