A note on - Living Words : Catalan Poetry and Performance

April Sunday 10th : 2pm Iklectik Artlab
Free Entrance

Old Paradise Yard, 20 Carlisle Ln, London SE1 7LG
www.europeanpoetryfestival.com/catalan

with performances byMireia Calafell and Björt Rùnars / Amy Cutler / Maria Sevilla and Joan Martínez / Mischa Foster Poole / Laia Martínez and Jaume Reus, known as Jansky / David Spittle

A unique afternoon of live Catalan literature, celebrating the innovative and performative brilliance of three contemporary Catalan poets and their musical collaborators. Representing a new wave of poets to whom experimentation and performance are core to their understanding of literature, and held at the remarkable Iklectik Artlab in Waterloo, this event will also feature three British poets, presenting brand new live works in response to the visitors - in acts of homage, collaboration and playful hospitality.

The event will also be a wider celebration of Catalan culture, to be followed by an informal sampling of regional drink and food. This event is part of Spotlight on Catalan Culture in the UK, an arts and culture festival taking place from March to June 2022. Curated by SJ Fowler.

A note on : Great Apes launch at St Johns on Bethnal Green - April 7th

Officially my tenth poetry collection, exactly eleven years after I launched my first, will be launched at the remarkable Gothic church St Johns on Bethnal Green in London, on April Thursday 7th, at 7pm doors, with free entrance.

It’s my third publication from the brilliant Broken Sleep Books and as such I’ve asked 9 poets from their list to also read / perform on the night.

David Spittle, who will also be launching his new book in the flesh, alongside Cai Draper, Fiona Larkin, Rishi Dastidar, Stuart McPherson, George Ttoouli, Annie Katchinska, Bobby Parker and Chris Kerr.

The event won’t be ape themed, though that was a temptation, but in such an amazing venue it should be a really varied and brilliant event, reflecting the genuinely varied nature of the BS list. All the better for that.

The event is free, but please do bring a few bob for the book table.

The Great Apes is available to pre-order here https://www.brokensleepbooks.com/product-page/sj-fowler-the-great-apes

Here is the venue’s website too, lovely people https://www.stjohnonbethnalgreen.org/

A note on : SEEN AS READ - Online Course on Visual Poetry

https://www.poembrut.com/courses An online course. Begins April 3rd 2022, running for 7 weeks.

What are the possibilities of poetry on the page, or screen, beyond, or expanding with, its semantic content? Far from being a domain of contemporary experimentation in marginal literatures, what we know as visual poetry reaches back into the very origins of poetry, far more than more formal, mainstream writing. This online course exposes the roots of the language arts, from cave paintings to undecipherable manuscripts, before touching upon the possibilities of the modern visual poetry by taking in great swathes of modern art engaged with text. We explore Asemic writing, Collage Poetry, Concrete Poetry, Art Poetry, Minimalism, Poster Poetry and Originary Visual Poetry in a course rooted in making over theory, method over all else.

Participants will be sent a succinct document of resources once a week for seven weeks – ideas, examples, concepts, history, accompanied by exercises or prompts. Then on a private blog-forum responses and work can be posted, with comments and feedback from all involved. When the course finishes, an event or publication will consolidate that which everyone has produced.

Poet-artists featured on the course will range from the historical to the contemporary, taken from all over the globe - from canonical modern artists to "outsider" poets, from Laszlo Moholy-Nagy to Henry Michaux, Bob Cobbing to Rosaire Appel, Sophie Calle to Sophie Podolski, Jean Michel Basquiat to Cy Twombly.

A note on : Teaching at Edge Hill University

I had the chance to visit Ormskirk to give a visiting lecture at Edge Hill Uni, thanks to the brilliant poet and editor James Byrne. James is a remarkable writer, but also someone who has a truly global vision of poetry, with his feet firmly on the ground. It was great to meet his students, on a course he runs similar to the one i have at kingston university, and talk to them about balancing subject with method in poetry. It was a lecture on how I believe a poet should mindfully choose how as well as what they write about. They were, as James was, really hospitable. I also got to stay on campus, a unique experience, and during a huge storm.

A note on : Teaching at Westerdals, Høyskolen Kristiania

Certainly for concise teaching experiences, embedded, engaged, workshop type pedagogy, this was one of the best experiences I’ve ever had.

On Monday morning we had nothing. Myself, nearly 30 students at Westerdals, Høyskolen Kristiania in Oslo and Bard Torgersen - the brilliant poet, novelist, performer and teacher, who invited me to lead a four day workshop in the Norwegian capital, working intensely with those students.

By Thursday evening the students performed 5 plays in a perfectly paced, blocked show to a packed room. 70 people witnessed really challenging group collaborations, made from scratch, each responding to an experimental poetry methodology and then taken on into proper pieces of theatre.

A relentlessly impressive display by the students, who were self-motivated, mature, insightful, generous to each other, witty and clever. And this through Bard Torgersen’s unique approach, a constantly challenging, holistic, weird and wise course that had been built over 20 years. I have never seen a structure like it for higher education creative writing. A kind of conservatoire model for poets, not mirroring academic subjects, but taking poetry as a vocation, or something into every corner of life and knowledge.

I felt, over those four days, I barely did anything. I gave an overall direction, posed questions, came up with some obstacles, played a few tricks, leant on some previous experiences, but really did very little. It was uplifting to feel my practical experience was as important as my academic knowledge. To feel that the students would work it out themselves, in their self-made groups, always putting their best in, showing up and really thinking carefully through how they would provoke and challenge the audience. We spent as much time talking about timing, nerves, space, pacing, drafting, body language, visualisation, expectation and rhythm as we did about technique, content or method. In the end, I was really so happy for them they got such a good turnout and performed the final night without a single falter or hitch. I was more than a bit proud. And the day after, trapped in Oslo by storm eunice for a day or two longer than planned, the week felt surreal, dream-like, that so much was done so quickly, and was over so rapidly on such a high note. I’ll probably never see any of the students again and maybe this is due to this kind of thing being denied during the pandemic, but this all had the effect of making me feel how singular such experiences are. They happen once like this, and are over as they begin, precisely because they require such concentration on the moment of their happening.

A note on : The Book of Penteract

https://penteractpress.com/store/the-book-of-penteract

THE BOOK OF PENTERACT presents penteract press’ biggest project to date - a 200 page, full-colour, hardback anthology featuring 45 of the most exciting poets currently working in the fields of constrained, formal, and visual poetry. This is a casebound edition, with a striking red ribbon bookmark and black and red head and tail-bands.

Featuring contributions from: Merlina Acevedo, Sacha Archer, Nick Asbury, Gary Barwin, Derek Beaulieu, Gregory Betts, Richard Biddle, Christian Bök, Luke Bradford, Andrew Brenza, Susie Campbell, Marian Christie, Lisa Cooper, Franco Cortese, Clara Daneri, Laura Davis, Lucy Dawkins, Dave Drayton, Anthony Etherin, Teo Eve, SJ Fowler, Mary Frances, Helen Frank, Mark Goodwin, Paul Hawkins, Greg Hill, Tom Jenks, Robert Frede Kenter, Chris Kerr, Laura Kerr, Michelle Moloney King, Alex McKeown, Nick Montfort, Astra Papachristodoulou, Imogen Reid, Katrina Roberts, Petra Schulze-Wollgast, Kate Siklosi, Rachel Smith, Vilde B Torset, Philip Terry, Simon Tyrrell, María Celina Val, Margaret Viboolsittiseri, & Lori Wike.

A note on : Typoetry workshops in Newham

As part of my involvement in the brilliant Typoetry project /typoetry I had the chance to do two workshops in Newham. First, open to young people in the area at the Library in East Ham, and then in the Stratford Youth Zone with pupils from Chobham academy.

Both were immensely rewarding. I prepared properly for both too, not often working with potentially larger groups of people in their teens, who perhaps didn’t have a huge familiarity / interest in my kind of poetry. In the end, both were so so brilliant. I learned a lot from those who attended, about their lives in Newham, and the language they use to navigate their worlds. We also had a laugh the whole way through and I was met with nothing but positivity and hospitality.

Both workshops were supported not only by the remarkable David Beck and Julie Zeller of the Swiss embassy but also by Caroline Oakley, Deborah Peck and Salma Lyons of the Youth Empowerment Services, Library Services and Chobham Academy respectively.

A note on : TYPOETRY

Really happy to share news of a new project I am part of which will be a huge part of my 2022. Typoetry : Rethink – Rebuild.

‘Typoetry’ is an exhibition of poetry and graphic design taking place in the London Borough of Newham in spring 2022. In association with UK and Swiss poets, around thirty poems will be designed by the students of the University of Art and Design of Lausanne (ECAL), printed in large format and displayed in several areas of Newham.

Featuring works by Swiss poets Linn Molineaux, Clea Chopard, Laura Accerboni, Rolf Hermann, Michael Fehr, Baptiste Gaillard, Daniele Pantano, Hartmut Abendschein, Pierrine Poget, Heike Feidler and works by British poets Eley Williams, Victoria Kaye, Stephen Watts, SJ Fowler, Rushika Wick, Vanessa Onwuemezi, Gareth Evans with more poets to be announced, including ten young poets local to Newham, sharing works created in tailored workshops, taking place as part of the project.

‘Typoetry’ is an exhibition of poetry and graphic design. Around thirty artworks printed in large format will form poetic trails in the town centres of the London Borough of Newham from 30 April to 29 May 2022. Led by the Embassy of Switzerland in the UK, in collaboration with Newham Council and the University of Art and Design in Lausanne (ECAL), the project champions typography and poetry whilst developing tools of empowerment. The artworks will be showcased on the front windows of trading businesses, public buildings, vacant premises and other sites. The exhibition and its engagement programme will contribute to the social and economic activity of the London Borough of Newham. Moreover, as a public art installation, Typoetry promotes and fosters two artistic forms rarely accessible to broad audiences or seen in art spaces: poetry and typography.

A note on : Poems on virtues for Millfield School

I find myself teaching a huge amount this year, and working with people aged in their early teens all the way into their 70s. It is the former which is newer for me. Whereas in the past it was mostly with adults with whom I worked, sharing methods more than anything, in recent times being asked to lead workshops and write poems for younger people has been a novelty, and a privilege, and a challenge. One of these opportunities, thanks to the brilliant poet James Knight, was to write poetry on two virtues held by Millfield School - Authenticity and Curiosity (my choice). These poems were then given to the students to respond to, with words and films, and soon those responses will be out to share and I’ll be fascinated to see what they make of my weirdness.

A note on : Samuel Strathman reviews Sticker Poems

https://feversofthemind.com/2022/01/09/a-book-review-of-s-j-fowlers-sticker-poems-review-by-samuel-strathman/

“S.J. Fowler’s visual poetry collection, Sticker Poems (Trickhouse Press, 2021) is any childhood sticker fan’s dream.  The book is a compendium of our favorite stickers, as well as crafty new creations.  There are also many statements within the pages that are meant for humor as well as deeper thought.  A sticker book could not be a sticker book without repetition, but Fowler makes the repetition meaningful in the only way that a vispo (visual poetry) master can …

A note on : Up to 132 editions, Poem Brut on 3am magazine

Past 10 years as poetry editor of 3am magazine, the Poem Brut handmade literature focus on the online magazine now has reached 132 editions with some brilliant recent work by Scott Lilley, Mary Paterson, Jade King, Ailsa Holland, CD Boyland, Aryan Kaganof and many more, all listed all this link https://www.3ammagazine.com/3am/index/poetry/

It’s not getting press but it’s a series actually breaking ground, with everything from poetry sculptures to asemic opus’. And it’s also featuring poets from every corner of the earth.

Published : Old the Dark in AnthraZine

Nice to have a poem in this beautifully produced debut publication from a new zine https://anthrazine.bigcartel.com/product/anthra

The poem was in my 2020 book ‘I will show you the life of the mind (on prescription drugs)’ and was written reading gerald manley hopkins after seeing a poem of his used as a cinematic epigraph for the film hold the dark. i then went and found the novel of this film and read it, and while i was writing poems for diamanda dramm to sing. they became a sequence. and this poem OLD THE DARK was what myself and the editor Molly Hills though most fitting to the theme of the zine, which is “exploring the relationship between humans and plants in an urban environment. It brings art, poetry and science together into a human space, to reflect on the ties between the wild and the domesticated.

A note on : Bastard Poems in the National Poetry Library

very happy my books of 2021, including the pictured Bastard Poems (Steel Incisors Press), have now found their way into the National Poetry Library at Southbank Centre and are on display in the acquisitions section. the library catalogue contains nearly 50 publications of mine and will, in 2022, take copies of everything i’ve published, including the ephemera. i keep an archive of all the books i’ve done, with a small stack of copies of each put aside, but it’s good to know the NPL will hold the full bibliography too.

A note on : Worm Wood and Tereza Stehlikova artist talk in London

Recently my long term collaborator and friend Tereza Stehlikova was in conversation with curator Gareth Evans about her practice, to mark the end of her exhibition Ophelia in Exile at the Czech Centre's Vitrínka Gallery. She was kind enough to discuss our film (image attached), and our long term project, Worm Wood, which screened in an early version at the whitechapel gallery in 2020. That project is still ongoing and more filming will take place this year as the area of west london it documents terraforms before the eyes of locals. You can follow Tereza’s work at https://cinestheticfeasts.com/

A note on : Poem to accompany Martin Parr Exhibition in Bristol

https://www.martinparrfoundation.org/exhibitions/intersectional-geographies/

Jacqueline Ennis Cole has put together a brilliant exhibition in Bristol, details at the link, and accompanied it with a new publication. I’m happy to have a poem in there, taken from my book The Wrestlers (2018 Kingston Uni Press) that fits the theme of the program. Jacqueline has been a key poet in the www.poembrut.com project and someone I’m proud to have worked with and commission.

A note on : collaborating with Phil Minton

A huge honour to have done a third improvised sound poetry / vocalisation with the legendary Phil Minton. Part of this event at Kingston University https://www.writerskingston.com/sound/

There’s so much I could say about working with Phil. An essay it demands. But the words of Julia Rose Lewis, a brilliant poet and friend, who was in the audience, meant a lot to me.

“The duet seemed to ask the audience to consider the twin questions what is evolution and what is literature?  In the sense that the work is extending the boundaries of poetry and therefore literature. / I kept finding myself wanting to lean forward. The imagined transparent barrier between and the feeling that leaning forward give me a better sense of what was happening.  Yet it obvious that you both fully understanding one another making irony of the very word nonsense.  / There were moments when I thought you were both apes, one ape saying something to one human, and both humans at the beginning and end.”

A note on : Babs in Folkestone

The next chapter in the babs saga, a series of new improvised talking performances im doing as a cockney cat. Soon to be collected on cassette, and this time at the Beyond Text festival in Folkestone.

It was a grand festival all told, wonderfully organised by Michal Piotrowski. I got to babs alongside matt martin and stephen emmerson, old mates, and meet fran lock, who was brilliant.

Babs seemed to go down well enough, and i even read a new poem before babsing, but i cut this out of the video here, for puritys sake