Our second assignment for the Research Methods module is due in about 2 and 1/2 weeks... and I am having a good old dither about it today. And yesterday.
I think it was the sheer scope of the task at hand. On the face of it, it looked simple: a 1000 word report evaluating the archival resources available in Northern Ireland - or near where you live - that's if you can winkle anything of 'literary worth' out of a provincial Local Authority Archive that specialises in water board records and minutes of meetings... you get the picture don't you?
A visit to Armagh is in the offing to look at the rather splendid sounding Armagh Public Library or Robinson Library, where they specialise in lots of interesting books, manuscripts and documents mostly before the 1800s. They have a first edition of Jonathan Swift's Gulliver's Travels, with his own emendations there!
Meanwhile, back at the Kairos/poetry ranch, the two November readings have sort of snuck up on me. Galway and Over The Edge is next Thursday 1st November, in Galway City Library at 6.30pm. I am reading with two other poets, Megan Buckley and Jean Folan, both with tremendous literary credits to their names.
After a wee visit to some outlaws in Cahirciveen on Friday 2nd, it's back to Tralee, my adopted home for a good bit of the summer, for the big read on Saturday 3rd November, at Siamsa Tire. This time it's with the other Doghouse Pups from this year, Catherine Ann Cullen, Anatoly Kudryavitsky and Hugh O'Donnell. It's a nice way to meet up with Noel our editor again and the other three.
Showing posts with label Galway. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Galway. Show all posts
Wednesday, October 24, 2007
Friday, February 16, 2007
Galway Slam Night
Just back and feeling relatively normal (well as normal as a hangover will allow!). I had a heck of a night last night in BK's Wine Bar - just listening to the sheer talent of the readers that slammed at North Beach Nights, before the main event of guest reader Kevin Higgins. It was a difficult call for the judges in the audience for those picked to make the final three, and the overall winner was picked by a hair's breadth. The night was ably emceed by Gary King, who kept things moving along in an organised manner.
Here's how their slam works. Whoever signs up for reading gets their name put into a hat and then the readers read in that order. Ten slammers took up the challenge last night and three were picked for the second round: Denise Heneghan, Brendan Murphy and Steve Murray, which took place after the guest reader.
The original lineup included Mary Madec, Denise Heneghan, Leonor Silvestri, John Walsh, Susan Millar DuMars, Miceál Kearney, Steve Murray, Dave Rock, Brendan Murphy and Carolyn Kimbel. Oh, and me too. I hope I've not forgotten anyone - there was so much to take in.
Here's how their slam works. Whoever signs up for reading gets their name put into a hat and then the readers read in that order. Ten slammers took up the challenge last night and three were picked for the second round: Denise Heneghan, Brendan Murphy and Steve Murray, which took place after the guest reader.
The original lineup included Mary Madec, Denise Heneghan, Leonor Silvestri, John Walsh, Susan Millar DuMars, Miceál Kearney, Steve Murray, Dave Rock, Brendan Murphy and Carolyn Kimbel. Oh, and me too. I hope I've not forgotten anyone - there was so much to take in.
Denise, Steve, Brendan and Miceál
The range of poetry was quite wide, from formal poems like sestinas to freewheeling free verse and the subjects ranged from marriage proposals through computers to the changes in Croke Park (allowing rugby to be played on the hallowed turf of GAA, for those outside of Ireland) and the state of humanity and beyond. So, quite a diverse range of writing and styles!
Kevin's set itself made for interesting hearing. His loose easy style of reading and humoured delivery belies the actual work that must go into his writing and these poems from his future collection, Time Gentlemen, Please! went down very well with the appreciative audience, which itself reflected the rich diversity of Galway, from students to those involved in all aspects of the arts. It's great to see poetry so warmly supported in Galway in this way.
Kevin and his Mum, MaryWhile there I also got a chance to speak with the three of the four Galway poets whose work has been selected for the Poetry Ireland Introductions series: Mary Madec, Aoife Casby & Susan Millar DuMars, two of whom slammed on the night. They were looking forward to their Poetry Ireland Masterclass at the end of February and their actual readings which will be in Aprilish (another date for my culture vulture diary).
Aoife , Mary and Susan
I also spoke briefly to the slam winner Denise Heneghan, about the sources that we draw on for writing and how to fit writing into the demands of family life.
And lastly a quick wave to Miceál Kearney without whom I wouldn't have known about North Beach Nights, which as it happens derives its name from the inspiration of the original sessions organised by the beat poets in San Francisco back in the 50s.
Finally - my apologies if I've anyone's name spelled wrong or incorrectly given - leave a comment and I'll come back and fix it! And yes, I know the formatting isn't what it should be - Blogger seems to have a mind of its own lately! Grrr!
Thursday, February 15, 2007
North Beach Nights
I'm off to Galway today again to see North Beach Nights monthly Slam, with featured poet Kevin Higgins. Kevin has a fine collection called The Boy With No Face available from Salmon Poetry. There are sample poems on the page featuring his book.
Here's a snippet from a review:
"Upfront, delivered in an informal, conversational manner which delights in its own wry black humour, it is the poetry of the urban twenty-first century, casting a sharply critical eye over the condition of contemporary society." Metre
Kevin has a new collection due out next year called Time Gentlemen, Please! from which tonight's poems will be read. I believe he's off to the US in a week or so to read in the Annual Irish Cultural Festival at Loyola Marymount University on February 21st.
Nice work if you can get it!
There's also a slam feature at North Beach Nights too, and I hope to get in there and get a poem in and hear a few from others. The gig is at BK's Wine Bar, Spanish Parade, Galway City, Adm: €4.00. Full report when I get back, hopefully with pictures this time!
Here's a snippet from a review:
"Upfront, delivered in an informal, conversational manner which delights in its own wry black humour, it is the poetry of the urban twenty-first century, casting a sharply critical eye over the condition of contemporary society." Metre
Kevin has a new collection due out next year called Time Gentlemen, Please! from which tonight's poems will be read. I believe he's off to the US in a week or so to read in the Annual Irish Cultural Festival at Loyola Marymount University on February 21st.
Nice work if you can get it!
There's also a slam feature at North Beach Nights too, and I hope to get in there and get a poem in and hear a few from others. The gig is at BK's Wine Bar, Spanish Parade, Galway City, Adm: €4.00. Full report when I get back, hopefully with pictures this time!
Saturday, January 27, 2007
Galway Hooker
Sorry about the tagline, but I'm turning into a total poetry culture vulture over here!
Getting to Galway on Thursday 25th January proved to be every bit as interesting as the Over The Edge Reading I was there to attend - but I'll leave it at the wee walk I took around it watching the crowds of students and other assorted humanity that I came across, and the feisty gull that parked itself on the wall beside me, hoping for food, whilst the full rage of the river Corrib chucked itself under the nearby bridge.
The fish in Conlon's was very good but the poetry served later in Galway City Library was even better. The evening was MCed by Susan Millar DuMars, introducing Elaine Feeney, from Athenry who kicked off the reading with some of her work. Her first poem about the lament of losing the potential of a traveller boy to early parenthood and responsibilities, wove in ideas of what poetry is for, in a convincing way. Elaine's later 'revenge' poem got a good response from the audience in terms of humour and she finished with Irish Country Girl visits Tate Modern, capturing well that confusing clash of cultural input against what you have come from.
Mary Mullen read next, beginning with her 'pink pregnancy' poem, which I know I have read before lately, and admired but cannot find the link or the reference! Either that, or I'm suffering from a weird case of deja vu. Her set focused on the fruits of that pregnancy poem, her daughter Lily, with a thoughtful exploration of her relationship with her.
Lastly, Todd Swift read his set, which included poems from his current chapbook, Natural Curve, which I later purchased, and previous collections that he has published which include Budavox etc. One amusing poem gave the audience a humorous insight into the life of an editor, sampling some of the email comments that prospective poets make, in applying to have their work published. Another poem of Todd's was a poignant homage to his late father deceased very recently. Todd's selection demonstrated his wide range of material and moods very amply, and his ability to read an audience.
There was an Open Mic session where a selection of the many talented poets and writers that attend the workshops of Susan and Kevin Higgins read from work in progress, giving a good flavour of the talent being 'grown' in Galway presently. I also has the pleasure of hearing Miceal Kearney read again: another wry humorous observance featuring GTA or Grand Theft Auto. I also squeezed in two quick ones of my own.
Later proceedings repaired to a local pub, Sheridan's, where the relaxed atmosphere (and wonderful guitar-playing) encouraged many libations to be poured. I spoke to Elaine at great length about the trials and tribulations of finding time to write amongst the pulls of motherhood and paying the bills and I met two wonderful characters in Ron and Colm who chatted amiably about writing and sources of inspiration.
I also met Susan and Kevin properly and expressed my admiration for their perseverance with the Over The Edge series of readings, which actually celebrated its fourth birthday on the night, and ended the evening chatting to Todd about the locale where I currently live, amongst other things. It's a small world.
It was a wonderful evening of poetry and food for the mind, as well as forging new connections for the future: another landscape I hope to visit again quite soon.
Getting to Galway on Thursday 25th January proved to be every bit as interesting as the Over The Edge Reading I was there to attend - but I'll leave it at the wee walk I took around it watching the crowds of students and other assorted humanity that I came across, and the feisty gull that parked itself on the wall beside me, hoping for food, whilst the full rage of the river Corrib chucked itself under the nearby bridge.
The fish in Conlon's was very good but the poetry served later in Galway City Library was even better. The evening was MCed by Susan Millar DuMars, introducing Elaine Feeney, from Athenry who kicked off the reading with some of her work. Her first poem about the lament of losing the potential of a traveller boy to early parenthood and responsibilities, wove in ideas of what poetry is for, in a convincing way. Elaine's later 'revenge' poem got a good response from the audience in terms of humour and she finished with Irish Country Girl visits Tate Modern, capturing well that confusing clash of cultural input against what you have come from.
Mary Mullen read next, beginning with her 'pink pregnancy' poem, which I know I have read before lately, and admired but cannot find the link or the reference! Either that, or I'm suffering from a weird case of deja vu. Her set focused on the fruits of that pregnancy poem, her daughter Lily, with a thoughtful exploration of her relationship with her.
Lastly, Todd Swift read his set, which included poems from his current chapbook, Natural Curve, which I later purchased, and previous collections that he has published which include Budavox etc. One amusing poem gave the audience a humorous insight into the life of an editor, sampling some of the email comments that prospective poets make, in applying to have their work published. Another poem of Todd's was a poignant homage to his late father deceased very recently. Todd's selection demonstrated his wide range of material and moods very amply, and his ability to read an audience.
There was an Open Mic session where a selection of the many talented poets and writers that attend the workshops of Susan and Kevin Higgins read from work in progress, giving a good flavour of the talent being 'grown' in Galway presently. I also has the pleasure of hearing Miceal Kearney read again: another wry humorous observance featuring GTA or Grand Theft Auto. I also squeezed in two quick ones of my own.
Later proceedings repaired to a local pub, Sheridan's, where the relaxed atmosphere (and wonderful guitar-playing) encouraged many libations to be poured. I spoke to Elaine at great length about the trials and tribulations of finding time to write amongst the pulls of motherhood and paying the bills and I met two wonderful characters in Ron and Colm who chatted amiably about writing and sources of inspiration.
I also met Susan and Kevin properly and expressed my admiration for their perseverance with the Over The Edge series of readings, which actually celebrated its fourth birthday on the night, and ended the evening chatting to Todd about the locale where I currently live, amongst other things. It's a small world.
It was a wonderful evening of poetry and food for the mind, as well as forging new connections for the future: another landscape I hope to visit again quite soon.
Sunday, January 14, 2007
Busy Bee
Really busy this week, or at least I'm kidding myself that I will be. I've started wallpapering my bedroom, stripped as it has been for the last three months. Although I did like the blank canvas effect for a while, it seems a lot cosier with the new wallpaper one third up already. There already was a dado rail (don't really like them but what can you do, when the previous encumbent has left them?) splitting the wall almost in two. I put a pale gold paper slightly embossed with a feathery grass repeat pattern on the top and a creamy match on the bottom. I was going to do them the other way around but thought I'd see more of the warming gold colour if I put it on the top.
Funny thing was when I got the paper up to the quarter mark, I wryly remembered The Yellow Wallpaper short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, from our Level 2 Approaching Literature course, which features a female protagonist suffering from post-natal depression, in the days when the prescribed cure was to lock you away from everything. She ends up going a bit bonkers behind the wallpaper. Read the story, it's rather good.
I remember feeling like that a few times after popping a few of mine, but I put it down to having so much to do with all the others, besides whichever baby happened to be current. Maybe my wallpaper choice is an advance-reverse reaction to that idea of the madwoman in the attic. Oh dear.
I'd better finish the room early this week, as there are some great poetry events coming up over here. On Wednesday 17th there's the Revival Launch, which I mentioned I'm attending before, but the journal launch paled into insignificance, when I realised that the Belfast Poets would be performing at the White House Poetry Revival too! These guys are worth checking out, they're not long back, last year, from a tour around Australia (the lucky buggers!). Oh joy! Noel King told me that you can never have a bad night at the White House, (pardon me Dubya) but I think it's now been lifted into the category of legendary!
And next week on the 25th, I'm off to Galway city. I've never had a bad night there! The event is the Over the Edge series of readings organised by Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars, featuring Elaine Feeney, Mary Mullen & Todd Swift. Can't pass on that one!
Funny thing was when I got the paper up to the quarter mark, I wryly remembered The Yellow Wallpaper short story by Charlotte Perkins Gilman, from our Level 2 Approaching Literature course, which features a female protagonist suffering from post-natal depression, in the days when the prescribed cure was to lock you away from everything. She ends up going a bit bonkers behind the wallpaper. Read the story, it's rather good.
I remember feeling like that a few times after popping a few of mine, but I put it down to having so much to do with all the others, besides whichever baby happened to be current. Maybe my wallpaper choice is an advance-reverse reaction to that idea of the madwoman in the attic. Oh dear.
I'd better finish the room early this week, as there are some great poetry events coming up over here. On Wednesday 17th there's the Revival Launch, which I mentioned I'm attending before, but the journal launch paled into insignificance, when I realised that the Belfast Poets would be performing at the White House Poetry Revival too! These guys are worth checking out, they're not long back, last year, from a tour around Australia (the lucky buggers!). Oh joy! Noel King told me that you can never have a bad night at the White House, (pardon me Dubya) but I think it's now been lifted into the category of legendary!
And next week on the 25th, I'm off to Galway city. I've never had a bad night there! The event is the Over the Edge series of readings organised by Kevin Higgins and Susan Millar DuMars, featuring Elaine Feeney, Mary Mullen & Todd Swift. Can't pass on that one!
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