Islington Exhibits

Presented by Helen McCarthy and mu:arts.

This workshop will approach traditional Japanese poetry in a new way – using the Japanese storytelling technique of kamishibai (paper theatre).

Kamishibai means “Paper Theatre” and kamishibai performers use pictures to illustrate the stories they tell. In this workshop, we will use pictures to inspire and focus our ideas for making haiku, short poems of just three lines.

Helen will share a selection of the haiku she has been writing for over 20 years, including those inspired by the natural landscape of her home in East London and by the recent natural disasters in Japan. Using these existing poems, she will demonstrate the technique of linking pictures together to inspire a poem. Anyone taking part can also make their own pictures to inspire or illustrate their own work.

There are two ways to present haiku kamishibai – using the kamishibai purely as a basis for the poem, or presenting the poem through both images and words. By the end of the session, everyone taking part will be able to make and perform their own verbal or visual poetry.

Helen McCarthyhttp://tinyurl.com/HMcCblog 

Follow tweetheart4711 on Twitter for haiku, Japan and random oddity

mu:arts –music and arts from Japan www.muarts.org.uk

HELEN McCARTHY

Writer, designer and curator Helen McCarthy has been studying Japanese popular culture for thirty years. She has written ten books and many magazine articles. She’s been writing poetry since childhood, and started to write haiku – short poems inspired by nature – as her interest in Japan developed.

Helen loves the immediacy and democracy of online publishing. She’s currently designing her first poetry ebooks for publication through Amazon and Smashwords.

Until they are ready, her haiku can be found on her blog www.helenmccarthy.wordpress.org and her Twitter feed @tweetheart4711.