At the start of the month I announced that I’d been commissioned as part of Long Division Festival’s #OntoTheStreets project. This afternoon, I was given access to two empty shops in Wakefield city centre, and my poems will be on display there for the duration of the festival.
I’ve written short poems about ten of Wakefield’s former music haunts – some of which from personal experience, some from a combination of pre-existing knowledge with additional research, and a few that I’d never heard of before I started work on the project.
The poems are displayed at 10 Bull Ring and 14 Cross Street (within a minute’s walk from one another, slap bang in the city centre). I realise that many folk will completely ignore them, and that some folk will sneer and think they’re a load of rubbish, but if a handful of people enjoy them and get a healthy dose of music-based nostalgia, then I’ll have done my job.
There are a load of fantastic commissions as part of #OntoTheStreets, which you can explore here, and of course Long Division Festival itself. LD is one of the jewels in Wakefield’s cultural crown at the moment, and I’m proper chuffed to be a part of it in a new and exciting way. Ta very much.
Matt Abbott Poet 