Evolving Words
The main project took place 1 February 2009 – 31 December 2009. Recently a group in Norwich set up their own project inspired by ours and the best of the work produced there will feature on the site when it is complete in spring 2010.
Evolving Words is a poetry writing and performance project that engaged 14-25 year olds in celebrations marking Darwin200 in 6 UK cities. Participants worked with a poet and a science educator in each city and performed their poems at a range of local events during 2009. The Evolving Collection page on this website functions as an online anthology and some poems were used as scripts for short films, which you’ll be able to watch view online — keep an eye out for new posts as we’ll be linking straight to them. Evolving Words is being produced in association with the Wellcome Trust.
In November 2009 a selection of the written work, film and live performances was showcased at a public event at the Wellcome Collection Gallery in London. The headline performance was by Soweto Kinch, an award winning writer, hip-hop artist and jazz musician who wrote and composed a new work inspired by Darwin’s science. The event showcased the best work produced by young poets from Liverpool, Manchester, Cambridge, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Newcastle. Video clips from ths event will also be online very soon.
The poets involved are Anita Govan, Valerie Laws, Dinesh Allirajah, Shirley May, Kimberly Trusty and Polarbear. The lead partners are National Library of Scotland (John Murray Archive); Centre for Life and Customs House, Newcastle; World Museum Liverpool; University of Liverpool; Manchester Literature Festival & Manchester Museum; University of Birmingham and Cambridge Darwin Festival. Delivery partners include N.Edinburgh Arts, Customs House, Young Identity, NU Century Arts and The Junction.
Darwin200 plans to celebrate the impact that Darwin’s ideas about evolution, as well as his approach to the understanding of the natural world and his outstanding example as a scientist, continue to have on our lives. Darwin200 events will build up to November 2009, which is the 150th anniversary of the publication of On the Origin of Species by Means of Natural Selection. For more information on Darwin 200 see www.darwin200.org.
