An unexpectedly lovely consequence of the EPF Sweden event down at Kingston University was new live portraits made by artist and publisher Alban Low, including this one of myself, yabbing. They are beautiful! More to be found http://artofjazz.blogspot.com/2021/11/european-poetry-festival-2021-swedish.html
A note on : EPF 2021, collaborating (wrestling) with Krišjānis Zeļģis
Krisjanis had a grand idea for our work together, our second live collaboration. Poems built on daily notes of gratefulness, with an inevitable twist, when spliced together, interspersed with wrestling. He knew wrestling had been a big part of my life, remains so, since I was young, and Krisjanis being a rock climber, that the physicality should produce a layered and strange and challenging performance. It did, I think. I thought it turned out playful, intimate, symbolic. The audience seemed a bit shellacked by it, but who can tell with one’s own work? I do know I really respect Krisjanis so much, as a person, a poet and now, as a sparring partner. Lovely pics by Madeleine Rose Elliott.
A note on : EPF Latvia at Goethe Institut
This was an intense and brilliant event. I thought well of my pairings for the visiting Latvian poets, for Krišjānis Zeļģis, Lote Vilma Vītiņa, Inga Pizāne, Jelena Glazova worked so well with their counterparts. We were in the darkened cinema space of the generous Goethe centre, on Exhibition Road, just off Hyde Park. https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/latvia
There was a sense of physicality running throughout, a touch of menace with the playfulness, though the meditative live visual poetry of Bettina Fung and Lote Vitina was a particular highlight. Worth watching the videos at the link above. Some great photos by Madeleine Rose Elliott too.
A note on : EPF Slovenia, pictures by Alexander Kell
Alexander Kell, who has photographed so many of my events over the last decade, produced another amazing group of snaps from Saturday night’s European Poetry Festival event at Iklectik Artlab celebrating Slovenian poetry. Loads more here https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/slovenia
A note on : EPF 2021, collaborating with Bob T Bright
Bob is a friend, and part of the Popogrou collective which has grown up around my online workshops, and we decided to contribute a piece to the EPF Slovenia proceedings. Bob and Babs, the gongboys, presenting some poems, jokes, hair and sound poetry. A bit of a quiet audience, though the venue is so superlative, so though I didn’t plan to introduce my cockney cat Babs I did, on the fly, and Bob just rolled with it. I think we touched people’s haaarts.
A note on : EPF Slovenia at Iklectik Artlab
On a stormy London night, in a slightly hidden yard near Waterloo, we had a really resonant memorable night at Iklectik Artlab with Slovenian poets, based both in the UK and travelling in, showing off new collaborations, alongside other pairs supporting. All the vids are up https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/slovenia and some real highlights, especially from the Slovene based duos
A note on : EPF Sweden at Writers Kingston
A really great night at Kingston University, at the RIBA award winning Town House building, a packed out crowd witnessed Swedish poets collaborating with Brits, alongside other locals, who also presented new tandem works made for the night. Really such a playful, affable, succinct, interesting night of work. Great to meld this EPF event with the Writers Kingston program too.
All the performances are now on youtube, to be watched here too https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/sweden
Some amazing photos by Madeleine Rose Elliott alongside those videos. Big thanks to the Swedish Embassy for supporting the endeavour
A note on : EPF Hungary at The Liszt Institute
The second of a trio of European Poetry Festival events marking this week in London, this time celebrating Hungarian poetry, through the visit of Annas Vados and Anna Kata Ferentz, at the The Liszt Institute, the Hungarian Cultural Centre in the UK, who also supported the event. Their venue is really beautiful, right in the heart of Covent Garden, and the event had multiple solo readings before collaborations to finish. It was completely sold out, and really hot, so over the hour or so, it felt curiously intense, and memorable.
All ten performances are available to watch on youtube and are also up on the website link here https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/hungary
Some beautiful photos to go with the videos too, by Alexander Kell
A note on : EPF Norway at Open Ealing
A really fun, intimate event out in west London, enjoying the great hospitality of Open Ealing arts centre and welcoming both UK based and visiting Norwegian poets for the 2nd event of the winter 2021 European Poetry Festival.
All videos and some piccies at this link https://www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/norway
There was a real range of collaborations on display, from meditative, conceptual, literary, playful, to all out experimental intensity. Great to see old friends Bjorn Vatne and Jon Stale Ritland, to see Harry Man launch his spender prize winning book and to support again by the folk at the Norwegian embassy and NORLA too.
A note on : Writers Kingston #45 : Poem Brut and book launches
The second Writers Kingston event of the year took place on November 9th in the award winning Town House building in Kingston upon Thames with some super intense, memorable Poem Brut performances - https://www.writerskingston.com/writingcultures/
Great to see some old friends there, and nice to have had a hand in the three books that were launched on this night, all from Hesterglock Press, by Patrick Cosgrove, Martin Wakefield and Chris Kerr. All videos and more at the link above
A note on : EPF 2021, collaborating with Clea Chopard
An extraordinary poet and performer Clea Chopard is. I was lucky to work with her and I’m happy with how our collaboration turned out. Clea is brilliant with concepts and a really adapt improviser, so we worked up a couple of ideas and let it happen on the night, having met a few hours before for the first time. There was a levity in it, an ease, that is a credit to her skill and confidence. From translation to art poetry to talking performance to a kind of dance, and then being a poem burrito, human gift wrap, live walking poem board…
A note on : Swiss brilliance at the Rich Mix, European Poetry Festival winter 2021 opens
A really great night, a remarkable opening event to the winter 2021 European Poetry Festival in London, celebrating contemporary Swiss poetry with performance and collaboration. We had a pretty much full capacity audience witnessed the new works made for the night by eight pairs of poets. The audience were really generous and by the end everyone seemed proper happy. All the videos and photos are online here www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/swiss
A note on: International Colloquium of Visual Poetry online exhibition
Cool to be featured on this amazingly ambitious online exhibition, curated by the International Colloquium of Visual Poetry out of Brazil. https://www.jornadadepoesiavisual.com/mostravirtual
I am like 300 poets down the page, but have two works in there, a concrete poem and an asemic poem. There are so so many names here new to me, from all over the world, and tonnes of Brazilian visual poets especially. Well worth a scroll.
A note on : Alphabet in Decay exhibition
Really happy to have a work in this remarkable exhibition hosted by etkbooks stores gallery in Berne, Switzerland, curated by Joakim Norling of Timglaset.
Alphabet in Decay – International exhibition of visual poetry beyond language. Artists and authors from 11 countries. Curated by Timglaset Editions, Sweden. Exhibition @ etkbooks store, 05.11.2021-26.11.2021
“the fact that the letters of the alphabet are instantly recognizable is one of the foundations of language and of poetry. but what happens when individual letters lose their meaning and become unrecognizable? this exhibition brings together works by visual poets and artists from around the world who have tweaked and manipulated the letters of the alphabet to the point where they have become illegible and decayed, or devised new representations of individual letters.” (Joakim Norling, Timglaset Editor)
At this link you can download a pdf of the whole exhibition catalogue https://www.etkbooks.com/alphabet/
Work: Atrocita is an asemic poem working through its own material – indian ink and spit – moving from legibility to open meaning. It is taken from the book Aletta Ocean's Alphabet Empire (Hesterglock Press), which was a volume of hand-made poems exploring the eros-less sexuality of the internet age through a singular aesthetic of black indian ink, mess, smudge, grids and scrawls.
A note on : European Poetry Festival begins in 10 days, with Swiss then Norwegian poets!
EUROPEAN POETRY FESTIVAL : SWITZERLAND
November Saturday 20th at Rich Mix, London
www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/swiss
7pm doors / Free Entrance : EPF 2021 begins with an event centered around visiting contemporary Swiss poets presenting brand new performance collaborations with British-based counterparts, made for the night, at one of East London’s most iconic poetry venues. With Baptiste Gaillard & Vik Shirley / Rolf Hermann and Joe Dunthorne / Clea Chopard & SJ Fowler / Ghazal Mosadeq and Simona Nastac / Mikael Buck and Michael O’Mahony / Vanessa Onwuemezi and Martin Wakefield / Ana Seferovic and Konstantinos Papacharalampos & more. Supported by Pro Helvetia.
EUROPEAN POETRY FESTIVAL : NORWAY
November tuesday 23rd at Open Ealing, London
www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/norway
7pm doors / Free Entrance : EPF 2021 continues with a celebration of contemporary Norwegian poetry, in collaboration. New performance poems made in tandem for this event will be presented across styles and languages. With Endre Ruset & Harry Man / Bjørn Vatne & Richard Marshall / Jon Ståle Ritland & JT Welsch / Maren Nygård & Susie Campbell / Silje Ree & Maria Celina Val / Tamar Yoseloff & Alison Gill / Chris Kerr & Virna Teixeira. Supported by The Norwegian Embassy UK and NORLA. The event will also serve as a launch for Utøya Thereafter : Poems in Memory of the 2011 Norway Attacks by Harry Man and Endre Ruset available from Hercules Editions
A note on : video Kamen's exhibition with audio of my poem
A cool video of Rebecca Kamen's remarkable exhibition Reveal: The Art of Reimaging Scientific Discovery at the Katzen Arts Center in the American University Museum, which features audio of the poem i wrote in response to the works, read by me, with Videography by Gregory R. Staley and other audio by breath artist: Shodekeh Talifero
A note on : Writers Kingston begins, Seen as Read launch
A wonderful start to a new year of Writers Kingston events, and opening in the new Town House building for the first time, award winning as it is, we were in the beautiful courtyard venue. 10 readers, all poets featured in a new visual poetry anthology Ive edited with kingston university press, all presented short new performances. I got to meet in person some poets I had corresponded with for some time alongside some old friends. More info on the event will be up on www.writerskingston.com/seenasread
Im happy to say the anthology has nearly sold out its first run, but a few copies remain before I likely have a second print done with the publishers. If you’d like one https://poembrut.bigcartel.com/product/seenasread
At a time in the near future I’ll be doing a proper online launch and sharing more information on the book, but with my festival coming, things are a little busied. For now, please visit the writers kingston youtube channel to watch all the performances https://www.youtube.com/channel/UC2LmXtC6HArB9k2QSLWQGJA/videos
New newsletter with the things of summer and winter
A collection of two dozen publications, interviews, exhibitions and commissions for my occasional newsletter https://mailchi.mp/5a872462eb0e/moles-boats-beasts-and-moons-4959594?e=9fedde3ef8
A note on : Bab's Tractor at Poem Brut Bristol
The first of a new series of improvised performances I'm maybe doing, following the adventures of a cockney cat Babs, and likely the content of a new cassette release I'll be doing entitled Bab’s Adventures : A Sound Poetry Odyssey – somewhere in between found sound material following Leon Ferrari, sound poetry in the mode of Ghedalia Tazartes and improvised talking performance kind of echoing David Antin – in 2022 with Stephen Emmerson's EIGHTOX publishers. People seemed to like it, at a poem brut event in an ex-newsagents in a shopping centre on the outskirts of Bristol anyway.
Published : 25 Poems from Nomad Letterpress and AB Press
The first limited edition letterpress publication of my nascent career! Poems by me about the process of letterpress, specifically the way in which Angie Butler of AB Press and Pat Randle of Nomad Letterpress operate, and how they collaborate, and how they use the vernacular of their artform with all its unique traditions and techniques. It has been handmade and letterpressed in an edition of 50 and is available by emailing angie.butler@uwe.ac.uk for a surprising bargain of £10 while stocks last.
A hearty thanks to my friends Angie and Pat, and a video here of us launching the publication at the Arnolfini gallery as the finale of the Printed Poetry Project on October 14th.
