poetry | Ellenmoran

English Heritage x Morag Myerscough x Ellen Moran

The Future Belongs To What Was As Much As What Is was created in celebration of Hadrian’s Wall’s 1900th anniversary. Morag Myerscough and I worked with communities from along the wall, for English Heritage, to create a contemporary and colourful take on the original Roman gatehouse at Housesteads Roman Fort – one of the Wall’s best preserved and most important sites.

Through creative workshops with community groups, Morag and I delved into what Hadrian's Wall and its Gatehouses mean to people. We imagined our own gates, our own gods and discussed meaning, place and community. The result was over 300 panels filled with words and synmbols to represent our Wall community. It was such a joy to play with these words, using conversations and poetry to weave together a colourful story that connects us to our past.

Side view

Front view

Detail

Side view

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Protest Library

PROTEST LIBRARY was an exhibition and performance space at Newcastle City Library which explored women’s protest in the North East. In March 2022 I led a private audience through the ephemera of protest, triggering poems inspired by the experiences of rule-breaking lasses and thinking deeply about what it means to stand up for your rights.

This project has been a long journey. In 2019 I was commissioned by Poet in the City to bring the British Library exhibition Unfinished Business: The Fight for Women's Rights to life in Newcastle Libraries through poetry and events. I worked with a small group of women at Tyneside Women's Health to discuss my chosen theme - PROTEST.

Adrian Brinkerhoff Poetry Foundation

It was a privilige to work with film maker Matthew Thompson to create two films for the Adrian Brinkerhoff 'Read By' series. The first film is a performance of one of my own poems, Fabric Hands, which charts a personal women's history along the banks of the river Tyne.

The second piece is a reading of Caroline Bird's abstract and dreamlike poem Dive Bar. It's taken from Bird's collection The Air Year, which I encourage everyone to read.

Collision & Conflict

In December 2020, Green Croft arts commissioned me as part of their Collision & Conflict sound walk on Hadrian's Wall. My piece responded to the conflict I felt as I collided with the rural community of the area. It's a personal account of my own movement from town to country, with a resolution to do my bit to build resilient and happy communities.

Green Croft Arts is an incredible organisation based on Hadrian's Wall. Inspired by the landscape and heritage, they create installations, and immersive experiences that engage people more deeply in a place or a space and offer activities that connect the mind with the body.

Poetry Exchange

In 2018 we started the Poetry Exchange; poets from London's Spoken and Newcastle's Born Lippy came together to perform at each other's events and share cultural differences and similarities. With support from Community Organisers, Arts Council England and The Selby Centre, we completed the second iteration of the exchange, where poets are partnered across cities and asked to write with their partner on current social/political issues.

I was thrilled to be paired with the great Mark 'Mr T' Thompson. Together we collaborated to produce a poetry film exploring different types of oppression and how we can work together to change things for the better.