Football Poets

Nat Football Museum+John Cooper Clarke Gigs & More

1 Gig @National Football Museum +’Inner Goal’ Book Out October
2 John Cooper Clarke Support Slot for Stroud
3 Oct/Nov 2007+08 Workshops/Gig Dates with Crispin Thomas
4 About Football Poetry Workshops & Links
5. Blog ” Workshop Days”
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1 I N N E R G O A L
..the poetry of football a journey in rhyme
by Crispin Thomas

My first collection of football poems
is published October 15th !

“Poems in the street, in the ground and in the heart…
….poetry with balls!” Michael Foreman
+
Book Launch – Gig & Signing
Poetry In Motion- Exhibition Gig with Crispin
@National Football Museum,
Deepdale Preston.Oct 25th 11am &1pm-Free.
Exhibition runs :Sept 29-Jan 2008 .Admission Free!

Hi Again
A busy month looming in October/November. Over the next eight weeks I’ll be visting football clubs and libraries in support of Kick it Out and Family Learning Week. I’m also launching my first ever published collection of football poems at the National Football Museum on the 25th October with a free gig and signing(?!) I’ll be working and performing with half term kids parents and passers by for free at 11am & 1pm , hope to see you there.

*Crispin’s 3 featured and mounted poems at the exhibition are …
The Start Of A Roar Crispin Thomas
Climbing the Steps Crispin Thomas
Arthur Wharton Crispin Thomas

Crispin’s book spans 50 years of watching football..and 10 years of writing about it in verse .It comes out around October 15th (it says here!) .Shameless merchandising details on how you can get hold of copies here soon .You’ve been warned readers and writers…..

2 +John Cooper Clarke Support Slot – Stroud Oct 18th.

I’m also supporting John Cooper Clarke in Stroud on the 18th ,do try and make it. I’ll be joined by Cotswold compadre Adam Horovitz . John is one of my all time fave radical poet heroes and for me … the patron ‘suit’ of performance poets .He must surely be the most imitated poet on the planet in both manner, content and style and is
also the thinnest still..Check out his site ,dates and great poems @
John Cooper Clarke

Go well Crispin

3. 2007/2008 WORKSHOPS (W) & GIGS (G) with Crispin
Family Learning Week(FLW/W) Kick It Out Workshops (KIO/W)
October 07
6 CHELSEA Library (FLW/W) 2pm Free!
13 LUDLOW Library (FLW/W) 11am Free!
17 READING FC Study Support Centre(KIO/W)12.30& 3pm
18 STROUD Sub Rooms Crispin supporting John Cooper Clarke(G)
STROUD Subscription Rooms GL5 1AE 8pm 01453 760900 http://www.stroud.gov.uk/subrooms & John Cooper Clarke
25 PRESTON National Football Museum (G) 11am& 1pm Free
Poetry In Motion Exhibition@National Football Museum

November 07
1 WEST BROMWICH ALBION FC Study Support Centre(KIO/W)
8 TELFORD UNITED Study Support Centre(KIO/W)
13 SIDCUP Library Kick Into Reading with Charlton Athletic DFC
15 MORPETH Arts Space KEVI .Peformance by Crispin
16 MORPETH KEVI Workshops “Childhood” Yrs 10/11
21 PORTMSOUTH FC Study Centre Poetry Workshop
Booking Now: 2008
Feb 08
20/21 MORPERTH King Edward V1 School
Feb Dates TBC OXFORD OARDFC
contact
Crispin Thomas ctm@crispinthomas.orangehome.co.uk
or phone 01453 757376 & 07837 798463

4 ABOUT FOOTBALL POETRY WORKSHOPS & LINKS
We’re now taking bookings for December 2007 & 2008. We run and book Football Poetry Workshops all year all over the UK. . Do get in touch if interested. For info on workshops contact
ctm@crispinthomas.orangehome.co.uk
or phone 01453 757376 & 07837 798463

SOME WORKSHOP LINKS & USEFUL ORGANISATIONS
Click on coloured link to view then close page or hit Back button

WORLD CUP WORKSHOP BISHOPS CASTLE PHOTOS 10.6.06 Pics from the day with students and Crispin.

EVERTON FC ‘ Making A Difference’ Workshop Review Crispin ThomasSession at Everton FC Extra Time Study Support Centre

FOOTBALL STUFF Crispin Thomas BBC Video Nation (Real Player) Crispin at Forest Green Rovers with Casio and a ball.!

To find out more about KICK IT OUT click here
Kick It Out

Show Racism The Red Card
Football Unites Racism Divides
Pioneering Black Footballers
Women’s Football-A Brief History
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5. BLOG-A DAY IN THE LIFE OF A FOOTBALL POET
from Stroud to Morpeth and Plymouth..and from Sutton Coldfied to Mansfield , Long Eaton and Stratford On Avon !

Hi again .Time to subject you to a Workshop day (well 10 days actually!) in the life of a football poet….on the road and on the rails !

SO WHAT’S A DAY REALLY LIKE?
I felt it necessary to dispel the legendary Take That / Frank Lampard / Ronaldo / Wannabe Football Poet Laureate celebrity image and myth of limos, riders and executive treatment that it doesn’t entail .

A HAPPY WORLD BOOK DAY IN MANSFIELD & LONG EATON!
I’m just back from a great school in Sutton Coldfield where I ended up performing with 15 children reading their rhymes and raps for the first time in front of 400 in the main hall . Next stop was an invitation from Mansfield Town FC’s Stags Study Support Centre to work in a local Primary school for World Book Day . We made tiny books and wrote football poems and thoughts for aliens, and for anyone who would listen. In the evening it was a mad dash to Long Eaton where I worked with Jim Sells of The National Literacy Trust and a local puppeteer/story teller for Blokes On Board , complete with a PC and library-equipped bus!” This is an on-going Reading Champions project to inspire “blokes” to go into schools to encourage boys to read .

WORKING WITH HEROES & VILLAINS IN MORPETH
For two days I was back in Morpeth, Northumberland at King Edward V1 , a thriving and high achieving grammar school where I work with 160 Year 9 pupils. The theme of the two days is ‘Heroes and Villains’, with a strong focus on Martin Luther King . Each student brings in a picture of a hero and villain. Mine were : Roy of The Rovers and Darth Vader. Two groups writing poems on chosen heroes like Alan Shearer, Slash from Guns n’Roses and Martin Luther King to notorious villains who included (bizarrely) Sponge Bob Square Pants, Osama Bin Laden and Hitler. We also created a 15 minute play which we performed in front of 160 pupils about the life of Arthur Wharton ,the first ever black professional footballer in the late 1800’s. Finishing at 3.20pm it was a sleepy two hour wait for my 5.30pm train home to my cottage Then a 4 and
a half hour train journey back to Cheltenham. On finally arriving it’s a
dark and windy 45 minute drive to Stroud listening to Bolton vs. Arsenal in extra time. Rock ‘n Roll!”

KICKING INTO READING IN PLYMOUTH
The following week found me in Plymouth where I spent 5 days. I worked for Kick Into Reading with around 700 children alongside some great Plymouth Argyle trainers and coaches (Mark and Debbie) and one director (David) Football poems , riddles, games and stories all week-long in Plymouth libraries.

DAILY WORKINGS
When you start to link in as a one-off visitor with the intricate daily workings of modern schools, prisons, libraries, football grounds and study support centres the timetables, paperwork and lesson plans never fail to surprise . As a result I now involve no paperwork in the setting up of my workshops , in the effort to leave as small a football poetry footprint as possible and to stay as carbon free as possible. To this end, I go everywhere by train which is often veryearly and incredibly stressy , but far more relaxing than dnving .`The workshops are run on fun lines. All I want to do is inspire, from getting students thinking , writing and reading to getting up and performing work with gusto in front of their giggling mates and just having fun with words. I like sending myself up, and love making the kids laugh (at me), my silly poems, and to make them think a little deeper and laterally maybe. I want them to take the time to compose stuff on their own and then wax lyrical. To think and feel in the words of Catherine Tate..”I can do that ”

For the younger ones, we usually kick off with an action football poem or song that everyone can join in on, and I’ll do some stuff of my own . We use PowerPoint images to highlight any and everything to do with football. We are there to explore football , to write poems as a group and individually. One hour school based lessons are a mad rush, and I prefer longer with each class for quality, but however long , we always somehow get there. We always include a spontaneous group poem on the flip chart or white board (or blackboards in Porto) and usually leave about 15 minutes to perform them all. Here’s a poem I wrote on the way home from Morpeth opposite some bloke who got on at Leeds and kept snoring. It’s about my first ever Cup visit to Middlesboro FC. Allegedly! Go well! Crispin

15 Feb Down By The Riverside Crispin Thomas
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