World’s Words – Civilisations Festival

It was a privilege for me to be asked by the Library to organise an event during this week-long, nation-wide celebration of human creativity in all its forms. Thanks to the generous suggestions by my now extensive network of poets and authors, and the even more generous participation of eight supremely talented poets, I and the large audience enjoyed a terrific and moving evening. Although the event was all about ‘words’, it is hard to convey in words the emotions elicited by the music, rhythms and meanings of the many poems read in Arabic, Bangla, Greek and English. There may be a recording of it and shall post it if I’m able to… The theme of ‘words’ stretched to migration, war, asylum, identity. But it is words that people take with them as they move from place to place, and their translation allow us entry into their lives and experiences. As someone said, translation is the essence of hospitality. And as we all know, hospitality is the essence of civilisation.

Adnan Al-Sayegh reading with (l-r) Milton, Stephen, Farah and Mick

Me getting the session started, with (l-r) Fiona, Kostya, Mick and Lorraine

Mick Delap reading, with Milton, Stephen, Adnan and Farah

Stephen reading. As well as a fantastic poet in his own right, Stephen performed his translations of Adnan’s poems. He also compiled, and read from, a bilingual anthology of Bangladeshi poetry.

Left to right: Lorraine Mariner, Kostya Tsolakis, Milton Rahman, Stephen Watts, Adnan Al-Sayegh, Farah Naz, Fiona Moore and Mick Delap

And, as part of the same project, on Wednesday March 7, storytellers Farah Naz and Rich Sylvester http://richstories.mayfirst.org/ ran three sessions with year 4 pupils of James Wolfe Primary School in Royal Hill. I sat in on one of the sessions and learnt all about the origin of sunlight, the first sandals ever made and how to make a lazy young man into one with a decent work ethic… Here are a couple of images from the session. Thank you Rich and Farah, and the Head and Deputy head of the school (Steve Harris and Taniya Ahmed) for being so enthusiastic about this project.

Events

Tuesday May 5 [NEW DATE AND NEW PROGRAMME] at West Greenwich Library, 7 for 7.30 – LIVE CANON POETS: Barbara Barnes, Helen Eastman, Tessa Foley and Andrew George

[Pindrop Press reading postponed till November due to technical issues delaying the printing of the new collections].

LIVE CANON, under the stewardship of Helen Eastman, has been a driving force in publishing, performing, promoting and sharing poetry in all sorts of settings and forms for over 15 years.

I am thrilled and grateful that Helen, Barbara, Tessa and Andrew have stepped in at short notice, and I can’t wait to hear their inimitable voices.

Their biographies will follow shortly.

The event is free as always – and as always there will be plenty of refreshments. Expect a great variety of books on sale, too.

Tuesday June 9 at West Greenwich Library, 7 for 7.30: Robert Seatter presents ‘RIVER – Poems for the River Thames, from source to sea’

This year marks 30 years of the Thames Path, creating unique access to England’s most important and much loved river. RIVER will take you on a new and visceral journey, from source to sea, unpacking encounters en route and revealing the extraordinary emotional pull of the Thames in our lives.

Robert Seatter is writer in residence on this fascinating project, writing 30 short poems for key locations along the river’s 200 mile route, including Greenwich. Poems will be accessed via QR codes on the footpath finger posts, realised in audio, plus available in a hand-printed, limited edition book.
Join Robert to hear more as well as to share your own memories and stories of the Thames over time.
Robert has published eight poetry collections, and has won many awards and nominations for his poetry, including National Poetry Competition, London Poetry and Forward Poetry Prize. He is also a skilled poetry curator, with a specific interest in poetry and place making, as well as an arts professional with experience of chairing both The Poetry Trust and The Poetry Archive. He lives in London, where he works for the BBC, his most recent role being Head of BBC History. www.robertseatter.co.uk

SAVE THE DATES FOR THESE THREE FORTHCOMING EVENTS:

Tuesday September 8 – Gale Burns and friends

Tuesday October 6 – Blake Morrison

Tuesday November 10 – Pindrop Press, with Sharon Black, Alex Josephy and Emily Wills