The first stage of our ground breaking Nature Calling project is now complete!
We are thrilled to share the work of Ayesha Chouglay, who spent time in the National Landscape, exploring the area and speaking to residents, visitors and people from the surrounding area.
Ayesha created her work by exploring a family connection to the Lincolnshire Wolds.
Ayesha's process -
I approached the writing through the lens of an unexplored family connection to Lincolnshire; my mother’s side of the family were based there for over 500 years, as far back as we can trace it. My grandmother was the first to move away.
I find it fascinating how you can feel so connected to a place you’ve never been to, and Nature Calling provided the first opportunity for me to visit the area. I spent a week in Louth. Walking the same paths as people I’d been learning about from family members made me feel very connected to the land, and facilitating a workshop at Hubbard’s Hills, and subsequent online workshops, formed a vital part of my process, connecting to people who know the area well, and who would like to bring landscapes into their own creative processes.
My writing was also created through the lens of my body, in particular my deafness, something which I feel makes me a very visual person, a sense that is often drawn into my choice of words. A thread that ran through this project was access, and enabling as many people as possible to access the Lincolnshire Wolds, whether in person, or remotely. One of my workshops was live captioned by My Clear Text.
I’ve been experimental with access elements for showcasing my poetry; one concept I came up with was to ask several people to write descriptions for the sound of the voices within the audio version of one of the poems; within this poem sits two voices, one past and one present. I’m always curious about how voices sound, and this isn’t something that I have seen included within access before. Accessibility can be a really creative thing, and I always hope to lean into this.
To read Ayesha's poetry and listen, read the other five commissions click here