In a leafy corner of Willenhall Memorial Park, something quietly powerful has been growing. What began as a casual conversation during a walk through Fibbersley Nature Reserve has blossomed into a vibrant writing group rooted in creativity, community and connection to place.

Steve shares what it was like to be part of a group making poetry and an animation having never tried it before with Dudley Creates commissioned project Portrait of a Place.

Dudley Creates presents 'Portrait of a Place' poetry workshop with Nafeesa Hamid (on 7th December + 11th January) + animation workshops in January.

Write, Create and Perform—for girls and women. Weekly 2-hour workshop sessions over six weeks led by writer-performer Rupinder Kaur. CBC’s Dudley Creates team is inviting girls and women to take part in a series of weekly online creative workshops with Rupinder Kaur starting Tuesday 2nd November from 6.30pm - 8pm.

Connect Dudley Online Exhibition Launch, 7.30pm on Wed 24 February. An evening of poetry responding to letters written in lockdown by local people. An invitation from local poet and CoLab Dudley Time Rebel, Rick Sanders.

In December, for the Winter Solstice on the 21st, Culture Central asked artists and organisations from across the West Midlands to produce and commission pieces of work that could be shared across social media platforms, lasting no more than 60 seconds each.

During 2020 artist Laura Dicken spoke to 4 creatives for her Creative Connections Commissioned project Turning Points to find out more about creativity in the Black Country and how people view the places they live and the opportunities that are around them. We’ve chosen a few extracts from the conversations to share below.

The Battle of Stourbridge by Heather Wastie was written using memories of Jeni Hatton, Jose Wyles and her mother, Sheila Smith, during Alarum Productions’ ‘I Dig Canals’ research project.

Three bridges, Four Tunnels by Heather Wastie is inspired by three bridges in close proximity on the canal at Bumble Hole, Netherton. Netherton Tunnel Bridge spans the main route while Boshboil Arm Bridge and Windmill End Bridge both lead to dead ends.

Rising From A Pandemic - Written & read by Al Barz and commissioned by Bostin News Content Editor Heather Wastie.

‘Stay Up Your Own End’ was a series of six online events, each providing a platform for poets of all ages, backgrounds, and abilities to share their work. Held on Monday evenings on the Prattlers Facebook page, fellow poets were encouraged to write about some aspect of life in their part of the Black Country.

Connect Dudley is an online writing workshop for connecting people during lockdown. Designed by Rick Sanders, a poet and artist living in Lye, the workshop aims to bring people together through writing, asking them to reflect on what lockdown means to them and those around them during extraordinary times…

Stay up your own end’ was an online platform for creating and sharing new pieces of creative writing about different areas of the Black Country, with the chance to be a paid feature act in an online showcase event.

Rupinder Kaur, is a Birmingham Panjabi poet, performer and creative curator. Her work often looks at the Panjabi history and culture but also questions the orthodox views, particularly around the roles different genders are expected to adpot.