Performing Women's Work Songs and Writing Cardiff's Lost Places

Making Marks with Songs: Work Song Drawing and Performance
18 October, 4pm, Milgi Yurt

The before shot: playdough, all ready for a thumping

 On Saturday I had the pleasure of attending (even if I did only manage to rock up half way through) one of the most intriguing workshops I have ever attended. 

Run by singer Frankie Armstrong and visual artist Jessica Akerman, 'Making Marks with Songs' attempted to replicate the act of 'waulking' - the olden-days technique of shrinking and softening newly woven tweed to completion by thumping it along a table, in groups. These groups were composed of women, and the task was often long and laborious - so to carry them through the work these women would sing. 

These work songs were an important part of Scottish Gaelic culture, and were often lead by one woman: in our case, the very talented Frankie. The songs which survived the years did so orally, and we were very lucky to have Frankie with us, to lead the group by example and give them life once more. 

In the latter half of the workshop I caught, we sang as a group twice. The first time, each with a ball of dough to knead and thump as we wished, we sang in a round - a structure which quickly devolved into a freestyle session in which the group parted and came together again, meeting in random harmonies, a sudden flurry of clapping, or a low hum building through all of us. We let the song end when it felt natural to do so, and while at first I felt quite awkward (especially as I have a terrible singing voice) very quickly I became distracted by the physical - and quite tiring! - work that I was doing, and my self-conciousness slipped away.

This led to a wonderful form of abstract freedom, very akin to childhood play, as many in the group acknowledged afterwards, commenting that they 'didn't care what I sounded like', that the session was 'trance-like' and 'shut the clatter out.' Everyone commented on the communal nature of the activity, and even after only spending half an hour in their company, I felt very connected to my fellow singers.

We completed the session with another song - this time a call and a response, in which we had to pass the dough from one person to the next, perhaps closer resembling what tweed thumping may have actually been like. This proved more difficult, as it involved more consideration of your neighbours - truly highlighting the skills of concentration and endurance these women must have developed.

As we packed up I had a few words with Jessica, and she spoke of her plans to artistically respond to the shapes we had made with the dough, and to repeat the experiment on a larger scale, with perhaps hundreds of people. I can only sincerely hope that happens - the experiment was so absorbing and affirming on a small scale, I can barely imagine how transformative a experience it might become if shared by ten times our number.
  
Cardiff Alms - Re-inventing the Blue Plaques
19 October, 1 - 2:30pm, Poets Corner Pub

An entirely different artform, but I got to experience another highly engaging workshop on Sunday. This creative writing workshop, skilfully led by current Cardiff Creative Writing MA Jodie Kay Ashdown, had a specific focus: lost places and things. Jodie had helpfully listed several of these specific to Cardiff - old cinema the Monico, the Sapphire Gardens pavilion, even conductors on buses!- and provided us with examples of eulogies, in which the places were honoured as people would be. After all, sometimes a place can mean just as much.

Over the course of an hour and a half we were encouraged to create similar tributes - whether the place we had in mind was a beloved pub or a set of public toilets, based in Cardiff or not at all: I commemorated a roller disco of my youth, which I had entirely forgotten about up until that point.


Amazingly this was Jodie's first ever workshop, as she told me afterwards: 'I really enjoyed it. Some people who might have been a bit reticent about writing came up with some really good stuff. Definitely going to do it again.'

In which case, I would highly recommend you attend folks - who knows what places you might recover?


-Rebecca

Frankie Armstrong lives on the internet here.

Jessica Akerman's website resides here and she can also be found on Twitter @jessicaakerman

Jodie Kay Ashdown -'Writer, reader, gin drinker' - lives on the internet here and can be found on Twitter @Surfingsunshine