In a School for Talents outreach workshop on Friday, the 24th and Saturday, the 25th of January 2025 at Dillmann-Gymnasium and the University of Stuttgart, as part of the Sensing Sight in Literature Faculty Project at the English Literatures & Cultures Department, Jessica Bundschuh, together with two visiting writers from Belfast, Bebe Ashley and Stephen de Búrca, led 80 participants in making Braille poems and assessing the boundaries of sensory storytelling.
Inclusion, Empathy and Sense Integration: A Multi-Sensory Poetry Workshop lasting two days
This outreach workshop, in which University of Stuttgart students mentored Dillmann-Gymnasium pupils, explored topics of inclusion, empathy, and sense integration. On Friday, Stephen de Búrca shared his translations from the Irish of poems by Antaine Ó Raiftearaí and Laoighseach Ní Choistealbha, leading to a chain of multi-sensory group haikus. Then, on Saturday, Bebe Ashley taught us how to use Braille slates and styluses to write Braille poems in the tradition of the DeafBlind poet John Lee Clark’s “Self-Portrait.” The resulting poems were performed at the conclusion of the workshop by each group as ‘extra-sensory’ readings in which they incorporated the senses of smell, touch, and sound, alongside their textual Braille poems.
