Where To?

Posted on July 12, 2009 by Alex Rowse

It’s strange to think that seven weeks ago I was sitting in the Royal Festival Hall with a group of young people I’d never met before, being recruited as a young curator. Now it’s been two days since the show which Jamal, Jayga, Rosie and I have been working towards for so long. From the feedback I’ve received I think it went incredibly well; the Front Room was packed and there was a great buzz that lasted long after the show had ended.

Whilst I’m normally quite composed, there were moments in the lead up to the show that brought on mild hyperventilation and verbal vomiting of ‘Ohmygodohmygod’. At one point Yemisi, Jamal and I were adding up the times of all the acts when we realised, despite numerous previous checks, that we were 20 minutes over. After brutally cutting the interval, shaving minutes off sets and making Yemisi swear the keep the hosting short we squeezed our busy busy show into the allocated time with no room for mistakes or overrunning. Another of my panics came on when with great excitement we received our 2000 flyers…with Woe, the house band, wrongly named ‘Woe Live’, so my sincere apologies to them.

All of the artists were absolutely amazing on the day and despite the headlining grime artist No.Lay never turning up, it felt (I hope!) like a complete experience from start to finish. Personal highlights for me were the collaboration between Woe and poet Kaiz La Kazie, the beautiful Jasmine Cooray’s vivid stories, finally seeing my co-curators Jamal and Rosie perform, Malik Marland’s amazing poetry, soul singer Aruba Red, the exciting art being created throughout the show by Rachel Sale and Sophie Gate …basically everyone! It was lovely to see so many familiar faces that I’ve met during my time at the Southbank Centre in the crowd such as Rachel Holmes, Paul Blezard and Rosie Goldsmith.

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Jasmine Cooray

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Rosie Knight and her lovely dress

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Rachel Sale and Sophie Gate near the end of their painting

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Rachel Holmes and Paul Blezard

Unfortunately the rest of my photos aren’t the best as I still haven’t quite mastered my camera settings, but do take a look here.

A huge pat on the back to Jamal, Jayga, Rosie, Yemisi, Zenith, all the artists and everyone who came. Thanks heaps!

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Islands according to Peter Conrad

Posted on July 12, 2009 by devonelizabeth

Peter Conrad was interviewed by Rosie Goldsmith on Friday evening about his latest book ‘Islands’ and how he sees himself as an Island. For the first ten minutes I watched Rosie Goldsmith struggle to try and pull something positive from Conrad’s mind however, he spoke in a gloomy manner for at least a quarter of an hour until he finally started to pick up the mood when he began talking about his love for English literature. This man has such a vast knowledge of literature and culture that is is astounding. Although as some points in the interview I was bored to the point of pulling out the split ends in my hair, for the most part, Conrad’s knowledge has made me want to read even more so that one day I can know as much as him.

I also caught an hours worth of Where To? and was blown away by the amount of talent that was in the Queen Elizabeth Hall’s front room at the same time. I loved the chaos of both performers on stage and the artists towards the side responding to the performers.

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Photos from Mashing the Classics

Posted on July 5, 2009 by Alex Rowse

Following on from Yemisi’s post, here are my photographs from the first event in the Fresh Off the Page trio. Where To? is next on the 10th of July!

Rachel Rose Reid

Rachel Rose Reid retelling the myth of Persephone.

Inua Ellams

Inua Ellams retells the death of Mercutio from Romeo & Juliet.

Maxwell Golden

Maxwell Golden performing his version of Pinocchio.

Please take a look at more photos here.

An audio interview with Maxwell Golden is to come.

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The mouth is the muscle…

Posted on July 3, 2009 by Alex Rowse

As written so excellently by Paul below, last night was the launch party that kick started the incredibly exciting London Literature Festival. We enjoyed homemade scotch eggs and miniature ice creams whilst the Southbank buzzed with summertime activity outside.

Jayga Rayn, Adele Morse, Lisa Dwan and Paul Blezard

Jayga Rayn, Adele Morse, Lisa Dwan and Paul Blezard

Out of the numerous interesting people I met, Lisa Dwan was certainly a highlight. On the 7th and 8th of July she’ll be performing Samuel Beckett’s Not I, a highly anticipated event in the LLF calender, and she kindly invited me to observe one of two rehearsals today in the Purcell Room. I won’t divulge too much information on the technicalities but it was fascinating to observe Lisa and director Jude Kelly, aided by Rachel Holmes, going to great lengths to ensure that Lisa’s mouth is perfectly lit by a single beam of light emerging from the darkness. Having watched a run through of the 20-minute monologue, I can’t recommend this event highly enough.

Rachel Hunt and Jude Kelly at the rehearsal for 'Not I'

Rachel Holmes and Jude Kelly at the rehearsal for 'Not I'

In other news, the flyers for Where To? are hot off the press (literally, my legs were covered in green ink after fondly cradling a pile). We have one week until the show, so tomorrow I’ll be shoving flyers at as many people as possible at The Wedding and Mashing the Classics, whilst taking photos of the shows and getting some audio interviews for here. Both are free events, so come along, and if you see a girl juggling her camera and microphone with a large pile of brightly coloured flyers please take one; I’m sure the ink is dry by now.

Our very lovely flyer

Our very lovely flyer

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New Young Curator (LLF) Where To? – Jamal Msebele :)

Posted on June 28, 2009 by Jamal Msebele

Hello everybody. I am Jamal Msebele (aka Eklipse), a poet and lyricist. I am currently incorporated in the LLF Young Curators Project and working on the Where To? event on the 10th of July. On the project, I am working with Alex Rowse (an aspiring journalist currently studying English Literature), Rosie Knight (a work shop facilitator and poet) and Jayga Rayn (an aspiring political commentator and promoter). Based around the theme of “escape”, the show is to remove boundaries and preconceptions about the stretch of literature and the range in which it can be delivered.

On the LLF Young Curators Recruitment Day we were handed the task of giving our opinions of literature. As both an MC and poet, I often am torn between the two as they both hold strong stereotypes. The video below is my response to that.

If you want to see more of me, check my website http://www.jamalmsebele.co.uk or my MySpace http://www.myspace.com/ekliptic

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Young curator Alex Rowse, on the Where To? show

Posted on June 25, 2009 by Alex Rowse

Being part of the Southbank Centre’s London Literature Festival is a really exciting opportunity to learn how one of the most diverse literature series in England is run. After a recruitment session back in May, I was asked to become a young curator along with Rosie, Jayga and Jamal to be mentored by Yemisi Blake, an artist in residence at the Southbank. We’ve been given a 2-hour slot in Queen Elizabeth Hall on the 10th of July in which to produce a show with emerging and established artists on the theme of escape.

With artists exploring what they escape from, where they escape to and how they escape, we’re at the stage where we’ve booked a range of spoken word poets, musicians, storytellers and live illustrators. The ‘house band’, Woe, will be performing some of their own songs whilst providing backing to some of our poets, and hopefully some collaborations between artists who know each other already will come about organically in the run up to the show. You can check out some of the artists we have already booked online:

the amazing poet/storyteller Jasmine Corray www.myspace.com/jasmineanncooray

reggae soul from Aruba Red who will be doing an acoustic set www.myspace.com/arubared

spoken word artist Kaiz La Kazie www.myspace.com/kaizlakazie

As an English Literature student most of the poetry I’m aware of is, in comparison to spoken word, extremely traditional so I’ve gained loads of knowledge of the performance poetry scene just from being around people like Rosie Knight and Yemisi who are very involved in it. I was lucky enough to get tickets to Poejazzi at the Udderbelly and was blown away. It was hosted by Scroobius Pip, with Sound of Rum, Afrobear, Poeticat and others, and it definitely overturned any assumptions I had that the spoken word might be boring/pretentious or whatever. It was one of the most intense, amazing shows I’ve ever seen and if ours was half as good I’d be ecstatic.

Check us out on facebook:

http://www.facebook.com/home.php?ref=home#/event.php?eid=112183939187&ref=ts

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