This year we are hosting a very special intergenerational song writing workshop as part of our conference subject 'Collaborate and Cross Pollinate'.  This will involve elderly life long residents from Hackney, London and songwriting artists from our membership.  We will be pairing you up to write a song about the lives of the Hackney residents and as life long Londoners, there will be 6 pairings. We have partnered with Cecil Sharpe House who are allowing the songwriters to access their archive of traditional folk songs about London ahead of the workshop.  We will be making a short film of the whole process to show at  the conference, this will include;  the writing process, the research, and have talking heads interviews with both the elders and the writers.  There will be professional songwriters Fiona Bevan and Maz O'Connor,  who will be on hand  to guide the process and help you with your song. 

We feel this will be a really moving event for all involved, for the elders to be able to talk about their lives and to see their memories transformed into songs and for our songwriters to experience  writing songs on subjects that are not directly their own stories.  If this idea sounds like something you would like to take part in then please apply below - spaces are very limited so please let us know why you think you should be chosen.  You will need to demonstrate that you have song writing experience, you will need to be able to write songs using a guitar and to bring a guitar with you  - be aware that your partners in this process are not artists or song writers.  You will need to be able to be in London for two days on the 14th and 15th of January, you will have to arrange your own transport and accommodation.  We will in return give you a free three day delegate pass for AmericanaFest UK 28th, 29th and 30th January 2020, which includes the conference, the showcase festival and the awards show ticket.

If this is something for you please log in and fill out the application form (applicants close on Dec 22)