French Connection
Yasmin Aishah has come across a letter to the children of Hastings apparently by Marie de France – a writer living in England between about 1140–1200. She was famous for her short tales dealing with romantic love
and court life.
CREDIT: Ursula McLaughlin and Rod Morris
My dearest children of Hastings,
I hear you are to take over Hastings Museum for a week? How wonderful!
You’ll transform it into an abbey. In this abbey you’ll write, draw, paint and even make music inspired by the places and spaces you think my fellow female illustrators and I could have worked and lived in.
Now, promise me one thing: while you explore this abbey, let your imaginations run free! You may even surprise yourselves with your spirit of innovation.
I am the earliest known female writer on English soil. Perhaps if you follow in my footsteps, you could become the latest.
I find that unconventional spaces work nicely for unconventional characters, they create wonder. Think of a window cracked open in the early hours of the morning and the colour of the sunlight, or the dense floor of a hidden woodland path crackling with magic. What about the harbours at the edge of the ocean? Allow your sails to be carried by the winds into the wonders of the unknown.
Create vibrant companions for your unconventional characters. What is a damsel without her singing nightingale in the dead of night? What about shapeshifters? Werewolves? A weasel who revives its dead companion with a red flower? In your world, I am confident that anything and anyone is real.
Have you heard of the margins? You may be familiar with the ones drawn up on pages. Well, the margins are very special places indeed, fizzing with creativity. In my time, gender roles were strict. I’m sure it’s different now, both women and men creating art and magic in the port of Hastings at the edge of the sea. We live on the edge; our creative instinct is unstoppable.
Do not fear failure. New perspectives and opportunities come from challenges and setbacks. Embrace the tragic with creativity. My characters face failure and peril often; some are able to overcome it, others are boiled in a bathtub or expire at high altitude.
I, and my fellow female illustrators, crossed the channel to innovate on English soil. Our journeys gave us wisdom, insight and creativity. And it is the same today, is it not?
Well, it’s up to you to explore that. I hand my pen to you.
• Performers Erica Smith, Yasmin Aishah and Hannah Collisson (pictured) will lead workshops in the Hastings Museum and Art Gallery 9-13 May, with composer and sound artist, Ruby Colley, historian Dr Emily Joan Ward and museum curator Philip Hadland.
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