Pictures Vs Words Q&A w/ Birmingham Based Poet Jodi Ann Bickley

Jodi Ann Bickley is from Birmingham. Yes, her poems are as cute as she is.

What does your writing desk look like?

I don't have a desk, my room is the tiniest of places. I usually end up writing on the bus, on my bed or on the coach/train up and down to shows. I never know when I'm going to write because with my two jobs covering day and night there isn't usually a spare hour or two to dedicate to it. I just carry a notebook on me all the time, plus I'm moving into a room like.. 10x the size of my one right now on Saturday so maybe I'll make a little writing corner or something.

What is on your to do list?

Music, I'm involved in a couple of projects at the moment I'm pretty excited about. My biggest, most massive goal is to write for Adele. I'd like to headline a stage at somepoint. I want to learn how to sew, cook and face paint. The face paint ambition started at Bestival this year - having a face full of colour genuinally makes your day a little bit better. I'd like to do a one man show, get a little book published. I want to go back to Tokyo, see New York, Barcelona, Boston - I want to go and see the Northern Lights. I really want to go to Iceland too. I want to write better, just be better generally. I want to worry less, see my best friends more. Get to the point where I can work a little less. Drink more water, go down a dress size or two. Or get to the point where silly things like that are just irrelevant.

 What's more important, talking or listening?

Ah.. I'd say.. Listening. I think, it may change tomorrow.

What makes a better story - pictures or words?

Words. Some of the most lovely pictures I've seen have been strung together by sentences. Maybe that is because I can't draw though.. 

Respond to this photo.

I remember in primary school when one pupil in my class called another pupil a "bastard" and suddenly every kid in class became potty mouthed. Our whole class would have to do lines in the hall during playtime, even though me and my friends hadn't said anything but were way too scared to defend our cause to our year six teacher who threated to kill himself and us all way more than a year 6 teacher should. Anyway, the first thing that came into my head when I saw this picture was what the girls in school would say when someone would call them a "bitch" - "A bitch is a dog, a dog barks, bark is a tree, tree is nature and nature is beautiful - thanks for the compliment". 

Pictures vs. Words Q&A w/ Bristol Based Poet Byron Vincent

I have sent a set of questions and one of my photographs to six poets around the country and asked them to respond.

First up its a poet from Bristol. Cynical, satirical, witty and generally, a nice bloke Byron Vincent.  He's won nine poetry slams including Shambala, Secret Garden and the BBC Manchester Literary Festival.

Q. What does your writing desk look like?

Byron: It’s got a heart shaped ashtray on it which contains a mountain of festering roll up butts. I refuse to see any symbolism or irony in this.

Q. What is on your to do list?

Byron: I currently have faux Essex girl and literary homunculus*, Molly Naylor visiting me. This morning my to do list read:

Phone calls
Invoices

When I returned from the bathroom it read:

Phone calls
Invoices
Improve face
Develop ability to grow beard
Don’t go all mental
Feed Molly
Iron doilies
Write shit
Lunge
Explain what wall paper is
Given the input of a second author, I don’t know if this still technically qualifies as MY to do list?

Q. What's more important, talking or listening?

Byron: Well that entirely depends on who’s doing the talking. If Slavoj Žižek was in full flow, I’d be all ears, but if Richard Littlejohn was flapping his gob, I’d probably feel the urge to interject.

Q. What makes a better story - pictures or words?


Byron: Again, that would depend on the perceived qualities of the picture or piece of writing and the imagination and sensibilities of the person experiencing them. If like me you’re undecided, read an Allen Moore comic, they render partisan decisions on this issue unnecessary. Also, reading comics makes you sexy. Yes it does. Shut up.

*Don’t feel sorry for her, she’s called me MUCH worse.

Q. Lastly, respond to this photo

Byron: ADORN RAINY LIFE

Poem Upon Reflection Of Black History Minute

Black History Minute is upon us and I've agreed to (indirectly) acknowledge it via a poem about me'old man.

He arrived in England, 1950s;

tore knuckle on Teddy Boys that pelted him in streets

with bananas and rocks. Small town kids nudged him and ran off;

they called it luck to touch the black man.

Squared up in pubs with the Irish, drunk in arms afterwards.

A father five times to three women because man is meant to multiply

but my dad has expectations of me that look like sensible versions of him.

They wear suits, they’re sober, they have day jobs, 
they are novelists not poets.

I was born in England, 86, 

I live in this night and day London, 
the black and white boy who can blend into anything.

Chill Pill's Soho Theatre Oct 4th Line Up Confirmed

Anthony Anaxagorou @ The Gallery Cafe from Sweet Potato Pictures on Vimeo.

I've done a few shows with Anthony Anaxagorou this year including this rather brilliant sell out show featured in the video above.

Anthony will be featuring with his band at the next Chill Pill at Soho Theatre on Oct 3rd alongside myself, Sabrina Mahfouz (her one woman show Dry Ice got rave reviews at this years Edinburgh Fringe Festival) . Also more from the Chill Pill Poets (Mista Gee, Simon Mole, Deanna Rodger) and poems from respected emerging London poets Sonority Turner and Anna Le (organiser of the brilliant poetry show 'Sage & Time).

Conversation With An Ex-Hackney Resident On Broadway Market

It’s a catwalk this place. You come here just to be seen here. I mean, look at that knob with the feathers and the top hat; he’s wearing bloody high heels. And them gals that walk around with them rollers in their hair and rags tied around their head, looking like my nan cleaning the house. Blimey, if I see another handlebar moustache I’m gonna throw some bricks! There was a bloke who owned a shop here called Spirit, he’s Rasta I think, sold west Indian foods. He got run out the area by these property developers. I mean, his name was fucking spirit, that’s a metaphor if there was ever one! That pub on the corner, I used to drink there with a bunch of cockneys and some Jamaican mates. Sometimes Irish blokes would walk in and wanna fight ya, we’d knuckle out and they’d wanna buy you a drink afterwards. Nowadays that pub is selling crab burgers and lobster soup to poofs with handlebar moustaches! Funny how this place felt more like home when there was a chance I’d get robbed in the street. Living in Tottenham now... someone might rob me there instead.


NOTE: The guy with the top hat and high heels turned out to be the bassist from The Killers.

Poetry Workshop with US Poet/Author/ Publisher Derrick Brown 21st Sep (GET INVOLVED)

US poet/Author/ founder of Write Bloody Publishing is heading to London on the 23rd September to run a poetry workshop. It will take place at 5.30pm at the Free Word Centre. There are twenty places and its £20 to participate. To sign up please email me  and I'll put you on the register.

If you can't make it and would like the chance to catch Derrick Brown perform a set of his own poetry at The Keats House Poets Forum as part of his European tour then head down to Keats House Museum on Sunday 25th September at 2pm. There is even an open mic (arrive early for sign up) Also this event is FREE! so there's no excuses to miss one of the worlds most renowned performance poets while he's in town.

Also, in case you were wondering the next Chill Pill is at Soho Theatre on the 3rd October
7.30pm.

Other Upcoming Shows

September 24th : A Poetry Roast at Keats House w/ Benjamin Zephaniah

October 6th : Worcester Literature Festival

October 11th : Royal Holloway Students Union w/ Simon Mole, Deanna Rodger, Tshaka Campbell, Anthony Anaxagorou, The Ruby Kid

October 14th : Rail Road Cafe' (Hackney) w/ Captain Of The Rant & Rachel Rose Reid

October 15th : Little Lamp (Brighton) w/ Richard Tyrone Jones

October 20th : Chill Pill @ The Albany w/ Dizraeli, Simon Mole, Deanna Rodger, Poetikat, Mark Mr.T Thompson

October 23rd : Keats House Poets Present... (Keats House) w/ Bohdan Piasecki

October 27th: The Horse and Groom (Shoreditch) w/ The Ruby Kid plus Guests

 October 29th : Keats House w/ Benjamin Zephaniah, Patience Agbabi and Jordan Westcarr

Conversation With Grandma

She tells me Mark is coming over. He’s my gardener. He’s deaf and dumb. 

I look at her as if she might be talking about me. 

Well, he lip reads and responds to everything with his thumbs up. He can laugh though, he laughs all the time. I’m quite fond of him. Anyway, he’s coming to dig a grave for Hollie in the garden. She was put down this morning; she had a good life. Have you ever dug a grave? Hard work that. Makes you really respect gravediggers. 

I never feel like a poet around Grandma, I rarely know what to say. 

I can’t lie, I’ve been crying all night. I’m going to miss Hollie. Hope I don’t get too many lonely moments without her. I ate chicken earlier and couldn’t help but feel strange to be mourning Hollie while eating a dead animal. You get to be old as me and life still surprises you. I hope when I get to heaven I get my young body back. See that picture of me on the mantelpiece? That’s me at 22. I was in love with a man called Keith. He was so handsome, taller than you. Always wore grey jackets and trimmed his moustache. I’d say kissing a man without a moustache is like eating a boiled egg without salt. He took that photo, I’m smiling because he asked me a naughty question, I shan’t repeat it. You don’t appreciate beauty when you’ve got it. You shouldn’t put so much pride into things that fade. Life is full of sad things and happy things. The sad things are important; they give you compassion, which in the end gives you more to be happy about. Everyone I went to school with is dead. I’m at the age where every day is a bonus. You get those phone calls, oh’ Mavis died, oh’ Elizabeth died and you just sit there with your life behind you. I believe in a spirit world though, a place for the good and a place for the bad. I can’t see Hitler’s spirit in the same place as my friends. Then again, if Germany wasn’t on the brink of starvation after the First World War it wouldn’t have bred such evil. That’s just my opinion though. How’s your poetry going? 

I tell her it’s ok. 

Don’t you find the more you talk to people the more you realise how important words are? I used to be part of an organisation called Talking Books. We’d read books to blind people. Each book took a while to read out loud but it did so much for them. One man I read to told me, when you live in the dark your only light is a good story. Are you hungry? 

I tell her I am. 

Do you want to finish the chicken? 

I say I’m ok, thanks.

Midnight Run With Inua Ellams This Saturday (GET INVOLVED!)

Midnight Run News // 16/08/2011

Hey Hey HEY! Welcome to the 3nd MNrun Newsletter. I hope you are well. It looks like the weather will hold out, so on possibly the last weekend of summer, the MNrun will be on! {phaze05.com/themidnightrun}
3 News Items // WHERE TO MEET // WHAT TO BRING // THE ARTISTS //

WHERE TO MEET // 3rd - 4th Sept
FIRSTLY, IF YOU INTEND TO COME TO THE RUN, PLEASE SEND ME AN EMAIL, IMMEDIATELY, I NEED TO KNOW NUMBERS. THANKS. Now, after much hushed wondering, we have a location. Please gather at the main entrance of The Tate Britain (Millbank, London, SW1P 4RG) at 5.45pm this Saturday, because at 6pm sharp, we will move! // Closest Stations: Pimlico & Vauxhall // Buses: 2, 36, 85, 436, 77 - & lots more.

WHAT TO BRING //
1) *A healthy sense of fun. 2) A pen and a notebook.
3) One ripe Banana. 4) Roughly £20 pounds for food etc.
5) Please wear comfortable shoes; we will be walking lots.
6) Please come dressed for the weather. //

THE ARTISTS // 
To each Midnight Run, 5 artists are invited. Their task is to entertain within the MNrun, and also to capture instance of the run in their individual art forms. Here they are:

PHOTOGRAPHER: Raymond Antrobus is a spoken word artist, poet, writer and a photographer. He is an accomplished young one, has performed alongside authors and poets such as Margret Atwood, Michael Horovitz, Lemm Sissay and Polarbear. Raymond’s photography has featured in The Big Issue, The Evening Standard and showcased online by the world famous Southbank Centre.

POETRY & SPOKEN WORD: Bridget Minnamore & Rubix. Rubix is a collective of 15 young London-based spoken word artists who began life as the Roundhouse Poetry Collective. After taking their first show ‘The Greatest Poet That Ever Lived’ to the Edinburgh Fringe in August 2010, Rubix became an associate company with the Roundhouse. Following a scratch performance of their second show ‘House Party’ at the Roundhouse studios, Rubix are currently developing the material for a wider audience. They have performed at the BAC, Bang Said the Gun, Whitechapel Gallery, Rich Mix, Poejazzi, Shoreditch Festival, Shunt, Big Chill and Camp Bestival.

GUERILLA GARDENER: Andre Haining spends most of his day organising events and designing websites for large corporate clients.  He also runs his not-for-profit organisation EFORESTS (www.eforests.co.uk) which helps create community woodlands around the UK and runs urban food-growing projects in London.  A keen amateur gardener, he started guerrilla gardening in 2006 after seeing Richard Reynolds (guerrillagardening.org) on the TV one day. Since then he has worked with Richard and other guerrilla gardeners, at numerous locations around London, turning grubby patches of neglected land into beautiful urban spaces. He also helped build the Recycled Garden (recycledgarden.net) at the Hampton Court Flower Show in 2008

MUSIC: Tj Owusu, A Ghanaian multi-instrumentalist brought up on a healthy diet of eclecticism. He plays the weissenborn, a Hawaiian instrument designed by a German luthier. Picking up the instrument in his early teens, he was captured by the weissenborn's vocal warmth and ability to paint audible pictures. His object is to create a soup for all musical buds through instrumentation.

FILM: Estabrak is a MA graduate of film and media production from a visual arts background. She began as part of ‘Imagine Art’, a world wide arts project hosted by Guardian Unlimited and has produced stunning short films and installations showcased at the TATE Britain and The Showroom Cinema, Sheffield. Her work has had press coverage in Italy's 'Amica', Middle Easts 'Bidoun' and UK's 'Diva' magazines to name a few. She hopes to travel the world challenging the nature of perception through visual story telling.

That’s it!! Remember to sleep like a whale on Friday night. Roll outta bed late in afternoon on Saturday, for when the eve comes, we MNRun!

BBC E-Mail Response To David Starkey Complaint

Dear Mr Antrobus

Thank you for contacting us regarding ‘Newsnight’, broadcast on Friday 12 August.

We understand some viewers felt David Starkey's contribution to the discussion on the England riots was inappropriate and racially offensive. We note some viewers also felt Dr Starkey's views were not sufficiently challenged by presenter Emily Maitlis.

Firstly, it is important to stress that Dr Starkey’s views are his alone and not those of ‘Newsnight’ or the BBC. It is part of ‘Newsnight's remit to air and challenge controversial views and we believe his perspective on the riots was robustly challenged during the course of this discussion.

The aim of this, at times heated, ten minute debate was to examine the causes of the recent riots and looting and in many ways it encapsulated different strands of opinion, both ideologically and socio-economically, as to what provoked the violence. Presenter Emily Maitlis directly challenged David Starkey’s views on a number of occasions, asking: ‘Is black culture the cause of the rioting?’ and ultimately ending the discussion by asserting that Dr Starkey was ‘using black and white cultures interchangeably as good and bad’.

Aside from Emily Maitlis’ interjections, guests Owen Jones and Dreda Say Mitchell clearly took exception to David Starkey’s opinions and were given ample time and space to make their disagreements heard. Owen Jones particularly highlighted that many people listening would find the views expressed offensive, and Emily Maitlis provided further context - making it clear that David Cameron had stated that this was not a race issue, and that people taking part in the riots came from a range of ethnic backgrounds.

Although some viewers found David Starkey’s arguments offensive, others agreed with them. It is not ‘Newsnight's’ job to censor the views of our guests; the programme would rather challenge them in a robust way on air, and allow viewers to draw their own conclusions. We believe this discussion was conducted in a fair and professional manner.

Please be assured your concerns were raised with the programme.

Thank you again for taking the time to contact us.

www.bbc.co.uk/complaints

NB This is sent from an outgoing account only which is not monitored. You cannot reply to this email address but if necessary please contact us via our webform quoting any case number we provided.

Kind Regards

Andrew Hannah

Response To David Strakey's Racist Comments Wrapped Up!

Since the London Riots I've heard some of the most outrageous, outright racism mainly from (educated and unappreciative) white middle class people. This weekend I did a gig at a Festival in Bath and got into a conversation with a lovely (white and higher educated) lady who works for a bank who had this to say.

"What on earth do these ethnics have to complain about living in this country? Its not like South Africa is it? no! we have a fair and functioning society with free health care and welfare state. It's disgraceful and they should have bought in the army"  etc

I asked her to expand on the South Africa comment and she said

"White people know about oppression, my friend is a white South African... I mean sure she has black maids and the rest of it but she's having a hard time as a white person out there"

I've not seen South Africa for myself but I'm going out there to work in a township for two months in November. I'll comment on this when I've seen it for myself but I think I know enough to be sure this is a shallow and insensitive comment.

Now, lots of people I know personally have shocked me with some of their twitter comments and facebook updates and I couldn't help but be a little conscious over my own social standing as a young, Jamaican and British male born and raised in Hackney (in a single parent home).

I used to do voluntary work in Hackney Youth Clubs and I've grown up attending quite a few around London. The comment made by a Politician about "the kinds of kids that got involved with the riots aren't the kind to want to go to university or play ping pong at a youth club" is a horrific statement to make.

I've seen kids who despite carrying knives and smoking weed on the (youth club) premises, responded positively to the youth club environment. It kept them off the streets and many of them were pretty good at ping pong. (ha!)

Anyway, after seeing Starkey's comments which has angered and embarrassed as many white people as it has black. I couldn't help but once again be made aware of the horrific prejudice that has surfaced from the skins of our society in this past week.

This video from Nabil Abdul Rashid is on the money!

Here's a poem by Chill Pill's Mista Gee which featured on BBC Radio the other day.

 Dear Mr Juvenile (An Overview of the 2011 England Riots) by Mr Gee poet