Tag: Culture

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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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

Silent Sunday

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For concerned book lovers: These books were going to be pulped, they haven’t been wantonly destroyed 🙂

The Rats Bay Shindig – a weekend of arts, culture and river trips. Plus, good news from the Coastal Communities Fund.

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A new family friendly extravaganza of festivities is taking place on Saturday 5th and Sunday 6th April, when the area surrounding Sun Pier in Chatham will come alive with arts and culture between 11am and 5pm each day.

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Overlooking the pier, Sun Pier House is opening the doors to the new Sun Pier Gallery and Tearoom for the first time. With panoramic river views, it’s set to become a scenic retreat in the busy town centre and will launch with a large exhibition of work by the 15 resident artists:  ‘Presenting, Sun Pier House’ will incorporate a variety of art, craft and fashion.

The weekend also witnesses the launch of the first charter boat trips in a generation from the newly refurbished Sun Pier, with the Sailing Barge Edith May and Jetstream Tours providing unique river experiences for all ages. On dry land you’ll find the inaugural Sun Pier Arts Market, a new outdoor market set to take place regularly throughout the year. Stallholders will be offering a variety of work to buy, food to sample, activities to try and classic carnival games for all the family.

The Rats Bay Shindig has been instigated by the managers of new creative venue Sun Pier House, with the intention to bring some much needed life back to the west end of Chatham High Street. Over the course of the two days there is a full spectrum of entertainment on offer, including art workshops, live music performances, river trips, dance classes, exhibitions, history tours, evening functions and a Sunday night cult film screening. It’s a weekend not to be missed!

For enquiries please contact Heather Burgess on 01634 812 805 or heather@sunpierhouse.co.uk

In the past two years, the Medway art scene has seen a massive boom of activity in the west end of Chatham, with Sun Pier House, Printed Wonders, Coalshed Press and the Nucleus Hub all based there. This is set to expand further, with news that Medway Council was successful in its bid for funding from the Coastal Communities Fund. Granted £598,525, the council bid states:

“This project aims to drive the regeneration of Rochester and Chatham High Street by developing business units within existing but currently redundant space around Sun Pier House and The Arches. The area will be provided with incubation space and social enterprise support provision for cultural/creative industries. The project aims to stimulate activity in the creative arts and provide specialist training for the unemployed through an innovative “Art for Work” programme, providing access to employment in this growing business sector.”

For join in a conversation about the fund, search #coastalcommunitiesfund on Twitter.

I’m ready for my close up …

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A new cultural event in Medway has been gaining lots of friends recently, with its eclectic mix of any and everything.

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Seasonally Effected, produced by the tireless Roy Smith, occurs on the last Wednesday of the month in Rochester, usually in the Dot Cafe but last night, sad circumstances required a switch of venue to coFWD – how well did they adapt to an extremely last minute request? With their customary awesomeness, of course.

The theme of this cultural open mic is to be the time of year, interpreted any way you like. A highlight last night, for example, was the ‘Mollusc Mayday’ film – complete with maypole dancing snails. It’s an image I won’t forget quickly for its brilliance – kudos to Chris of Hand of Stabs for that one.

I made my debut at the mic, with a tiny piece about the first Oscars ceremony and first all-colour talkie, On With The Show, both premiering in May 1929, and linking in a video from the film. This I followed with the official Skyfall teaser trailer and the collaborative, much more professional home made version by coFWD (which I’m in and have shared with you before). Then I showed Richard De Soussa Silva’s Sunny Day video (which I’m in and have shared with you before!)

And that’s when I thought I could sit down and relax. But Mdhamiri decided to show his short film (which I’m in but can’t share yet, due to competition rules he’s entered into) and then up popped Stuart Turner of The Flat Earth Society with his new song and video, The Making of Landscape. And guess what? Yes, I’m in it and I can share, since it’s already out there on Youtube! The zombies come courtesy of Mdhamiri and Roy, who were making a film called Zombocity (I’ve shared a couple of photos and a very short trailer previously, see the Sunny Day link above for that) which sadly, suffered a bit of a malfunction and is now in a dry lab hopefully being recovered. Anyhoo, here’s the video:

And you’d think that would’ve been quite enough showing off for one night, but no. 2013 BBC Writer’s Prize winner, Sarah Hehir, asked if I could play one of the parts in her short play (impressed by my earlier performances, clearly ;)) so I ended up in the final piece, rounding off a cracker of an evening.

Another wonderful aspect to the night was having artist Nigel Adams respond with live art as the event unfurled. The image at the top of the post is his work from Part One; this is Part Two:

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A massive thanks to Roy for instigating this rapidly growing cultural must – check out the Seasonally Effected blog for pod casts of each event  and dates for the next. The hasty venue change means we may not have the pod cast for this month, but don’t let it stop you enjoying the rest. A full list of last night’s participants will appear there shortly too.