DrR. M. Francis

Anonymous peer review

The Chain Coral Chorus is a creative writing research project that explores the Black Country Geopark; seeking to produce a series of place-specific poems based on the 45 geosites, recognised by the UNESCO Black Country Geopark initiative, in conjunction with Dudley, Sandwell, Walsall and Wolverhampton Councils ( https://blackcountrygeopark.dudley.gov.uk/bcg/ ).The main focus of the Geopark project is to encourage sustainable tourism and education. This project adds an important creative element to their education initiatives. My aim is to support and celebrate the bid for the geopark to gain UNESCO Global Geopark status, as spaces of special scientific and environmental interest. My role will be to establish the foundations of this project in creative ways and support in further work. I’ll investigate how the physical land of a place impacts on one's sense of place, specifically in terms of the region’s industrial heritage. The Black Country is famous for its role in the Industrial Revolution; its industrial heritage forged unique and important community and culture; this, in many ways was connected to the grounds that gave life to these cultures - the fossil rich grounds dating back to the Silurian era. The creative work will refigure our relationship with the local environment; both in its surfaces and depths, the building materials and the forces that create them.This research is timely, especially considering the trend for writing such as Robert McFarlane’s Underland, and the wave of place writing like Tim Cresswell and New Nature Writers, who are concerned with conservation, ecology, sustainability and new ways of experiencing place in the anthropocene; an era of political and ecological upheaval. This project considers these issues in an overlooked region, famed for its 'dark satanic mills' in the Industrial Revolution. This will culminate in a REFable output in the form of a poetry collection and critical pieces reflecting on new practices in writing place. It will also make up an important impact case study, as I share my interactive and reflective findings at public readings, talks, workshops and through social media. As the only creative element of the Geopark project, I’ll be in a position to offer important insights for consideration by the team, helping shape their future activities. This research activity will also enable public participation in reconsidering the Black Country in ecological, sustainable ways. My research questions are: How might engaging in geological research, language and environment exploration illuminate new ways of considering place-identity, and energise the production of new creative work? Starting with Harold Proshanksy’s notion of place-identity, as the way in which one’s sense of self is connected to place through memory, family, local history, customs and cultures - I explore how this region’s geological significance, and its impact on its industrial heritage and communal identity, offers new avenues for considering this theory of environmental psychology. I draw on geological language and ways of observing as a method of approaching poetry and poetics in new ways; exploring the relationship and / or understanding of how the makeup of physical land affects and influences place-identity, helping the wider public understand and interact creatively and meaningfully with their physical environment for a sustainable, environmentally alert future.Following my recent PhD research, this project will use Environmental Psychology and Psychogeography / Deep Topography, as critical and experimental ways of thinking about how place clashes, connects and impacts on communal and individual identity. My PhD considered the region's industrial heritage in the context of post-industrial place; this moves past this to think about the region's prehistoric or deep-time aspects. I cover the 45 geosites engaging in psychogeographic drift, what Guy Debord called Derive, an act of moving aimlessly, paying attention to one’s moods, feelings and psychic reactions to creatively assess spirit of place. In my drifts, I pay specific attention to sites and spaces of geological significance. These walks act as fieldwork, including notetaking, photography that inspire and plot the poems. My observations during this are combined with other site-specific information - eg. local myth, industrial heritage - to help form the final work. In short, becoming a Writer in Residence for the Black Country Geological Society, creating poems inspired by and set in the geosites. This creative method has a proven track record through my PhD and subsequent publications and in my role as David Bradshaw Writer in Residence at Oxford University.

Black Country Geological Society, Black Country Geological Society

R. M. Francis has appeared several times to promote his research and the impact events around his work

R. M. Francis has given interviews and readings for this station relating to his books, Bella, The Wrenna, Subsidence, The Chain Coral Chorus and Smell, Memory and Literature in the Black Country

I have run community writing workshops for Wolverhampton Literature Festival, ArtsFest, The Workers Education Association, AprrecaiteU

Social event