Emergency Poems to be prescribed at Jubilee Square to celebrate World Poetry Day
As part of World Poetry Day, the world’s first and only mobile poetic first aid service will be open to everyone at Jubilee Square on Wed 21 Mar, 11am – 4pm.
The Emergency Poet offers consultations inside her ambulance and prescribes poems as cures. There are skulls, jars of eyeballs and other body parts inside the ambulance, and in the waiting room under an attached awning, Nurse Verse dispenses poemcetamols and other poetic pills and treatments from the poetry pharmacy.
Emergency Poet is a participatory and playful experience set inside a 1970’s ambulance. The ambulance will be stationed at Jubilee Square, and patients take part in a free private poetic health consultation with the Emergency Poet. Within 10 minutes they will be prescribed an appropriate poem, verse or lyric. Passers-by can also discuss any poetic ailments with Nurse Verse whilst the Emergency Poet is in session, for anyone who does not have the time for a consultation.
This mix of the serious, the therapeutic and the theatrical was conceived by poet and writer Deborah Alma as a fun and novel way of bringing poetry to people. Deborah is an experienced workshop facilitator and has delivered a range of poetry and creative writing workshops. She uses poetry to help communicate with people with dementia, both for The Courtyard Theatre in Hereford and for Ledbury Poetry Festival. She has been lead writer for Writing West Midlands Writing Squads in Shrewsbury & Ludlow, teaching creative writing to young people, and she wrote and taught the Writing Poetry module at The University of Worcester.
As well as the strong, fun visual appeal of the Emergency Poet concept, Deborah believes strongly in its ability to engage all audiences in the relevance and therapeutic nature of poetry.
Feedback from a previous participant:
‘This was such a wonderful experience… very uplifting. Lovely to have poems handpicked by someone to meet one’s inspiration, requirements, personal needs etc. and I love both the prescription poem and the poetry pill.’
Emergency Poet, Wed 21 Mar, 11am - 4pm, Jubilee Square, FREE