A blog post about Shake the Dust, an exciting new nationwide poetry slam project managed by Apples and Snakes.

It’s been a busy few months here at Apples and Snakes as we’ve been gearing up for the launch of Shake the Dust. I’ll be linking to the Shake the Dust website often during this post as, along with the rest of the Marketing and Shake team, we’ve built the Shake the Dust website from scratch and are rather proud of it. Of what? Of the Shake the Dust website!

Shake the Dust is a massive and ambitious project that involves people from the spoken word world at every level . In each of the nine regions of England, five teams of eight young people will work with a Poet Coach and a Shadow Artist to write, learn and perform their words. Each team will go on to a regional slam final, where the highest scoring team will progress to the National Shake the Dust Weekend at the Southbank Centre in London.

Though the focus is on the young people taking part, there are also fantastic opportunities for artists, teachers / educators and the general public to see what it’s all about. There have been Open Artist Masterclasses run by Jacob Sam-La Rose and held in conjunction with our Venue Partners in each region. I was lucky enough to take part in the London Masterclass in September along with Lisa Hitchen who wrote up her experience – read about it below. The next Masterclass is on Tuesday 25 October at Nottingham Playhouse by the way! Next week also sees the start of Open INSET training sessions for teachers, educators and youth workers interested in working with and supporting young people to develop their creativity, self-expression and confidence through poetry and spoken word. You can find out about all upcoming events on the Shake the Dust Events page.

The next step for artists is recruitment for Poet Coaches and Shadow Artists, which has just started. Artists will work with young people aged 13 to 16 from February to June 2012, delivering creative and interactive poetry workshops, leading to group and individual performances at the regional slam finals in June 2012. Selected teams will then go on to the National Shake the Dust weekend in London in July 2012. Check out the Poets page for more information about this brilliant opportunity!

We’re delighted that Lisa Hitchen, one of the participants of the Open Masterclass in London has blogged about her experience. The rest of this post is reproduced with permission from a longer, original blog post, which can be found on Lisa’s website here. Lisa is a journalist and writer based in London and is at the beginning of her career in performance poetry. She wants to work in schools with pupils on writing skills and speaking out, using their own words and feelings. You can contact her on lfhitchen@gmail.com.

Having attended Jacob Sam La Rose’s poetry and young people masterclass, I get the feeling that many performance poets are in touch with their inner wisdom. I can’t pretend that I got to know anyone that well during one energy-charged day of learning how to run your own workshops so why do I think this? Because standing up and speaking out with your voice and words and trying to be real, authentic, true and new in the way you tell it is big stuff. It takes a kind of courage to do that. If you are going to sound genuine, you have got to have dug down.

So I met with two women that both left school at 14, disillusioned with poetry then but now back into spoken word. “My poetry has given me a voice”, one said. She wanted to use it to challenge and encourage children through a medium they enjoyed not through analysis of ancient poets in dusty textbooks. And then there were two male primary school teachers running hip hop sessions in their lunch hour, seasoned workshop teachers working in schools and students unions and other beginners like me.

We went through loads of diverse practical exercises. Too many to write here but useful to try and test them. Only through practice can you see how they work and how difficult they might be for students. What was great about Jacob was that he constantly ‘checked in’ on all of us as we tried out group exercises, as he would do in the classroom. This helped us to keep on focus and on time but it also showed that he was present and committed to the group and to the session.

Jacob also reminded us of the enormity of what we are doing when we work with kids in this way: “That is humbling and powerful work that we are doing right there” and: “This is one of the few places where students can express their true feelings and be applauded for it”.

He ended the session by asking us: “What is your USP? What is your niche, what can you offer and what work do you want to do?” For me I see a natural link behind using poetry in a therapeutic context in schools, in workshops and in the community. And not just for kids either. I have written loads of stuff on motherhood and its daunting and difficult as well as fantastical and enriching journey. I reckon there are parents out there that would love to workshop their journeys too. If you are one of them, let me know.

Thanks Lisa! So Shake the Dust really has started – with artist development and training for educators, and the promise of some phenomenal spoken word from the young people of England, this will be an incredibly special project. Stay up to date with all the opportunities and news on the website: www.shakethedust.co.uk.

A guest post from our Poet of the Month, Aoife Mannix.

For me, poetry lies somewhere between music and prose in that the sound of the words is as important as their meaning.  Hearing poems aloud is an excellent way for audiences to appreciate their rhythm and musicality.  There is something about the special atmosphere of a live setting, that direct connection with an audience, that I find really inspiring.

Aoife Mannix

I began writing poetry at the age of eleven when my family moved from Dublin to New York.  I think it was the culture shock of being in America that first pushed me into putting pen to paper!  It was only when I emigrated from Ireland to London when I was twenty-two that I discovered getting up in front of an audience.  I’d entered a competition and failed to read the small print which said that if you were a finalist, you had to come and perform your poem.  When I got a phone call congratulating me on the opportunity to stand up in front of a bunch of complete strangers to present my poem, I found the idea terrifying.  However I went along and to my great surprise won the competition!

Since then I’ve got up in front of audiences in all kinds of different places.  I’m writing this in Latvia where myself and fellow poet Jacob Sam La Rose have been invited by the British Council.  So far we’ve performed on the top of a roof terrace of an old Soviet factory that’s been converted into an arts centre and in a huge parking lot with translations of our poems projected in large above us.  Tonight we’re performing in a theatre in Riga. These are my favourite kinds of gigs where I get to travel and meet people from different cultures.  (Check out the video of Jacob and Aoife in Latvia below! – ed.)

I’ve published four collections of poetry and a novel.  I also run creative writing workshops in schools, libraries, universities etc.  I feel it’s a real privilege to be able to make a living doing something I really love.

You can find out more about Aoife on her Apples and Snakes profile or on her website – www.aoifemannix.com.

A guest post from one of our recent volunteers, Gus Simonovic.

It’s raining and the temperature is falling with the wind whipping in from the Firth of Forth. As John Malkovich, one of Hollywood’s most famous stars, found out on the city’s Royal Mile, these have become the traditional conditions that mark the beginning of the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The star of Dangerous Liaisons, Con Air and 70 other films, Malkovich is such a distinctive figure in Tinseltown that he was the subject of a movie about himself: Being John Malkovich.

John Malkovich flyering

But in Edinburgh, Auld Reekie (or ‘The Athens of the North’), fame counts for nothing, and the dispiriting act of trudging late last week through the sodden heart of city, distributing leaflets, scarcely earned him a sideways glance from passers-by.

Being Gus Simonovich? One of an estimated 30,000 performers, in a city that ceases to be a city and becomes a FESTIVAL, is as close to insignificance as one (or anyone) can ever imagine. And still, this is the most exposure that I have ever had in my short performing career. Doing 2-3 shows a day, running around from venue to venue, handing out leaflets, seeing other shows, attending talks and workshops, seeing exhibitions, and in general trying to get the most of this multiple-Festival madness… did I mention rain and wind and cold?

Thousands and thousands of performances across hundreds and hundreds of venues are competing for attention from an action-hungry audience. It’s an amazing experience to be in a place where creatives have taken over! Theatre, dance, comedy, poetry, art … have taken over and everything else is unnoticeable.

My day starts (after an hour-long bus ride) with a performance of my solo show iWas, which becomes more of a poetic “discussion” with a charming, insightful and knowledgeable audience. Then it’s all run, run, run to set up for Lovers Walk. First day, it took us more than 2 hours, now we can (and have to) do it in 10 minutes … nothing could make us more ready for touring than this experience! And what a delight to stand there in front of such an appreciative and warm audience and hear the feedback after the show. We even had people coming to see the show more than once and have been invited to “guest perform” in other venues around town.

If I had to choose one word to define this whole experience it would have to be: endurance! If I was given a chance to choose another one, it would have to be: generosity. Generosity of everybody involved, generosity of all performers, generosity of the audiences, generosity of the Scottish people, unbelievable generosity of the highest quality art/performance offered in this beautiful event that brings 260 million pounds to the Scottish economy year after year. Festivals listed on this website are only a starting point. There are dozens of other festivals happening at the same time.

Violence in the UK? The only “violence” happening here is on stage … and the only fire is in fireworks at the end of the day! Athough one million roaming visitors on a constant move from one show to another might look like a looting mob.

Gus Simonovic is a spoken word and page poet from New Zealand. More information about him can be found here and here.

A goat. Not pictured: cheese.

You may have noticed a general slowdown in performing arts events around the country this month, and spoken word shows are no exception. August is the month for summer holidays, spending time with / trying to get rid of the kids and, of course, it’s National Goat Cheese Month. Overshadowing all these in the performing world (yes, even bigger than the annual outpouring of joy for the milk-based food product of Capra aegagrus hircus) is Edinburgh, and the myriad of Festivals that happen in that city during August. As may be expected, spoken word and poetry has a strong presence in the city during these festivities, so here’s a quick rundown of what to look for.

Let’s start, as many people do, with the Edinburgh Festival Fringe. The Fringe programme (searchable online) now helpfully includes subcategories for shows, including ‘spoken word’ and ‘poetry’. A quick search with these filters results in over 30 shows labelled with these tags – shows like Sabrina Mahfouz’s Dry Ice, Martin Figura’s Whistle, Luke Wright’s Cynical Ballads, Byron Vincent, John Fluffypunk and Rob Auton in This Next One is About Putting Salt in Your Tea and Richard Marsh’s Skittles.

However, even this isn’t a comprehensive guide to poetry-type shows on at the Fringe, as lots of events have decided to label themselves away from these words, going for the drama, comedy, storytelling or any one of a number of other categories.  Though often an artistic advantage, one of the disadvantages of working with such a nebulous medium as spoken word is that of category: it can be found in a myriad of genres, so be on the lookout for poems popping up in all sorts of places.

Then there are some shows that have opted to remove themselves entirely from the official Fringe programme and won’t turn up in searches there: the PBH Free Fringe has dozens of poetry shows happening (mostly at the Banshee Labyrinth), for example, whilst poets such as Ross Sutherland feature at the similarly non-listed Forest Fringe. There are also spontaneous poetry happenings, like the Poetry Takeaway, impromptu slams and open mic shows that you may only hear about whilst at the festival (though do check out Bang Said the Gun and Rrrants for slots!). As if all that wasn’t enough, there are also spoken word artists doing shows with a less poetry-focussed feel, such as Tim Clare’s How to Be a Leader, Hannah Jane Walker’s The Oh F**K Moment or John Osbourne’s John Peel’s Shed.

I haven’t even touched on the Edinburgh International Book Festival, which happens at the same time as the Fringe and has lots of poetry talks, readings, lectures and workshops. Even the original Edinburgh International Festival has one or two poetry events! I can’t sign off without highlighting the Apples and Snakes supported Fringe show Opposition by Hannah Silva, which is on 14th – 28th August (not 22nd) at 2.45pm at Zoo Southside.

So if you’re heading to Edinburgh this August to take in some poetry, you really are spoiled for choice. And if you’re in the city for the festivals anyway, why not give a spoken word show a go? After all, trying new things is all part of experiencing Edinburgh during festival time. As for me, I’m going up at the end of the month. I’m already excited and anticipating a fantastic festival full of poetry shows! And if you have a poetry type show up at the Fringe, do let us know!

Dan Simpson – Digital and Marketing Assistant, Apples and Snakes
Email: dan@applesandsnakes.org

It’s been over a month since Glastonbury, which is just about enough time for me to have recovered the sleep lost during the festival and be in a fit state to put finger to keyboard and blog about it.

Longfella

Poetry&Words is the Glastonbury Festival poetry showcase. It is not an Apples and Snakes gig. It is run by hardworking poet and academic Helen Gregory with her Poetry&Words committee and dedicated crew. To many performance poets, an invitation to appear at Poetry& Words, along with Latitude and/or Port Eliot, is a must-have on their CV; a dandy feather in their poetry cap. After all, Poetry& Words poets are selected from an open submission which sees over 200 applications each year from which just a few performers are selected by the committee. Of course the selection committee have to bear in mind diversity of styles and geography so that those appearing at the festival represent as many different aspects of live poetry as possible, so if you don’t make it first time, try again the next year.

Poeticat

To apply you have to submit a poetry CV, plus some sort of audio, or even better, audio/visual, samples of your work. Anyone who doesn’t do this is automatically put on the No pile; as are people who the previous year, on finding they haven’t been selected, send snitty and abusive emails to the tune of ‘Don’t you know who I am?’ and ‘You don’t know what you’re talking about.’ – a sure fire way not to be selected when you apply the following year…

So, you’ve submitted and been accepted (Hoorah!) and your ticket’s arrived  and you’ve made your way to Worthy Farm, Pilton and queued with the masses (secretly grinning inside because you know you’re a performer and everyone else has paid for their tickets). You’ve trudged across the colourful acres of the site to the far corner and have pitched your tent backstage where they have a little more space, a little more security, portaloos just for performers, running water and even a hot shower and you’ve registered as a performer so you get a Theatre and Circus backstage pass that allows you into the crew/artists canteen and Green Room Bar. What more should you expect?

Matt Harvery

You should expect to meet poets you’ve heard of but never seen, poets you’ve never heard of but enjoy watching for the first time and poets you seem to have known all your life. Expect to take your Poetry&Words stage-time by the scruff of the neck and impress your peers, the dedicated Poetry&Words fans and the sort of people who ‘didn’t know poetry could be like that’.  Expect to make new friends and party into the early hours. Expect to talk poetry and festivals in roughly equal measures and to create new networks and fans. Expect the opportunity to perform on more than just the Poetry&Words stage because there are plenty of open mics that happen at smaller venues all over the festival – this year many of the poets spent their evenings at ‘The Poetree’ (so called because the stage is built halfway up a tree) playing poetry tag for free drinks and Pete the Temp won the Speakers Corner slam, gaining a feature slot between a talk by Michael Eavis and a talk by Tony Benn.

Highlights of Poetry&Words  for me this year? Well, I didn’t get to see everyone perform, but it was great to see Vanessa Kisuule wowing audiences with her smart lippy poems;  Scott Tyrell’s first festival set, which brought tears of joy and sadness; Matt Harvey calmly and cleverly delivering a blistering set; Tim Clare’s rendition of ‘My Favourite Things’;  Poeticat still dancing away at 2am on Monday morning and the look on Michael Eavis’ face when he dropped  into the Poetry&Words tent to catch Toby Thompson performing his slam-winning graphic poem about Devil Worship…

There’s no Glastonbury Festival in 2012, we all need a break, so there will be no call out for submissions until early 2013, but in the meantime the Poetry&Words official Facebook group is here and their blog is here.

Pete Hunter – South East Coordinator, Apples and Snakes

(Pictures here courtesy of Poetry&Words and Bohdan Piasecki)