Aesop Agency:21st Century Fables
Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 03:43 PM


I was commissioned by brand strategists, Aesop Agency to write some modern stories inspired by Aesop's Fables - it was a fun thing to do and I'm proud of the pieces - there's a video of me performing some of them at the launch if you click on the link below and I think there should be a bunch more in text form on the Aesop Agency site.

http://www.aesopagency.com/index.php/blog/21st-century-fables/
I am a supermoron.
Wednesday, May 25, 2011, 03:33 PM
So I'm lying in bed, back in London, after the euphoria of running the first London Tales-type event at Banff, thinking about writing the tales of my core characters and worrying whether it was a mistake to clear my diary of paid work so I could do so and then I think, well, what have I got coming up this month?

Well, there's the workshop at Keat's House for Benjamin Zephaniah's residency on Sunday 29th, looking forwards to that, and then oh, I've also got Animal Olympics at the Birmingham Book Bash on Sunday 29th..................

Shame, ignominy and the lash of a thousand disappointments. Woe and woe and woe.
I have put myself in the lowest doghouse next to nettles and a skip and am contemplating my place in the universe as being but a shard of scree in the sweaty sock of life.

Dorothea Smartt is one of a whole heap of people better than me morally and admin-wise and is now running a great workshop opportunity on Sunday 29th May, 1 - 4pm at Keat's House.



Sunday 29th May

Creative Writing Workshop

Keats: London Roots

Explore Keats's London roots in this creative writing workshop with Dorothea Smartt: "This opportunity to create our own poetry within this unique physical setting is fabulously rich and exciting. Inspired by Keats' own London roots and his use of common language, this workshop will start with real geographical spaces in London and explore how, through our poetic writing, we can create and reveal our own roots in, and visions of London spaces."
1 - 4pm
£8 - please book in advance



Meanwhile, I will be in Birmingham.





Banff Tales flyer.... I'm so nervy and excited...
Friday, April 29, 2011, 07:24 PM

It's 1254 Mountain Time, we're doing the tech run-through in 30 minutes and doors open at 1500.

There's a greenscreen poemfilm, a song to improvised fiddle music, numerous audience surveys, a historical re-enactment of the first Theatre and Creative Writing programme at Banff School of Fine Arts, 'Which Superhero/DragQueen Would you Be?' a Smudging by Elder Tom Crane Bear and a Wedding. Oh, and of course, an Election.

Got to go get some lunch.


I'm in Canada...
Monday, April 11, 2011, 04:49 PM
... at the Banff Centre on an artist residency, to develop the digital side of London Tales.

Just about to head over to the New Media Cetre, to have my first meetings with the production team.

I arrived on Saturday and discovered I had the wrong adaptor for my mac and phone, so I headed to the mall, to buy one.






I thought I was a sea person, but now I'm thinking mountains. They do deliver instant awe and insignificance.

Since arriving here, I've been feeling such intense freedom. Or loss.

Thinking of my babies so far away, of being completely on my own terms, utterly untethered. Abandonment is what I feel, a blade-thin line of joy and terror. Do you know what I mean?

Having said that, yesterday I bumped into the gorgeous Regie Cabico, who I met at the Nuyorican Cafe years ago. It turns out Regie is a faculty member here on a Spoken Word residency. Of course, he has instantly welcomed me into the spoken word scene here.

http://www.facebook.com/pages/Regie-Cabico-Spoken-Word-Theatre-Artist
Barcelona, Kosmopolis
Wednesday, April 6, 2011, 11:39 PM



foto by carlos@cazurro.com
http://www.cazurro.com

I went to Barcelona, to the amplified literature festival, Kosmopolis, to do two performances and a workshop at the architecturally spanky British Council offices, which are on the posh mountain/side rather than the low-down, 'fun' sea/side.



I travelled with Chris Redmond, who is, like Barcelona, very cool but not at all intimidating. I really liked hanging out with Chris. He is a dude.

I hung out with Ajo, a Madrilleno micropoetess, who I have hung out with before. She is effing marvellously orbiting multiple teeny tiny micro-airports at any one time.

I met D'bi Young from Jamaica/CapeTown/Canada and Malika Ndlovu, from South Africa - wonderful performers, very different energies, both so full of grace and friendship. If you get the chance to see them, I do recommend you take it.



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