Spoken word event to tell people’s healthcare stories
Date of release: 12 February 2024
A celebration of diversity, ethnicity and inclusivity will be brought to life by poets Emma Purshouse and Sophina Jagot in an exciting showcase event organised through The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust’s Arts and Heritage Group.
Sophina Jagot (left) and Emma Purshouse
The Care, Create, Conserve project is an initiative that has been awarded almost £140,000 through The National Lottery Heritage Fund and a Healthcare Heritage Centre, to establish a museum in the city, will be created as part of this. The Arts and Heritage Group has teamed up with Black Country Touring, which works with regional partners and artists to celebrate local people and tell their stories, to bring the first showcase event to life.
Elinor Cole, Arts and Heritage Co-ordinator at The Royal Wolverhampton NHS Trust, said: “We are thrilled to announce that Friday 1 March will see our first showcase for all of our communities to enjoy.
“Emma and Sophina are currently talking to residents of all ages and from a wide range of communities and these experiences will form a spoken word piece that the artists will perform in the Mander Centre at the Health Hub there. Working with Black Country Touring is such a fantastic collaboration for this project and we’re really looking forward to seeing people’s stories brought vividly to life through the spoken word.”
The showcase will run from 10am to 3pm, with performances taking place several times throughout the day.
Wolverhampton born and bred Emma Purshouse is a freelance writer, published novelist, published poet, workshop leader, and a poetry slam champion who performs regularly at spoken word nights and festivals the length and breadth of the UK, sometimes using her native Black Country dialect.
Appearances include, The Cheltenham Literature Festival, Ledbury Poetry Festival, Edinburgh Fringe, Latitude, Womad, Shambala and Radio 3 and 4 slots.
She makes up one third of the poetry collective ‘Poets, Prattlers, and Pandemonialists’ who run spoken word events, workshops, and poetry projects across the West Midlands, providing platforms for other.
In 2017 Emma won the ‘Making Waves’ international spoken word competition, and she is editor of The Blackcountryman magazine.
Sophina ‘Brwn Girl in the Ring’ Jagot is a storyteller and facilitator through poetry, fiction writing and theatre, based in the West Midlands.
Influenced by her experience as a British Malawian Indian Muslim woman, her work focuses on themes of anti-colonial healing, history, mental wellbeing, spirituality, sensuality, nature, love and mysticism.
Her vision is to create work that centres and speaks to brown, black, Muslim and ethnically diverse women, femmes, non-binary people and beyond. She hopes her work transports people to a place of magical, hopeful, loving, honest and ultimately healing stories that don’t shy from reality.
The Healthcare Heritage Centre will chart the history of the city’s healthcare with fascinating exhibitions and creative community opportunities. Care, Create, Conserve will run for 18 months and at its heart will be the creation of Wolverhampton’s first healthcare museum and co-creation centre.
