A BORDERS teenager is one of a number of youngsters from the Scottish Youth Poetry Slam Digital Writing Group who have recorded an album of spoken word at Royal Conservatoire in Glasgow.

The group was set up to help the young writers develop their skills, build their confidence and be part of a community of new talent.

The album documents and celebrates the young people who have been part of the group this year with a collective and community spirit.  There are nine participants, all mid-teens, mostly from central belt, with a member dialling in from India.

The young participants were recorded at the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland and the album was produced, mixed and mastered by Lauren Gilmour, who heads the writing group, at Novasound.

Rhys Pearce, aged 17, from Hawick in the Scottish Borders, who wrote ‘Letter to Our Cousins in the New World’, said: “I think the concept for this began when we looked at epistolary poems and discussed the idea of talking to future generations. Since the poem only comes from one perspective, it becomes a one-sided conversation that develops more into a voicing of our present concerns than a real attempt to describe the future.

“The speaker of the poem doesn’t know what the future will be like, and partially that makes them nervous because there’s no assurance against any of the terrifying things that are happening right now. On the other hand, this means the future becomes a blank slate that the speaker can project their hopes onto and use to imagine a better world.

“I think I was very keen to present that both of these ideas can exist in unison – yes, the future is scary but it’s also all we have, and we need to not only hope that things will get better but actually do something to make sure that they will because we can’t just assume that progress will happen.”

Lauren Gilmour, Head of SYPS Digital Writing Group, commented: “I’ve been blown away by the commitment, talent, and honesty of our young writers. It’s been a huge privilege to see and hear them develop as writers, performers and as people in the process.”

The album, entitled: The New World will be released on all major streaming platforms including Bandcamp https://sypslam.bandcamp.com/album/the-new-world on Friday 15th October 2021.