Kimberley Pow (Singer/Songwriter)

My name is Kimberley Pow and I’m a singer/songwriter and play a little bit of guitar and piano.

It’s hard to put my finger on who inspired me musically because I was brought up listening to Rock, indie, Motown, pop and classical opera. I have a very eclectic taste in music.

I was raver in my younger days and always took a shining to the the drum and bass room. What can I say, I’m a sucker for a deep dark and dirty baseline.

I would say I am more familiar with a soul/rnb/jazz sound.

The artists that have inspired me musically throughout the years would be Otis Redding, Whitney Houston, Mariah Carey, Alicia Keys, Queen, Lauren Hill and the Fugees, Blackstreet, Adele, Billie Eilish and Twenty One Pilots.

The reason I listen to, write, sing and play music is simple really… It makes me happy.

Music is my avenue to express myself emotionally. It takes me away to another place, it sits with me in the light and the dark and it heals.

Music is my love, I’d be lost without it and I get lost in it.

Michael Morris (Keyboardist)

Born in the year the UK switched from shillings and florins to pounds and pence, and 500,000 hippies marched on Washington to protest against the Vietnam War, my first major musical influence was Jeff Wayne and his Musical Version of ‘The War of the Worlds’; my 8-year-old ears were captivated by its stirring musical phrases, rhyming melodic lyrics and dramatic narration.

As a teen, in the 1980’s, my Sony Walkman was packed with the rock and pop giants of the day, such as: Queen, David Bowie, Whitney Houston, Prince, Tina Turner, and Madonna. After a brief flirtation with playing the Drums and Keyboard in the late 80’s, I left music behind and turned my attention to Theatre Studies and Linguistics, but although I may have seemingly gave up on music, music never gave up on me.

In 2019, after a long spell of mental ill-health, I joined Headspace’s Music & Spoken Word Projects led by Phil Howley (tutor, mentor and all-round musical genius); and Dave Viney (tutor, truth-teller, wordsmith and poet extrordinaire). Inspired by the fun, warmth and excitement of these sessions, I bought a digital piano, seamlessly picking up where I had left off more than 30 years ago. Together with my musician and poet friends in Headspace, I have embarked on an exciting journey developing my music performance poetry, music composition and production, taking my first tentative steps towards live performance.

Comments from others about Michael:

Phil Howley (Musician, Facilitator)
I can’t congratulate you enough. All your recordings and videos are AMAZING! Really well done. It’s an incredible amount of work and you’ve done it so well. Bravo!

Dave Viney (Poet, Facilitator)
Michael is a genuine musical (and more recently) poetic talent with a dry sense of humour.

Juliet Eastham (Poet)
Talented, Intelligent, humourous, gentle.

Ginny Allende (Headspace Founder/Facilitator)
A gorgeous and talented human!

Becks (Poet)
A deliverer of rich-timbred tones and tunes and words with a gentle loveable way.

Dagmar Makara (Poet/Writer)

I’ve been writing poetry and creative writing pieces for about 15 years now. My style seems to evolve and change over time, and it’s definitely always been an outlet for me. I’ve been really honoured to meet so many talented writers and see so much fantastic work during this project.

In terms of who I like – I’m a fan of Sylvia Plath (especially her poems in “Ariel”), Robert Frost, John Keats (especially Lamia), Edgar Allen Poe, Neil Gaiman, Chuck Palahniuk, Iain Banks, Bret Easton Ellis, George Orwell and Joseph Heller. I also dabble a little in music – playing the violin, and listening to a pretty eclectic range of music – but especially trip-hop like Tricky, Portishead and Massive Attack. As well as other artists including The Smiths, David Bowie, The Cure, Prodigy, Blue October, Damien Rice and Twenty One Pilots.

I also enjoy writing experimental poetry – for example scribbling notes about various dreams when I wake up in the night, and then trying to tie several nights’ worth of dreams into a single poem. I always have fun finding new ways of approaching creative writing.

Juliet Eastham, 46 year old Manchester lass (Poet/Writer)

I write mainly based on my lived experience of life, mental health, substance misuse, trauma and heartache. I find it cathartic, it’s a coping strategy that relieves emotional pain, anger and stress. Poetry gives my pain depth and character; a personality of its own.

I’m inspired by life generally; both its beauty and ugliness, its love and hate, its pain and pleasure, its suffering and injustice.

It makes me feel empowered and connected to the universe, it reaches a part of me that other things can’t reach, when I’m drowning it breathes me back to life.

Natasha Tingle (Poet/Writer)

Natasha Tingle is a disabled writer and performer well known in the arts scene in Wigan. She loves the playfulness of words and creates visual poetry that leans into metaphor. She especially seeks to connect with audiences to inspire them or make them think by speaking her truth. She loves to share her inner world.

She has run a series of creative writing groups over the years, starting at 18 as president of Warwick University’s Poetry Society. Currently she is chair of a community writing group in Wigan, Pemberton Pens, and her newest group running online during Coronavirus lockdown, Poets Pick Pockets. She has a poetry collection, Open Book: Ink In The Rips.

Becks

I write lots of stories and some bits of poetry. Anything from Rosetti to an ant crawling about inspires me and it makes me feel peaceful to write about it and imagine other worlds.

Dave Viney (Poet, Project Facilitator)

A multiple poetry slam winner, workshop facilitator, youth worker and guest at poetry nights and festivals across the UK – he has written and performed for BBC Manchester Radio, written and performed two sell out shows at the Lowry Theatre as part of the Working Verse Collective, was the 2013 Poet Laureate of Kendal Calling Festival and released his debut collection ‘A Poet Called Dave’ in 2015 with Flapjack Press. Dave was commissioned to write and perform at the Opening and Closing Ceremonies of the World Taekwondo Championships at Manchester Arena in May 2019, televised live on BT Sport.