Event Round Up

I’m embarking to London Town this weekend to soak up a bit of the capitals culture, but I just wanted to take a moment to let you know about some other fantastic cultural things happening over the next few days.

First is the Nottingham Writer’s Studio live literature event ‘Word of Mouth’ on Friday 18^th Feb, which brings the comic actress Sophie Woolley to Nottingham alongside many other Nottingham writers as part of the Nottingham Light Night celebrations. Also featuring Alyson Stoneman, Paula Rawsthorne, Michelle Mother Hubbard, Robin Vaughan-Williams and Debris Stevenson to name but a few, the event is held at the Antenna café-restaurant on Beck Street in Nottingham at 7pm and is even free entry.

And if poetry and writing isn’t your thing, but pirates are then you’re in luck! At the Maze in Nottingham that very same night (Friday 18^th Feb, yes) the fantastic pirate band, Seas of Mirth, will bring their rum sodden shanties to get you heave-ho-ing on the dance floor. Get yourself there for 9pm and dance yourself silly. Taken from their facebook page:

Choose Mirth. Choose a weapon. Choose life on the high seas. Choose booty. Choose banging whores on an unexpected flexible rota. Choose pilfering the navy's rum. Choose ivory backgammon boards. Choose Matey Bubblebath and Pop-up Pirate. Choose tug of war with your Grandma. Choose battling with octopi in the Adriatic Sea. Twice. Choose a wench. Choose Judy Dench. Choose a tankard. One has a rat in it, watch out! Ye get the point...

Saturday at Nottingham Playhouse brings ‘Say Sum Thin’ the brilliant Mouthy Poets first show, featuring the poet Inua Ellams. The Mouthy Poets are a group of young people that don’t just ‘do poetry’ they write, perform, market, coordinate and facilitate their own community events, and are making waves through the city. The show starts at 8pm and promises to be unmissable, so unless you’re otherwise engaged, don’t miss it! For more information see here.

And later on in the week for those of you further ‘up North’ there is the poetry and spoken word night in Manchester, run by the new writing collective based in Manchester, Bad Language. Headlining the night is the fantastic poet, Jo Bell who is currently writing something everyday for the website ‘Something Every Day’ and is also the Writer in Resident at the Royal Derby Hospital as part of the Writing East Midlands Write Here programme. The night will undoubtedly be a great one, so get yourself down to the Castle Hotel on Oldham Street for 7.30pm. For more info see here.

So many brilliant events and so little time. I only with I could be in two places at once. Isn’t about time someone invented a transporter machine?

Spoken Word All Stars

Tuesday night brought the acclaimed Spoken Word All Stars touring show to Nottingham at the Lakeside Arts Centre. Organised by the charity, Poet in the City, and the leading performance poetry organisation, Apples and Snakes, Nottingham was privileged to host the only date for the show in the East Midlands, and I was lucky enough to be part of the vibrant audience.

The show presented such talents as El Crisis, Kat Francois (a World Poetry Slam Champion) and Oneness and included two guest poets from the East Midlands, Nottingham’s very own Mulletproofpoet and the brilliant Lydia Towsey. In what was a superb evening of poetry, beats and jazz the audience was swept away on a wave of comedy, tragedy and philosophy all interwoven by the improvised melodies of award-winning jazz musican Jason Yarde.

What I felt worked particularly well and found very striking was how the different voices of the poets all fit together to form a complete piece. The local poets stood alongside the Spoken Word All Stars cast, and whilst each poet was different in their own right and had their own distinctive voices, the show worked brilliantly as a whole and a powerful synergy was created between the pieces. Afterwards it felt as though you had been on a journey through the performances, that you had learned something intimate about the poets and that you had witnessed something more than a spoken word show, something special.

In a time when the arts are under more and more economic pressure it is increasingly important that audiences continue to attend such shows and display their support. For me they act not only as a release from the stresses and strains of my everyday life, but they also serve as an inspiration, showing me what can be achieved with the power of words and presenting different perspectives and ideas. They powerful, moving and prompt me think outside the 'box'.

Lyric Lounge 2010

Last night saw the grand finale of Lyric Lounge 2010. A temporary spoken word venue which has toured through the East Midlands; transforming found spaces into accessible hives of lyrical activity with linked live events aimed at attracting young people and a range of culturally diverse participants and audiences. The aim for this engaging concept is to reach out and generate new interest in spoken word performance, and I feel incredibly lucky to have been able to attend three out of the four festivals this year, which were held in Derby, Leicester, Nottingham and Loughborough.

To me each lounge was unique, with its own ambience and personality, yet also similar, like children born from the same mother. They created a place where the power of the spoken word, poetry and lyrics was celebrated for its ability to connect, entertain and inspire. They have reached out, developed and showcased the talent of local writers and groups and have also been host to such eminent poets as John Hegley, Jean Binta Breeze and John Agard. People were actively encouraged to share their work, whether it be at one of the many open mic opportunities, workshops or 1-2-1’s with professional poets held in the festivals, or even invited to write poetry on the tables, which were ingeniously decorated with bight paper table cloths stamped with the words ‘write on me’. For me the Lyric Lounge acted as a conduit, allowing the audience to reach out into different cultures and groups in the counties, and I feel deeply moved by the experience. The quality of the work by people involved in each of the Lounges has been exceptional, with people honest enough to bear part of themselves and connect through the vehicle of verse and rhyme.

The last performance of these fantastic festivals was the critically acclaimed ‘Showcase Live’, featured by the BBC, Truetube and the British Film Institute. With a cast of culturally diverse poets drawing from personal experience and examining themes from mental health to getting lost and being found, the show was at once brutally honest, dark and profoundly optimistic. The multi media show used video, music and poetry performance to further draw you into the lives and psyche of the poets, creating an unforgettable, powerful show. For me the performance highlighted one of poetry greatest assets: its ability allow people to eloquently express how they feel and make us realise that we through we live disconnected, often fragmented lives, we are not very different from each other at all. To bring unity and understanding through the power of language.

These events are absolutely invaluable in their ability to connect people, to develop voices or even just to make people see that they have a voice which is worth being heard. The Lyric Lounge will now return its region tour next year, visiting Lincolnshire, Northamptonshire and Rutland.

Lyric Lounge will also be returning for a day, Thursday the 7th October as part of the excellent Everybody’s Reading festival in Leicester, and I do hope you can make it over. For more information please see here.