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It can be easy to think of your life as being unremarkable. Maybe you are a busy parent, trying to fit everything in that you need to before the school run. Or maybe you are a shift worker, getting ready to leave after a long day. Or maybe you are just trying to get through all the admin that life throws at you – getting groceries, doing laundry, cleaning. You’d be forgiven for thinking that there aren’t many stories in your life, but stories are truly all around you.
I should introduce myself – my name is Theodore and I am a poet, multimedia artist and facilitator based in Hartlepool. So much of my work is with or about ordinary people living ordinary lives. People have often asked me where I draw inspiration from, and so many of my poems are inspired by conversations I’ve had with people, or things I’ve overheard. The stories that I take inspiration from are in the traditions that we pass down, in catching up with friends, in overheard conversations.
We might think of the library as a place that holds stories, and I think this is true in more than one way! A friend once told me that when she is going somewhere new, one of the first places she visits is the library, because it is such a mirror of a community. More than just being a quiet place to relax after a day’s travel, the exhibitions and posters for events reveal something about a place. Take my local library, for example. Beyond the standard offerings, like the ability to borrow books and a warm space to do some work, my local library offers an exhibition space, a jobs and skills kiosk and even the Fab Lab! The Fab Lab offers access to all sorts of creative machinery like 3D printers and coding technology, as well as offering cheap or even free workshops. My local library is not just a library, but a community hub. From the posters up on the wall, to the makers clubs and crafty socials, the community hub becomes not just a place that stores books but somewhere where people can connect and learn from one another.
Even if you don’t think of yourself as a reader, you are still part of a story! I recently had the privilege of visiting The Local and Family History Centre, which is currently based in Sir William Gray House. Whilst exploring the collections (which are very impressive, and I would definitely recommend checking them out if you are able to!) I didn’t expect that the things I’d find most compelling and interesting were mundane, day to day things that I imagine would have felt quite ordinary at the time. Copies of letters sent between workplaces before email was around, leaflets that most of us would throw in the recycling and other ephemera were my favourite things to look through. The photographs, as well, were often of such random things. Photographs of flowers, of buildings that no longer exist painted such an image of what it might have been like to live in Hartlepool back in the days, and I enjoyed pondering what the photographers had been thinking at the time.
Stories aren’t just written – they are lived, told, overheard and remembered. I believe that libraries are such a powerful vessel for stories. Not just the stories that can be found between the pages, but the ones that can be found between the people. I’d encourage you all to look a little closer at your lives, to see the ink pooling at the edges, just waiting to become a tale.
