BOOTLEG BALLOONATICS PRESENT:

BLOOMSDAY IN LONDON – 16^THJUNE 2019

Journey through an imaginary Dublin on the streets of Tufnell Park

For anyone unable to make it to Dublin, this year the Balloonatics offer you the chance to celebrate Bloomsday here in London.  Join us for a Joycean journey around the leafy streets of Tufnell Park in the footsteps of Leopold Bloom. We begin in front of Acland Burleigh school, opposite Tufnell Park tube station at 11.00– circling through Kentish Town and Dartmouth Park, we will finish up at the Dartmouth Arms in York Rise, doubling up for Davy Byrne’s ‘moral pub’ at around 12.30. Along the way we will run into the various chancers, neighbours and shopkeepers who populate Mr Bloom’s Day. The Dartmouth Arms have kindly agreed to offer the traditional Bloomsday lunch of gorgonzola sandwich and glass of burgundy. After your ‘mitey cheese’ and liquid refreshment, we will be presenting a theatrical celebration of Joyce’s work in St Mary’s Brookfield Church Hall in York Rise at 3.00– where the programme will include extracts from Dubliners, Portrait and (of course) Ulysses.  We promise a fun and convivial day out and a rambunctious recreation of Joyce’s text, with words, music and hats, live in 3-D!

All events are free, but we ask for your voluntary contributions to help cover our costs. For the afternoon show places will be limited, so please reserve your place via our Eventrbite page: https://tinyurl.com/y3wogmdr

Note from Toby: This event is connected to the literary theatre group– led by the brilliant Paul O’Hanrahan–whom I have followed every year in Dublin for Bloomsday…and I will again this year…Chris Bilton and corp will bring Paul’s vision & Ulysses to life in London–great way to celebrate the Book and the heroics of one day in the life of an everyday artist….

Roll Red Roll

Congratulations to Megan Davis!

Her novel, The Messenger  has taken first place in The Peggy Chapman-Andrews Award for a First Novel!

Read an extract of ‘The Messenger’ here.

Megan Davis was born in the lead smelting town of Port Pirie, South Australia and grew up in mining towns in Australia, Papua New Guinea, Malaysia, Indonesia, and Singapore, attending twelve different schools. She has worked as a lawyer in Melbourne, Sydney, London, and Paris in the areas of media law, finance, and white-collar crime.  As a lawyer in the film industry her credits include The Constant Gardener, Atonement, Eastern Promises, In Bruges, Tristram Shandy, Pride & Prejudice, and the Bourne films.  Megan recently completed an MA in Creative Writing (Prose Fiction) at the University of East Anglia, Norwich.

Megan is the second Salonsita to have achieved this incredible distinction– Dr. Lizzy Welby was a winner a few years back for her short story, “Jugged Hare”.

About the Bridport Prize:

We’re an open writing competition that is dedicated to finding and encouraging the most promising new writers from across the world. Each year the judges award over £18,000 in prize money for your best submissions in poetry, short stories, flash fiction and first novels.

As well as cash prizes, winners of the poetry, short story and flash fiction competitions are published in the Bridport Prize anthology. Winners of the Peggy Chapman Andrews First Novel Award will receive mentoring with our partner The Literary Consultancy – the UK’s first and leading editorial and manuscript assessment service.

The prize was founded in 1973, in a small town in Dorset, UK, by Peggy Chapman-Andrews. Today it is a global writing competition and many winners have gone on to see their work published and have become household names.

Past judges include Ali Smith, Roger McGough, Carol Ann Duffy, U A Fanthorpe, Kate Atkinson, Margaret Drabble, Andrew Motion and Tracy Chevalier.

For your chance to win get your entries to us by 31 May, 12 midnight BST 2019.

Thurs Sept 13th 7.30pm
Keats Community Library 10 Keats Grove NW3 2RR
Miranda Seymour will discuss her new book In Byron’s Wake about the careers of Bryon’s widow and daughter,  Books  will be available for signing.
Tickets £10 from the library on 0207 431 1266.

We are in  beautiful Grade II listed building next to Keats House. Do come and visit.

Poetry Slam Documentary “Don’t Be Nice”

To World Premiere at East End Film Festival

First Film from Bowery Poetry Studios

Spotlights NYC Team at National Competition

Feature Documentary Debut from Director Max Powers

Explores Poetry as response to critical events in America today

New York, New York and London, UK – 16/04/18 –

The poetry slam documentary “Don’t Be Nice” will world premiere on the 20th of April, 2018 at 8.50 pm at the East End Film Festival at Rich Mix (35-47 Bethnal Green, London E1 6LA, UK). The first feature documentary from Bowery Poetry Studios spotlights New York City’s Bowery Slam poetry team as they prepare for a national competition during the summer of 2016. This feature documentary debut from director Max Powers explores poetry as a response to critical events in America today, such as the police killings of Alton Sterling and Philando Castile.

“Bowery Poetry Club popularized the slam poetry form, and with the creation of Bowery Slam we saw a new generation of poets that had a radical message for the world, so we felt it was time for slam to transcend the bars, clubs and cafes and move into the larger world,” says the film’s producer Nikhil Melnechuk, who is also Bowery Poetry’s executive director.

“Don’t Be Nice” is the Bowery Slam team’s credo and call to action. For coach Lauren Whitehead, to “be nice” means to stay on the surface of things and conform to societal expectations. She pushes the team to dig deep and challenge the status quo in their poems, even if that risks the team losing the title. The film grants audiences rare and intimate access to the poetic process of five young New York artists, transporting viewers behind the scenes and onto the stages of this fiery, visceral art form.

“As filmmakers, our team had to use visual tools to convey the power, vulnerability, and urgency of the poets’ words,” says director Max Powers. “The film attempts to show how the intense creative process uncovers universal truths about the human condition, while asking the question: what can art do in the face of insurmountable real-world obstacles?”

Don’t Be Nice is a production of Bowery Poetry Studios and the Radio Drama Network, in association with the Emmy Award-winning Flatbush Pictures, HOWL! Arts, and Ideal Glass.

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About Bowery Poetry Studios

Bowery Poetry Studios is the film arm of Bowery Arts+Science, a 501(c)3 non-profit that operates New York City’s historic Bowery Poetry Club. Founded by Bob Holman in 2002 and now run by Nikhil Melnechuk, Bowery Arts+Science’s mission is to discover and support emerging poets and artists, and to develop new poetic forms to promote the arts as a changemaking force in society.

THE JAZZ COLLECTIVE WITH SARAH QUIST AND PAUL KISSAUN

• DATE: 31ST MARCH 2018
• TIME: 20:30

A throwback evening to the good old days where Music took centre stage,  where you played because you loved to jam. Join us for an evening of Jazz with friends.  We’re not traditionalists so if you want to jam with a sitar, beat on a Cajon or vocalise come down and play, or just sit back and listen.

Sarah Quist Singer/songwriter:
Started with Herbie Flowers, Hazel O’Connor playing at Ronnie Scotts, The 100 Club and The Bass Clef. Since then her big soulful voice has taken her around the world. She’s recorded on several albums, including recording in Memphis with legendary soul producer Willie Mitchell, who produced Al Green and Tina Turner.

Paul Kissaun/ Piano/bass and vocals:
During the 80’s and 90’s (alias Bassman jaq) was a member of The Flying Pickets appearing alongside Bob Dylan, Ray Charles, Nina Simone, Blur, The Pretenders, Art Garfunkle, The Gypsy Kings and Joan Baez. On leaving the group  Paul concentrated on writing music for theatre and television.

With guests DJ Philco, who will be laying down his Vinyl vibes, and Paul Emile on Drums / percussion.

(I had the pleasure of getting to know Sarah in my work with TEDx– and she is AMAZING…this will be a heartening night of music!– Toby)

Sarah Quist website
Sarah Quist “Bang bang”
Sarah Quist soundcloud
Sarah Quist twitter

Paul Kissaun Soundcloud
Paul Kissaun Twitter

Doors 8pm Tickets £5
email: info@mapmusic.net
Or call for tickets– 0207 916 0545

Marcy has a new, witty play on the BBC. Moments of wincing and laugh-out loud dialogue– lots of fun….

http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b09dtd3w

Some of you may have participated in a recent study with Louise Chamberlain– she is one of the founders of f.bombe–truly a person that makes things happen.

This holiday season, f.bombe is offering wreath-making workshops: “A few hours to immerse yourself in the sensory and festive pleasure of making your own wreath for yourself or to give away.  All you need is yourself.”  Most of the workshops have sold out, but there is still space available on December 8th…for more info:

https://www.fbombe.com/new-page/

ABOUT F.BOMBE

Fbombe arranges flowers for events, celebrations, hatches, dispatches, soirees and well dones using the bounty of flowers and foliage that come in from London gardening initiatives and green spaces.  Working this way means everyone benefits from beginning to end.  The more we can buy from local growers the more we can support organisations that grow and cultivate as community initiatives, environmental purposes, or for therapy.
It is our intention to work in a way where there are benefits of a work process that is wholly nourishing for all from seed to compost. Seasonality naturally informs everything we do and for the most part we use what we have available at any given time. This non-prescriptive way of working makes a stage for creativity with delightful outcomes.
Whenever possible we draw from the abundant and continuous narratives of the arts to make flower stories that dip and dive through history, cultures and craft.