NCRM International Visitor Exchange Scheme (IVES)

Poetic Autoethnographies (2015 - 2016)

Dr Helen Johnson (H.F.Johnson@brighton.ac.uk), from the School of Applied Social Science, University of Brighton, collaborated with young spoken word poets to co-produce autobiographical research poems, exploring their experiences and understandings of discrimination. The group drew on methodological traditions in arts-based research, participatory enquiry and autoethnography, on critical community psychology, and on the tradition of youth slam and spoken word (YSSW). YSSW is a form of poetry, which is delivered primarily in oral performance. It is particularly prominent (and productive) amongst marginalised/disadvantaged groups and is often used to explore difficult issues, such as sexist, racist and heterosexist prejudice. Dr Johnson visited Prof. Claudia Mitchell at the Participatory Cultures Lab at McGill University, Montreal and developed:

• the ‘collaborative poetics’ method for wider use amongst social scientists, community groups and arts practitioners,
• a live spoken word show, ‘The Struggle is Real,’ performed at Mainline Theatre, Montreal
• a poetry chapbook, ‘You Kind of Have to Listen to Me.’
• journal article: A rose by any other name? Developing a method of ‘collaborative poetics’
• journal article: "You Kind of Have to Listen to Me": Researching Discrimination Through Poetry
• two conference/symposia presentations for the University of Brighton’s Community University Partnership Programme, and the Voicing Experience autoethnography conference
• two half-day workshops at the University of Brighton, aimed at social scientists; artist-practitioners and local organisations
• a short reflective film, depicting one co-researcher’s experience of the project

Helen also used this work as the foundation for developing the Collaborative Poetics Network, an international inter-disciplinary group of academics, artists and community practitioners who work with the CP method. With funding from the Independent Social Research Foundation, the Network have produced a Collaborative Poetics Resource Pack to support the implementation of participatory arts-based research. The pack is available for free via the Network’s website.