Shoreham WordFest: Liberty & Protest videos

We had a lot of fun at Sussex Yacht Club in Shoreham for Shoreham WordFest on Thursday, lovely crowd, great acoustic and though we say it ourselves, some marvellous poems, stories and songs.

Poems by Bernie Howley, Elinor BrooksBrian Johnstone, Jeremy Dixon, Kate Foley and Andrew McCallum; read Carrie Cohen, Elinor Brooks and Greg Page

Stories by Carolyn Eden, Cherry Potts and Liam Hogan read by themselves.

Songs by Sydney Carter, Ali Burns, Albert Nyathi, George Loveless/ Joe Stead and  James Oppenheim; arranged by Melanie Harrold messed around with and sung by a small subset of Vocal Chords Choir, (Cherry Potts, Alix Adams, Bea Jackson, Caroline Dunton, Denise Mueller-Brown and Maria Kirby)

The Privilege of Departure, or Dover Bound, But Delayed by Bernie Howley, read by Carrie Cohen.

 

 

 

Singing We Raise the Watchword Liberty in full with the audience

The second half – stories, and a certain amount of difficulty with the camera cutting out.

Carolyn Eden:

Cherry Potts:

Liam Hogan:

Here’s some feedback from the audience on what they liked (you can hear them joining in on some of the songs)

Well constructed programme, the segues from music into poetry and back again, the variety of interpretations given to the theme of liberty. Bread and Roses, Free White Towel and the promise of a free badge!

Here is an interesting evening, full of fun, wisdom and wit. Hear some moving poems/ stories from those from the past and present combined with our essential liberties.

I love being read to. A very mixed programme which really stimulated my mind and imagination.

relaxed

variety – the spice of life

I enjoyed the flow of the first half

Loved the storytelling

Singing – chance to join in

Celebrating freedom – and keeping socialist history alive – good songs poems and stories too!

Witty and original writing. Very lively material, good singing.

Liberty Tales on Tour: Bath – Video

We had a great night in Bath, touring Liberty Tales alongside Shortest Day, Longest Night brilliant readers, great audience, lovely venue, catching up with friends, and lovely friends to stay with…

Here are some highlights, complete with the explanations of poems that I don’t usually include in the videos.

Poems from Bernie Howley, Elinor Brooks and Jeremy Dixon, and a story from the multi- talented Nick Rawlinson

You can catch the final date of the Liberty Tales Tour on Wednesday 25th January at Greenstead Library, Colchester, with an almost entirely different line up – the joys of anthologies!

Buy the book!

Help us crowdfund for the rest of the tours and the next books

Liberty Tales at Housmans- recordings

Some recordings from our Liberty Tales event at Housmans

Katy Darby reads from Character Study

Carolyn Eden (Aka Carrie Cohen) reads from Free White Towel

Cassandra Passarelli reads from Girl in a Suitcase

Liam Hogan reads from The King’s Computer

Cherry Potts reads Bernie Howley‘s The Privilege of Departure

You can hear more at our touring events – Bath 10th Jan and Colchester 25th Jan. see the events page for details

Liberty Tales launch recordings and Human Rights Day

Our next reading event for Liberty Tales is at North Kensington Library, appropriately on Human Rights Day, Saturday 10th December at 2pm.

To get you in the mood, here are some snippets of recordings from the LAUNCH of Liberty Tales (I know, everything out of order.)

Alison Lock Dog’s Life

Anna Fodorova Fruit of the Sea read by Carrie Cohen

David Guy The King and the Light read by Cliff Chapman

Bernie Howley The Privilege of Departure or Dover Bound but Delayed

Cherry Potts Knitting for Demons

Carolyn Eden Free White Towel

Jeremy Dixon Flax, San Francisco and Pearls Over Shanghai

Katy Darby Character Study

 

Oxford and Lewisham Liberties

copx4938 dzwp9631 hhjs1295 rkcd9549 urch7729 Here we all are having a rollicking good time at Albion Beatnik in Oxford. There was a bit of discussion about the correct pronunciation of ‘C’ in Latin , and there was apparently a bona fide Classics teacher in the audience, so only one author was brave enough to read their Magna Carta clause in the original.

Here’s some snippets of video (yay! got the video to work!) to whet your appetite for TONIGHT’s event in Lewisham.

Liberty Tales on Tour – Oxford

Thanks to a grant from the Arts Council we are able to take Liberty Tales a little bit further than we have taken some of our books, and we will be visiting Oxford, Colchester, Newcastle and Bath, as well as several dates nearer home in London.

So first up:

OXFORD!

Join us on Friday 18th November at 7.30, at Albion Beatnik Walton Street Oxford OX2 6AA for some Magna Carta inspired readings.

Stories from Jim Cogan, Carolyn Eden, Katy Darby,  Nick Rawlinson,  Poems from Bernie Howley, Elinor Brooks, Jeremy Dixon. Explore an unusual Gaudy Night, fish weirs, walking out, when it safer to appear witless, finding yourself in San Francisco, religious intolerance, and exactly what the value of a passport really is.

carrie-cohen-0113Elinor BrooksJeremy Dixonbernadette howley

OLYMPUS DIGITAL CAMERAkaty-moby-medium

Liberty Tales LAUNCH

TOMORROW… it begins. Is Freedom around the corner? Is it buried in our past? Are we busy frittering our rights away? And what on earth do fish weirs have to do with anything?

It’s been a slow process turning what was originally an ephemeral night of fun to celebrate the 800th Anniversary of Magna Carta’s first signing into an actual book, but we are officially launching Liberty Tales, stories and poems inspired by Magna Carta TOMORROW.

A year late you say? Hah! We’ll have no truck with your paltry dates, Liberty is for life, not just a date in June. Split no hairs with us, we have a big document and by god, we know how to use it.

To No-one will we sell, to no one deny or delay right or justice.

Or in this instance,

Cake.

Join us where it all began (for us, anyway, not asking you to go to Runnymeade) at

West Greenwich Library, Greenwich High Road SE10.

Tomorrow: Thursday 17/11/2016 at 7.30 for readings, drinks and cake.

Stories from Katy Darby, Alison Lock, Cherry Potts,  Anna Fodorova (read by Carrie Cohen) David Guy (read by Cliff Chapman)

katy-informalalison-lockCherry and Julian smallcarrie-cohen-0113

Cliff Chapman reading Hollow Manbernadette howleyJeremy Dixon

Poems from Bernie Howley, Jeremy Dixon, plus extracts… touching on prisoners, the right to roam, emotional freedom, going too far, passports, freedom of sexual expression, and more.

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Arachne Poets at London Book Fair

The London Book Fair is a cacophonous place, it’s hard to hear anything even when addressed through a microphone. None the less, we had a go. Here is pictorial evidence, of Bernie Math & Jeremy reading, in the Poetry Pavilion miniature Globe theatre, their wildly diverse takes on narrative poetry from The Other Side of Sleep. The video sound is unfortunately atrocious and I wouldn’t want to inflict it on you.

LBF continues to make noise today, and when it’s over anyone with the energy can totter round the corner to Brompton Library for Cherry Potts’ reading & workshop Rebellion: Writing Fantasy.

Bernie Howley

Bernie Howley

Jeremy Dixon

Jeremy Dixon

Jeremy photographing the audience for his 'every' audience' project

Jeremy photographing the audience for his ‘every’ audience’ project

Math Jones

Math Jones

Arachne Press Poets at London Book Fair

Coming to the London Book Fair?

On Wednesday 13th April at 3.30 pm Arachne Poets Jeremy Dixon and Bernie Howley (featured in The Other Side of Sleep) are reading at the Inpress Poetry Pavilion.

Jeremy Dixonbernadette howley 9781909208186

 

 

 

 

 

Here’s a map of Olympia... The Poetry Pavilion is in the top left corner, near the West Hall entrance. There are lots of other poetry performances going on, but 3.30 pm on Wednesday is our spot. Although we may get another one…

Nearby… On Thursday 14th April, at 6.30pm, Cherry Potts is reading from The Dowry Blade and doing a mini writing workshop on fantasy at Brompton Library – a single tube stop  away at West Brompton.

Arachne Press at Swindon Poetry Festival

We have a little cluster of poets in the South West, and we like to give everyone an opportunity to get out and read their work, so this year we asked the lovely people at Swindon Poetry Festival if we could come and read with them, and they said, of course! We’ve managed to persuade a couple of poets from further afield to join us, and we are going to have a lovely time, and hope you will come along and enjoy it too.

Jeremy DixonKate FoleyElinor Brooks

Cherry Potts copyright Tom Dingley 2014

bernadette howley

Jill Sharp

SUNDAY 4/10/15 3pm to 4:30pm
Central Library Regent Circus, Swindon SN1 1QG

Cherry Potts presents: The Other Side of Sleep
Following a short discussion between the poets, the editor, and the audience on what makes a narrative poem, some of the contributors to The Other Side of Sleep will read their work. Each tells a story – sometimes in a straightforward purposeful way, sometimes in a roundabout way, but somewhere there is a thread of narrative woven through. Narrative, but by no means traditional poems, by contemporary voices Kate Foley, Bernie Howley, Elinor Brooks, Jeremy Dixon and Jill Sharp. Kate will also be reading part of the title (narrative) poem from her VERY SOON to be published collection, The Don’t Touch Garden.

Tickets £5 plus booking fee from http://www.eventbrite.co.uk/e/festival-program-2015-tickets-17467712398 we are near the bottom of the page!