Posted on February 5, 2010 by TrishT (Southbank Centre)
Art makes a difference to our lives and the world, and our Election 10 series invites you to participate in a people’s forum of debates, spoken word performance, comedy, music and new documentary theatre. Discover, debate and decide the issues that matter to you.
The series kicks off on February 9th with Think-Tank Clash which promises to be a lively panel debate chaired by political scoffer Rory Bremner and forthcoming events and debates with deliberate civil liberties, gay rights, the city and the environment.
Series highlights include leading Scientist James Lovelock sounding a final warning from Gaia and the world premiere of Waiting, a groundbreaking work of music theatre depicting the impact of the War on Terror on the real lives of refugee women.
We tend to think of loss as a bad thing, as a thing to be avoided. No one wants to lose a game, or lose touch with a friend. But loss doesn’t always have to be a cause for woe. In fact, loss can be a source of amazing creativity, and from the loss, we can all gain. The best thing is, this creative process is happening all around us.
The GPS team have collected together some of the poems uploaded to our global poetry map that have found inspiration in “Loss”. From friendly greetings on bridges, to angry messages on the underground, it’s amazing how the loss of a single letter can transform a sign or message. Check out this week’s featured poems to see some of our favourites.
They’re just some examples of the creative word play that we’ve mapped so far. But there’s so much more out there, and we need you to help us put it on the map. Poetry is all around us, so don’t lose out. See what you can gain by having a closer look.
And if you like some of our featured poems, why not check out some of the following fantastic published works, which similarly create through absence:
Sam Winston’s A Dictionary Story
Ronald Johnson’s Radi Os
Janet Holmes’ The Ms Of My Kin
Sarah Riggs’ Chain Of Minuscule Decisions In The Form Of A Feeling All of which are available in the Poetry Library at Southbank Centre.
Imprisoned in a cage of sound, even the trivial seems profound.
What are the things that you notice when you’re commuting to work, waiting for your bus or taking a long distance journey? Maybe you’re busy avoiding elbows and newspapers on the London underground, or listening to your favourite songs to drown out conversation. The endless rows of tube adverts and bus-stop billboards can be enough to drive anyone mad, but what if there is something more remarkable to read?
The GPS team, now including two new interns, Chris and Sophie, have all been looking out for poetry on their journeys: from the buses in London to the subways of Paris; from a Bolivian train graveyard to the railroads of Louisiana. Check out this week’s featured poems to see what we discovered.
GPS website users have been discovering poetry on their journeys too, and uploading photos to put their trip on our world poetry map. There’s plenty of it to be found since the launch of the Poetry On The Underground project.
Maybe there are hidden joys on your journey that you’ve never noticed before. Next time you’re travelling, keep an eye out for the poetry that might be travelling with you. With Poetry On The Underground launching their new series of ‘Science’ themed poems in February, we’re looking forward to seeing where the six new poems appear on the poetry map. Find it, map it, share it.
Tuesdays are terrific
With their “not monday-ness”
Wednesdays are woeful
With their “only halfway-ness”
Thursdays are frilly
With their “on the edge of Fridayness”
Fridays are fantastic (what else?)
With their “It’s Friday!!!! -ness”
Saturdays are too short
With their “woke late-ness”
Sundays are somber
With their “too close to Monday-ness”
Mondays!
Mondays?
Mondays are Moany
Moody and mad
Mondays are manic
Mondays are mayhap
There is no mirth on Mondays
To ever be had
Mondays are mucky
And full of malaise
They will not taste better
With any amount of mayonnaise
Mondays are mythic
With their monsters and minotaurs
Mondays break the alliteration
Mondays are bores.
Inspired by cashier at Liverpool street station “have a terrific Tuesday”
This is part of a series of poems for the Global Poetry System inspired by snatches of overheard conversation.
Our congratulations to Lemn Sissay, poet and Southbank Centre Artist in Residence on his MBE announced this month in the New Year’s Honours List. Lemn discusses some of the issues surrounding his acceptance over on his blog.
Nor am I not accepting a Member of The British Empire “on behalf of the community” nor “on behalf of others like me.” I am definitely not accepting it “because my mum wants to go to the palace”. It feels disingenuous or discourteous, possibly even deceitful, to accept an award then say you’re accepting it on behalf of others when in fact it is given to you. The MBE is offered for “services to literature.”
For those who haven’t yet had the priviledge of hearing Lemn Sissay read his poetry here’s a short film made by another Southbank Centre Artist in Residence, David Dunkley Gyimah, capturing Lemn in full flow at National Poetry Day Live at Royal Festival Hall back in October.
She is singing loudly
White ear phones removing all inhibition
Pulling tuts and stares like teeth.
“look at my baby – her eyes are grey”
She says to a friend
A friend trying to sink into the chaotic design.
You’re speaking loudly!”
“Yeah I know”
She fixes her friend with a confident stare.
And baby grey eyes.
This is part of a series of poems for the Global Poetry System inspired by snatches of overheard conversation, not unsurprisingly, many are inspired on the tube.
Joseph Coelho Goldilocks and the Three Bears Directed and Devised by Jonathon Lloyd Co-written by Joseph Coelho Showing until 20th February www.polkatheatre.com
“An Invite From The Queen” A musical in a book
Words by Joseph Coelho Music by Matthew King Illustrations by Neil Irish Narrated by Griff Rhys Jones Order online www.hmdt.org.uk
Posted on December 23, 2009 by TrishT (Southbank Centre)
Really nice piece in The Times last week by Southbank Centre Artists in Residence and Poet Lemn Sissay about the Global Poetry System website:
It ain’t where you go, it’s where you’re at. Global positioning system (GPS) is a mere five years old in the UK. Now you can locate where you are, wherever you are, whenever you want. Things move fast, and now GPS represents more than directions. GPS is “Global Poetry System” — a call to action that uses Google Maps to locate the poetry that surrounds us. Read the full article here
The Guardian recommends Global Poetry System website:
Attempting to make us realise that poetry is a much bigger part of the fabric of our everyday lives than we may at first imagine, the idea behind Global Poetry System is for us to identify verse in the most ordinary of places. Read the article here
New Southbank Centre Artist in Residence David Dunkley Gyimah has just posted a wonderful new video documenting preparations for our tribute to Adrian Mitchell.
Here’s a little background to the video from David’s blog.
Adrian Mitchell famously said of Poetry: Most people ignore most poetry because most poetry ignores most people
He was a towering figure [Wiki entry], but I won’t pretend to be the expert or anywhere near that on him.
Part of my sojourn as Artist in Residence at the South Bank Centre is to capture what I would call moments and this is a treasured one behind the scenes as family and friends gather.
A tribute show was planned for the evening and with 2 hours to go, Lucy McNab, one of the producers at the South Bank, somehow got me into the rehearsals.
Not that I didn’t want to go, more what would I do, as well as not intrude, as everyone quietly prepared themselves for the evening’s performance.
Sasha who features in the video, very kindly leaned over to me, said hello and then asked what I was doing.
A three minute garbled spiel followed, before she concluded: “lovely!”
Global Poetry System is coming up with a new flyer to let people who aren’t already in the know catch up!
HipHop ChipShop
We will feature the most visually arresting and interesting posts, especially those with stories behind them, or just a funny/enlightening description. So take your camera or other image capturing device with you today, find poetry, upload, and you may find your findings distributed all over!
Ed Ruscha’s paintings explore the range of associations that come with how a word looks or sounds, and the ambiguous responses that everyday words can evoke. Just as Ed Ruscha began to see common typography as art, so you can begin to see found words as poetry. Familiar or seemingly innocuous words can sometimes appear abstract, with some unintended or mystical meaning. These are the words that form this month’s GPS theme. So find them, map them, and share them!
Here are some GPS posts to help get you in the mood…
The GPS team hope to feature content that catches their eye, so think eye-catching! Often it is the context of the word that is striking or strangely associative. Words in a text sit in context with other words, but a cluster of isolated words can be a ’text’ in itself, and the environment it inhabits becomes its context.
GPS connects these isolated incidents on an online map, and allows photographs of poetry to be uploaded, creating a new kind of virtual text exhibition. Look out for the exhibits!
