Performance Poet & Teaching Artist
Lessons learned in poetry last a lifetime
Anita Govan
Her Story
dates
dates
Anita has a long history in the Arts ... Starting from the age of 12
Anita discovered poetry at 10 by winning a poetry competition at school. This was an unexpected turn of events at the time, as she was struggling at school and could not read or write. Little did she know how much a poem can change a life. She was found to be profoundly dyslexic and later in life found to be ADHD and on the Autistic spectrum. Making what she has achieved all the more remarkable
Image: Robert Burns
Because of her dyslexia diagnose and continued struggles at school. Anita was sent to a Ballet boarding school to train for 6 years from the age of 12 -18. Here she did not just learn how to dance but also how to produce and create and some of the things she learnt became innate ... but its also where she started to learn... how to teach
Due to a serious car accident ... She went on to re-train in community drama, building further on her skills-set and gaining experience in a variety of community settings - resource centres, community projects and productions such as Theatre Workshop (Edinburgh) and including directing with Birds of Paradise theatre company, while exploring her teaching philosophy and practice
Anita started working towards an Honours degree with Open University where she rediscovered her love of poetry. Going on to further train with the Goat Island Theatre Company (Chicago), She learned the importance of establishing practices that enable and sustain creativity. She then travelling to Canada with the helps of Scottish Arts Council grant to attend Keith Johnstone Loose Moose Theatre Company International Improvisation School for Storytellers, focusing on “unfreezing the petrified imagination”.
She has been using poetry ever since, as a tool. Working with local government and community. In Aberdeen, Edinburgh, Renfrewshire, Stirling, Glasgow & East Lothian Councils. She founded the Scottish Youth Poetry Slam 2016 and 2018 and has worked with organisations such as Scottish Natural Heritage, Princes Trust, Edinburgh, Glasgow, and the Scottish National Library, Luminate Scotland, RSNO, Amnesty UK and Words that Burn, and the Wellcome Trust She is listed on the Scottish Book Trust, Live Literature Scheme.
“There is always one moment... when the door opens and lets the future in.” — Graham Greene.
