There’s no better subject to write my first ever blog about than The Enemies Project. Last night’s event took place at Rich Mix in London. Poets from universities countrywide had been challenged to compose a performance piece collaboratively with another writer – someone they’d never met before.
I was paired with Imogen, and we arranged to meet in London for the first time. We had conversation over coffee, an introductory chat and a few thoughts about what we were both working on, trying to find a germ of an idea from which to start.
We had a go at writing something on our own, sharing it with the other in turns via email, each time working on ways to fit our ideas together, finding a shared story that we could tell. We chatted, met, emailed until we had a piece we were happy with, and kept changing small parts, words, even on performance day. Practising reading aloud what had become ‘our’ work together helped.
We were both nervous on the night, but the performance went well. Better than that, we were part of a large group of pairs that had been through a similar experience, and were also sharing their work. The group was so diverse in age, nationality, style – and the beauty of the language (and accents!) we heard convinced me of the multi-layered success of this project in bringing artists/writers/people together. I would do it again in a flash.
The Enemies Project is expertly curated by Steven J Fowler.
Emma Kittle-Pey 