Written Worlds, Inspiring Places

Yes, Rochester literature festival is fast coming our way and I'm very excited about it!

The theme this year is Written Worlds, Inspiring Places and I can't think of a more apt description

Is this really the fourth year that the full festival has been running? It doesn't feel like it, but 'tis true Each year following the garden party launch back in July 2012 the theme has been something different, from the first Other Worlds, Other Voices, to the Byronic Mad, Bad and Dangerous to know to the Live'n'Local least year.

The festival will run from Saturday, October 1 to Sunday, October 9 2016 and details of the line-up are available from the festival website here.

Olivetti Typewriter. Image credit: SM Jenkin

Knowing how many people are involved in making sure this is an accessible community event I am sure that details of other events and activities will be added closer to the time

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

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

The Spirit of my Dream

The fabulous second Rochester literature festival continues with a night at the theatre. Three of Medway's finest playwrights share with you an evening to remember

Image credit: 17%

Inspired by Byron’s poem ‘The Dream’, Maggie Drury, Sam Fentiman-Hall and Sarah Hehir, have collaborated to create an evening of new plays with a somewhat fantastical theme.

More information about the plays, the writers and the venue are available on the Rochester litfest website here

Date:Saturday, 04 October at 7pm
Venue: Chatham grammar school for boys
Tickets: available on eventbrite

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

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

Phew!

What a relief.

I've seen my piece added to the other worlds, other voices exhibition being shown in Rochester. It's in keeping with the theme, and in context not nearly as flamboyant as I worried about.

Re-reading the piece, yes, the Irish is simple. But it states everything I need to say, and I don't need to say anything more. That will come later, with practice - for now, this is enough. I have little Irish, but what little I have I own. I can be patient enough to go through the baby steps, and I have faith that one day I will look back and wonder why I worried so much. Learning a language, like any skill including poetry, is an apprenticeship after all.

Which brings the question, why was I so worried? If someone judges the piece, they are only engaging with my thoughts, with my words, not me. Aren't they? Isn't that how it always works? (Well, no, not really. Not always)

How do you feel before you release a piece of art or poetry into the public realm? Are you happy? Excited? Worried? Is it only the work itself you worry about?Why such a barrier when letting a piece go public, after all? For some artists, of course, through bitter experience they find that they are the news not their art.

But sometimes, like for someone invisible like me, the thrill is in releasing something new. It's new to me. Artists are pioneers, after all. Even the baby steps - what new place did you visit this week?

Other worlds, other voices - ach dhá dhomhain difriúil?

Disaster!

I wanted to write something about the feel of the languages, the world that Irish evokes. How the feeling... feels. And compare it to English. Because of I have learned anything (and sometimes it feels like I haven't) at all it's that the words describe two different worlds....

.... and the feelings I have cannot be described in the Irish I have. Yes, the words can be found but it's the life behind them, the idioms, the feeling that I cannot understand, never mind convey.

I am beginning to wonder at what I have written. But it's too late, I'm bringing it in tomorrow. I don't know.

The Skywatcher - coming soon

Strange things have been happening in Rochester: Unexplained lights in the sky, bizarre disappearances, and what is that odd sound? The Bureau for Unexplained Crisis, Knowledge and Extraterrestrial-ism or ‘B.U.C.K.E.T.’ is set to investigate as part of the Other Worlds, Other Voices festival.

Join us for an afternoon of interactive story gaming, examining the unlikely side of Rochester. The game will be followed by a final performance at an undisclosed location. Can you discover what’s been happening? The truth is out there, somewhere…

We are raising funds for this investigation using an unusual site called indiegogo. It’s important we get the right tools to locate the alien disturbances (or at least to make them from semi convincing items we can lay our hands on!)


The Skywatcher is an interactive story game that will take place on Sunday, October 6^th during the Rochester Literature Festival.  The starting point for the event will be the coFWD coworking space at 161 High Street, Rochester. Tickets are £6 and need to be booked in advance via the Eventbrite page here. Children must be accompanied by an adult.

Keep your eyes on the skies and ask yourself, what do you believe?

A tingle in my fingers ...: Rochester literature festival

A tingle in my fingers ...: Wordless Wednesday

I'm very excited about the programme of events coming up next month during the first ever Rochester literature festival.

Art exhibitions, poetrymon, plays, the heroes journey, poetry readings and work shops... and many more surprises to come.