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uman t aIn the lastissue w eintroducedreaders toCharnwood's'haikumaniac'PaulConneally.Haiku an d it'srelated form sare anexciting wayto explorewords andourperceptionsof the naturalworld andeach other.Charnwood isnow well an dtruly on theinternationalhaiku map.Here KevinRyan talksabout a few ofPaul'sprojects andsome of thespin offs overthe last fewmonths.

Haikumania was born in 1998 whenPaul began initiating participatory worksthat use haiku and related forms toexplore what community is about, faceto face and on the internet.Th e work is essentially about, by , withand from Charnwood as a place linking,sharing and encouraging responsesfrom other places around the world.Some of the earliest examples ofhaikumania took place aroundCharnwood Art's annual Picnic in thePark and the Loughborough 'StreetsAlive' Carnival.The Picnic was explained to haijin(writers of haiku verse) across the worldand con tributions invited around theseasonal phrase for Charnwood ('Picnicin the Park' which generally takes placein mid to late May). In Japanese such aphrase is called a 'kigo'. The haiku thatwere received were then hung onboards around the park attracting muchpuzzled attention. Children we re invitedto Paul's stall to paint flower pots andboth they and their parents were thenengaged to write haiku of their own.Most kids knew what haiku were, unliketheir parents!The finished poems were displayed andthen posted on the net to share ou rPicnic in the Park worldwide."picnic in the parkthe clowns have funny nosesthe children laughing"Daniel Ralfe (6)The collected haiku are now in the ShikiArchives at the University of Matsuyamain Japan.The same approach was tried again atthe 'Streets Alive' Carnival. Here are acouple of international responsesrelating to the term carnival from otherperspectives."at the carnivalthe giant ferris wheelreaches for the stars"hortensia anderson

"sunlight reflectedin the yellow balloona childs smile"so j iA second approach called 'Shreadlines'was also tried out at the 1999 an d 2000Carnivals. This idea works on the basisthat new spaper headlines are similar tohaiku in that they capture a moment orthe essense of a story in a smallnumber of words.We hope to encourage people to writestories for each shreadline to create awhole newspaper with photographs andillustrations.Made up from hundreds of cut upnewspaper headlines, here are a few towet the appetite:*Army caught housing benefit money*Catwalk style muscles superiority*Blair's Monday habitIf yo u would like the full lists of bothcarnival shreadlines and are interestedin writing a story, get in touch!One of the largest projects so far wasthis spring's 'miniW OR KS meetshaikumania'. For the first year ou rannual miniWOR KS exhibition can beviewed on the web. Visitors to thedigital exhibition are invited to writehaiku inspired by pieces in theexhibition. A l ink b etween the writ tenpiece and the image means thatanyone can visit the exhibition throughthe poetry and see them both side byside.Some renow ned haij in have madecontributions including the Americanmaster of urban haiku Paul DavidMena. He is one of many haijin whoare now putting Charnwood on their l istof places to visit. Paul Conneally's ow nplayful approach and insight into haikuhas resulted in an invitation to speak atthe International Haiku Festival thisAugust and an invitation to theJapanese Embassy in London.

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The world of haiku on the internet is very well developed and an interesting place to explore,of my favourites is the Interactive Photo Haiku Website run from Japan by Mitsugu Abe:http://www1.neweb.ne.jp/wa/inter-arts/

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I submitted some photos in June along with a number of (my very f irst attempts at) haiku. To mysurprise, one of the photographs has been selected to be exhibited at the International festivaland again in Japan in the Autumn. This is a wonderful interactive exhibition site that anyone cancontribute to , give it a go! Who knows where it might take you?'miniWORKS meets haikumania' can be found on our new website address at:www.charnwood-arts.org.uk

Below a collaborativework conducted over the internet co-ordinatedby American haijin an d artist DebiBender. Each piece begins with the 'central node - "dark night/so many stars/Orion is lost".

ancient track*Ctf&AA tfc* m