Street Full of Dialect

A Street Full of Dialect celebrates the main languages and dialects that make up Wednesbury, as well as some of the wonderful and diverse flavours of food to be found in the town.

Four eateries were matched with local poets so they could share their food traditions through the art of poetry. Representatives of each were interviewed by local poet and writer, Brendan Hawthorne, about their place in the town, their food experiences and their ‘window’ on Wednesbury.

The participating outlets were: The Island Lounge, a Caribbean restaurant and bar on Lower High Street which was coupled with the Patois poetry of Suzan Spence; Eat Well Café on Union Street was paired with the Black Country dialect of Keith Gwilliams; The Lamp Indian Restaurant on Upper High Street was illustrated by the Bengali verse of Ilika Mandal; and George’s, a Market Place butchers, features words by George Kretz.

We worked with a wonderful film-maker, Jon Watkiss, and engaged with a fabulous stills photographer, Garry Corbett, and the result is a series of community films about the town of Wednesbury.