Poet's Letter Magazine March 2007 Issue Features Page
Celebrating publication on its 4th Year
Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music Music
Kerry-Fleur Schleifer: Songs of Woven Spirit
Photo Credit: Tito Batista Songs of Woven Spirit: Kerry-Fleur Schleifer's music CD released recently containing music from a depth of human spirituality and breadth that her voice represents! Her voice is not 'genetically modified' by the market manipulation and media orchestration or by the 'music industry' rather it is purely a product of her being and part and parcel of who and what she is: a pure enigmatic human being with a voice like a spring day or an autumnal sunset or a winter's winter wonderland breezing liberty, melancholy and depth with an endowed radiance that is natural in it. She sings and becomes and in the process Kerry takes us to a journey that is enticing, enriching, empowering, inviting; yet she is at times, haunting, inspiring, poignant and profound! Kerry-Fleur was born in London, England. She grew up speaking French up to the age of four when her family decided she needed to stop speaking French and only speak English. It was here that her own inner voice was formed. 'Being thrown into the incomprehensible pool of a new language sent' her, as she puts it, into 'her own cloud of thoughts.' Her emotions discovered their expressions within sounds and gibberish words. Today she speaks Angel Tongue as if it were her first language. Growing up in London Kerry-Fleur made her way through five day schools due to finding the classroom window more necessary to her colourful imagination than the classroom curriculum. At seventeen she moved to the United States of America to complete secondary school followed by University. She then found herself in the busy art heaven of Florence Italy where she used to immerse herself within the Renaissance architecture and uniquely elaborate palazzo's and let her pen spill the poetry that inspired her so. Paris was next and her absorption of the articulateness of rich culture again found a special place in her heart. Kerry-Fleur then decided to move to New York and attended Parsons School for Design and achieved a Bachelor of Fine Arts. It was after two years in 'the exciting but chaotic life of the Big Apple' that Kerry-Fleur felt it was time to return to her roots in the London where she is residing today. It was in her very home town that she felt the confidence to start what she felt was always so intrinsic to her: her singing voice; the part of her that spoke when her words had ceased speaking. She discovered her chance to shine within the London bars and clubs and soon was receiving invitations to perform proper sets at some of the better venues and soon formed collaborations with various other musicians of diverse styles. It has been extremely important to Kerry-Fleur to allow her expression its freedom of style. Primarily a jazz improvisational singer she also feels a great passion for folk, blues, and verging at times on the hauntingly operatic. She says her voice is her soul coming alive and can only be released through a pure emotional dialogue with what she feels. Ever since she used to sing lullabies to send her friends to sleep she has felt singing deeply therapeutic. "Art, so purposeful in its own right." Kerry-Fleur's motto to explain her deeper purpose in her singing which is part of her living and being.
For more Visit Kerry-Fleur Schleifer UNRELEASED EP CD can be purchased via:
http://www.kerryfleur.com
Kerry sings at Poet's Letter Poetry Performance and Live Music Series at Poetry Cafe on every second Monday, March 12th 7 pm she will be singing.
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Features Features Features Features Features Love London Live London Find London Make London Home Victoria Purcell, Features Editor, explores the best of London. London can be unforgiving - the city never sleeps, crowds take on infuriating lemming-like qualities, and the materialistic aspiration for a river-side lifestyle is plain exhausting (not to mention financial suicide). But 36 million tourists a year know this is one of the greatest cities in the world. Londoners, however, need reminding of this time to time… London has 159 theatres; 8,500 restaurants; 29,000 shops; more religions and languages than any other city; fascinating museums and galleries, many of which are free; and the greatest royal soap opera, with coronations, weddings, funerals and media scandals. We also have the world's largest and oldest Tube network. The Tube is something all Londoner's have in common, with the 'Misery Line' (also known as the Northern Line) often at the top of the agenda for a Monday morning moan. The Metropolitan line opened on January 10 1863, and with a network of 275 stations and 253 miles of line to maintain, keeping it all running smoothly can be no easy feat. Even the famously inaccurate tube map, designed by electrical engineer Harry Beck in 1933, is an icon in its own right. Based on an electric schematic for ease of use, it will leave your head spinning should you attempt to follow it at street level. Take a look at the Transport for London website, which shows the original 1933 design morphing into the 2004 map, a geographically accurate tube map, and a street map - oddly fascinating! These days we have Poems on the Underground, Platform for Art, and licensed busking to keep us entertained while below the surface. Chiho Aoshima's City Glow, Mountain Whisper, currently showing at Gloucester Road Underground station, is certainly worth a trip around the Circle Line! Emerging back into the light, London provides a surprising amount of green space to stretch the limbs after a week slouched at the computer. Start with The Royal Parks, St James's, Green, Hyde, Richmond (the largest at 1000 hectares), Greenwich, Regents', Bushy, Kensington Gardens, and Brompton Cemetery. That's 5,000 hectares of history and architecture with hundreds of buildings, statues, and memorials supplying an insight into London's heritage. Then there's Battersea Park, Kew Gardens (which hauls in millions of visitors every year and requires a bus to see all of it), Holland Park, Clapham Common, Hampstead Heath… you would be hard pushed to find that much green space in Tokyo or Paris! Battersea Park is home to a beautifully eccentric Peace Pagoda, a gift to London from the Japanese Buddhist Order, Nipponzan Myohoji, in 1985. Built on the south side of the Thames, it is the first pagoda to be built in any western capital and remains the only major monument dedicated entirely to peace. Those more inclined to discover urban London should hop online - www.londonforfree.net has detailed a number of walks passing some of the city's finest features. The City Walk passes the oldest parts of London, including the start and end of the Great Fire, the Bank of England (which still holds Britain's gold reserves, should you wish to hatch your own Ocean's 11 plot), the Tower of London and St Mary-Le-Bow Church. Designed by Sir Christopher Wren, this church not only featured in the 'Orange and Lemons' nursery rhyme, it also supplied the definition of a true Cockney - anyone born within the sound of the Bow bells. Sir Wren also built St Paul's Cathedral, which saw the wedding of Charles and Diana in 1981, and St Brides Church on Fleet Street, the spire of which inspired the world-famous tiered wedding cake design. Stroll along the south bank as part of the Culture Walk, taking in Shakespeare's Globe Theatre, the South Bank Centre, the Tate Modern (London's newest and most popular modern art museum with 5.2 million visitors in its first year), Southwark Cathedral, County Hall, and eight of London's bridges. Shakespeare's Globe suffered a tempestuous existence - originally built in Shoreditch in 1598 it was moved across the river where the land rates were cheaper. It was closed in 1640 and the new Globe didn't open until 1997, thanks to investment from an American filmmaker. County Hall, home of the London Government until 1986, now encompasses the Dali museum, the Saatchi Gallery and the London Aquarium. A testament to the most diverse city in the world is the number of astounding and curious places of worship built by other religions. Tucked away in residential Wimbledon is the Bhuddapadipa Temple, a dazzling white and gold creation with exquisite murals inside. The Swaminarayan Hindu Temple in Neasden is a stone and marble wonder with elaborate pinnacles, built by dedicated Indians using traditional methods and the finest Bulgarian marble. Regents Park Mosque, one of London's most stunning landmarks, has a gold dome and a 140ft tower. The Baitul Futuh Mosque in Morden, is the largest in western Europe. Opened in 2003, it can hold up to 10,000 worshippers and has a 15.5 metre dome. And should you feel the need to escape the madness of Oxford Street, take a look around the Fo Guang Temple, a Chinese Buddhist centre with three large golden statues presiding over the tranquil Main Shrine. Oddly enough it began life as the All Saints Christian Study Centre! And finally, for true traditionalists, London also has one of the last remaining shops selling snuff (G Smith & Sons on Shaftesbury Avenue), the Twinings Tea Shop (run by ten consecutive Mr Twinings on Fleet Street), and the Routemaster, the beloved red double-decker, which was decommissioned in December 2005 but still runs on heritage routes (the number 9 from Albert Hall to Aldwych and the number 15 from Trafalgar Square to Tower Hill). That's a lot of London to love. Comments to victoria dot
purcell at poetsletter dot com Purely Poetry Purely Poetry Purely Poetry Purely Two Poems: Helen Long: Poet in Residence, March 2007 at Poet's Letter. Return
To Earth
These
hands were made to hold Read
more of Helen's works on her Poet
in Residence Page Three Poems: Rebecca Atherton: Deputy Editor
Memories
Michael Levy A True Heart by Michael
Levy No; this is no pastoral
scene, Only when we discover words
... beyond be-lie-f. The universal law that
charges the infusion of love & joy,
Book Reviews Book Reviews Book Reviews
The Night Watch Virago: 2006 ‘The
Night Watch’ (Virago 2006) is a compelling story about four Londoners,
three women and a man, struggling with life during and after the war.
Opening in 1947, the narrative moves back through 1944 and 1941 to
uncover what has brought its central characters to the situations in
which we first encounter them. This way of telling a story brings an
extra dimension to it, making this book that little bit more interesting
than your regular wartime novel. We see the beginning of each individual
tragedy after we have witnessed its consequence. Time is not as an
ongoing narrative but a memory, and the novel suggests that we need to
understand the past in order to explain the present. We
follow the backward stories of these four Londoners through glimpses of
their lives and sexual relationships in the three sections of the novel.
The story begins a couple of years after the war. London is still
recovering from the horrors of war but also there is sound of rebuilding
and new hope. Women's stockings are darned at the toes and heels and
most people's shoes are scuffed. Dusty, blitzed London is beginning to
rebuild; everywhere is the sound of workmen mending roofs. Here live the
novel’s four central characters; mannish dressing lesbian Kay lodging
in dirty rented rooms, watching damaged individuals seeking to be cured
by her faith-healer landlord; Helen, feminine and gay, works at a
lonely-hearts agency in the West End and lives with her lover Julia; Viv
who does not seem to be able to cope without her married lover; and
finally Duncan who lives with an old man whom he describes as his
'uncle', and thinks himself lucky to have a dull job in a candle
factory. The war, in each character's case, acts as a kind of impassive
matchmaker. Everywhere, the atmosphere is one of weariness and wariness
shot through with flickers of anticipation about revived opportunities
and new directions. Little
by little, as the story goes back through time, we uncover connections
between the characters: Duncan and Viv are brother and sister; Viv and
Helen work in the same post-war dating agency; Helen met her current
lover through Kay; Kay once helped Viv in a crisis. As
we read on we start to unravel the events which consequences we read
about in the beginning of the book. Our hearts go out to the four
Londoners as we learn of how they came to be where they were when we
first encountered them. The struggle through a seemingly endless and
ghastly war is thoroughly described with the language well reflecting
the time setting. London
as a city also plays a major part in the book. The description of the
city is a loving one “The terrace was white – that London white,
more properly a streaked and greyish yellow; the grooves and sockets of
its stucco façade had been darkened by fogs, by soot, and – more
recently – by brick-dust.”, and the author’s use of words correct
for the time, such as ‘lavatory’ instead of ‘toilet’, fits well
in with the story and makes the reader connect even more with the story.
‘The
Night Watch’ is Sarah Waters’ fourth novel. She won the Betty Trask
Award for ‘Tipping The Velvet’ and the Somerset Maugham Award and
Sunday Times Young Writer of the Year for ‘Affinity’.
‘Fingersmith’ was shortlisted for both the Orange Prize 2002 and for
the Man Booker Prize 2002, and won the CWA Historical Dagger prize
before earning her three 2003 Author of the Year awards - from the
Booksellers Association, Waterstone's and The British Book Awards. Sarah
Waters is also the winner of The South Bank Show Award. ‘The Night Watch’ was shortlisted for Man Booker Prize for Fiction as well as the Orange Prize for Fiction in 2006. It is now out in paperback. Review
by: Sofie Lidefjard
Audio Books Reviews Sharon Harriott: Audio Books Reviews Editor
Audio Books Reviews Editor's Pick for our Anniversary Issue for you
The
No.1 Ladies' Detective Agency Vol. 1 & 2. Written
and dramatised by Alexander McCall Smith Read
by various actors Published
by BBC Audio Price:
9.99 This
BBC production has been adapted from the bestselling book of the same
name. Precious ‘Mma’ Ramotswe is the proud owner of the No.1 Ladies
Detective Agency. Alexander
McCall Smith was born and brought up in The
actors were well chosen for this production. The accents and mannerisms
made each of the robust, African characters come alive. I loved Mma
Ramotswe’s voice; her love of ‘traditional This
Radio drama does peel away some of McCall Smith’s original novel. We
lose Mma Ramotswe’s brief and unhappy marriage to a jazz musician for
example. Cuts are of course a necessary evil.
Where it’s thinned, characters are sharper and the comedy of
some of the situations are more evident in this format. Mma Ramotswe’s
relationship her highly talented secretary, Mma Makutsi, is
strengthened. A
strong aspect of this drama, one that comes across just as well as in
the book, is the way the it’s broken into stories. Each case is a
separate story, with characters interlinking. It makes it very readable. Ramotswe
becomes a mentor as the pair of them team up to tail a teenage girl to
find out if she has a boyfriend. A job well paid by the father, Mr
Patel. I was a bit sceptical of this story. I was waiting for it to be
referred back to later on with the revelation that the girl did indeed
have a boyfriend, and that in fact she was pregnant! But this didn’t
happen, Mma Ramotswe is anything but cynical. The
cases become more challenging and with the help of Mr J.L.B. Maketoni,
the reliable owner of Speedy Motors (and love interest) she’s solves
the most difficult and harrowing of them all. Mr J.L.B. Maketoni helps
Mma Ramotswe with the maintenance of her little white van. After finding
something sinister in a small bag in a car he’s working on, he invites
her in for a piece of cake and some bush tea. She
is soon on trail of a missing child, a case that involves one of Saturday
Written
by Ian
McEwan Read
by Andrew
Sachs Published
by HarperCollins Price:
£15.99 Henry
Perowne wakes up early on Saturday to, what turns out to be, a very bad
day! He’s
drawn to his bedroom window, where it dawn is just breaking. Looking
out, he sees an aeroplane with its engines in flames, heading for
Heathrow airport. I felt as disturbed as Perowne as I braced myself for
the crash. But it never comes. For
me, Andrew Sachs sounds just as Perowne should. Listening to the middle
aged mans softly spoken and almost philosophical inner thoughts; I could
roughly picture what he would look like. Perowne
is a successful neurosurgeon. He’s
very well spoken, and of course, very intelligent. He lives very
comfortably in a large, Later
that same morning, Perowne makes his way to his weekly squash game with
his anaesthetist friend. Steering into a side road off Tottenham Court
Road to avoid the gathering anti-war march, Perowne gets side swiped by
another car, ruining his paint work. The other car is a little worse off
as it loses a wing mirror. Three men get out, and one in particular,
Baxter, is more menacing. McEwan
has interwoven this story with the terror of 9/11 and 7/7. We find out
that Daisy is passionate about the politics surrounding the March in Baxter
is unstable, and spoiling for a fight. Perowne
tries to negotiate with the thugs, taking a moral high ground. Perowne
realises Baxtor is showing signs of Huntington’s disease. But Perowne
says this in front of Baxter’s
henchmen, which of
course, undermines Baxtor’s authority. Baxter punches Perowne hard in
the chest in a nasty show of power, although he is able to get away. Later that afternoon and slightly bruised, Perowne dwells on his happiness while making a seafood dish for his family. His daughter and cantankerous father-in-law arrive, and everything is set for the family reunion. That is until Baxter coerces Perowne’s wife and storms in. Like a finale, McEwan fills the penultimate step of the book with moral retrospect. Perowne is forced to face revelations that could upset his happy world and he deals with it all with a quite dignity and dogged loyalty. The fact that he has to operate on his aggressor made me raise my eyes to the roof of the car. This is a great audio – well worth a listen. Comments:
sharon dot harriott at poetsletter dot com
Poetry Feast Poetry Feast Poetry Feast Poetry Feast Carolyn Waudby Longing Wind- whipped, she scans the
shore She held his head above the
waves, laid him there. How she would
give How they would love like this
- to the death We lie in the utter black, and out of our fear, A Poet
in the Family: The Coleridge Archive A fascinating insight into
the character and behaviour of the poet Samuel Taylor Coleridge is
revealed through his own notebooks, together with journals,
correspondence and reminiscences from family and friends in a small
display at the British Library from 27 February - 27 April 2007. The exhibition, entitled A
Poet in the Family, looks at Coleridge through the eyes of some of his
closest friends and relatives. It includes manuscripts by his children
Derwent and Sara Coleridge, and his nephews Edward and John Taylor
Coleridge, recording their complex mixture of feelings - from love and
admiration to exasperation and sheer bewilderment - towards the erratic
genius in their midst. A notebook entry from 1808
shows Coleridge analysing the workings of his own mind, and remarking
wryly that 'My Thoughts crowd each other to death.' The exhibition
includes several awed descriptions of his renowned table-talk - though
as other items reveal, reconstructing his conversation after the event
was no easy matter. His nephew John Taylor Coleridge writes in his
journal: 'It is impossible to carry off, or commit to paper his long
trains of argument, indeed it is not always possible to understand them,
he lays the foundation so deep, and views every question in so original
a manner.' Sara Coleridge writes in a letter: 'My father generally
discoursed on such a very extensive scale that it would have been an
arduous task for me to attempt recording what I had heard .. When alone
with me he was almost always on the star-paved road, taking in the whole
heavens in his circuit.' The journal of Coleridge's
nephew, John Taylor Coleridge, also sheds new light on the composition
of his best known poem, The Ancient Mariner. In 1836, he records
Wordsworth's account of the genesis of the poem. 'My uncle had been told
a dream which some friend's friend had had of a skeleton ship - on that
hint he worked - & as he worked he stated that there must be some
cause for his Mariner's sufferings - some crime committed by him. W. had
lately read in Shelbrook's (or Sheldrake's) voyages of a sailor having
shot an albatross, that came to the ship, & asked my Uncle if he did
not think that would do - he thought it would, and adopted it.'
According to the journal entry, Wordsworth also claimed to have
suggested the idea of 'the dead men rising to work the ship' and to have
actually written two lines of the poem himself - the lines near the
beginning of the poem where the wedding guest 'listens like a three
years' child: / The Mariner hath his will'. Elsewhere there are stinging
indictments of Coleridge's personality, include a letter from Robert
Southey, ruling out the idea of a possible reconciliation between the
poet and his wife. Southey writes, 'He considers nothing but his own
ease… His habits…are destructive of all comfort and domestic order.'
In one of the letters on display, his son Derwent reflects on some of
the flaws and paradoxes in his father's character: 'As a poet, and as a
philosopher, nay even as a critic and conversationist - no less than as
a man - with much of the very highest excellence there was always some
defect - some screw loose in the marvellous and on the whole admirable
machine.' Formerly preserved in family
ownership at the Chanter's Hours, Ottery St Mary, Devon, the archive was
acquired by the British Library last year with the aid of generous
grants from the National Heritage Memorial Fund, the Pilgrim Trust, the
Friends of the National Libraries, the Friends of the British Library,
the Lynn Foundation, the Gamlen Charitable Trust and the Denton Wilde
Sapte Charitable Trust. The archive is currently
being archived and will be fully accessible to researchers in 2008. For further information,
contact Ruth Howlett at the British Library Press Office: 020 7412 7112
or ruth.howlett@bl.uk A Poet in the Family: The
Coleridge Archive is on display in The Sir John Ritblat Gallery:
Treasures of the British Library from 27 February to 27 April 2007. Admission
free. The British Library is the national Library of the United Kingdom. It provides world class information services to the academic, business, research and scientific communities and offers unparalleled access to the world's largest and most comprehensive research collection. Further information is available on the Library's website at www.bl.uk |
World and Geo-Politics World and Geo-Politics World and Geo-Politics Al Gore's An Inconvenient Truth in Sheffield Carolyn
Waudby, our World Politics Editor
takes a look at what happens when self interests make everyone of us fallible
to an undeniable state of falling out with the truth! America’s
almost president, Al Gore, recently came to speak on global warming in
Sheffield, UK, the city where I live. His talk was to invited guests only
and controversially, journalists were not among them – a strange move
considering his platform is spreading the message on the critical
acceleration of climate change. However,
the university where I work organised a screening of his film An
Inconvenient Truth, which was open to all. In
it, Gore is filmed addressing audiences elsewhere and his performance is
impressive. He has personally journeyed around the globe collecting visual
evidence to back up the alarming statistics of global warming. We witnessed
footage of melting icecaps at the North Pole and raging bush fires in the
antipodes, sandwiched between scientific data turned into easy-to-grasp
graphics, most of which, when extrapolated over 20 years went off the chart.
Perhaps most shocking was a map of the world indicating which areas would be
under water if too much of the northern ice cap melts - major cities such as
San Francisco and Manhattan Island, not merely the rural fringes of land
masses. Gore
likens the refusal of some to acknowledge that the global warming we are
currently experiencing is man-made, to the flat denials that tobacco causes
cancer voiced by the pro-tobacco industry lobby several decades ago. This is
a subject close to home for Gore, whose family grew tobacco and whose sister
developed lung cancer. But
the interesting point about An
Inconvenient Truth is that it is not all doom and gloom. Gore, who comes
across as passionate and inspirational, believes that it is not too late to
stop and even reverse the global warming trend. He ends the film with things
that every individual can do – recycling, planting trees, cutting car
usage, using energy-saving light bulbs, and so on – and we left the
auditorium believing our actions could make a difference. The
next day, on the university email came a round-robin message from a member
of staff who was a scientist, claiming some of the information Gore had used
was wrong. The message sparked heated debate both on email and on the
sender’s blog. The
message made me angry, not because it questioned Gore’s data, but that it
came across as nit-picking and did not offer any backing for the overall
messages (and presumably correct data) which Gore had put across. It turned
out, ironically, that the sender himself had got some of his facts wrong,
and he had to send round a retraction. But
it is precisely this sort of behaviours by scientists that have led to
apathy over climate change – petty carping and denial rather than, until
now, a collective voice and coherent programme to help us all tackle climate
change. We
see scientists as somehow infallible. They’ve replaced priests and gods in
western society. But as the tobacco issue shows, they are just as
susceptible to greed, bribery, influence or error as anyone else. Therefore, when some of them deny what we are seeing and experiencing before our own eyes, we should examine their motives. We should demand and seek answers ourselves, rather than placing our trust in those who deem it too ‘inconvenient’ to change. Comments
to carolyn dot waudby at poetsletter dot com Featured Poet: Sarah Wardle
After Magritte The Reckless Sleeper dreams above
his headstone, In The Memorial to the Murdered Jews of Europe, Berlin This is art which imitates death, Declaration I like to give mankind the
benefit of the doubt I have faith, not in any
religious morality, I think all persons possess the
energy Lost Plots The quest became a story of two
lovers. Mood Games These words you read involve the
semantics International
Women's Day Night @ Dogstar! In
aid of International Women's day, Thursday, March 8, Lambeth Arts in
association with Pretty Petty Thieves will be hosting a night to celebrate
the day. Live Music, Poetry, spoken word and Live DJs will be featured so
come along for some fun and informative Line
up: Kerry-Fleur
Schleifer: Maggie
Sullivan: Ayanna
Witter-Johnson: South
London based Jazz musician
Sarah Wardle:
Poet
who has released two bloodaxe books. For more www.poetsletter.com
Mary Jane
Coles: Critically
acclaimed DJ who has appeared at mainly mainstream festivals and received
backing from BBC Radio 1
March
8 2007: Entry:
£2: For
more information email: Shola Aleje: Saint_knuckles@yahoo.co.uk Poetry School Poetry Event Join us at the next Poetry Club for an evening of wonderful poetry and food. The Poetry Club is the place for poets to meet, relax, eat wonderful food and enjoy superb readings. 17th March 2007, 7pm Ev Delicatessen 97-99 Isabella St. Waterloo, SE1 8DA 020 762 061 91 Ev is a hop away from Southwark tube station. Entry £5, £4, £3 to suit pocket We are delighted to showcase six exceptional poets who have participated in courses with The Poetry School, and who will be reading with two of our tutors. Don Paterson Greta Stoddart Pat Borthwick Ian Bremner Patrick Early Rebecca Gethin Joyce Goldstein Mary McNulty Hosted at the Anatolian Café Ev, these readings celebrate everything that is essential to The Poetry School: inspiring poetry, an inclusive community and a commitment to and love of the art. The Poetry School operates a generous bursary scheme so that no one should be excluded from our programme on financial grounds. All money raised at The Poetry Club is added to the scheme's funds (meze is not included in the entry price). £5, £4, £3 to suit pocket Don Paterson has written four collections of poems, Nil Nil (1993), God's Gift to Women (1997) - winner of the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize, The Eyes (1999) and Landing Light, which won both the T. S. Eliot Prize and the Whitbread Prize for Poetry. Greta Stoddart studied at The Poetry School and is now a tutor. Her debut volume At Home in the Dark (Anvil, 2001) was shortlisted for the 2001 Forward Prize for Best First Collection and won the Geoffrey Faber Memorial Prize 2002. She is Writer-in-Residence at Exeter University. Featured Poet: Joshua Idehen
Joshua Idehen is co-founder of the Uber coolio-collective known as A Poem Inbetween People, the host and organiser of the spoken word event PoeJazzi, and a spoken word artist himself, perfoming all over london at such renowned events such as OneTaste, Poetry N Motion, Poetry cafe, to name a few. When he is not speaking words/hosting, Joshua is yelling at his brother, yelling at the TV screen, writing his novel, writing some more, working, and at the end of it all... finally going to sleep. And finally when he sends his submissions rather late he is willing to risk blaming it for either being lazy or busy! We are not sure which of these to choose! Come to Poetry Cafe on the 12th to hear Joshua Read with us. Exes meeting for dinner Cheek Kisses colder than caviar And then Hiroshima Just like that, your cards
imitating re-enforced Conversation thinly butters
silence, Pause for breath Friends, you chat friends and
family Maybe that's not a po-face mask after all Like wine you've both aged, you
have changed, both of you The bill is split down the middle Sure, why not Experience imprisons pain behind two greatbigfatsmiles It is the fool, and the fearful You loved her once Life: a sport This must be second place On the way to Frankfurt Hahn
Big ones small ones fat ones
molehill ones super size-ones they sunbathing in blankets Dare I the gall to believe in
those fifteen seconds Or were they all just giving me the finger? I move my pawn I understand what she means She says Marilyn Monroe spent her smart
years I understand but disagree. I make a move She checks me. And continues I understand and agree Because no one loves a smart
pants Just then Paris Hilton walks And Ms. Goody says Paris has that half sleepy look She says soon as daddy dies and I turn around. The board is
checkmate. (this poem was written before her faux-pas at the celeb big bro house 2007) She saw her father once He visited mother the night
before, That day she saw him Father was a teddy bear Father could carry her with two
fingers He took her to school that morn He placed her and her backpack on
the front of his bike Fast the wind kissed her eyes At the school gates they
dismounted Older, her work hours are
infinite A good day off is a racetrack
afternoon The broken hearts boil in her
dusttrail She resents that.
A CO-COMMISSION FROM THE LOWRY
AND THE LIVERPOOL CULTURE COMPANY This September The Lowry stages the world premiere of King Cotton, a co-commission with The Liverpool Culture Company, which will also open at The Liverpool Empire later that month. This is the first stage play in
25 years from one of Liverpool's best-known playwrights, the award-winning
Jimmy McGovern, author of Cracker, Hillsborough and The Street, and adapted
from an original idea by Ian Brownbill. Famous for his incisive take on
contemporary society, McGovern uses his unique talent to bring another
controversial period in the country's history to life. This ground-breaking
co-commission not only links two cities renowned for their artistic
excellence but also three of the most important names in theatre, music and
television. Since opening in 2000, The Lowry, the hugely popular and award-winning arts venue on Salford Quays, has brought a dynamic new strand to the performing arts portfolio of the region and in 2007 presents its most ambitious project yet, King Cotton. In the run up to Liverpool
becoming The European Capital of Culture 2008, King Cotton is staged at a
highly significant time. Commissioned to mark the bicentenary of the
abolition of the slave trade, it is one of the highlights of the city's
800th birthday calendar and is part of the city's Year of Heritage programme. King Cotton is directed by one of Liverpool's most famous daughters, Jude Kelly, former Artistic Director of West Yorkshire Playhouse, currently Artistic Director of London's South Bank Centre and one of the most dynamic and innovative theatre and opera directors of recent times. An emotional and inspiring musical theatre, King Cotton's music is composed by Howard Goodall, famous for his TV theme tunes including Blackadder, Mr Bean, Red Dwarf, The Catherine Tate Show and The Vicar of Dibley. With epic sweep and compelling music, it tells the story of the struggle to break free from poverty and slavery, seen through the eyes of Sokoto, a black slave working on an American cotton plantation and those of Tom, an impoverished mill-worker in the North West of England. It is set at the time of the American Civil War and the Lancashire cotton famine. Cotton is the thread that binds their lives; lives inextricably linked until the story is finally played out and reaches its emotionally wrought conclusion. The narrative is driven by a group of musicians performing music inspired by the traditional sounds of Northern mill towns and the plantations of the Deep South, with the defiant pulse of the African drum resonant. King Cotton is produced by The
Lowry and co-commissioned by The Lowry and the Liverpool Culture Company.
King Cotton is supported by The National Lottery through Arts Council
England, and the PRS Foundation. The Lowry: Booking for King Cotton is only open to mylowry subscribers until public booking opens on Thurs 1 March. To book now for King Cotton, register free on The Lowry's home page at www.thelowry/mylowry. Liverpool Empire: Public booking opens Thur 1 March 07
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