Open Bridges includes a series of workshops hosted by Lou Duffy-Howard with creative writers Christina Lewis and Russ Litten who are working with schools, prison, hospice and community venues to explore freedom and the impact of freedoms denied in the world today.
Novelist Russ Litten and I spent a fabulous afternoon at Dove House Hospice with a lovely group of Friday Friends, patients and staff, tea and cake. The afternoon was filled with lively discussion about growing up in East and West Hull, working at sea, in industry and commerce, family life and stories of the River Hull and it’s bridges. We listened to chat about times in our lives when we felt free and discussed what it is to be free.
The group all worked together to create a wonderful poem about freedom:
And thanks to Dave for his poem for Open Bridges
A city divided by a water-divide,
a problem to cross it, as it can be quite wide
“Lets build a bridge to join East and West
then maybe the Humber? and put on a crest”
We take it for granted these bridges of steel,
driving or walking its seems no big deal.
but if all of these bridges were stuck in the air,
How would we manage, how would we fare?
Its going to happen but for a short while,
September the 22nd it should make us smile.
We need to be joined for family and friends
So bear this in mind over that river bend.
Dave Carrick September 2017
Thank you to Tania, Linda and everyone at Dove House for welcoming us to join in for the afternoon and for terrific ideas and discussion.
Lou Duffy-Howard
Open Bridges is an independent Hull based project by Duffy-Howard Music and partners taking place during the City of Culture Freedom Season.