Earthbound Poetry Series: Amanda Holiday (Vol. 3, No. 11)
This limited edition set of 5 poems + artwork cover from earthbound press is now available here
Blue Bloodlines
This year, Amanda Holiday has worked with Harts Lane Studios on their ‘Come Dine in Blue’ community arts project. She facilitated art and poetry workshops with members of Be Seen Be Heard – collective of young black creatives in Lewisham.
As part of the project, Holiday was commissioned to write a hybrid text 'Tracing Blue Blood Lines’ for the accompanying publication. 'Tracing Blue Blood Lines' uses poetry, autobiography and reportage to map migration and blue blood lineage. Below is an excerpt. You can read the full text here (scroll down)
Under The Bridge
‘Under The Bridge’ is a new public art project of Southwark Council and Black Blossoms School of Art and Culture. Amanda Holiday worked alongside photographer Bernice Mulenga with Year 4 pupils at Kender Primary School to facilitate creative responses to Southwark's food action plan. Children created food poems, took photographs and created collages which have been collated for display on billboards ‘under the bridge’ on the Old Kent Road.
As part of the project, Black Blossoms also commissioned both artists to create a piece of new work. Holiday’s poem ‘The Day it Rained Peas’ is now on display on one of the billboards.
Story of Me
Since October 2021, Amanda Holiday has been engaged as part of Mercury Theatre's Paul Hamlyn Foundation supported two-year teacher development project finding ways of using storytelling to diversify the curriculum in primary schools in Barking and Dagenham.