“Raise Your Spear is about voices, and making visible in the public domain, something that is often a private fight, borne in silence.” Dani Gill, Artist
Raise Your Spear is a poem from Dani Gill’s second collection of poetry: Lessons in Kindness (Salmon Poetry, April 2023). The collection addresses being an LGBTQ person in Ireland, and the experience of that in the personal, and the public domain.
Dani designed a bespoke project, a series of workshops over 2025/26, focused on working with groups, exploring the themes of identity, community and advocacy. Participants customised their own spear as part of the workshop, and the spears will now be exhibited in public installations in Droichead’s gallery this May, alongside words and reflections from the workshopping process. Participating secondary schools are: Drogheda Grammar School; St. Marys Diocesan School; St. Oliver’s Community College and Coláiste na hInse.