Being Human Festival and ENSFR
In collaboration with core members of the ENSFR team, Ed Hogan (Open University) delivered an event called ‘Writing Your Work’ on the premises of Arka Original Funerals, in Brighton, as part of the Being Human Festival [beinghumanfestival.org].
The event, which featured a number of bespoke writing activities, was attended exclusively by staff of Arka, and focused on how writing and reading short fiction about jobs might enable deeper reflections on our working lives.
Ed said: ‘The staff at Arka were very welcoming, and engaged brilliantly with the writing and reading exercises (we used a Lucia Berlin story as an example). The workshop took place in a quiet room between the front office and the mortuary. The material they produced was fascinating. I was grateful to them for their warmth, good humour, and curiosity. The service that Arka provides is important and profound, and I learned a lot. All participants got started on a short story inspired by their work.’
The purpose of the Being Human Festival is to demonstrate why humanities research is vital to society and directly relevant to the lives and interests of people across the UK. Ed ran the event on behalf of ENSFR and as part of the Coastlines project, based at the Open University.