Category: My Medway

Rochester Literature Festival 2014: Mad, Bad & Dangerous to Know

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We’re delighted to be opening this year with an hilarious and heart-warming one woman show with actress Sunny Ormonde – the outrageous Lilian Bellamy from BBC Radio 4’s The Archers, the world’s longest running soap.

Over the course of the next ten days, we’ll be joined by as-seen-on-tv-off-his-trolley comic genius Phil Kay, master of freeform performance and storytelling, and notorious Australian, Trenton Oldfield – who served six months at her Majesty’s Pleasure for disrupting the 2012 Boat Race in a protest against elitism.

We will be hosting two wonderful authors who’ll fascinate you with insights and anecdotes from their latest books: Angela Buckley introduces us to The Real Sherlock Holmes – Detective Jerome Caminada, whose methodologies mimicked Conan Doyle’s genius, and Debz Hobbs-Wyatt, who will discuss the impact of reality on fiction. While No One Was Watching is set against the backdrop of the Kennedy assassination and the abduction of a young girl from the grassy knoll on that fateful day.

Sadly, we have to announce the postponement of one of our family events,Assassin, due to technical issues. Featuring the fantastic Joe Craig reading extracts from his Jimmy Coates series – part boy, part weapon, totally deadly – and music from Jacob Bride, Graham Sykes and Jamie Godfrey, this will hopefully take place early in the new year. However, we do still have the awesome Keeper of the Realms author, Marcus Alexander, who is Charlie’s Keeper, who will entertain and inspire you with his delightfully wicked fantasy adventure series – get your read on! Waterstones in Chatham have kindly agreed to sell books in the venue on the day, if you need to complete your collection.

Our interactive story game this year is Murder in the Crypt, in which you’ll be invited to solve mysteries and puzzles with Miss Marple, Sherlock Holmes and Auguste Dupin. In addition, we’re holding a Cafe Crawl, where you can sample poetry and storytelling, while Bookmark’d is a chance to buy books, swap books or just listen to books, read aloud by their authors.

Our Night at the Theatre will this year be held in conjunction with Chatham Grammar School for Boys and be presented by award winning 17% playwrights,Sam Fentiman-Hall, Sarah Hehir and Maggie Drury. The Spirit of My Dream is inspired by Byron’s poem The Dream and features new plays with a fantastical theme.

An exhibition curated by ME4Writers especially for the festival, An Assemblance of Judicious Heretics, has channelled Byron to produce work inspiring madness, badness and dangerousness in the hearts of artists. A live reading will bring the visual carnage to life!

Byron’s Teapot will be our finale – a mad mix of unusual and quirky music, poetry and theatre, featuring The James Worse Public Address Method, JP Lovecraft,Dylan Oscar Rowe and Brides of Rain.

We look forward to welcoming you to our exciting – and only slightly scary – second full length festival!

To read full details, download a copy the 2014 programme and buy tickets, please visit rochesterlitfest.com.

If you have any enquiries regarding any of the events or festival in general, please email rochesterlitfest@gmail.com or telephone 07904 643770.

We look forward to seeing you 🙂

GEEK – Meet, make and play in Medway

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Ideas Test and Margate’s GEEK Play team are bringing three days of creative play to Medway on the final weekend in August.

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At the Oast House, Rainham, on Friday and Saturday, August 29-30, the event will open with music and a video gaming carnival on the Friday night.

On the Saturday, all three floors of the venue will be filled with games and play. The top floor is being taken over by the Robot Arena, where you can find making workshops and Mega Battles. In the digital and analogue section, come and play the games you love and learn to play and make new ones. Also on hand: chip tune music, meet Indie Devs, make robot costumes and play Laser Pong.

On Sunday 31st, the game play continues in Rochester, where the Guildhall Museum becomes the hub for a day of play.

Join Dr Sketchy and the GEEK team for some museum based playing before heading out to discover Tourist Trap, Stream the Streets, Special Guests and other games and workshops in and around Rochester High Street. For more information and to buy tickets, visit www.geek-play.com.

Ideas Test is a local funding body to which anyone with a great idea to increase arts participation can apply to. They can be found at www.ideastest.co.uk.

Supporting Apprenticeship and Internship Placements in Medway – Free info session

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Thursday 22nd May, 10am – 11.30am
Brook Theatre, Chatham, Kent, ME4 4SE

You are invited to join a free information session to find out about the Creative Employment programme scheme and how Medway based creative organisations and businesses can have access to apprenticeship and internship placements supported by Medway Council.

Reserve your place a.s.a.p. by contacting arts@medway.gov.uk or phone 01634 338319. Spaces are limited.

Creative Employment programme – Application information

The Creative Employment Programme (CEP) is a £15m Arts Lottery fund that aims to support the creation of 1,600 traineeships, 2,900 formal apprenticeships and 2,000 paid internship opportunities for 16 – 24 year old unemployed people wishing to pursue a career in the arts and cultural sector.

Medway Council is looking at putting in a consortium application to obtain the funding for the whole of Medway. If approved, Medway Council will be responsible for managing the grant, including all reporting requirements.

Creative organisations have got the opportunity to recruit and train up apprentices and interns.

Apprenticeships

The CEP offers up to £1500 of the total wage costs for every new apprenticeship that is for a minimum of 12 months and 30 hours per week, if the apprentice is aged 16 – 24 years and paid at least Apprentice Minimum Wage rates. Weekly hours are inclusive of college time.

Cost on an apprentice minimum rate: £2.68/ hour due to go up in October + on costs

The CEP offers up to £2000 of the total wage costs for every new apprenticeship that is for a minimum of 12 months and 30 hours per week, if the apprentice is aged 16 – 24 and paid at least the National Minimum Wage (relevant to the apprentice’s age).

All apprentices must be (at the time of making their application for an apprenticeship) unemployed.

Internships

The CEP offers up to £2500 of the total wage costs for every new internship that is for a minimum of 26 weeks and 30 hours per week, if the intern is aged 18 – 24 and paid at least the National Minimum Wage (relevant to the intern’s age).

All interns must be (at the time of applying for the internship) registered unemployed and claiming unemployment related benefits

Although the apprenticeships and internships must take place within the creative sector, they may be for any opportunity within the sector, including support roles such as finance, administration, HR, catering etc 

The Available Funding

The CEP will offer funding towards the wage costs for apprenticeships and internships. You may apply for funding for apprenticeships only, internships only, or both.

Individual applicants must use the entire grant to contribute towards the wage costs of the apprentice or intern. It cannot be used for training costs. Training costs will depend on the sector and type of training. More info will be provided during the information session on the 22nd of May.

Medway Council will top up the apprenticeship opportunity by £500 if you are new to Apprenticeships and if the apprentice is 18 to 24 years old.

The National Apprenticeship Service will provide a top up to eligible employers (less than 1000 employees, who are new to Apprenticeships or haven’t enrolled a new recruit or existing employee on an Apprenticeship programme in the previous 12 months), in respect of qualifying apprentices, with an individual value of £1,500

The Wage Incentives will provide an additional top up of £2275 if the person you recruit on an internship is 18-24 years old and has been claiming benefit for more than 6 months.

How to apply

An information session will be held on the 22nd of May 2014 at the Brook Theatre, Old Town Hall, Chatham, Kent ME4 4SE if you would like more information.

You will be asked to fill in a “creative employment pledge form” that will be available from the 22nd of May.

The electronic version will need to be sent back to europeanprojects@medway.gov.uk and the paper version to be sent back to Solène Ferreira, Medway Council, Gun wharf, Dock Road, ME4 4TR, Chatham by 4th June 2014 deadline.

All placements to start after the 1st of September 2014 and no later than the 31st of March 2015.

The Word Play Wagon lights the Fuse in Walderslade

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I’m delighted to announce that I’ve been selected by the Kent Baton to open their Sparks Fuse Festival project, One Day Works.

My short term residence in the Baton – a vintage silver airstream caravan converted to a mobile art centre – is on Wednesday, June 4th from 11am – 6pm. It will be located outside Permark Post Office in Walderslade Village and its activities will be suitable for all ages and all abilities. No previous experience is needed, just turn up and play around with some words.

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The overall title, The Word Play Wagon, reflects the diverse creative writing activities planned, including:

  • Turn over a new leaf: Add a poem, wish or favourite saying to a luggage label leaf you create and hang it on a Poetree.
  •  A Novel Experience: Bring your favourite book and write an original short piece based on its premise (see example ‘Triffidus Corpus’ here).
  • Hint: Writing micro fiction from as little as 10 words. (Examples)
  • Spoofing Medway: Write the local news as it didn’t happen! (Example)
  • Mystery Collective Poems: Add a line to the one before – it’ll be the only one you can see! (See examples here.)
  •  If and Then: A question and answer session with a difference. (Examples – scroll down to ‘Potlatch’)

I’m really looking forward to engaging lots of people in writing activities – who knows, I might find the next generation of Medway poets!

One Day Works will host a series of one day experiments throughout Medway during the Fuse Festival and its build up. From urban high streets to country villages, the project will showcase ten of Medway’s finest creative talents across a range of art forms. Along with the The Word Play Wagon, the works include an epic poem, sculptures made from found objects, archival collections, insect inspired costumes, drawings made from thread, an acoustic live music gig and a magic lantern performance. Click here for the full list of artists and their projects.

The Fuse Festival runs from Friday, June 13th – Sunday, June 15th, find out more at their website here.

It’s arts. It’s yours. It’s free.

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Triffidus Corpus

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The day outside was sounding wrong. Feeling wrong. Even for a Sunday, the silence was disturbingly, mysteriously different. No rumbling wheels, no roaring buses, no tramping feet. Shuffling, hesitant feet, yes. But none with purpose. No birdsong, just unintelligible wailing and sobbing close by.

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He wasn’t able to see the light show played out in the skies last night. Bright green flashes; shooting stars; showering comets. A magnificent spectacle, they said. A unique phenomenon, they said. You should have seen it, they said. Rather insensitively.

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The feeling of the bogey man under the bed began to creep upon him. A lifetime of being deprived of his eyes did nothing to alleviate this. Was it that famed sixth sense, becoming more heightened?

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Was it his imagination? That fluttery feeling in his stomach, a prelude to something he dreaded. But what? Reaching out to touch … what? There was nothing there, nothing to feel and yet… still that persistent nagging.

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What was that? A waft of air passed by his face, light as a feather. He was reminded of a fly, caught in a spider’s web. Trapped by uncertainty; perplexed by inactivity. Stilled by fear. He became aware that something was waiting …

Lurching towards him, leathery leaves rustling.

A stem whipped back and forth.

A swish and a slap.

The sting whistle slashed.

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“A Triffid is in a damn sight better position to survive than a blind man. Take away our sight and our superiority to them is gone.” – John Wyndham, The Day of the Triffids

I wrote this piece for The Skywatcher Investigation, our interactive alien game during the Rochester LitFest 2013 Other Worlds, Other Voices Festival. Using Wyndham’s descriptive language to capture the feel but creating a character of my own, it was performed by the multi talented Lance Philips of Physical Folk, playing a blind gardener, who succumbs to attack by a Triffid, played by the wonderful Sophie Williams. I read the piece aloud to the sound of Mozart’s requiem, Ave Verum Corpus, adjusting the text to fit the rhythm of the music.

It was a new experience for me but one I thoroughly enjoyed working on, and hope to do similar again in future.

Photo credit: Nikki Price Photography

Seasonally Effected Cultural Open Mic

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The next Seasonally Effected session is at Cafe 172 (formerly Dot Cafe) on Wednesday, April 30th from 7pm.

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Expect an eclectic mix of poetry, song, storytelling and more – and get there early to bag a seat, because there was barely standing room available last month.

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Photo: Nikki Price

A rapper and beat boxer over from Sheppey joined in what was considered the Best SE Ever, particularly with the impromptu group chorus of Hallelujah (Jeff Buckley’s, not Handel’s). And a new genre was born, with Thomas and Umpdeep now much in demand for their combination of spoken word and drum beats.

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Slots are fully booked for this month but if you’d like to take part next time, contact Roy Smith via email seasonallyeffected@gmail.com. Podcasts of previous sessions can be found here: http://seasonallyeffected.wordpress.com/

Roy is running a free workshop on Thursday evening, May 1st (7pm, coFWD) for any artists, writers or creatives interested in working on his augmented reality game ‘ The Real Medway & Swale’  – contact him at realmedwayandswale@gmail.com.

Photo: Nikki Price

Photo: Nikki Price

The Day of the Vinyl Junkies

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Saturday is Record Store Day!

Instigated in America in 2007, and soon followed by the UK, Record Store Day is a celebration of independent record shops, featuring artists and bands in live performances, and lots of special releases. And our local record store taking part is Manny’s Music, in Chatham High Street.

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The fellow music fans who work in independent record stores are so different to the chains – they get to know you, your taste. They see you coming and are pulling stuff off the racks and onto the decks ready for you, with a carrier bag to hand.

I spent most of my Saturday afternoons in a lovely little place called City Sounds, in Holborn, (where I once debated for about four hours whether to pay £25 for a cut out of A Touch of Class’s  I Love You Pretty Baby – I didn’t have the guts) and where Nigel and Dave would see me coming: Most of my salary went on vinyl. To be fair, I did use to also frequent Sounds Right in Poplar. Where’d they’d also see me coming and be waving covers at me as I entered …

The collection is now stored in the loft, awaiting the day I buy a turntable so I can dig it out, spread it all over the floor, catalogue it all (again, obviously. I’d done that once, back in the day. But who knows where that notebook is any more …) play it, reminisce about a bygone age of Caister Soul Weekends and the Swan and Sugarloaf, and then magically get it all on some device or other so I can store it all away again safely.

There are about 3000 pieces in my collection, a mix of albums, 7″s and 12″s and while most are r&b, jazz and soul, some are electro pop stuff which I was sooooo into at the time but can now, frankly, go.

I’ve often mentioned in passing to Manny, in his music store in Chatham, that I’ll bring them along to him, but here we are again, with Record Store Day this Easter Weekend, and I’m still no closer to owning that turntable.

So, I’m sorry to disappoint you, but you won’t be able to shuffle through my discarded Classix Nouveau, A Flock of Seagulls and Blancmange  vinyl on Saturday. However, Manny has plenty of stock without my rejects cluttering up his shop, so get yourself along there and have a good ol’ rummage.

To find out more about Manny, here’s an article I prepared earlier – when he first took over the store 🙂