As part of Ben Judd’s Stanley Picker Fellowship project The Origin, a series of workshops, performances, talks and tours took place at Stanley Picker Gallery, a boat moored in Kingston Upon Thames and online throughout June and July 2021.

On 11 June, Writers’ Kingston led a 2.5 mile walk with readings / performances from Julia Rose Lewis, Simon Tyrrell, Silje Ree, Paul Hawkins, Jacqueline Ennis Cole, Patrick Cosgrove, Lisa Blackwell, SJ Fowler and Bob Bright. Writers’ Kingston is Kingston University’s literary cultural institute dedicated to creative writing in all its forms, with an annual programme of events from talks to workshops and festivals.

The event was an extraordinary exploration of innovative potential of what a live poem might be, all while strolling along the river Thames. Nearly a dozen poets, writers and artists, working in their own traditions, presented new works, made for the day, as performed, with live poems exploring language against space, time, mess, colour, writing, speaking and moving.

This event was also the second launch for SJ Fowler’s Sticker Poems (Trickhouse Press 2021)

Ben Judd’s Stanley Picker Fellowship project The Origin reflects on Britain’s island status, both literal and metaphorical, and how islands shape the communities that live there. The Origin brings together the communities surrounding the Stanley Picker Gallery – from Kingston University students and academics to local networks, charities and residents – and asks them to imagine a classless, stateless, humane society based on common ownership. A temporary community, an experiment in living, a fictional island group. This collaborative project culminates this summer with an installation at the Gallery, a boat on the River Thames and a series of performances, workshops and events – a rehearsal for an alternative future.