SEASIDE SPOKEN WORD

Part 1 - Writing adventures on the beach and ashore. Two workshops led by Sarah Leppington and designed to give festival goers a chance to engage with Tees and Empathy’s latest project. Tees and Empathy support mental health and build self esteem through the creative writing inspired by North Yorkshire's astonishing coastal vistas here in North Yorkshire. 

 

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Join novelist and storyteller Carmen Marcus and Teesside poetry legend Bob Beagrie for a gentle write-and-walk trail exploring the stranger side of Saltburn out of the sunshine and into the shadow world of ghosts, hobs and fairies.

Stopping at sites and viewpoints steeped in local folklore, we’ll encounter the fairies of Fairy Glen, the Hob of Hob Hill, the Zetland Hotel’s secret tunnels and ghost train, the wreck that destroyed the old pier, and the spirits said to haunt the Ha’penny Bridge. Along the way there will be opportunities to write, share stories and gather inspiration from the landscape.

Participants are warmly invited to read their work later at the evening’s Teesmouth Live event.

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Please arrive promptly at 11.50am.

Accessibility and practical information:

Please dress for the weather. The walk follows the Top Promenade and pavements, with level ground throughout. There will be some steps on and off kerbs and a few cobbled sections, but no walking on grass. Please bring notebooks and writing implements.

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Previously a working artist/songwriter, Mark began engrossed with writing stories in 2020. Finding the process quite addictive, he moved from short stories to novels almost accidentally.  With the recent novel, Highwayman, Mark has incorporated elements of the local folklore from North Yorkshire.  He has been fascinated with folklore since childhood and will be talking about how he has used this knowledge within this latest adventure.  Mark has also written and published Invisible, Medium and The Middlesbrough Merlin.

An afternoon of poetry and folklore featuring acclaimed writers from the North East, plus an open mic. 

Headliner: Kym Deyn

Poet and writer of weird fiction, who moonlights variously as a tarot reader, librarian and editor of Newcastle-based publisher The Braag CIC, Kym Deyn will read from Folkish.

Folkish is a trickster masquerading as a poetry collection. Full of ghosts, worms, saints and Northern English folklore, Kym Deyn’s debut is playful, spirited and absolutely furious, moving between the living, the legendary and the haunted in endlessly inventive forms.

Bob Beagrie

Bob Beagrie reads from The Hand of Glory, a sizzling collection of prose poems inspired by the severed hand of folklore – a magical object said to belong to a murderer. Through a time-travelling journey of discovery, Beagrie has created a richly layered work full of dark humour, myth and masterful storytelling.

Carmen Marcus

Carmen Marcus reads from Keen, her newly crafted lyrical tale rooted in Irish folklore. Meet Maeve Ireland, the last and worst of the keening women, and hear the voices of the ghosts gathering to cross over as she searches for the song she must sing.

Plus an opportunity to perform on the open mic 

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A celebration of folklore, stories and the strange voices that still linger around the Teesmouth

The bleak, poetic life of a coastal coal gatherer. 

Set on the Northeast Coast where Barry (played by Ben Pearson) haunted by his past ekes out a harsh existence gathering sea coal from the windswept beaches of County Durham. With original poetry from Joseph S. Kelley and sound and music from Rupert Ludlow Philbrick. Sea Coal was filmed entirely using expired 16mm film stock which was hand processed by the director.

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