Skip to main content

Camarade VI: The Enemies Project

S.J. Fowler masterminded another huge mash-up of poetic talent in the hip heart of London's East End last night, here is what he sent out today as announcement...

A thank you to everyone who contributed and attended last night. There were a few hundred in attendance and the performances were inspiring. I’m very happy the Enemies project could begin in such an atmosphere of pluralism and ingenuity, and that everyone is so enthusiastic about the project. Here is the footage from the event:
 
Carol Watts & George Szirtes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8phvyg1Euhc
Holly Pester & Daniel Rourke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlA21GaQCz4
Astrid Alben & Sophie Mayer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCzbkoXL9Cs
Ryan Van Winkle & Kirsty Irving http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyNJTr_o9Qo
Marek Kazmierski & Stephen Watts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcxSzAxyyrY
Lucy Harvest Clarke & Stephen Emmerson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICDHyV2B010
James Wilkes & Christodoulos Makris http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt3PZHhjOoU
Roddy Lumsden & Carrie Etter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N_GrfOqKMM
Daniel Barrow & Ollie Evans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFFHV1Mk274
Thanks to Ben Morris for his poster design magic, and to David Kelly for his usual help on the night. Gratitude too to the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Arts Council England for making it possible, and the Rich Mix, as ever, for their generosity.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se.  What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and  Silence of the Lambs .  I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".

THE SWIFT REPORT 2023

I am writing this post without much enthusiasm, but with a sense of duty. This blog will be 20 years old soon, and though I rarely post here anymore, I owe it some attention. Of course in 2023, "Swift" now means one thing only, Taylor Swift, the billionaire musician. Gone are the days when I was asked if I was related to Jonathan Swift. The pre-eminent cultural Swift is now alive and TIME PERSON OF THE YEAR. There is no point in belabouring the obvious with delay: 2023 was a low-point in the low annals of human history - war, invasion, murder, in too many nations. Hate, division, the collapse of what truth is, exacerbated by advances in AI that may or may not prove apocalyptic, while global warming still seems to threaten the near-future safety of humanity. It's been deeply depressing. The world lost some wonderful poets, actors, musicians, and writers this year, as it often does. Two people I knew and admired greatly, Ian Ferrier and Kevin Higgins, poets and organise