Growing Up: D15 Young people from Dublin 15 are showing up to validate their creativity!

Members of Draíocht’s Dublin 15 Youth Theatre presented two unique poetry works created following a weeklong- residency with poet, performer and playwright FeliSpeaks - Felicia Olusanya.  Their project forms part of Fingal’s Cruinniú na nÓg Programme 2021 and was publicly presented on Saturday 12th of June.

Assisted by the talented youth theatre facilitator/actor Emily Matthews, FeliSpeaks guided the group through thought provoking discussions, meditation practices and word association games before introducing some of her own work and the work of others such as poetry duo Sarah Kay & Philp Kay to give inspiration.

Completely new to Spoken Word the members self-selected to participate outside of their regular youth theatre hours. They opened their minds to different types of poetry texts and performance while exploring issues that matter most to them - such as mental health, safety, pandemic lockdown, friendship, peer pressure, coming of age and social expectations.

Further consideration was given to the physical presentation and translation of these works to an audience. The group worked with artistic directors Eimear Morrissey and Alex Conlon and filmmakers Arcade Film to create an empowering visual and audio work which captures their cadence and expression beautifully.

The resulting work, titled Growing Up: D15 - Afraid of the Unknown and Childhood Memories composed by the members aged 16 – 18 years was presented on Cruinniú na nÓg and is now available to view across Fingal County Council’s social media platforms.

Mayor of Fingal, Cllr. David Healy commented, “I would like to congratulate Felicia and each of the participating Youth Theatre members on this wonderful achievement. I am awestruck by the talent and creative maturity displayed by each of you, this is a beautiful piece of work, on behalf of everyone in Fingal County Council, well done and thank you so much.”

Speaking on the process Julie Clarke, Youth & Education Officer said, “FeliSpeaks’ contribution to the Irish contemporary art scene is widely acknowledged, she’s a talented writer and a compelling performer, we were delighted when she accepted our invitation to work on the project” she continued, “writing poetry and working with a poet was a new departure for the members, the resulting work is beautiful and honest, even more stunning now performed to camera. A truly remarkable group of young people, each with a bright future.”

Artist Felicia Olusanya commented, “It's an incredible thing to request vulnerability from a group of young people through their writing; and have them respond with trust and openness. They did some beautiful truth telling in their poems and I couldn't be prouder!”

Member and project participant Naoise said, “I really enjoyed every day, there was always something new to do, I loved the unknown aspect of it. It was hard to write the poems at the start, but we all combined our work, and it was so much fun.”

Fellow youth theatre member and project participant Louis said, “I enjoyed exploring our different emotions and being able to turn that into writing, and being able to say, ‘that’s mine, I made that’, it was a brilliant experience, so unique.”

Emer O’Gorman, Director of Services, said “Cruinniú na nÓg offered youth in the county a crucial outlet for creative expression following a very challenging year. The hope and inspiration emanating from the work created by these wonderful young people who  adapted to working in new ways and with new professionals to produce such an astounding outcome, is an inspiration to us all.”

 Growing Up: D15 is now available to the public here: https://vimeo.com/560840451

This is a partnership project between Fingal County Council Arts Office, Draíocht's D15 Youth Theatre, with funding from Creative Ireland as part of the Cruinniú na nÓg 2021. For more information, please contact Julie Clarke [email protected]