September took us (Japan Society, Jannette and with the support of photographer Clive Barda) to Coventry, to spend most of one day working with 180 children from Five Coventry Primary Schools. The aim was to introduce the children and their teachers to noh and the story of Between the Stones. During the day, while the teachers planned their ‘next steps’, the children split into small groups to read, role-play and draw images from three scenes from Between the Stones working with Japan Society colleagues: Heidi, Hannah and Rebecca.
Jannette shared with the teachers some possible art-related ideas for on-going work inspired by the Between the Stones story and noh, and then joined the children. At the end of the day the teachers decided to opt to develop ‘peace poem tanzaku’ for wind chimes inspired by the story of Between the Stones. When completed the schools have been invited to exhibit their ‘Peace Poems’ in Coventry Cathedral in front of the beautiful West Screen - from 8-16 November 2018 - please do drop in to see their work if you are in the region!
We have just heard that John Lewis and Partners are very kindly donating three trees (now called the Peace Trees!) on which the Coventry Young Ambassadors’ 180 Peace Poem Wind Chimes will be exhibited!
After the completion of the Peace Wind Chimes the schools with begin to work on two further ‘peace’ projects: one will utilise typical noh story structures, and the other will involve the schools in creating ‘karesansui’ gardens…
180 Coventry Primary School Children and their teachers attended a ‘Getting to Noh’ workshop organised by the Japan Society and the Between the Stones Project. Here the children are learning about the symbolic hand gesture in noh, called the ‘shiori’ - which demonstrates by ‘scooping up their tears’ signifying sadness.. Photography by Clive Barda