Writing Home: Myth, Letters and Refugee Well-Being (Closed Event)

‘Writing Home’ is a workshop in a Folkestone drop-in centre for people seeking asylum in the UK and housed in local Home Office contingency accommodation. Using The Community Table model, developed and supported on the day by Art Refuge, the workshop is designed to explore ideas, feelings and responses to themes around global displacement. Everyone present - people in the asylum system, local residents, artists, volunteers - will explore the Greek myth of Penelope, Odysseus, and their son Telemachus: an ancient tale of migration, trust, conflict, gender-based oppression, and parental absence.

The workshop will be facilitated by contemporary creative artists working with multilingual words and music based on this myth. Sources will include a new English translation of Ovid’s 'Letter from Penelope', Margaret Atwood’s 'The Penelopiad', and video recordings of music written for a modern opera ‘Penelope’s Web’.

In ‘Writing Home’ participants will be invited to compose their own letters, using words, rhythms, and sound, to develop a voice that navigates their distance from home. An informal public pop-up showcase at the end of the day will see some of these letters displayed and performed, alongside the creative responses of our artists-in-residence. Participants will also be invited to preserve and share their letters online to help them find, validate, and celebrate the power of their voices.