Architecture of London and Sense of Place Poster

                                                                       GREAT BARDFIELD WEA

Spring 2012

A SENSE OF PLACE

In the New Year, we are pleased to welcome Colin Padgett, a tutor new to Great Bardfield WEA. Colin will be presenting a series of 10 lectures on ‘A Sense of Place’ and he has written the following about this course:

“Poetry could be described as painting with words, which is probably why we like it so much even though we would not always claim to understand all its technical “ins and outs”.

Poets notice the same things that we all do, but they seem to have a talent for focusing on the essence of what they see and casting light on it which makes it fresh or thought-provoking for us.

Often, they will look inwards, or at relationships or issues, but they also look out at the world and record it for us. Sometimes the effects are intensely personal and sometimes purely descriptive, like a painting or photograph in words and, as we each come from somewhere and have attachments to the places where we live, they speak to us at the level of our emotional heart. This course seeks to bring these two things together so that its members will learn something more about places they may already know, while at the same time gaining access to poetry in a non-technical way.

This Spring, the Great Bardfield WEA will be reading poetry which concentrates on places, in the company of their tutor, Colin Padgett.

A fair proportion of that poetry will have been inspired by East Anglian locations; others will evoke features of other parts of the British Isles. If you join this course, you will find yourself reading poetry by writers whose names you recognise and others who will be new to you. The emphasis, however, will be on reading the poetry – to enjoy it and share our reactions.

Each session will feature keynote introductory points by the tutor, pictorial material to complement the styles and content of the poems and a variety of approaches to reading poetry, each one devised to move us towards greater understanding without getting too “technical”.

If you have a favourite poem about a place, there will even be room within the course for you to draw our attention to it.”

Colin Padgett has been teaching English, among other things, since 1976. He has written about poetry, devised teaching materials, and even written some for publication himself.

The course begins on Monday 16^th January 2012 at 8pm (registration starts from 7.30pm) at The Friends’ Meeting House, Great Bardfield. A fee of £45 covers all 10 lectures, refreshments included. We hope to arrange a field trip reflecting the subjects covered.

For further details, please contact Annette Joyce (01371) 811233 or Ros Gourgey (01371) 810832.

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The Workers' Educational Association (WEA) is a charity registered in England and Wales (number 1112775),

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