Ripping Yarns
VICTORIA KINGHAM
French’s bar in Robertson Street is all exposed brick, chandeliers and cocktails, offering an intimate atmosphere. A couple of weeks ago that atmosphere was augmented by a literary audience keen to hear six writers read their own work. Something about the cosiness of the venue and the informality of the presentation – James Young and Helen Black’s introductions encouraged a responsive audience – created an unexpected air of good-humoured self-exposure.
James Young spins a yarn
As an opener it was suggested that we talk about personal experience with someone nearby but previously unknown to us. As an exercise It helped to set up an intimacy, a unity – not just what’s your name, where do you live, but can you remember a significant change in your life? The stories that followed supported that unity, through the strong impression of authenticity: largely told in the first person, each came across as the teller’s personal experience. I have no way of knowing whether this is fact or not – I mean James Young’s father may not have cut the tails off successive litters of puppies, and Helen Black may not have had an embarrassing biological experience, and Tom Forde may even not have bonded with his girlfriend over the effects of different coloured house paint. But everyone’s contribution felt honest and heartfelt and direct, and it was a splendid evening.
James Young has run successful courses in Hastings for a number of years – Hastings Creative Writing now has permanent quarters in Trinity Street – and he also organises these story-telling, yarn winding evenings (as ‘The Yarn’ – previously The Storytelling Club) once a month. Helen Black is a Hastings-based storyteller and comedian who recently delighted audiences with her one-woman show at The Stables.
I’ll definitely go again. I might even read a story and who knows, it may or may not be true.
Readers for the evening were: Grace Latter, Tom Forde, Jenny Swingler, Paul Coomey, Helen Black, Rebecca Marshall, and James Young. For more information see Instagram: the_yarn_storytelling and Hastings Writers Workshop at hastingswritersworkshop.com.
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