Here’s a snippet of one of the songs that Summer All Year Long are singing at the Vagina Museum on Friday. It’s a setting of Chloe Balcomb’s poem, Gutsy Menopausal Woman, which is in Menopause the Anthology. Music by Juliet Desailly.
Tickets via the museum, not eventbrite!
It isn’t ALL stories and poems, we have music too. here is a little taster from Kevan Taplin one of three muscians we will be working with at the Festival.
For Solstice Shorts 2020, Singer-Songwriter Kevan Taplin responds to our source poem for this year’s festival, Tymes goe by Turnes by Robert Southwell, with a song that takes the poem as a springboard. This is just an extract from the demo Kevan sent us. We are crowdfunding – help us reach our target and hear the rest of the song on 21st December!
In case you missed the live announcement yesterday, here are the successful submissions for this year’s Solstice Shorts Festival, which will be held on 21st (or possibly 22nd) of December. It’s a leap year. We have to decide how pedantic we will be.
A Corona virus influenced theme of TYMES GOE BY TURNES, the stories, poems and songs are in response to the poem by sixteenth century poet, Robert Southwell.
Poems
C L Hearnden, 179cm
Claire Booker, Piano Lessons, and Bringing in the Fruit
Elinor Brooks, Sir Thomas Wyatt’s Cat
Jane Aldous, Sirius
Julian Bishop, Slow Burn
Karen Ankers, In Dark
Katie Margaret Hall, New Orleans To Vancouver
Kelly Davis, The Saddest Birdes a Season Find to Sing
Laila Sumpton, Cronos
Lynn White, In the Rocks
Ness Owen, Beach Clean
S.B. Merrow, For Ellen
Sean Carney, A Memory Forgotten
Stories
Brooke Stanicki, A Felled Tree
Jackie Taylor, Rewilding
Jane Mclaughlin, Sketchbook
Keely O’Shaughnessy, When Naked Plants Renew
Linda McMullen, Deep Blue Sea
Margaret Crompton, Turner’s World of Twirls
Neil Lawrence, Return
Patience Mackarness, Roots
Pippa Gladhill, Twelve Point Plan
Songs
Kevan Taplin, Dancing with The Green Man (In 4:4 Time)
Rebecca Askew, Times Go by Turns
Sharon Lazibyrd Martin, Sea of Fortune
We don’t yet know quite what form the festival will take, we have to assume for now that it will be on line, but possibly live and from multiple sites. We are still investigating venues etc. against it being possible to have a physical performance and audience, or at the very least making the videos as exciting as possible.
Uploading the videos from Solstice Shorts 2019, Time & Tide, continues.
Some music here, from the Holyhead event. Across, by Fiona & Gorwell Owen, and Storm by Tagaradr
Limited edition illustrated book of the material available now only from our webshop or from our events. The official trade version will be availabel from 21st March 2020
Uploading the videos from Solstice Shorts 2019, Time & Tide, continues.
We made a point of curating the sea shanties against particular poems/ stories. But we finished with this one to send people off skipping…
Nelson’s Blood sung by London Sea Shanty Collective who are performing a shanty opera written by Chip Wilson THIS SATURDAY (Tomorrow) the first show (7pm) sold out so they’ve added another later in the evening, (8.45pm) but people may be transfering tickets, so there could be tickets for either.
Limited edition illustrated book of the material available now only from our webshop or from our events .
This is the whole of the event at Peterhead, magnificently edited together from three camera (Three!) by Colin Edwards.
As I get to it, I will edit into individual stories and poems so that they can be searched for, but in the meantime enjoy it as it was meant to be seen (and heard), with readings from Marka Rifat and Ken McRae, complete with music from Intuitive Music Aberdeen; featuring
A Conjuring Poem by Simon Whitfield
Clearance by Christine Ritchie
False Light by John Richardson
Frocks of Passage by Mandy Macdonald
Hawser by Sarah Tait
How Women Came to Tristan da Cunha by Claire Booker
In the Shadows, On the Shore, Leith by Jane Aldous
Ovčice, Croatia by Ian Macartney
Points of Interest by Olivia Dawson
The Watchers by Elizabeth Parker
When Will We See the Sea? by Joy Howard
Woman from North India on Bostadh Beach by Elinor Brooks
Stories
The Answer, My Friend… by Paul Foy
Listen, Mrs Noah by Roppotucha Greenberg
The Fisherman’s Wife by Linda McMullan
Uploading the videos from Solstice Shorts 2019, Time & Tide, continues.
We made a point of curating the sea shanties against particular poems/ stories. The connection here is superstitions.
Poem Arrival by Valerie Bence, read by Carrie Cohen
with song Scarborough Street by Chip Wilson, sung by London Sea Shanty Collective
This song is part of LSSC’s new Shanty Opera, The Earl de Grey: a Hull Folk Opera you can be part of the audience on 22nd February atThe Mildmay Club, in Stoke Newington. Get your ticket here
Many of the stories and poems were read at more than one of the venues, so there will be an opportunity to compare and contrast readings.
Limited edition illustrated book of the material available now only from our webshop or from our events .
We are aiming to get BSL translations of some of the material, and this will also be on the website in about March, to coincide with the launch of the bookshop version of the book.
Uploading the videos from Solstice Shorts 2019, Time & Tide, continues.
We made a point of curating the sea shanties against particular poems/ stories. Here is one of those: poem Church Mary Sounds the Sea by Jenny Mitchell read at Greenwich by Grace Cookey-Gam
with songs, Black Sheep (trad)
and The Slaves Lament by Robert Burns sung by London Sea Shanty Collective
Many of the stories and poems were read at more than one of the venues, so there will be an opportunity to compare and contrast!
Limited edition illustrated book of the material available now only from our webshop or from our events .
We are aiming to get BSL translations of some of the material, and this will also be on the website in about March, to coincide with the launch of the bookshop version of the book.
Uploading the videos from Solstice Shorts 2019, Time & Tide continues.
Here is our first piece of music, Migrants performed by singer/songwriter, Kevan Taplin, BSL interpretation by Paul Michaels.
Limited edition illustrated book of the material available now from our webshop or events only.
We are aiming to get BSL translations of some of the material, and this will also be on the website in about March, to coincide with the launch of the bookshop version of the book.
Final videos of the launch of Mamiaith by Ness Owen, held at Canolfan Ucheldre in Holyhead.
Ness reads a pair of political poems in her second set – a bit of history, and a brilliant metaphor for the silencing of women, in Welsh and English.
and some of the musical interlude from Caine and ‘Caine’s dad’-
You can buy Mamiaith direct from our webshop or ask your local bookshop to stock it!
Caine and Aled Jones-Williams perform Titrwm Tatrwm, an ancient Ynys Môn folk song.
