Word & Image with Tamar Yoseloff and BlueGate Poets
Surrounded by one of the best collections of 20th century British art outside London and in the company of Tamar Yoseloff one of the most critically acclaimed poetry tutors in the country, twenty poets responded to art at the Swindon Museum and Art Gallery in Bath Road. Continue reading
Domestic Cherry at Artsite
Domestic Cherry Private View, a secret lifting of the cherry pinny or an exhibition of the brilliant art contributed to Domestic Cherry 3? Thankfully it was the latter, with Artsite Post Modern playing host to some of the artists whose work features in the annual. Poet Mira Borghs came all the way from Belgium to show her atmospheric ‘Raven’. Images were introduced as the inscrutable DC dog looked on like a particularly surly gallery assistant. Pei-Pei Lim described her process in creating ‘The Hairdresser’ with scorpion imagery and a blue tint to the subject’s skin and Declan Kelly liked letting his work speak for itself. Visual artist Jill Carter presented her two pieces, including one written in response to a poem written by Hilda Sheehan – editor of Domestic Cherry and host of the evening. Domestic Cherry goes from strength to strength each year and plans are afoot to make it even more beautiful, either by adding ermine piping to the pinny or featuring colour artwork in the next issue. Watch this space!
Suki – Life Drawing and Poetry Reading
Swindon experienced a coming together of creativity as life model Suki posed for artists, poets and interested thinkers at Artsite’s Post Modern gallery. A drawing session preceded a poetry reading by Suki’s manager Sue Vickerman and a fascinating discussion about life modelling, being an artist and the creative process in general. I tried to think of drawing but got poetry, I looked at Suki’s stretching, kneeling and leaning and found myself in extreme close-up, microscoping ankles, elbows and knuckles while trying to capture what I could with my 2B pencil (purchased this morning). As Helen Peyton, artist and Suki collaborator says, ‘there’s an intimacy but it’s not sexual’, I certainly felt close and connected to Suki and her naked form but much closer to me and my way of expressing things. The discussion between the Suki team and us participants was enthralling. Suki also finds that a life class is never an uncomfortable experience, just that the inside of derelict Yorkshire woolen mills can make things a bit chilly. Suki eats red caviar sandwiches on five hour car journeys and travels to her modelling assignments on a fold up bicycle. Swindon loves the way Suki does things! Sue Vickerman says that what she hears about ‘the practice’ of life drawing ‘completely parallels the process of poetry – the constant striving but you never get there’, personally I’m not sure where ‘there’ is but I feel a bit closer after this unique and bold event.
Swindon Festival of Literature Youth Slam
Those pesky kids, you know, the ones who hang around by the bus shelter, wearing hoodies and talking to each other, those ones, well they’re great! Ample evidence of this was on display at the ninth Swindon Youth Slam hosted by Marcus Moore and Sara-Jane Arbury. A hotly contested, noisy, dramatic and brilliant word battle saw teams such as ‘Bros of a school nobody knows’ lock pentameter with ‘The Glam Girls and Jimmy’ to inventive and innovative poetic effect. Themes covered showed just what poetry can do to express problems, delight and confusion. Madness, self harm, homophobia and teenage boys’ scab eating habits all got an airing. Even that most difficult of poetic conundrums got a look in – ‘the nothing rhymes with orange problem’, well at Swindon Festival of Literature ‘syringe’ most certainly does! As the finalists prepared to unleash their well oiled words, Marcus Moore reminded everyone that it was Swindon schools taking part and lamented the absence of an influential guest as he said, ‘if only the education secretary was here to see what we’ve managed to achieve’. First place went to the aforementioned ‘Glam Girls and Jimmy’ with their keenly observed poem on the inside of the mind of a teenage boy (hence the scabs). Their funny and precise performance saw them secure the number one spot for Commonweal School. Odyssey from Swindon Academy took second spot with a Shakesperian sonnetesque piece of love angst containing the killer line ‘stop wasting your time your mate is fitter. Kids at bus stops crafting sonnets hashtagging ‘ I love you’ on Twitter, the future’s bright and it might rhyme with orange.
Poetry, that intellectual, inaccessible, grey, clam-like creature was coaxed out of hiding and made to dance in Swindon tonight as Hilda Sheehan launched her debut collection ‘The Night My Sister Went To Hollywood’. Hosted by Martin Malone, the night featured gorgeous piano from Dorothea Van Velde and poetry of the highest quality from special guest Robert Vas Dias, consequently the Platform could do little else than slip on their poetic tap shoes and join in. Hilda writes poetry that baffles, excites and grins, often all in one word, she is, as Martin Malone acknowledged, a very different poet who has used her own authenticity to create a collection that works in very different ways to most published work these days. Support for Hilda was obvious with a huge crowd making it clear that they wanted to get as much of her poetry as possible. A high point came as Hilda’s Dad read a considered version of ‘The Seal’ from her collection. Cristina Newton read from her book ‘Cry Wolf’, Dorothea played Chopin to pin drop silence, Martin Malone took us to the ‘dogging spot’ of Barbury Castle and Michael Scott read about his son. Even Leland Bardwell reprised the beauty of her previous night’s performance. But it was the night that Hilda was so very good and Asda, The Towering Inferno and Sea Slugs have never sounded so essential. Swindon Festival of Literature is a thinking festival and it was obvious tonight that people were thinking that poetry might be accessible, colourful and open for business after all.
Poet Alison Brackenbury reading at the BlueGate Poets Open Mic night
Prize winning poet Alison Brackenbury brought her new collection Then to the Swindon Festival of Literature on a typically varied BlueGate Poets Open Mic night. Reading poems of glory, nature and astonishment, Brackenbury veiled the overflowing room with images of flora and fauna. But the most striking thing about the night was the variety on offer, one minute the guest poet was describing a Lapwing luring ‘hawks away from its chicks’ the next Martin Malone was tenderly reading about how he had shaved his mother’s head. Eve Kimber drafted in Shaun Butler and Jill Sharp for an experimental Elizabethan motet style poem which wove its words in many varied directions. There were visitors from Newbury with poems about unfeasibly large cassette collections they had inherited, a tale including what may have been an old Chinese proverb (Success has many father’s but failure’s always a bastard) and a drum/dance/poetry mash-up from Robert Stredder and Jackie Bardwell. The surprise appearance of acclaimed Irish poet Leland Bardwell capped an eclectic evening, her gorgeous poetry conjuring long-lasting images. Even Domestic Cherry‘s Mrs Hongo popped up as Hilda Sheehan read the poem Glow from the third edition of the poetry annual, the poem ends with a glowing woman emerging out of the top of a supermarket, as festival-goers left the GW Hotel tonight I’m sure a few of them were shining.
The Swindon Heritage Magazine Team and Matt Holland
Graham Carter makes me cry. Well, when I say makes me cry it’s really that he reminds me of a time when I cried. In 1986 to be exact. On 26th March 1986 I cried a lot, a lot of people in Swindon cried that day, it was the day the GWR Hooter sounded for the last time. If you don’t know what I’m on about you need Swindon Heritage, the magazine that Graham edits, if you do know what I’m on about you need Swindon Heritage, the magazine Graham edits. Graham is a Swindon man with an emotional attachment to the town, a connection he is determined to share by bringing Swindon’s rich heritage to life in the new magazine. Along with Frances Bevan and Mark Sutton, Graham has launched Swindon Heritage to encourage people to look at the town in a new light. The team started from scratch using their own money, plenty of ideas and boundless enthusiasm. Their perseverance and determination has seen them arrive at Issue Two having produced a critically acclaimed first issue and sparked interest across Swindon and beyond. With the luxury of the Swindon Archive to work from and over twenty local groups providing assistance and support the magazine promises to go from strength to strength. But the launch has not been with out its obstacles, ASDA, WH Smith’s and Tesco have all rejected the magazine and the local paper has chosen to see Swindon Heritage as competition. Graham made it clear that the magazine has big plans, to involve local youngsters, schools and to present heritage as what we do with history, to bring it into the present and highlight the fact that Swindon has produced the very best – Spitfires, Garrard record players, the GWR, Diana Dors and XTC. Swindon Heritage magazine can add itself to that list, it’s unique, nowhere else has produced a magazine about their town, and that makes me smile. Swindon – who’d have thought it eh?
Jimmy Pearson
Regular festival-goers are well aware that sometimes a less trumpeted event steals the show and such was the case with a fascinating hour spent in the company of author and illustrator Jimmy Pearson. Pearson thinks of comics as a medium of change and cites the recent ‘Anonymous’ actions in the Occupy movement as an example of comic book iconography being used in moments of big social change. The Guy Fawkes mask adopted by protesters was taken from the book ‘V for Vendetta’, emphasising Jimmy’s belief that comics go way beyond bubble gum entertainment and enter the territory of big ideas with pictures and words. Pearson ranged across many topics close to his heart, including his biggest influence, comedian Bill Hicks, corporate greed and the desire for women to ‘live long in comics’. It was Pearson’s idea to team women artists with male writers for the book Bayou Arcana, a beautifully illustrated saga based in the swamps of New Orleans. His next project is even more intriguing, with a vampire story against the backdrop of the Vietnam War exploring the recent financial crash. A relaxed, interested Pearson turned the tables on his audience, asking which were their favourite comics and what their views were on the power of the art form and this made for an even more intimate experience for those lucky enough to attend. ‘Comics’, says Jimmy ‘are an underused medium’, having seen the amazing work in Bayou Arcana and heard his richly drawn manifesto tonight, it’s hard to imagine their power being ignored for too much longer.
That Kate Humble and Springwatch, lovely and sweet, or maybe forthright and controversial as a full house tonight at the Swindon Arts Centre found out. Opinionated and funny from the moment she took to the stage, Humble engaged the audience with evidence based viewpoints and an insight into the steely sense of purpose that has seen her become such a respected and arresting performer. Her comfort with the unexpected was soon tested as some newly hatched ducks from Lower Shaw Farm briefly shared the stage with the BBC star. Typically there was nothing to faze Kate as she eagerly clutched one of the birds to her chest and commenced her interview with Matt Holland. A serious, considered speaker, Humble covered a range of topics from visiting apartheid blighted South Africa in the late 80’s to ‘see for herself’ to the scientific case against a badger cull. Even a saucy secret about the remarkable size of barnacle privates was shared with an audience eager to hear her nuggets of wisdom. Talking about her new book ‘Humble by Nature’, the conservationist presented a passionate case for the protection of the countryside by making every inch of it work. Humble argued that eco-systems now need to be managed because human beings have modified their environment so much. Honouring the literary aspect of the festival, Kate also reminisced about falling in love with the poetry of e e cummings at school only to be told by a teacher to stick to the study of George Crabbe, a far less attractive proposition in her opinion. With her hour on stage rushing by it was left for Humble to provide further surprises via Devizes and a naughty Limerick which made me regret that she had chosen not to settle in Wiltshire permanently, preferring Wye Valley sheep to Madonna’s country estate.
Jason Maverick, Swindon Festival of Literature 2013
The 20th Swindon Festival of Literature is underway and in spectacular style! A perfect morning at Lawn Woods saw Festival Director Matt Holland crack open a bottle of champagne to celebrate the beginning of the third decade of Swindon’s number one arts event. Recent years have brought as many shivers as smiles to the Dawn Chorus, but today early rising festival-goers were treated to blue skies, golden sun and a very early taste of what this years festival has to offer. Swindon Scratch Choir’ s Sun Arise Singers softly sang the sun up at 5.30am as Jake the Juggler and bagpipe man Danny serenaded the large crowd. Folically challenged poet Jason Maverick started proceedings proper with verse, mime, juggling, plenty of audience participation and a poem about turning into his Dad (but not his Mum). Music Alive brought strings and haunting sounds to the woods and Storyteller Chris Park told a tale of thanks before human statue Andria Walton shared Shakespeare with us. Poetry annual Domestic Cherry 3 was also launched by its fragrant founder Mabel Watson. A madcap finale saw Marky Jay build a two man human pyramid to juggle machetes from the top of, sadly for Marky one half of the pyramid was the notoriously unreliable Barry Dicks of the aforementioned Domestic Cherry, causing an event which had started so beautifully to end as an ugly heap in front of a glorious sunset over Swindon.
Festival Chronicle 