Reel Iraq poetry - the videos

Friday night's Reel Iraq event at the rich mix was the beginning of an intense weekend. First and foremost I have to recognise the amazing work the Reel people have done and the kind invitation of Ryan Van Winkle and Dan Gorman to allow me to curate an hour of poetry to commemorate the 10 year anniversary of the invasion of Iraq. The event was very well attended and the work on display was at times quite special to witness. If I'm honest I couldn't have envisioned the tone of evening being anything but intense, and in fact, it wasn't really, so I felt a little out of sorts. A lot of valuable reflections have been made since the event by people like George Szirtes and Clare Pollard, and I feel what I might add is either too big to say or too didactic to be valuable. Hopefully the videos below speak for themselves, to some extent, though I'm not sure the issue was really touched where it should have been touched outside the readings of a few on the night.  You can view the rest of the videos, including readings from the 3 Iraqi poets in attendance on my youtuuuube www.youtube.com/fowlerpoetry