Canal Works a crowd-sourced poem by Warda Yassin

In 2021, as part of her role as Sheffield Poet Laureate [202-22], Hive poet and founder of Hive’s Mixing Roots, Warda Yassin, ran the Canal Works project – a Waterlines collaboration between The Poetry Society and the Canal & River Trust – aimed at celebrating the history and life of the Sheffield to Tinsley Canal route.

Working with mentor, Vicky Morris, Warda devised and delivered workshops inspired by the canal’s waterways, wildlife and histories with members of the public and young people from the Mixing Roots Programme.

The project culminated in Warda creating a crowd-sourced poem using writing produced in the workshops. The poem ‘Canal Works’, inspired an installation by local Sheffield artist Grace Visions which is now displayed along a wall by the Bacon Lane Bridge entrance of the Sheffield to Tinsley Canal, with an accompanying QR code to the full poem.
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You can watch short films [by Aidan Joseph] of the poem and the creation of the installation here.
Read the full text of the poem here.
Read more about Warda’s experience creating the poem here.
Learn more about The Poetry Society and what we do here.
Learn more about the Canal & River Trust here.

Huge thanks to The Poetry Society, Julia Bird and Billie Manning for this fantastic opportunity for young writers on the Mixing Roots Programme.