Brontë Thoughts

An interesting initiative by Dr Michael Stewart, who was the mind behind The Brontë Stones project and is the author of the novel Ill Will, the University of Huddersfield, the creative writing charity First Story and the rapper and poet, Testament.

The University of Huddersfield has joined forces with Testament, the acclaimed rapper, playwright and poet, for a new poem which is inspired by the lives of the Brontës and is being promoted online on YouTube.
Dr Michael Stewart, the course leader and reader in creative writing at the university, showed Testament the landscape and places around Haworth that inspired the sisters to write defining novels such as Wuthering Heights, Jane Eyre and The Tenant of Wildfell Hall. (...)
“I wanted to work with Testament because I felt he might connect well with the students,” said Dr Stewart. “He’s great to work with. He’s a very warm, intelligent guy who is open to anything.
“By his own admission, Testament is no Brontë expert, but he allowed me to chew his ear off about them for hours while I took him on the tour around the stones. He took it all away with him and came up with this poem as a result.”
The collaboration emerged through a project involving the university, local schools and First Story, a creative writing charity.
While the coronavirus pandemic has prevented school trips to the moors, Dr Stewart decided to inspire students by commissioning Testament to write the new piece, which is called Brontë Thoughts.
Testament said: “Michael took me to each of the Brontë stones one rainy morning and it had a profound effect on me. The landscape, weather, the interplay between nature and the man-made, really gave me fresh insight on the Brontë legacy.”
His work is as eclectic as it is critically-acclaimed, and Testament has now contributed to a project linked to the Brontë family in his adopted home county of Yorkshire. (Paul Jeeves in The Yorkshire Post)

Further information on the University of Huddersfield.