A blog post by our volunteer Fatima who supported Commonword’s #HardPressed project from March to September 2024
” My first venture into Commonword Cultureword was inspired by a spontaneous open mic. Propelled into this creative world, I was in awe of the poetry performed by individuals from Commonword’s longest-running workshop called Identity. The poets talked about anything and everything ranging from their cultural backgrounds, love, grief, friendship, loss, and the current affairs of the world. The environment curated by the Commonword staff was so friendly that I too ended up performing my own poem on what it means to be in your 20s. Needless to say, I was thrilled by the work Commonword was doing and was excited to join the team as a volunteer afterwards.
As a volunteer I’ve played part in organising and cataloguing selections of poetry and prose for Commonword’s project Hard Pressed: Mapping Manchester’s Small Radical Presses. The purpose of the project is to highlight Manchester’s rich literary heritage showcasing the work of writers from underrepresented backgrounds. I have meticulously sifted through numerous boxes consisting of hundreds of pieces of literature spanning all the way back to the 1970s. Afterwards, I carefully organised this literature into the relevant piles and catalogued these works into an archival database. Other members of the team have been digitising this data to construct an interactive Google map which will be open for the public to access and view the spectacular works of writers across Greater Manchester. Working on this project has showed me how important it is to archive and digitise work because with the rise of the digital age, these works risk being lost to the passage of time. The magnitude of such loss would mean the erasure of essential parts of Mancunian history.
I’ve also had the opportunity to work closely on poetry publications such as Rain Dog and Citizen 32. I’ve proofread many of the poems in these anthologies so they can be added to a new anthology Commonword is working on. Working on such poems was really incredible as it allowed me to see how these anthologies have evolved over the years. The contributions to both publications increased throughout time and Citizen 32 also started attracting writers from international waters. The Citizen 32 magazines were particularly insightful to read due to the timeless nature of the political poems. In fact, I noted that the magazines didn’t have a date of publication which made it feel as if the poems were speaking about the current political state of the world. The themes covered everything ranging from class division in the UK, issues of poverty and racism, and petroleum politics.
Working with these publications was really beneficial as it allowed me to appreciate the work that goes into producing successful publications and how one can have different writing styles from poetry and prose side by side and still produce a cohesive publication.
My favourite day I’ve had as a volunteer so far would definitely be the Kashmiri Youth Project (KYP) workshops which were led by Mahboobeh, the project’s Digital Literature Coordinator. Mahboobeh led a series of 4 workshops with women from a Kashmiri background focusing on all things art such as poetry, dance, and colouring. Prior to the workshop I had stumbled across a book called ‘Barbed Lines.’ I was instantly drawn to the unique layout of the book and was pleasantly surprised by the back cover which contained a black and white picture of several South Asian women. What struck me the most was that every single one of these women was smiling.
Belonging to a South Asian heritage myself, seeing a Black and white group picture of women, from the late 80’s, all collectively smiling was something which I had rarely seen, and this is a sentiment several women shared with me at the KYP workshop.
Barbed Lines is a book containing poems and prose from numerous Bengali women sharing their experiences of arriving in the UK in the late 70s. Although these poems detailed the Bengali immigrant experience, the themes of belonging/unbelonging deeply resonated with me and I imagined would be relatable with members of the KYP workshop. I had the pleasure of conversing with the workshop members in Urdu and sharing one of the poems in a mixture of Urdu and English which the audience enjoyed hearing. It was truly a rewarding experience getting to express myself in Urdu because I don’t often have the opportunity to speak with others in Urdu.
Languages are so important and to be able to communicate in my mother tongue and that too to talk about my favourite thing of all time (poetry) is honestly an honour. The ability to speak Urdu is a fundamental part of my identity and to be able to express myself in it, and that too to a full capacity, fills me with joy.
I spent the rest of the workshop listening to the wonderful group poem the KYP workshop members had written and also spent my time capturing the beauty, laughter, and joy of the event on camera.
My time at Commonword has been amazing and has allowed me to push myself out of my comfort zone, see an insight into the creative industry, and help contribute to the phenomenal and ongoing work the staff at Commonword are doing.