An amazing opportunity to speak at Humboldt University Berlin, in the lofty environs of the Mind & Brain school, for an event called, which celebrated the art competition. The event brought together artist Mriganka Madhukaillya, curator Elena Agudio, Daniel Margulies, neuroscientist and head of the Max Planck institute and myself (!) and we each delivered talks that somehow related to art and science interdisciplinary practise and the efficacy of such collaborations. It is the only thing I have developed any expertise on really, the nature of collaboration and through the Enemies project, the Hub residency, the Salzburg Global Seminar and A World Without Words, the neuroaesthetics field, though still often opaque to me, is increasingly of interest. My talk went well, seemed generally uncontroversial, despite my relatively critical stance and in fact seemed to stoke a really positive energy with the scientists who attended. Brilliant for me to be beside such lofty peers and learn from them.
A note on: Reading at London Literature Festival, Southbank Centre for Moby Dick Live
Great to read one of my favourite chapters of Moby Dick, a book I revisited and closely read just a year ago when meeting Philip Hoare, chapter 110 Queeqeg's Coffin, as part of Southbank Centre's Moby Dick Live event, where the entire novel was read out loud in ten minute chunks for four days for the London Literature Festival. http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/moby-dick-unabridged-1001129
You can read the chapter in question here: http://etc.usf.edu/lit2go/42/moby-dick/791/chapter-110-queequeg-in-his-coffin/and it is well worth doing so. I managed to cut together the audio of my reading with images from illustrations of Moby Dick, which can be seen above.
"An awe that cannot be named would steal over you as you sat by the side of this waning savage, and saw as strange things in his face, as any beheld who were bystanders when Zoroaster died. For whatever is truly wondrous and fearful in man, never yet was put into words or books. And the drawing near of Death, which alike levels all, alike impresses all with a last revelation, which only an author from the dead could adequately tell. So that- let us say it again- no dying Chaldee or Greek had higher and holier thoughts than those, whose mysterious shades you saw creeping over the face of poor Queequeg, as he quietly lay in his swaying hammock, and the rolling sea seemed gently rocking him to his final rest, and the ocean’s invisible flood-tide lifted him higher and higher towards his destined heaven."
A note on: Actors announced for my play Dagestan
ROBIN BERRY (CHAMBERLAIN)
Robin is a graduate of East 15 School of Acting. He has recently appeared in Silent Witness, New Tricks and Gigglebiz. He is a member of Andy Serkis’ Imaginarium company and is currently working on the new Jungle Book feature. His theatre credits include One Man Two Guvnors at the National Theatre and The Elephant Man (South East Asia tour).
GARETH TEMPEST (GLANTON)
Gareth is a graduate of the Bristol Old Vic Theatre School. His theatre credits includeAdventures in Wonderland at the Vaults, Twelfth Night at the Riverfront Theatre, UK tours of Macbeth and The Comedy of Errors and It’s A family Affair- We’ll Settle It Ourselves at Sherman Cymru.
MAYA WASOWICZ (JESSICA)
Maya is a graduate of the Guildhall School of Music and Drama. Her theatre credits include Twelfth Night at the RSC, Design for Living at the Old Vic, Faith Machine at the Royal Court, The Thrill of Love at the St James’, and The Last of the de Mullins at the Jermyn Street. Her television credits include Mutual Friends, Wallander and Waking the Dead for the BBC. She has appeared in the films Huge and The Huntsman. Maya is producer for new theatre company Into the Wolf.
STEVE NORTH (HOLDEN)
Steve is an actor and filmmaker. He has played leading roles in theatre, television and film over the last twenty years. His screen credits include Closed Circuit, Mongrels,Doctor Who, EastEnders and EastEnders: E20, Is Harry on the Boat, The Day Britain Stopped, Midsomer Murders, Casualty, London’s Burning, Murphy’s Law, Holby City,Woof, South West Nine. Filmmaking credits include co-writing and appearing in the feature film South West 9 and he was Associate Producer The Football Factory. He co-wrote and produced the short film Through the K-Hole and directed the award winning short film Cregan for Screen South under the Digital Shorts scheme. His numerous theatre credits as an actor include War Horse in the West End, Shared Experience, Manchester Royal Exchange, Edinburgh Fringe First winning play Meeting Joe Strummerand a one man show west End run of Nick Hornby’s Fever Pitch. He plays guitar and sings for London band The Clones.
Dagestan is presented in three scratch performances on 16 and 17 October at Rich Mix, London. Click here to book your ticket.
Upcoming: Mondo - a world of avant-garde poetry, a course for the Poetry School
Thursdays : November 5th - December 3rd : 6.45pm to 8.45pm at the Poetry School in Lambeth, London. £90.00. Concs: £72.00
5 sessions 5 international avant-garde poetry movements / methodologies from Japan, Canada, Nigeria, Brazil, Syria & Iraq
Book online using this link: http://www.poetryschool.com/courses-workshops/face-to-face/mondo--the-global-avant-garde.php
I'm very happy to be presenting a new course for the Poetry School focusing on 5 global avant-garde poetic movements of the post-war period, in five different nations, aiming to elucidate traditions that might be occluded in the UK, and explore how their innovations in writing can compliment people's poetry in the now. The onus is on how these great moments in modern poetry can enrich writing practise, rather than dense historical analysis. It’s a rare chance to excavate avant-garde work in such a setting, please sign up above if interested.
Participants will have a chance to share their work at a post-course reading and you can see further information about Mondo and my previous courses & activities with the Poetry School here: www.stevenjfowler.com/poetryschool
Week One: November 5th – Japan
The ASA group to the VOU: Kitasono Katue & more
Logogrammatic poetry: The abstract illustration of language
Week Two: November 12th – Canada
The Four Horseman: bp Nichol, Paul Dutton & more
Sound poetry: Language as Sound, resonant, non-lingual, vocal.
Week Three: November 19th - Nigeria
The Mbari Club: Amos Tutuola, John Pepper Clark & more
Experimental mythology: Mythic tropes as paths to the new.
Week Four: November 26th – Brazil
Noigandres: Haroldo de Campos, Augusto de Campos & more
Concrete poetry: The visuality of the poem as its meaning
Week Five: December 3rd – Syria & Iraq
The Tammūzī Poets: Badr Shākir al-Sayyāb, Adonis & more
The ancient as modern: Free verse as liberation.
Upcoming: Dagestan, my first play, October 16th 17th at the Rich Mix
A note on: oh, in the sky
Everything is in the last 10 seconds of Frank Zappa talking.
Upcoming: The Enemies Project - the Winter Programme
The Winter Programme: Oct 2015-Jan 2016
The Enemies Project Winter Programme 2015/2016 features seven remarkable events, with projects in partnership with the London Literature Festival and the Globe Road Festival, Enemies: Italy and Iceland, a one night celebration of European poetry (with poets visiting from 13 nations) and the first Camarade event in Norwich. It's another great series of collaborative and innovative events, pushing the potential of live literature and avant-garde poetry.
October Fri 9th: Global City at London Literature Festival
In partnership with Literature Across Frontiers & Southbank Centre.
Venue: Spirit Level - Blue Room at Royal Festival Hall. Price: £8
Book tickets here: http://www.southbankcentre.co.uk/whatson/global-city-93314
An exploration of writing about London and it's culture from the perspective of the visitor, the immigrant, the outsider who is inside - London as a city of visitors, always moving, always both inside and out. Featuring discussions and new works of poetry and fiction from writers from across Europe and beyond, with Iain Sinclair, Jana Putrle Srdic, Livia Franchini and Karlis Verdins. http://www.theenemiesproject.com/globalcities
November Wed 4th: Pugilistica: a literary celebration of boxing
Apiary Studios, Hackney : 7.30pm : Free Entrance
Pugilistica will bring together poets, academics, writers, artists and photographers to celebrate the sport of boxing through talks, readings, discussion and screenings. Featuring fiction from Anna Whitwham, Poetry from Tim Atkins, Art History from Sarah Victoria Turner, Journalism from Oliver Goldstein and the event will see the relaunch of Fights, by SJ Fowler, published by Veer Books in a revised second edition.
http://www.theenemiesproject.com/pugilistica
November Sat 7th: Nemici: an Italian Enemies project
Rich Mix Arts Centre : 7.30pm : Free Entrance
22 poets and artists, 11 Italian and 11 British-based, each present brand new collaborations in pairs, created specifically for this event. From video to performance, from poetry to prose, join us at the Rich Mix for this free evening of dynamic new collaborations celebrating the 21st century Neo-Avanguardia. Featuring Daniela Cascella. Alessandro Burbank, Christian Patracchini, Francesco Pedraglio, Andrea Inglese & many more. http://www.theenemiesproject.com/nemici
November Sunday 15th: Globe Road Festival walking tour
11am - 12.30 : Free to attend with Tickets here
A unique live walking tour performance experience, as part of the Globe Road Festival, the Enemies project presents a stroll down Globe Road itself, in the company of poets, sound artists and vanguardists. Stopping four times, at designated places on Globe Road, the artists will present a talk or performance completely original to the walk, in response to the history and culture of the road, with Elaine Mitchener, Gareth Evans, Adam & Jonathan Bohman. http://www.theenemiesproject.com/globeroad
November Fri 20th: The European Camarade
The Freeword Centre : 7pm : Free Entrance with Tickets here
A mini-festival of European poetry in collaboration, in the heart of London. Join nearly two dozen poets from across the continent presenting brand new collaborations in the literary and avant-garde traditions. British poets will write these works with visiting writers from Slovakia, Finland, Iceland, Lithuania, Austria, Hungary, Norway and more. Featuring Michal Habaj. Christodoulos Makris, Gabriele Labanauskaite, Cristine Brache, Christoph Szalay, Endre Ruset, Ville Hytonen, Kinga Toth. Katarina Kucbelova & many more. http://www.theenemiesproject.com/europeancamarade
December Thurs 10th: The Norwich Camarade
Norwich Writers Centre : 6.30pm : Free entrance
A special Camarade event, curated in collaboration with Writers' Centre Norwich and UEA Creative Writing department, featuring nearly two dozen poets celebrating the breadth and depth of the literary culture in Norwich. Featuring: Georges Szirtes, Tiffany Atkinson, Jeremy Noel-Tod, Emma Mackilligin, Rebecca Tamas, Philip Langeskov, Jonathan Morley & more http://www.theenemiesproject.com/norwichcamarade
January Sat 30th: Ovinir: an Icelandic Enemies project
Rich Mix Arts Centre : 7.30pm : Free entrance
Óvinir brings together two generations of Icelandic poets and writers to the UK to premiere brand new collaborations with British poets, in the second iteration of an Icelandic Enemies project. With Valgerður Þóroddsdóttir, Andri Snær Magnason, Ásta Fanney Sigurðardóttir, Eiríkur Örn Nörðdahl, Jack Underwood & more. http://www.theenemiesproject.com/iceland
Upcoming: a World without Words III at Somerset House - September 30th
A WORLD WITHOUT WORDS III
September 30th | 7pm-9pm
Somerset House
Screening Room
South Wing
Strand
WC2 R1LA
For A World Without Words 3, a short segment from multiple-award winning documentary My Beautiful Broken Brain will be followed by talks from a highly accomplished selection of speakers.
The first speaker will be philosopher Jamie Brassett who will discuss the emergent properties of consciousness, elaborating on philosophical and physiological interactions.
Next up, computer scientist Conrad Wolfram will speak about computer human-machine interaction in the age of mass data, and the need for linguistic evolution to enable verbalization of technical ideas.
Finally, biologist Rupert Sheldrake will close the evening’s talks with an exploration of his work on Morphic Resonance. He will speak about the dominance of scientific materialism, citing what he believes is the interconnected intelligence of all matter.
The audience will have a chance to ask questions for 15 minutes following the final talk.
Drinks will be available from 9.00 until 9.30pm in the Drawing Room at Pennethorne.
Admission is free. Booking is essential.
a World without Words explores the nature of human language, bringing together contemporary practitioners & pioneers in neuroscience and sensory aesthetics, to offer a fascinating and playful exploration of how words form our world. www.aworldwithoutwords.com The project is curated by writer & filmmaker Lotje Sodderland, artist & material engineer Thomas Duggan, and myself.
a World without Words IV will take place in October and the program will come to end for now, for our fifth and final event in November 2015.
Upcoming: a language art - a course at Tate Modern
A Language Art: a course at Tate Modern
Avant-garde Poetry & Modern Art, in the galleries
Mondays, 26 October – 30 November 2015, 18.45–20.45,
session on Monday 9th November at Tate Britain
£150, concessions available
Book online using this link: http://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/courses-and-workshops/language-art-avant-garde-poetry-and-modern-art
I'm delighted to be leading a course for Tate Modern this winter, where over six weeks, we will explore the intersections between the post-war traditions of modern art and avant-garde poetry.
Discovering poets and artists from the Tate collection who make use of language, sound, space, printing and writing, this course reveals how these practises are fundamental to both arts. A detailed course breakdown is available here: http://www.stevenjfowler.com/alanguageart/
Sessions are based within the galleries of Tate Modern in the presence of works by Gerhard Richter, Li Yuan-Chia and RB Kitaj amongst others, which bring to light some of the great moments in modern art and poetry that have enriched the traditions of both writing and art-making. Each week participants are also introduced to contemporary examples of work inspired by those held in the Tate Collection, as well as encouraged to create and share their own avant-garde poetry and text art in the extraordinary environment of the museum. One session is held at Tate Britain and includes the chance to explore Tate’s Prints and Drawings Rooms.
This course is for people interested in developing their own skills and understanding of experimental poetry and modern and contemporary art practises, and the onus of the course is on how these great moments in modern art and poetry can enrich writing and art-making practise, rather than dense historical analysis. It’s a rare chance to excavate avant- garde poetry in such a setting, and each week participants will have the chance to create new works in the extraordinary environment of the Tate Modern’s galleries.
A note on: Soundings #1 with Emma Bennett
The beginning of Soundings couldn't have gone better. Not only because the performance was unique and well attended and went to plan, but because it was also completely idiosyncratic and unexpected for the audience, and enjoyable. Emma and I have known each for a few year now, and been in collective work together, but never performed a duo. The performance itself and the entire preparation period could not have been easier and more fluid. We met up numerous times to make our performance not only responsive to the materials given by the Wellcome Library under the theme of 'Restless Cities' but also to make sure we responded very specifically to the amazing environmental of Camley Street Natural Park.
We knew people's experience of what we did would be defined by the surroundings, and decided in fact to put on a walking tour, one that fused elements of performance and immersive theatre all rooted in something like a slightly alternative version of the contemporary 'landscape' 'cityscape' 'mindfulness' lexicon. Our performance was a mix of improvisation, preparation for this and written text that lay somewhere between poetry and satire.
In the end we had a remarkable audience, those very generously helping us, Harriet Martin, James Wilkes, Kim Staines, bringing together lots of people so that it felt quite a significant event, marching 50 or so people around the small stone clearings and ponds of the park. A strange experience for them, I hope, a great experience for us.
Published: Two new sound / video poems - Anubis & Amishkuapeu
A note on: Performing with Prudence Chamberlain at CapLet #1
Thanks to Jonathan Mann, and the first ever edition of his new Capital Letters reading series, I had the chance to read new collaborations with Prudence Chamberlain, in the rather auspicious surroundings of St.Margaret's Chapel, outside of the Gallery Cafe, in Bethnal Green. I'm sure just the first time Prudence and I will collaborate in a live setting as well as the page
A note on: The Enemies project: Croatia - Zagreb, Grožnjan & the Wood Poets
The purpose of the Enemies project is to not only create the collaborations and the readings which accompany them across countries and generations and so on, but to also always acknowledge the context of how these things actually happen. That is they are created by people, and they really only work when generously founded. And this generosity tends to come from, or lead to, friendships. This is why I continue to do the Enemies project at such a pace, because, fundamentally, it is a way for me to know people from around the world, far beyond my own country, and for those people to become friends. This project in Croatia was so resonant because it was so personable, the character of the travel and the readings resembled the character of those Croatian poets who are so generous and open and enthusiastic – Tomica Bajsic, Damir Sodan and Maja Klaric. The Enemies project Croatia began, in friendship, in 2012, and since we have exchanged events and ideas, culminating in readings in London in July 2014, followed by this mini-tour of Croatia in August 2014. I was joined by Sandeep Parmar and James Byrne in Croatia, greater friends for it, and together, we were completely indebted to the Croats for an extraordinary week in Zagreb and Istria..
Day One: An eye bleed flight into Zagreb to discover a heatwave in the normally hot Croatian August, passing 35 degrees. Some time to explore the city again. A brutal run in the heat to Maksimovic park. Damir arrived and we all met together for the first time, James, Sandeep, Tomica, Damir and I, and we visited a gallery in Zagreb, run by an artist collective, in order to begin a discussion about collaborating with three young Croatian artists towards the publication of an innovative book that might lie somewhere between abstract art and poetry. Certainly a way for the collaborations between this brilliant generation of Croatian poets and those of us based in the UK to continue on in years to come. An evening in Zagreb, as ever, warm spirited and funny, the hospitality of Tomica, his family, Damir and the Croatian poets that keeps me coming back to this city.
Day Two: A massive bus ride, Zagreb to Rijeka on the coast with a quick stop over, and then on windier roads to Buje. 36 degrees outside. The time flew by when we were all in conversation. Then a minibus to Groznjan itself. An incredible place, mesmerising. High atop the seemingly endless forests of Istria. A walled town, tiny really, but a 1000 years old, and recently famous for its music, classical piano and drums can be heard from upstairs windows as you walk the cobbled sloping streets, yet it's quiet even in August, in the peak tourist month, as its hard to find, or reach, it seems. We have a few hours to relax and then again we are travelling, to the excuse we have to come here, to the Wood Poets reading, organised by Maja Klaric and her partner, the Forest Festival of Groznjan. We park up and follow candles through a small wood into a clearing where perhaps a hundred people congregate around a bonfire, with small torches littered around the landscape. It is lovingly put together, and immediately friendly. We meet poets from Hungary and Italy, and lots of local writers. There is music from Italy, percussion on something that looks like a barbecue. Readings follow that. I read some poems from my book {Enthusiasm}, maybe a bit harsh for the hippy vibe, but people are nice about them. James, Sandeep, Damir, Tomica read beautifully, the bonfire gets primed after each reading so it shoots up a flame when you’re done. After an hour goes by and no one else will read in English I retreat to the edge of the gathering, lie down in a field and listen to Italian and Croatian voices way past midnight, seeing the stars clearly in the sky for the first time in a year at least. The music follows, we don’t get back to Groznjan until 2am or so.
Day Three: Morning in Groznjan, people are remarkably friendly, I go into a restaurant below where Im staying and they give me free coffee and food just because we talked while I ate, waving me away. There’s a reading in the centre of the town, all of the performers from the Wood poets the night before coming to join us underneath the Fonticus Gallery. There’s more music, some slightly strange audience participation, which I escape, and then a chance to read again and listen further. Great to hear Marco Fazzini read, he seems to have had and extraordinary life in writing. At the start of the poetry Tomica, Damir, Maja, James, Sandeep and I read our six way poem. Each of us provided a single line, then added a line to each other’s, making six poems written by six poets. Each of us then read one single six line poem.
Dinner on the town, long afternoon conversation with James, Sandeep, Marco and the vast table of local poets and friends. Late afternoon I disappear into the hills outside the town for a few hours, first walking and exploring, then with a route, a chance to do some hill running. It’s not so hot so not so arduous as in Zagreb, but the chance to have the heightened experience of exercising surrounded by the immense panorama of these hills, olive trees lining them, a view unto the horizon, is exhilarating. We spend a long evening with pizza talking, to each other and the poets we've been lucky enough to meet in Istria. We return the next day, a bus ride down out of the hills, back to Zagreb and then London. An amazing, all too brief window into a truly beautiful place all excused by the chance of us all happening to write poetry, and more decisively, being open and enthusiastic to the friendships that can arise in that shared practise.
More on www.stevenjfowler.com/croatia
A note on: Teaching Greco-Roman Wrestling for the Midnight run with the Almeida Theatre
Lovely to be a part of the Midnight run thanks to Kit Caless, teaching a session on Greco-Roman wrestling on the curated 12 hour walk through London, with lots of interesting activities featured in. Inua Ellams founded the project, and the whole thing was really well measured and a grandly positive experience. These beautiful pictures are courtesy of Katie Garrett.
Upcoming: Soundings - a project with Hubbub & Wellcome Library
Soundings is a series of collaborative performances I will be presenting from August 2015 to October 2016, in conjunction with Hubbub and the Wellcome Library. There will be ten editions, each in a different location in and around London, each with a different collaborator.www.stevenjfowler.com/soundings
Soundings
Each edition of Soundings will begin with Wellcome library staff raiding the library's extensive collection to suggest items, including images, manuscripts and books, in response to a title inspired by the Hubbub's research strands and initiated by Hubbub curators. These prompts will form the basis for the public performances of sound poetry, sonic art or conceptual performance, devised each time by myself and my collaborator. Collaborators include Emma Bennett, Dylan Nyoukis, Maja Jantar, Patrick Coyle, Sharon Gal, Tamarin Norwood and James Wilkes, with more to be announced.
Hubbub are the first residents of The Hub at Wellcome Collection, an international team of scientists, humanists, artists, clinicians, public health experts, broadcasters and public engagement professionals. We explore the dynamics of rest, noise, tumult, activity and work, as they operate in mental health, neuroscience, the arts and the everyday. I'm fortunate to be part of this extraordinary enterprise, as a poet and artist in residence, and you can read more about my work with Hubbub here: www.stevenjfowler.com/hubbubor www.hubbubgroup.org
Soundings #1: August 18th
at Camley Street Natural Park
with Emma Bennett
Time: 1pm – 2pm (12 Camley Street, London N1C 4PW). Free entrance.
www.hubbubgroup.org/soundings
Soundings #2: September 4th
at Wellcome Collection Late
with Dylan Nyoukis
Time: 19.40 and 21.30 (183 Euston Road, London NW1 2BE). Free Entrance
www.wellcomecollection.org/events/friday-late-spectacular-hubbub
Soundings #3: November 18th
at St Johns on Bethnal Green
with Maja Jantar
Time: 8pm to 9pm (200 Cambridge Heath Road. London E2 9PA). Free Entrance.
www.stjohnonbethnalgreen.org
A note on: the Enemies Project - Croatia in London
A lovely evening to curate & host at the Rich Mix in London. All videos available at www.theenemiesproject.com/croatia
Published: Elit blog #2 - European poetry as representation of the modern nation
http://www.literaturhauseuropa.eu/?p=4078 "Every nation’s literature contains within it multiplicities. Not only are definitions of these traditions based on approximations, that which has been recorded, assigned, that which has had the fortune of being discovered, but the very concepts around what actually makes a poem or a novel is ever changing. In fact the very intransigence, and ever changing, nature of each language we utilise in Europe makes declarations and definitions fraught. That being said, I have come to realise, reading, writing and programming in many European nations over the last number of years, that certain social and political realities, certain modern histories, have an indelible effect on what kind of poetry a nation produces now, and what kind of literature a nation reads.
Recently I curated a project called Feinde, an Austrian themed Enemies project, which is all about collaboration and exchange between nations. In this case, supported by the immensely open minded and generous Austrian Cultural Forum in London, four contemporary Austrian poets came to London and collaborated, and performed, with British counterparts. In all we put on four major events in a week, heading up to European Literature Night in Edinburgh, via UNESCO City of Literature, to close out the programme.
A first difference, and a vital one. The Austrians poets, Ann Cotten, Jörg Piringer, Max Höfler and Esther Strauss, were all guests of the Austrian Cultural Forum, which isn’t just an organisation in name, but inhabits an incredible space, a building they have run for over fifty years in London. The value of this, in having a home, a locus for the project, in encouraging collaboration, and raising awareness of the iconoclastic post-war Austrian tradition of poetry is incalculable. I intend no vast conclusions here, but I know of few equivalents in London, and I know I have yet to stay in a British house in any other city outside the UK.
More importantly, and forgive my compression here, but the outstanding innovation, elasticity of methodology and range of practise the Austrian poets evidenced, while still being major figures in their nation, suggests a rather different tradition than here in the UK. It exists here, but it is not conducive to repute in the world of poetry. Why is this? Reasons are legion, but it is hard to look past what the two nations needed to face up to after 1945. Where contrarianism and a deep suspicion of language itself seemed necessary to a country who had think through its culpability, so tradition, fixedness and conservative methodology seemed apt to those who saw themselves wholly victorious or proper.
Still, now, 70 years on, my generation of poets, those encouraging consistent dialogue and collaboration across our continent, to build communities of writers and long lasting friendships in the creative act, must be aware and mindful of history, if they are not to repeat it, or be curtailed by it."
Published: How I Did It - ‘The Interrupters’ my article for The Poetry School
http://campus.poetryschool.com/how-i-did-it-the-interrupters/ An intriguing series from the Poetry School, hosted on their Campus platform, where they ask poets to discuss the process of writing a specific poem of theirs. Some previous editions were really interesting, but more often than not made me realise how different my process can be from the norm. So this article, where I discuss my poem The Interrupters from my recent collection {Enthusiasm} published by Test Centre, is an attempt to honour the article's remit but still maintain a true reflection of my actual methodology.
"I suppose each collection I have published has been an attempt to relate a style, or form, or concept, to a subject. Not the other way round. No collecting has been done after the fact, the fact has been established and then the collecting. My process is one toward a changing ideal. I don’t denigrate those who are consistent, or whose evolution is subtle, but I personally find the notion of radical growth, or variance, to be something I aspire to. It comforts me that my work is different book to book, that I produce things that bear not a singular stamp of my authorial ‘voice’, for I find that idea unrepresentative of my experience of being. It is not a metaphor to say we contain a multiplicity. I am a different person depending on my mood, my company, my job… As such I am a different poet, I have a different voice when writing about boxing than I do when writing about prisons, or when I’m using collage technique as opposed to visual poetry. And most especially when I’m writing mostly at night, as opposed to the morning, or when I’m reading mostly one poet as opposed to another."
Published: Poems translated into Romanian on Poesis International
Thanks to the brilliant poet / editor Claudiu Komartin and the translator, Ramona Hărșan, a series of my poems, from my collection the Rottweiler's Guide to the Dog Owner have been translated into Romanian and published on the highly regarded Poesis International journal online. They appeared in print earlier in the year but now everyone can have a look.
A note on: Performing at the Whitechapel Gallery for the New Concrete Launch
A really ambitious program curated by Chris McCabe and Victoria Bean, editors of the anthology the New Concrete, for the launch of the book at the Whitechapel Gallery on July 25th. Over three hours of kinetic poems and performances - screenings, readings and more. It was a really generous, communal atmosphere, good to see old friends and meet quite a few poets I have long admired but had yet to encounter in person.
I really wanted to follow my more conceptual performances at Tate Modern and Cafe Oto recently with something similarly performative and distinct, and thoughts of how one might perform a concrete poem led my to Lego. I had only the specifics of the ideas on the morning of the performance, so after rushing to a Lego shop and dropping more money than Id thought Id need to on the bricks, I had only one chance to practise making the letters, in a coffee shop next to the gallery itself. In the end, it went nicely, I managed to stay within the 4 minute limit.
