29/11/2025
We work extensively with freelancer writers, creatives and artists who bring their talent and experience to a multitude of New Writing North projects. Bob Beagrie is working on a community project with Karbon Homes called Stanley Sings in County Durham and we asked him a bit more about it.
“Since September I have been working on Stanley Sings, alongside singer / songwriter Sara Dennis. The project has involved a series of workshops with children from St Joseph's Primary School and residents of Townley Court, a retirement housing complex. Drawing upon a wealth of local, oral history we have explored memories and perceptions of Stanley, Co. Durham, as well as imagining its possible future, and from that material we've co-composed a song and a spoken word poem which the children and the older people will perform together at the Stanley Christmas Market on 5 December at 5pm.
The project really connects to my own creative practice as I am interested in the untold stories of places and the layers of history within specific locations. My writing is rooted in Northern working-class culture, language, dialect and folk heritage. We worked closely with the participants in mining their memories of growing up and living in Stanley. We spoke of its transformation from a colliery town and the changes within the urban spaces and the collective stories linked to certain buildings. Whilst radical shifts in lifestyle and leisure were identified, there remained a sense of local resilience and community connection. Bringing together the different perspectives through the intergenerational nature of the project has been fascinating and inspiring.”
Bob Beagrie (PhD) is a poet, writer and performer and literary activist. He lives in Middlesbrough and has published fifteen collections of poetry, most recently: The Hand of Glory: a biography' (Yaffle 2025), Romanceros (Drunk Muse Press 2024), Eftwyrd (Smokestack Books 2023). His poetry has been translated into Finnish, Urdu, Swedish, Dutch, Spanish, Estonian, Tamil, Gaelic and Karelian. He is a founding member of the experimental music and spoken word collective Project Lono and works as a writer, performer, creative producer and workshop facilitator.
Stanley Town Council presents Street Food Market - Stanley Christmas 2025 on Friday 5 December from 3-8pm on Front Street, DH9 0HU, with the Stanley Sings performance at 5pm.
Photo of Bob by Robert Smith.
