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.
Frustrated by working under lockdown and worried that the 2020 festival might not happen, Arachne Press decided to continue as though everything would be alright, and asked writers to something that responded or reacted to or was inspired by a sixteenth century poem that editor Cherry Potts has always found comforting in a crisis: Robert Southwell’s Tymes Goe by Turnes; or that responded or reacted to or was inspired by some concept in it.
The poem observes the ebb and flow of fortune, nothing stays bad for ever, nor anything good – so get on with it while you can. And they have. Oh, they have. This isn’t exactly a response to Covid-19, but there’s an echo there – in Katie Margaret Hall’s epic train journey, New Orleans To Vancouver, and Jackie Taylor’s Rewilding; but there is also concern for the environment, and relationships and lives in need of nourishment they are finding hard to find.
As with Southwell’s poem there is a fine balance between dread and hope.
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.
We’ve finished reading for Solstice Shorts, Tymes Goe By Turnes, and we have a (long) shortlist, with a smattering of old hands returning, and plenty of new talent for us to choose from.
We are at the moment assuming this will be an online festival this year, with our usual date of 21st December.
At the moment funding is fairly unlikely so being on line may be an advantage. We will be doing a crowdfund as even on line there will be costs. There is the advantage that if they want to our overseas writers can get actively involved. If magically a live event on the ground is possible, we will do that as well, we are good at moving fast when we have to, but not anticipating it currently.
We aren’t sure about the book yet either, selling off the back of an online event is tricky, but we’ll know more after the launch of No Spider Harmedon the 8th August. There will be a book, it’s just whether we need to race to get it ready for the festival or not.
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
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
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.
