Big Trouble at Little Roc - Open Mic

A terrific evening of spoken word awaits you at the Little Roc cafe in Rochester. Come and join us, be swept away by the scorching words burned out by the fire in our heads

ROUNDABOUT NIGHTS PRESENTS - The Defamation Of Mickey Two Suits

Come and join the delta poets tonight as they spin the stories of the damned

Barred... Bard?

7.30pm at Poco Loco Cantina, on the road from Chatham to Rochester

An Assemblance of Judicious Heretics, their exciting collaborative litart project this year is underway. I'm waiting with bated breath.... 

ME4Writers

The Heretics on Facebook

Roundabout Nights - where do they get it from?

Roundabout Nights are back!
And they want you to talk about your mother.....

OK, maybe not.
A selection of The Medway Delta's finest writers dig out the bones and shapings of their ancestors, and share the tales of the ones who made them

If you have some writing or music to share, please bring it along and join Philip Kane, Sarah Hehir, Dean Volante, and Barry Fentiman-Hall on the stage

Thursday, 17 March 2016 7.30 - 10.30
At the one and only Poco Loco Cantina, 58 High Street, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4DS

Live'n'Local Rochester Litfest

Live and local, the Rochester Literature festival is back this weekend with a terrific programme of events

On Saturday,  10 October the events are based around Rochester, where you can get your fix of caffeine and culture at the cafe crawl or join the talks and Workshops at the Guildhall museum.

The cafe crawl timetable is on the Rochesterlitfest website here

On Sunday, the action moves to Sun Pier House in Chatham, I have a feeling that the workshops will book out quickly, but if that happens don't worry, there's a good variety of free gallery talks, a local publisher book fair and even an artist on hand who will be recording the day in pen and ink. Or will it be paint? Will she inspire you to try your hand?

The showcase performance for me though will be the play written by local Playwright Sam Hall. My Mind Is Free explores four contemporary stories of human trafficking, all the more shocking as that too is live and local. After having attended one of Sam's workshops, I was surprised at how blatant human trafficking is, once you know what to look for.  

Want to know more? Rochester literature festival: Live'n'Local

The Judicious Heretics Return

“Two roads diverged in a yellow wood, 

And sorry I could not travel both”

The Road Not Taken Robert Frost

The Judicious Heretics of ME4 are back! This time they will be enticing you along the road not taken, with a collaborative Litart exhibition of works inspired by the poem by Robert Frost.  

So, what's unique about this exhibition? It was all produced anonymously. A series of written responses to the poem were created and then sent to the artists, who then produced their interpretation of the new works. As last year, the artists did not know who the writers were and the writers do not know who (if anyone) has produced an artwork in response to their poem or story.  

The exhibition includes art and writing from creatives including: Chris Van Beck, Maggie Drury, Sally Evans, Sam Fentiman-Hall, Sarah Hehir, Heather Haythornthwaite, Philip Kane, Bill Lewis, Maria C McCarthy,  Peter Reeds and Dianne Reeves.

The exhibition of words and art will be launched in Rochester on Thursday, 3 September at 7.30 pm and afterwards will be shown at other locations in Medway. Further information about the launch event and exhibition is available from the ME4Writers or on the community page on Facebook

The full text of The Road Not Taken by Robert Frost is available to read or listen to on the website of the Poetry Foundation

Wandering Words

I am very excited to see the blossoming of the Medway and Swale Wandering words  project.

A number of writers have, essentially, walked the land and created some beautiful and original pieces in response to what they have experienced and seen.

Urban Fox, Stood
Image credit:SM Jenkin

The range of responses has surprised me, as well as the flashes of unexpected beauty shared in words and posted on a map. Medway and Swale is made up of many different landscapes, histories, identities, ideas.

The best part, though? Anyone can join in. Are you feeling inspired? You can sign up here

Roundabout Recount

Roundabout Nights presents...

RECOUNT!

a response to the election result by a select band of spoken word artists from the Delta

A new coalition takes Chatham central on Monday, 01 June 7.30pm at Poco Loco, 58 Chatham High Street

Medway Monday: Mad, Bad & Dangerous to know....

Image credit: Rochester literature festival

The Heretics are Assembling...

“But words are things and a small drop of ink, 

Falling like a dew, upon a thought produces 

That which makes thousands, perhaps millions think"

Don Juan, Lord Byron

What is the point of poetry, of literature? It is often used simply to tell a story. These stories can be told for any reason, but the question must be asked. Whose stories do we listen to? 

Whose stories are listened to, rewarded and given space in the canon of approved narratives that we hand on to other people? And what happens to the stories that vary with and may even conflict with stories shared and approved in that canon?

Quite often labels are attached to these stories and storytellers, labels  that can be used to discard and ignore what they say, labels such as heretic. Once attached, these labels are hard to shake off, and the storyteller pursued. 

Whose stories are ignored, slandered, labelled? What do they have to say, what is in their words that is so threatening, so heretical?  

The Heretics are assembling. Join us at the Rochester literature festival 25 September - 05 October 2014 to find out...

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Image credit: StephenMcleod - International Man of Mystery via photopin cc

Roundabout nights - ME4

Fasten your seat belts - the ME4Writers are ready to spin your head clean off!  Not content with assembling some Judicious Heritics- Medway's answer to the Avengers, they have set up the Roundabout nights @the Alexandra pub in Chatham

Roundabout nights is an ambitious live literary night, with an ever-revolving series of events. Once a week, every week on a Monday night. 7pm-10pm, the ME4Writers will host an event highlighting the spoken word. Here is a line-up of the next few meetings:

~ 1 September: She Writes – short plays about holidays

~ 8 September: Type’n’gripe at ME4-rum

~ 15 September: Spoken word

~ 22 September: Guest slot: Politics, plays and policies. Plays inspired by political themes

~ 29 September: She Writes – plays on a Byronic theme

~ 6 October: Type’n’gripe at ME4-rum

The roundabout nights are hosted upstairs at the Alex pub, unfortunately this is not yet wheelchair accessible.

An assemblance of judicious heretics…

The Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know are coming to Medway... and it is a work in progress

Image credit Doctor_Bob

As part of the Rochester literature festival, the ME4Writers are curating an intriguing exhibition, and they would like to invite you to take part. Are you interested?

The assemblance of judicious heretics is an open access collaborative project. The idea is to encourage artists of all styles to send in work to complement a series of writing pieces on the theme of Mad, Bad and Dangerous to Know.

The exhibition will be displayed in Rochester during September and October. If you would like to know more, please see the details on the ME4Writers blog here. You don't have to be based in Medway, you can send in work as long as you can deliver the art to Rochester. 

Good luck!
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Image source: Morgue file.com

ME4Writers - Book jackets for books never to be written

The ME4Writers have shared a sneak peek of one of their works in progress. It goes by the intriguing title Book jackets for books never to be written

It's an on-going project that encourages collaboration between writers and artists, and the idea is to design a book cover for a book that will never get written.

I've seen some of the designs, and they are quite startling. Would you like to be involved? Either an an artist or writer, please give it a try. You never know what you are capable of until you do it.

If you would like to contribute either a book jacket blurb or design a cover, more information about the project is available on the ME4Writers blog here

Personally, I think it's quite sad these books will never be written, they're quite original...

Happy seasonally effected!

Happy Christmas!

Holly

We have a special delivery from Santa for all you good people out there, a double helping of the seasonally effected podcast.This includes the two latest open mics, from November and December 2013.

I love the variety on offer, and wonder how much the words change according to the season we hear them. I hope you enjoy it, too!

Follow the link to the seasonal stories here...

City without a head - floating in the air

In the run-up to Christmas, are you feeling lost? Hassled? Do you feel like you are running about like a headless chicken?

The ME4Writers have the solution for you - you are no longer alone! Come and join us in the City without a head, floating on the airwaves. 

Yes indeed, the ME4Writers will be sailing by on Radio Sunlight on Monday, 25 November from 8.30pm. We shall share some of our work with the effervescent Fizzer. And you too, I hope!

What is the city without a head? It is our attempt to define, confuse, capture, expound, tangle, twist, label, and generally riff on life in cities. Entries range from story fragments, poems, faux-definitions, found writing to short stories. Will you enjoy it? Who can tell....

The only way to find out of course, is to join us at Fizzer's radio show - online here  or tune in at 106.6FM

Be seeing you.....?

[EDIT] You can listen to the show again on Fizzer's blog here. The ME4Writers kick in at 41 minutes into the show. Enjoy!