Portsmouth Creates In Our Words Launch Event

The News, Portsmouth

The city of Portsmouth is set to come together for "In Our Words", a year-long celebration of all things reading and literature. Facilitated by Portsmouth Creates, civic and community partners from across the city will join forces to positively impact literacy levels and ignite a love of reading in Portsmouth. On Thursday, March 6 2025 as part of World Book Day children from schools across the city were treated to a trip to Portsmouth Football Club and to hear from Sunday Times bestselling author, Dan Freedman, best known for the hugely popular series of Jamie Johnson football novels.

Transcript

00:00My name's Gemma Nicholls, I'm Chief Exec of Portsmouth Creates.

00:03Brilliant, tell me where we are and what we've been doing here today.

00:06So today we're here at Portsmouth Football Club and we have had 400 children from across the city

00:12join us for World Book Day as we officially launch In Our Words, which is a year-long

00:17programme of literature and literacy-based events happening throughout the city.

00:22Brilliant, and what's the reaction been like?

00:24It's been absolutely fantastic. We've had such a brilliant day with the children.

00:28They have loved every minute. They all came along in World Book Day costume, which was brilliant.

00:34We had a great talk and reading from a brilliant author, Dan Freedman,

00:38who's done a lot of work here at Portsmouth Football Club,

00:41and it's just been such a fantastic day.

00:44So just tell me a bit more about the programme.

00:46So In Our Words is a year-long programme of events that has been brought together by the

00:51whole of the city, so our job is to make that happen and pull it all together and tell the

00:56story of Portsmouth from a literature perspective. So our brilliant heritage that we've got right

01:01the way through to new storytellers, writers, creators. So what we're doing is we're making

01:05sure that we're able to amplify the voice of the city and really tell the story about why

01:10Portsmouth is such an important place in the literature world.

01:14Reading is really, really important to everyone, no matter what life stage you're at, whether

01:20you're a young person or an adult. The freedom that reading gives everyone is so important,

01:26and the development of those life skills are essential. So our message really is about

01:32really finding the joy in reading and what that can bring to everyone's lives,

01:36and today's a key example of why it's so important for us all to have A, a book in our homes, but B,

01:43make sure that we've got the accessibility to that as a community as well.

01:47I'm Freedman, I'm the author of the Jamie Johnson series and other novels for kids.

01:52I'm here today on World Book Day to mark this very special day with Portsmouth Creates,

01:58and it's been a day to reflect on how amazing reading is. The councillor said it himself,

02:04it's like one of the best things we can do in our lives, and to encourage the kids to

02:09get into reading and books through the amazing opportunity to be at a club like Pompey and at

02:15the stadium. So I think it brings alive for the kids how exciting stories can be, and especially

02:20if they're about something that they really, really love. So today's been an epic day,

02:26and hopefully enjoyed by everyone.

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