From Poetry Parnassus straight into the London Literature Festival! My shifts this week were a little hectic at the Southbank Centre, especially yesterday when a school visit coincided with the Shake the Dust finals (a national youth poetry slam competition). I've been to two events this week, a talk by Michael Morpurgo and his biographer Maggie Fergusson, and 100% Proof, a Shake the Dust event which showcased the works of the Shake the Dust regional poet coaches, a slam/drama group from the US called First Wave, and Lemn Sissay, who is a Southbank associate poet and the first poet commissioned to write for the London Olympics. It's been a good week, and it's been lovely to share it with my sister and dad, who accompanied me to these events, and a couple of friends and aquaintances who just happened to be there!
The Michael Morpurgo event was absolutely lovely. He is one of my sister's favourite writers and I enjoyed his books when I was younger. I remember seeing a production of 'Kensuke's Kingdom' at the Polka Theatre in Wimbledon when I was little, and it became one of my favourite books as a child. It was wonderful to see such an audience at this event - children and their families who are currently reading Morpurgo's books, young adults like myself who remember how special his stories were from our childhoods, and teachers, parents and grandparents who have enjoyed reading the stories to their children over the years. It was amazing just how many different age groups Morpurgo has touched with his writing. Also as special was the way that Morpurgo spoke to the audience. The memories revealed in the talk - for example, the separation of his parents - were not entirely comfortable, and yet Morpurgo manages to speak in such a way that does not dumb down the facts for children, but that retains a greater simplicity and honesty than the way adults interact with one another and censor themselves and each other.
The talk opened the London Literature Festival and promotes 'Michael Morpurgo: War Child to War Horse', a biography by Maggie Fergusson which takes the interesting form of seven chapters - the seven stages of life - to which Morpurgo has responded with seven new stories. It's a collaborative effort, with Fergusson chronicling and Morpurgo reflecting, and I can't wait to read it. The talk itself was about how the book was made, the memories and experiences it stirred up for Morpurgo, and a reading of one of the stories from the book, followed by questions and answers and even Michael singing a song from the stage production of War Horse!
It was a very special talk and a priviledge to be there and to share it with my sister.
100% Proof was very different but equally enjoyable. It began with readings from the regional poet coaches: Molly Naylor, Michelle Hubbard, Kat Francois, Alfie Crow, Frisko, Michael Parker, Sarah Jane Arbury, Brenda Read-Brown, and Si Murray. I enjoyed most of these, and it was wonderful to see such a spectrum of styles, from gritty hip-hop to lyrical storytelling, playful punning and even some singing. I particulary enjoyed Michelle Hubbard, Sarah Jane Arbury and Brenda Read-Brown. Again, these poets had dramatically different styles but were equally touching and enjoyable in their performances. Next up was First Wave, who performed a 30 minute extract of their touring poetry/drama production. I was impressed by the quality of their act, which addressed racism, discrimination, and being an outsider in challenging terms. Their act was not something I would think to go and see normally, and I felt alienated after a bit (although this in itself made me realise just how lucky I am that the people I know in London are so accepting of each other and of me, on all grounds - race, gender, age), but they did a fantastic job and put on a really thought-provoking show. The final act was Lemn Sissay, and it was clear as soon as he came on stage and launched straight into a poem, that here was a master at work. While the other acts of the night had all been good, both Sissay's poetry and performance were on another level. His delivery was wonderfully energetic, his poems both celebratory and thought-provoking. That, and he just seemed like a really cool guy, involved the audience, and is clearly a born performer. It was a wonderful night!
My experience of Poetry Parnassus and the London Literature Festival (as well as other events I have been to in the past) have really changed the way I think about poetry, performance, and the way I want my own work to take me. I started writing when I was inspired by artists like Zena Edwards and Dizraeli, and wanted really to be a performance poet. Recently however, I've realised just how much more suited to the medium of paper I am; that doesn't mean that I can't, and don't enjoy, reading my poems to an audience - I absolutely love it! It's just that I've realised that for me, the poetry comes first, the performance second. The first tenet of slam and performance poetry is that the poetry should come first, but too many times have I sat in front of a confident performer reading at best mediocre poetry. Luckily I haven't had to sit through something like that for quite a while now, and those performers whom I've seen recently have really impressed me, but I think the danger with writing for performance is that the poetry suffers. Yes, supposedly it's all about the poetry, but this isn't true, is it? Quite often performance poetry appears as just a big ego trip, with poets thinking more about their own kudos than about the poetry. I recently watched one performance when the poet actually said, "usually I write about boys, but this poem is about me!" and to me this is the trap that many aspiring poets fall into. Yes, it's fun to read your poems out loud, and get to act them a bit; yes, it's really cool when an audience responds well to your work; yes, it's important to share and preserve our oral traditions; yes, it's wonderful that performance poetry blurs the line so much with hiphop, music and acting. But it is still supposed to be POETRY. Poetry Parnassus and 100% Proof show that it is still possible to put poetry first, and I hope that we can all learn from the example of these poets.
Saturday, July 7, 2012
Sunday, July 1, 2012
Poetry Parnassus
Apologies for the lack of posts over recent months.
This summer I am a volunteer welcomer at the Southbank Centre. This week was Poetry Parnassus, a festival where poets from around the world met at the Southbank to meet, share, debate and learn. It was FANTASTIC and I just wish that it was an annual thing: surely we don't need the excuse of the Olympics to enjoy such an event!
Being a welcomer is really cool, because I get to go in the Festival Village, a kind of green room for staff and the artists who will be at the Southbank throughout the summer as part of the Festival of the World (until 9th September). I've been lucky enough to meet Russian poet Ilya Kaminsky as I was showing him to the Village, as well as standing next to Simon Armitage in the queue for the cheaptest coffee for miles around! I was also in a singing lift with him (must-see, the Southbank's singing lift; puts a smile on my face every time!), but didn't say hello or introduce myself, because in the world of poetry I remain a nobody. Hopefully one day this will change though, and there'll be another Parnassus where I can mingle more! The village was absolutely teeming with poets, their buddies and translators, and it was just lovely to soak up the atmosphere.
Other highlights of Parnassus include Continental Shift, a reading that I was lucky enough to get complimentary tickets to, on Friday evening. Simon Armitage hosted readings by Jo Shapcott (the bee poems which I have heard her read before; the poet in me appreciates them, the beekeeper in me shakes her head woefully), Wole Soyinka (whose mobile went off while he was on stage! and whose optician poem I loved), Kim Hyesoon (whom I hadn't heard of before but whom I absolutely LOVED), Togara Muzanenhamo, Seamus Heaney (who read in English and Irish!), Bill Manhire from NZ (absolutely touching poetry with wonderful quiet humour) and finally Kay Ryan, an American poet whom I had never heard of but whose short poems were marvellous and really touched me, as well as her wonderful voice. It was a fantastic evening, and even my poetry-sceptical boyfriend enjoyed it!
Earlier on Friday I went to a writing workshop with Canadian poet Karen Solie, with whom we (the group included Jacqueline Saphra and Icelandic poet Gerður Kristný!) discussed and explored how to bring an element of surprise into our poems. It was a lovely workshop, very welcoming, and opened my eyes to a new method that I will experiment with...I'm thinking sestinas. Lots of sestinas. (Sestinae?)
It was lovely to see my fellow Norwichians the Poetry Takeaway getting so much attention, and the Poetry Ambulance - what a fantastic idea! Wish them all the best!
I entered a competition with Young Poets' Network (part of the Poetry Society) to win free tickets to the Poetry Society's Annual Lecture, this year given by Paul Muldoon. My analysis of Muldoon's 'The Birth' from his collection 'The Annals of Chile' won me two free tickets...cannot thank YPN/The Poetry Society enough for such a wonderful opportunity. My oldest friend and I sat only a row back from the stage, and were lucky enough to hear Muldoon speak about the meeting and divergence between poetry and lyrics, both of which he writes, and collections of which are to be published at the end of this year/earlier 2013. Muldoon was a wonderful speaker, absolutely compelling listening, and I loved the new works he read to us. I also write both poetry and lyrics (although not anywhere near Muldoon's level, don't get me wrong!) and it was really illuminating to hear someone whose poetry I admire discuss them both, and lovely that broader poetic interests, such as lyrics and their place in pop culture, were explored at an event of such calibre. On the way out I almost (literally) bumped into Ruth Padel, something of a poetic hero of mine, and it really hit home what a wonderful opportunity it was to be part of an audience that included people whose work I have read (or drooled over in a bookshop). I'm currently mulling over the lecture and experience and tomorrow will begin drafting a review that will appear on the YPN website.
I wish I'd been able to attend more events, especially some of those on the subject of translation, but my volunteering shifts and problems at Waterloo precluded this. Parnassus, please come back!
Poetry Parnassus has been absolutely wonderful, and I hope that there will be another one soon. I cannot wait to take part, and hope one day to be sharing my own work with a new generation of poets. I was really struck by a blog by Clare Pollard, who tells of her encounter with Congolese poet Kama Sywor Kamanda's Ouevres Poetiques Completes, which is over 1000 pages long! Clare Pollard's blog is at http://clarepollard.com/ and her reflections on Parnassus are well worth a read.
Perhaps the best thing about the whole week has been the farmer's market out the back of Royal Festival Hall, and my discovery of the best hog roast ever in the history of the world :)
This summer I am a volunteer welcomer at the Southbank Centre. This week was Poetry Parnassus, a festival where poets from around the world met at the Southbank to meet, share, debate and learn. It was FANTASTIC and I just wish that it was an annual thing: surely we don't need the excuse of the Olympics to enjoy such an event!
Being a welcomer is really cool, because I get to go in the Festival Village, a kind of green room for staff and the artists who will be at the Southbank throughout the summer as part of the Festival of the World (until 9th September). I've been lucky enough to meet Russian poet Ilya Kaminsky as I was showing him to the Village, as well as standing next to Simon Armitage in the queue for the cheaptest coffee for miles around! I was also in a singing lift with him (must-see, the Southbank's singing lift; puts a smile on my face every time!), but didn't say hello or introduce myself, because in the world of poetry I remain a nobody. Hopefully one day this will change though, and there'll be another Parnassus where I can mingle more! The village was absolutely teeming with poets, their buddies and translators, and it was just lovely to soak up the atmosphere.
Other highlights of Parnassus include Continental Shift, a reading that I was lucky enough to get complimentary tickets to, on Friday evening. Simon Armitage hosted readings by Jo Shapcott (the bee poems which I have heard her read before; the poet in me appreciates them, the beekeeper in me shakes her head woefully), Wole Soyinka (whose mobile went off while he was on stage! and whose optician poem I loved), Kim Hyesoon (whom I hadn't heard of before but whom I absolutely LOVED), Togara Muzanenhamo, Seamus Heaney (who read in English and Irish!), Bill Manhire from NZ (absolutely touching poetry with wonderful quiet humour) and finally Kay Ryan, an American poet whom I had never heard of but whose short poems were marvellous and really touched me, as well as her wonderful voice. It was a fantastic evening, and even my poetry-sceptical boyfriend enjoyed it!
Earlier on Friday I went to a writing workshop with Canadian poet Karen Solie, with whom we (the group included Jacqueline Saphra and Icelandic poet Gerður Kristný!) discussed and explored how to bring an element of surprise into our poems. It was a lovely workshop, very welcoming, and opened my eyes to a new method that I will experiment with...I'm thinking sestinas. Lots of sestinas. (Sestinae?)
It was lovely to see my fellow Norwichians the Poetry Takeaway getting so much attention, and the Poetry Ambulance - what a fantastic idea! Wish them all the best!
I entered a competition with Young Poets' Network (part of the Poetry Society) to win free tickets to the Poetry Society's Annual Lecture, this year given by Paul Muldoon. My analysis of Muldoon's 'The Birth' from his collection 'The Annals of Chile' won me two free tickets...cannot thank YPN/The Poetry Society enough for such a wonderful opportunity. My oldest friend and I sat only a row back from the stage, and were lucky enough to hear Muldoon speak about the meeting and divergence between poetry and lyrics, both of which he writes, and collections of which are to be published at the end of this year/earlier 2013. Muldoon was a wonderful speaker, absolutely compelling listening, and I loved the new works he read to us. I also write both poetry and lyrics (although not anywhere near Muldoon's level, don't get me wrong!) and it was really illuminating to hear someone whose poetry I admire discuss them both, and lovely that broader poetic interests, such as lyrics and their place in pop culture, were explored at an event of such calibre. On the way out I almost (literally) bumped into Ruth Padel, something of a poetic hero of mine, and it really hit home what a wonderful opportunity it was to be part of an audience that included people whose work I have read (or drooled over in a bookshop). I'm currently mulling over the lecture and experience and tomorrow will begin drafting a review that will appear on the YPN website.
I wish I'd been able to attend more events, especially some of those on the subject of translation, but my volunteering shifts and problems at Waterloo precluded this. Parnassus, please come back!
Poetry Parnassus has been absolutely wonderful, and I hope that there will be another one soon. I cannot wait to take part, and hope one day to be sharing my own work with a new generation of poets. I was really struck by a blog by Clare Pollard, who tells of her encounter with Congolese poet Kama Sywor Kamanda's Ouevres Poetiques Completes, which is over 1000 pages long! Clare Pollard's blog is at http://clarepollard.com/ and her reflections on Parnassus are well worth a read.
Perhaps the best thing about the whole week has been the farmer's market out the back of Royal Festival Hall, and my discovery of the best hog roast ever in the history of the world :)
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