WORD

Thursday 14 June 6pm at St. Luke’s Community Centre Key Changes provides music services in hospitals and the community for people experiencing mental health problems. #livinglyrics is commissioned by Word2018 to engage young people using mental health services in a programme of songwriting, recording sessions and performances. Working collaboratively with music industry professionals and peer mentors the group has developed a thrilling set of lyrical themes with a particular emphasis on exploring mental health and wellbeing in the context of the issues and causes within their community. These performances will feature an energising and inspiring selection of w
ork from group members and Key Changes service users.

Thursday 14 June 9.30am at Newington Green – Join The Garden Classroom for a Little Explorers sessions for under 5’s with their parents and carers.  Discover together the wonders of wildlife, trees, bees, flowers & plants in your local greenspace in mornings full of outdoor fun, songs, stories, nature trails and natural art and crafts. Each week, our Little Green Library will be set up so you can enjoy nature books together to help grow a love of reading. A brilliant opportunity to meet local families, get outdoors & take away ideas for nature discovery.

Wednesday 13 June 7pm – Due to unforeseen circumstances this evening’s This is Private event at Free Word has been cancelled. Please accept our apologies for any inconvenience and disappointment caused.  The Word2018 team.

Wednesday 13 June 2.30pm at Cat and Mouse Library -The first Reading Well booklist supporting common mental health conditions was a huge success with libraries and health professionals across the country. Since its launch in 2013, the programme has reached 778,00 people and the adult mental health collection has been such a popular resource that it’s been updated for 2018, to ensure that library mental health and wellbeing collections continue to contain the most quality-assured, evidence-based health information possible. Reading Well provides accredited and helpful reading to support people to understand and manage their health and wellbeing. Debbie Hicks – Creative Director for Reading Well from the Reading Agency will talk about the scheme. Suzanne Lee – Artistic Director of All Change and Creative Producer of Word2018, will talk about how the festival engages with mental health and wellbeing in Islington.

Tuesday 12 June: This evening sees a special celebration of specially commissioned Word2018 intergenerational projects from Lyrix Organix: UNFOLD and House of Illustration. The event will feature spoken word, poetry and illustration by young people and UnFold artists alongside the presentation of a brand new game created by older people with Pencil & Help and Universal Board Games… Exploring age-related stereotypes and misconceptions, the game will aim to bust myths and once published and distributed, be enjoyed by people of all ages. Look out for its public debut at the Summer Ball on 27 June 2018!

Carers Week – Word2018 has a focus on mental health and the impact that enjoyment in reading, writing and creativity can have on wellbeing. Word2018 prioritises projects and events which involve older people with dementia, young people with mental health problems, and young families. Carers Week is an annual campaign to raise awareness of caring, highlight the challenges carers face and recognise the contribution they make to families and communities throughout the UK.

Monday 11 June 6-7.30pm at Central Library – Our second City of Stories session – celebrates London’s writers, readers and libraries! Join leading writer Anita Belli and take part in free creative writing workshops. Participants will be able to enter the City of Stories short story competition. One story will be selected for the City of Stories publication, and all participants will be invited to the launch event later in the year! Clear here to book.

Broaden your lexical horizons during the festival and look out for these Free Words of the Week, just outside Free Word Centre. Take a picture and join the conversation online with #FreeWordOfTheWeek or go further by putting them on display where you work! Expect to stumble upon a unique new word each week, connected to the festival’s wellbeing themes. Head over to freewordcentre.com/free-words to find out more or sign up for weekly posters.

Saturday 9 June 10am-12noon: All Change and Arsenal in the Community are inviting granddads, dads and lads – and daughters (age 4-11) to join poet Paul Lyalls for a celebration of all things Arsenal FC. They’ll follow in the footsteps of Nick Hornby and share stories and experiences of being a fan of the beautiful game in a fun filled poetry workshop for all generations.

11am Library2Library – Hidden in Plain Sight – A Guided Walk for Families Clerkenwell & Islington Guides’ Association in partnership with Islington Libraries presents a free guided walk for families as part of Word2018 and Islington Reads – 2018 Year of Reading. People go up and down the Essex Road every day, but how many people stop and look around them, to see what is normally unseen? From Egyptian picturehouses to skeletal swimming baths and community gardens, this walks explores the Essex Road area, past and present. Starting at 11am at Mildmay Library, 21-23 Mildmay Park, N1 4NA the walk will finish at South Library 115-117 Essex Rd, N1 2SL, in time for you to join an Islington Reads story telling event in the nearby gardens of Astey’s Row which runs from 12.30 – 2.30pm.

Booking for the guided walk is essential. Children must be accompanied by an adult. Ideal for chidren age 7-11

During Word2018 what not visit some wonderful exhibitions at Word2018 partner – House of Illustration:

Quentin Blake: Voyages to the Moon and the Sun – until Sunday 30 September. The first ever exhibition of Quentin Blake’s illustrations for this French literary classic, Voyages to the Moon and the Sun, coinciding with The Folio Society’s publication of a new edition. Cyrano de Bergerac’s 17th century tale of space travel inspired many of fiction’s greatest fantasy adventures.

Enid Marx: Print, Pattern and Popular Art – until Sunday 23 September Enid Marx (1902-1998) was a textile designer, printmaker and illustrator who, alongside her contemporaries Eric Ravilious and Edward Bawden, defined mid-20th century design. The exhibition will be the most comprehensive retrospective of Marx’s work to be mounted in the last 40 years.  It will bring together over 150 pieces from private and public collections, many previously unseen. She is best known today for her industrial textiles for the London Transport Board and wartime Utility Furniture Scheme. But over a career spanning seven decades her work was extraordinarily varied, encompassing patterned paper for Curwen Press, book illustration for King Penguin as well as stamp, poster and print design. The exhibition is co-curated by historian Dr Alan Powers, author of the first monograph on Marx being published by Lund Humphries in March.

Open Tuesday–Sunday 10am–6pm (Closed Monday) Visit House of Illustration for ticket prices