7th to 9th May 2010,
Singing, Saying and Spirit
Poetry-next-the-Sea has arranged an exciting programme of poetry performances and workshops for its annual festival, Singing, Saying and Spirit held in Wells-next-the-Sea, North Norfolk, Friday 7 May to Sunday 9 May, www.poetry-next-the-sea.com.
Poets with international and national reputations, young up and coming talent and local writers combine to make Wells the destination for everyone from committed poetry fans, to visitors wanting to rediscover poetry for the first time since school days.
Celebrated East Anglian literary treasure, Ronald Blythe, will discuss with Kevin Crossley-Holland the poems that he would take to console him on a desert island. Grey Gowrie, former Chairman of The Arts Council, Jo Shapcott, President of the Poetry Society, Jon Stallworthy, Emeritus Professor at Oxford University and senior research fellow at Wolfson College, Oxford and award-winning Suffolk poet Pauline Stainer will all read from their published works. Jon Stallworthy will also focus on War Poetry since Auschwitz.
Norfolk’s Hugh Lupton will present an evening of the spoken word and song, Psalms from The Horse’s Mouth, reflecting on our magical relationship with the horse. Award-winning Faber Poets, Joe Dunthorne, Sam Riviere, Jack Underwood, Tom Warner will combine for a lunchtime session and Norwich Café Writers commission winners, Laura Elliott, Angus Sinclair and Julia Webb will work together at a mid morning event.
Winners of Poetry-next-the-Sea’s annual poetry competition will be announced, local schools will present a morning of recitation and all budding poets will be welcome to take part in an open event.
Rachel Hannyngton is this year’s festival artist. Her exhibition will look at the connection between poetry and painting, exploring the landscape of the head and the heart.
Full details of all events and activities are at www.poetry-next-the-sea.com. Brochures can be picked up in local libraries. For further information and ticket bookings tel. 01328 711813, email [email protected].
Festival season tickets, for all events except workshops are £36. Festival season tickets for Friends of Poetry-next-the-Sea are £30.
Fiona Fraser, Joint Artistic Director, Poetry-next-the-Sea said: “Whatever your age, whatever your tastes, this festival has an appeal. There is a free Fringe Event, an Open Floor opportunity, and a Poetry Competition for all Norfolk dwellers. As a spectator you have the privilege of hearing some of the most renowned writers of our time. A performance by Hugh Lupton, the storyteller par excellence, or his workshop are both available. Jon Stallworthy, the editor of the Oxford Book of War Poetry, talks on a subject currently of great interest, War Poetry after Auschwitz. Ronald Blythe, the undisputed literary sovereign of East Anglian writers, will be there along with Kevin Crossley-Holland, Pauline Stainer, a star from Suffolk, Jo Shapcott and Grey Gowrie. The highly talented Festival Artist, Rachel Hannyngton, will provide a backdrop to challenge your perceptions. Wells is well supplied with eating places to satisfy your other needs and a Quayside, second to none, from which to gaze out to sea.”
Thursday 6 May 2010
Pre-festival event 7pm The Granary, Alderman Peel Student’s Off by Heart Competition.
All other events take place at The Maltings
Friday 7 May 2010
and Grey Gowrie, former Chairman of the Arts Council of England.
9.30am Schools Off by Heart Competition, £2 or for family groups of up to four, £5. Students from primary schools in Blakeney, Burnham Market, Hindringham, Langham, Walsingham and Wells-next-the-Sea recite poems from memory following
Coral Rumble’s workshops held earlier this year.
The workshop is designed for anyone who wants to develop techniques for reading poetry to an audience. Participants should bring a short poem of their choice.
10.30am – 12.30pm, £15, Poetry Workshop with Jo Shapcott
11am, £5 – a morning of poetry with Angus Sinclair, Laura Elliott and Julia Webb winners of the Norwich Café Writers Commission, along with the winners of the 2010 Poetry-next-the-Sea Open Poetry Competition. Poetry-next-the-Sea competition sponsored by Norfolk Community Foundation.
1pm, £10 – novelist, essayist and literary critic Ronald Blythe discusses with Kevin Crossley-Holland the poems that he would take to console him on a desert island.
2pm, free – fringe event. Explore the overlap between poetry and the visual in this event outside The Mermaid’s Purse, devised by local sculptor Polly Ionides.
2.30pm to 4.30pm, £15 – A Chain of Voices – storytelling workshop with Hugh Lupton
When we tell a story everyone who is told it before us is standing behind us. How do we honour these ancestral presences at the same time as holding the interest of a contemporary audience? This practical workshop (for beginners) will explore this question at the same time as teaching some of the techniques of storytelling.
5.30pm, £10 – Jo Shapcott, President of the Poetry Society and Professor of Poetry at Royal Holloway College reads with Jon Stallworthy former Professor of English Literature at Cornell and Oxford Universities.
8.30pm, £6 – Hugh Lupton, Psalms from the Horse’s Mouth, Singing and Storytelling. Since the earliest times there has been a strong, almost a magical connection between people and horses. When we are in the presence of horses an old memory is wakened in us. This programme of words and music explores and celebrates the ancient relationship between man and horse.
Sunday 9 May 2010
11am, £6 – Jon Stallworthy, War Poetry after Auschwitz
1pm, £5, award-winning Faber Poets, Joe Dunthorne, Sam Riviere, Jack Underwood, Tom Warner introduced by Kevin Crossley Holland.
3pm, £3 – Open Floor event, hosted by Jenny Cunningham. Read your own work in a mutually supportive environment. All welcome, whatever your experience.
WVB-MOP
