Today we tried an experiment, using the Dave Pearson Trust building to run a poetry workshop with girls from the local South Asian community. The Manchester-based poet Shamshad Khan, above, ran a two hour session upstairs in our Haslingden base, Dave's old studio.
Shamshad was helped by Arezzun Nessa, and together they decorated the upstairs floor of the old studio to create a suitable environment for the girls. Of course Dave's paintings were everywhere around, and Shamshad said that the girls and the women who brought them along to the studio were inspired and delighted by the context.
The Saturday workshops will now continue over the next few weeks. They are part of a project running throughout 2014 and 2015, organised by Horse + Bamboo, called Different Moons, which sets out to record and celebrate the South Asian heritage community in Haslingden and Rawtenstall. Dave, we're certain, would have very much approved.
