James Black

On Wednesday 21^st July the third meeting of the Khushi women’s poetry group took place at Belgrave Library. Once again the poetry side of meeting was led by Leicester Libraries resident Book Doctor Alison Dunne whilst Fiona Meagher from Fosse Arts and City Gallery instructed the ceramic work.

In last week’s session each of the ladies wrote about their experiences of being at the seaside. In each story the ladies expressed their feelings of peacefulness and tranquillity that the surrounding beauty instils. A recurring sense of joy and happiness also went along with each of the stories.

This week Alison explained to the group that they should focus less on emotional aspect of being at the seaside and more on the physical world which surrounded them. This would give grounding to the poems and make the writing more particularised and individual.     

The ladies shared their stories which came from a wide variety of destinations Africa, America and India. We heard about the tiny white crabs which run from the sea and escape down small holes in the sand, the heat of the mid-day sun, a relaxing cool breeze, the smell of the sea and of fresh seafood being cooked. All of these sensory delights were then condensed into a few short words and phrases so that they could be used in the ceramic activities.

This week’s work involved writing the words onto ceramic tiles this was done in a couple of ways either by cutting out the letters from colourful patterned paper or by dousing a stencilled letter in a mysterious special liquid which when placed on the tile imprints the letter. Fiona really does have some unique technical knowledge hidden up her sleeve!  

The ‘Khushi’ group were also joined by Andy Williams from CAPS (Community Actions Photographers) and Simon Parker from Citizens’ Eye. Andy was in attendance to take a professional looking photograph of Khushi Group that will appear alongside Alison’s write-up of the meeting that will appear in her Leicester Mercury column. Whilst Simon came along to make a short film interviewing the ladies, asking them about their activities and the history of the Khushi Group which, as we discovered, has been going for an amazing 15 years!  

With four people (myself, Andy, Simon and Alison) covering this week’s event at Belgrave Library there was a real buzz of excitement and interest in what was happening. Several library users put down the latest V.S. Naipaul or Jeffery Archer novel to see what all the commotion was all about. When clearing away the materials Fiona told me that the friendship and fun found at each meeting always fills her with a great feeling of joy. It’s obvious by now that a ’Khushi’ meeting is a happy meeting in any language!

James Black

On Wednesday 14^th July the second meeting of the Khushi women’s poetry group took place at Belgrave Library. The meeting was led by Leicester Libraries resident Book Doctor Alison Dunne and from Fosse Arts ceramics tutor Fiona Meagher.

The word ‘Khushi’ means happy in Gujarati and the idea of happiness is central to the group as the meetings allow each of the members to get together with people from a similar background to their own, have fun and express themselves through words and the creation of their artwork. The Khushi Group have been working on a project themed around the seaside. They are planning a trip to the coast where filmmaker Keith Allot will shoot a film which hopefully, (if all goes according to plan,) will be shown at the Lyric Lounge on Friday 30^th July.

Wednesday’s meetings began with Alison asking the ladies to think of a time when they were at the seaside and the experiences, feelings, ideas that the visit evoked. Images that cropped up time and again include the glorious sunshine, the delight of seeing children at play, the sound of their laughter and, (just to remind us that this is a women’s workshop,) shopping on the promenade! When talking about the serene environment of beach the group spoke of the profound sense of peacefulness, calm and well-being they had experienced when at the seaside.

Alison did not allow me to be a silent observer and I was joined in with my experiences of the seaside. The irony of my story of looking out onto the Arabian Sea in Goa, India was not lost on the group of Asian ladies, especially as they had been speaking about their visits to Great Yarmouth and Blackpool! When I said that looking out to the vastness of the water put me in a reflective mood Alison remarked that psychologists often associate images of water with our emotions: dreaming of water is said to symbolise the unconscious – well she hasn’t got a column in the Leicester Mercury for nothing you know!

Alison then asked the group to write down a five or six words and one sentence from what they had written. These words were then used to decorate the clay stones and rocks in the ceramics part of the Khushi session. The practical side of the session got underway as the ladies got stuck into their work fashioning pebbles and stones out of clay. This time gave everybody a chance to chat to one another and create some interesting pieces of work; one lady even moulded a (perhaps sacred) cow much to the hilarity and delight of her friends.

Throughout the session I was struck by the friendliness of the atmosphere and how much the women seemed to enjoy their activities. If you would like to see more photos of the session please visit the Lyric Lounge 2010 photo set on Flickr.