Q. Why didn’t you do a show about purple? The Purple Show. That could have worked.
A. Well…
‘Dindsencha’ is an ancient Irish term which relates to ‘Lore of place’, and refers to a body of early Irish poems and stories that explain place names and the mythologies of specific sites within the landscape. Taking this traditional bardic concept, poet Bob Beagrie and composer S.J. Forth created a collection of experimental, contemporary poems, all with musical accompaniment / sound effects which explores a sense of place, identity, visionary interpretations of specific locations – their historical and mythical resonances and the factors that impact upon a sense of self.…
These are extracts from May’s Snakebaskets. Sign up here to receive the whole message!
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From London Coordinator Russell
After a relatively quiet April, we’re back with a vengeance. Poetry, it seems, is bustin’ out all over. So what’s happening? Well, we’ll be back at the Canal Cafe in Little Venice again on the 16th, this time with that tartan toerag Elvis McGonagall. And over in Islington, the lovely Helen East will be pounding the pavements and propping up the bars, taking folk-stories back to where they belong (i.e:…
March saw the final day of the emerging artists’ workshops, which culminated in a rehearsed reading of all the new work generated by the artists involved. New Writing South were again our hosts for the day, and the event was truly inspiring. Chris Elwell, Director of Half Moon, was on hand to input to performance, and Pete and Daniela from Apples were there to video proceedings and input to discussion on taking work forward. Everyone presented great new work, which they will hopefully take forward into other settings.
Azfa Ali…
On 9th March I arrived at The Writers Place, New Writing South in Brighton, just in time to wait in the porch way for fear of disturbing Sophie Rose rehearsing her piece, and listening to it, I realised how much work the poets had put into their poems since I had heard the bones of the poems the previous week.
On Saturday 2nd March, the One Way Ticket poets – Azfa Ali, Deborah Stephenson, Michael Vidon, Katerina Quinn, Joshua Seigal, Sophie Rose, Lorianne Tika-Lemba and Jenn Hart, plus the project…
These are extracts from April’s Snakebaskets. Sign up here to receive the whole message!
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From London Coordinator Russell
I can never get used to early Easters. I missed Pancake Day because it was so early. Now I have to wait a whole year for the next one. And what about Easter Monday coinciding with April Fools’ Day? What sort of message is that sending out? Anyway, to April! Our work with Heart ‘n’ Soul continues with Allsorts on the 4th, and then we help Occupy Platform on the
Louder than a Bomb finals take place at the Cadillac Palace, it has a west-end theatre feel, all shiny gold and plush carpets. It seats 2400 and its almost full, not bad for a youth poetry event! The night is hosted by Nate Marshall and Kevin Coval and consists of 4 bouts, 3 individuals and one team – there are 5 judges perched up in a box… but by now we all know that the points aren’t what really matters. The work performed is really strong, not surprising as this…
Apples and Snakes have been working working with Writers’ Centre Norwich to develop Slam in a Box: two slam poets, Molly Naylor and Andy Bennett, spent two days with students from Caister High, giving them the skills, knowledge and tools to compose, workshop and read aloud their own poems and run their own after school slam poetry club. Check out the result in the video below!
“Thank you very much for our recent poetry workshop. We all enjoyed it very much and now we are busy organising our own Slam…
The young poets are off on a trip round the city and its the organisers that are spending time getting to know whose who and hearing what each other are doing in their cities. There is clearly lots of common ground, regardless of programme structure or which city it takes place in. There is absolute commitment, integrity and passion from all those doing this work, they all speak about wanting to give a space for young people to be able to truly say what they think and feel. They are…
After a plate of pancakes and maple syrup – well, I am in the states! I head off to the youth hostel where the days discussions and workshops are taking place for day two of Louder Than a Bomb. With Kevin Coval as our charismatic facilitator, we start with some writing exercises, a chance to get everyone to mix up and create some collaborative poems. Even with this simple exercise I am impressed by the quality of work and confidence in performance shown by the young poets, and its clear…
