Daniella Valz Gen

Sentient Value Systems

Daniella Valz Gen, Sentient Value Systems (workshop), 2019. Photo: Lou Lou Sainsbury

Introduction

The intention of this brief writing workshop was to provoke reflections on what it might mean to re-evaluate, in the full scope of the term, the potential of poetry to bridge solidarity. We started by reading together. It’s not often that we are afforded the time to sit and read poetry as a group.

A scarcity of spaces, time and opportunities slowly erodes what we deem possible in terms of how we share space and language with each other, in a way that cultivates nuance, commonality and experiment. This brief workshop was an attempt to address ways of reclaiming the value of our experiences through poetry.

We read and discussed A Small Needful Fact by Ross Gay and Power by Adrienne Rich, two poignant poems that memorialise unique and distinct individuals. As a bridge between the arches established by Power and A Small Needful Fact, I offered Breaking Even, a short poem that I’ve come to understand as an impossible yet necessary equation driving my personal enquiry into value. The simple premise and structure of the poem was suggested as a starting point or template for the participants to compose their own poems.

The local library kindly hosted our discussion until it had to close and we moved outside, by the planters, to write and read our poems to each other. Under the blazing sun the group shared spots of shade to write and recite in a public space. The outcome was an interweaving of individual voices shining light on the full scope of the human experience anchored on the notion of care: our intimate interactions, the ways we exchange social codes, the forms of labour we engage in, the current political climate, the future of the NHS, historical legacies and landmarks, and the ecology of the world at large.

We used poetry as the means for raising our fists up for what matters to us.

Breaking Even

if time is money but
ours is care
if time is money
but we are in debt
if time is currency
and credit is debt
and stillness is credit
but credit is time
and debt is work
and care is currency but
there’s no trade
what’s the name of the place
where ends meet

Daniella Valz Gen, January 2019

Sound recorded from the workshop discussions:

Participants' poems (photographs by Sophie Chapman):

Daniella Valz Gen

Sentient Value Systems

Daniella Valz Gen, Sentient Value Systems (workshop), 2019. Photo: Lou Lou Sainsbury

Introduction

The intention of this brief writing workshop was to provoke reflections on what it might mean to re-evaluate, in the full scope of the term, the potential of poetry to bridge solidarity. We started by reading together. It’s not often that we are afforded the time to sit and read poetry as a group.

A scarcity of spaces, time and opportunities slowly erodes what we deem possible in terms of how we share space and language with each other, in a way that cultivates nuance, commonality and experiment. This brief workshop was an attempt to address ways of reclaiming the value of our experiences through poetry.

We read and discussed A Small Needful Fact by Ross Gay and Power by Adrienne Rich, two poignant poems that memorialise unique and distinct individuals. As a bridge between the arches established by Power and A Small Needful Fact, I offered Breaking Even, a short poem that I’ve come to understand as an impossible yet necessary equation driving my personal enquiry into value. The simple premise and structure of the poem was suggested as a starting point or template for the participants to compose their own poems.

The local library kindly hosted our discussion until it had to close and we moved outside, by the planters, to write and read our poems to each other. Under the blazing sun the group shared spots of shade to write and recite in a public space. The outcome was an interweaving of individual voices shining light on the full scope of the human experience anchored on the notion of care: our intimate interactions, the ways we exchange social codes, the forms of labour we engage in, the current political climate, the future of the NHS, historical legacies and landmarks, and the ecology of the world at large.

We used poetry as the means for raising our fists up for what matters to us.

Breaking Even

if time is money but
ours is care
if time is money
but we are in debt
if time is currency
and credit is debt
and stillness is credit
but credit is time
and debt is work
and care is currency but
there’s no trade
what’s the name of the place
where ends meet

Daniella Valz Gen, January 2019

Sound recorded from the workshop discussions:

Participants' poems (photographs by Sophie Chapman):