Walking Mapping Writing: a midsummer gathering

5.00pm – 7.30pm 21^st June 2019

Stanmer Park, Brighton

The catalyst, starting point and imaginary for Commonplace’s first gathering is a map of Stanmer Park entitled Field and Wood Names in Stanmer, Sussex by C.W Yeates. We found it by chance in a rucksack full of old walking maps belonging to the late English poet Lee Harwood. Although faint with age, the map seems to be dated 1979 or thereabouts. It is by no means the only map of the site so if you're joining us and have other maps of the area, please bring them along.

We invite you to join us, to talk about mapping, walking and noticing and to write, individually and as a group, before we walk some of the map. We will be using fragments of texts and poems and a document of some of those fragments will be available on the evening.

Event Archive

Through the course of the evening, we read together from a number of texts and poems including: 

Justin Hopper, Old Weird Albion

Raymond Antrobus, 'Kingston to Morant Bay’ from the collection To Sweeten Bitter 

Vivien Brown, 'Instead of Sparrows’

Annie Dillard, Pilgrim at Tinker Creek

The event was further informed by works including:

Georges Perec, in particular An Attempt at Exhausting a Place in Paris

Rebecca Solnit, Wanderlust and A Field Guide to Getting Lost

The Walking Reading Group, On Commons

Online and archival resources relating to Stanmer Park, Stanmer House, some of its occupants and their roles in historical and geopolitical events in the area.

Mapping

Writing

Special thanks to Louise Winters, founder of the Poetry Network, for leading the poetry writing session during Walking Mapping Writing: A Midsummer Gathering.