Next Saturday I will be giving a poetry reading as part of an Arts Evening for the Billericay Art Trail. A great, varied programme including poetry, music, digital projection, storytelling and dance has been arranged for the evening at St. Mary Magdalen Billericay.
I am particularly looking forward to hearing Tim Cunningham again, as he has read previously at several events I have organised. Billericay-based Cunningham has been called the poet of good endings and his
apposite phrases serve to illuminate the everyday encounters which characterise
his poetry. He has had four collections of his poetry published: Don Marcelino's
Daughter (2001), Unequal
Thirds (2006), Kyrie
(2008), and most recently Seige,
published
to coincide with his 70th birthday and consisting
of a selection of visceral, roots poems taken from his three previous selections
with a sprinkling of new work.
My fellow commission4mission member, Colin Burns, is also taking part. Combining classical and popular influences, guitarist/singer-songwriter Burns will play tracks from his debut album Emerald & Gold. This project brings together compositions from many years with the painter-turned-performer fusing instrumental dexterity and melodic poetry.
The evening also includes Reflection Dance, storytellers Colin Taylor and Pat Roberts, animations from Dezadie, plus images from the Big Draw event earlier in the day at Norsey Wood. The evening starts at 7:30pm.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Dezadie - Cyber Dancer.
Showing posts with label cunningham. Show all posts
Showing posts with label cunningham. Show all posts
Friday, 12 July 2013
Thursday, 3 January 2013
The poetry of connection
2012 was enjoyable for me because of opportunities to correspond with (and on occasion perform with) several poets.
Tim Cunningham has been called the poet of good endings and his apposite phrases serve to illuminate the everyday encounters which characterise his poetry. Analogy is the clue to Cunningham’s experience of faith. It is in the connections between ordinary existence and the Christ event that faith becomes real. A friend “a mere unlucky Thirteen years” collapses at play, dies and is lifted up across a wall into the garden that becomes the parent’s Gethsemene, the wall shaping their pieta. The statue of the Virgin “looks down at the girl stanching tiny / Dams of tears, the girl whose secret was not / Whispered by an angel in her ear.” The final poem in Kyrie finds Cunningham mute in a church that, apart from God and he, is empty. He is on hold, his turn missed at the exchange, but, he reasons, God will perhaps call him back, after all God has his number. The wry humour of Cunningham’s experience and verse reveals faith.
Jane Grell discovered the power of storytelling as a teacher of bilingual students. For her storytelling, she draws heavily from the African-Caribbean Oral Tradition of her childhood. She has worked extensively as a poet and storyteller in teacher training establishments as well as primary and secondary schools in Britain. She was a teacher-secondee to BBC School Radio as an adviser on the multicultural content of its output. While at the BBC, she also wrote and presented stories for schools' programmes. Jane has publications in Hawthorn Press, Scholastic and many poetry anthologies.
Cambridge poet, priest and singer-songwriter Malcolm Guite is Chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge. A performance poet and singer/songwriter, he lectures widely on poetry and theology in Britain and the US and has a large following on his website, www.malcolmguite.wordpress.com. In Sounding the Seasons, Guite transforms seventy lectionary readings into lucid, inspiring poems, for use in regular worship, seasonal services, meditative reading or on retreat. Already widely recognised, his writing has been acclaimed by Rowan Williams and Luci Shaw, two leading contemporary religious poets. Seven Advent poems from this collection will appear in the next edition of Penguin's (US) Best Spiritual Writing edited by Philip Zaleski, alongside the work of writers such as Seamus Heaney and Annie Dillard.
The sacred, the profane and the prophetic come together in the work of Tamsin Kendrick. In Charismatic Megafauna Kendrick ponders the romantic potential of Peter Pan and Captain Hook, liberates Mr Tumnus from his snow-bound Narnia, composes urgent communiqués from a post-apocalyptic city, and documents the struggle to find love. Kendrick’s unique poetry is characterised by vivid, surreal imagery, brimming with references to myth, legend and pop culture, and underpinned by a genuine, if fraught, search for the divine.
Rupert Loydell is Senior Lecturer in English with Creative Writing at University College Falmouth, and the editor of Stride and With magazines. He is the author of many books of poetry, including A Conference of Voices and Boombox, as well as several collaborative works; he also paints small abstract paintings. His latest publication, The Tower of Babel, is a limited edition hand-stamped book-in-a-box edited by Loydell, including a set of 24 original print postcards, an essay, and an anthology of poems.
Steve Scott is a British writer, poet, and musician whose songs have been recorded by artists including the 77s and Larry Norman. His musical and spoken word projects include Love in the Western World, Lost Horizon, Magnificent Obsession, More Than a Dream, The Butterfly Effect, Empty Orchestra, We Dreamed That We Were Strangers, and Crossing the Boundaries, in conjunction with painter Gaylen Stewart. In 2012, his songs became available on MP3 format, coincident with the release of a limited edition CD, Emotional Tourist: A Steve Scott Retrospective. He writes and speaks often on the arts in the UK and US, and is the author of Like a House on Fire: Renewal of the Arts in a Post-modern Culture and Crying for a Vision and Other Essays: The Collected Steve Scott Vol. One.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Scott - No Memory Of You.
Tim Cunningham has been called the poet of good endings and his apposite phrases serve to illuminate the everyday encounters which characterise his poetry. Analogy is the clue to Cunningham’s experience of faith. It is in the connections between ordinary existence and the Christ event that faith becomes real. A friend “a mere unlucky Thirteen years” collapses at play, dies and is lifted up across a wall into the garden that becomes the parent’s Gethsemene, the wall shaping their pieta. The statue of the Virgin “looks down at the girl stanching tiny / Dams of tears, the girl whose secret was not / Whispered by an angel in her ear.” The final poem in Kyrie finds Cunningham mute in a church that, apart from God and he, is empty. He is on hold, his turn missed at the exchange, but, he reasons, God will perhaps call him back, after all God has his number. The wry humour of Cunningham’s experience and verse reveals faith.
Jane Grell discovered the power of storytelling as a teacher of bilingual students. For her storytelling, she draws heavily from the African-Caribbean Oral Tradition of her childhood. She has worked extensively as a poet and storyteller in teacher training establishments as well as primary and secondary schools in Britain. She was a teacher-secondee to BBC School Radio as an adviser on the multicultural content of its output. While at the BBC, she also wrote and presented stories for schools' programmes. Jane has publications in Hawthorn Press, Scholastic and many poetry anthologies.
Cambridge poet, priest and singer-songwriter Malcolm Guite is Chaplain of Girton College, Cambridge. A performance poet and singer/songwriter, he lectures widely on poetry and theology in Britain and the US and has a large following on his website, www.malcolmguite.wordpress.com. In Sounding the Seasons, Guite transforms seventy lectionary readings into lucid, inspiring poems, for use in regular worship, seasonal services, meditative reading or on retreat. Already widely recognised, his writing has been acclaimed by Rowan Williams and Luci Shaw, two leading contemporary religious poets. Seven Advent poems from this collection will appear in the next edition of Penguin's (US) Best Spiritual Writing edited by Philip Zaleski, alongside the work of writers such as Seamus Heaney and Annie Dillard.
The sacred, the profane and the prophetic come together in the work of Tamsin Kendrick. In Charismatic Megafauna Kendrick ponders the romantic potential of Peter Pan and Captain Hook, liberates Mr Tumnus from his snow-bound Narnia, composes urgent communiqués from a post-apocalyptic city, and documents the struggle to find love. Kendrick’s unique poetry is characterised by vivid, surreal imagery, brimming with references to myth, legend and pop culture, and underpinned by a genuine, if fraught, search for the divine.
Rupert Loydell is Senior Lecturer in English with Creative Writing at University College Falmouth, and the editor of Stride and With magazines. He is the author of many books of poetry, including A Conference of Voices and Boombox, as well as several collaborative works; he also paints small abstract paintings. His latest publication, The Tower of Babel, is a limited edition hand-stamped book-in-a-box edited by Loydell, including a set of 24 original print postcards, an essay, and an anthology of poems.
Steve Scott is a British writer, poet, and musician whose songs have been recorded by artists including the 77s and Larry Norman. His musical and spoken word projects include Love in the Western World, Lost Horizon, Magnificent Obsession, More Than a Dream, The Butterfly Effect, Empty Orchestra, We Dreamed That We Were Strangers, and Crossing the Boundaries, in conjunction with painter Gaylen Stewart. In 2012, his songs became available on MP3 format, coincident with the release of a limited edition CD, Emotional Tourist: A Steve Scott Retrospective. He writes and speaks often on the arts in the UK and US, and is the author of Like a House on Fire: Renewal of the Arts in a Post-modern Culture and Crying for a Vision and Other Essays: The Collected Steve Scott Vol. One.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Steve Scott - No Memory Of You.
Saturday, 13 October 2012
Celebration of Poetry
Our ‘Celebration of Poetry’, as promised in our publicity, was a wonderfully varied evening of poetry supplemented by music and storytelling with both local and published poets performing their work. More photos of the event can be seen by clicking here.
To set the scene, and before reading a selection of my own poems, I quoted from Malcolm Guite's Faith, Hope and Poetry:
“Shakespeare set poetry the comparatively modest task of ‘holding a mirror up to nature’, that is, helping us to see our society and ourselves more clearly, reflecting our known realities back to us. But sometimes (and very often in the works of Shakespeare), the mirror of poetry does more than reflect what we have already seen. Sometimes that mirror becomes a window, a window into the mystery which is both in and beyond nature, a ‘casement opening on perilous seas’. From that window sometimes shines a more than earthly light that suddenly transforms, transfigures all the earthly things it falls upon. Through that window, when it is opened for us by the poet’s art, we catch a glimpse of that ‘Beauty always ancient always new’, who made and kindled our imagination in the beginning and whose love draws us beyond the world.”
Jane Grell gave us Caribbean poetry, storytelling, Moses poems and a Hopi Indian prayer/poem. Jane was born and grew up on the island of Dominica in the Eastern Caribbean . She started her teaching career in an all boys Comprehensive in Hackney, teaching French, before switching to teaching English to bilingual students in Waltham Forest Britain
Malcolm Guite read work including 'My poetry is jamming your machine' and two of his O antiphons, before singing 'The Green Man' and 'Angels Unawares'. He ended with his recent iOde for his iPhone. Malcolm is a poet, a singer-songwriter, a priest, a chaplain, a teacher and an author. He plays in Cambridge rock band Mystery Train, and lectures widely in England and USA
Alan Hitching showed images of two pottery creations and shared the poems linked to these pieces. Alan is a poet, potter and priest. He says that poetry and pottery are like two languages for him. Words he has used all his life in poetry to express feelings and faith, the other language of clay he has only over the last 15 years since he was challenged to learn. Joy has come when the two languages speak on the same topic at the same time, expressing together his thoughts and feelings on subjects.
Jenny Houghton gave us poems for each season. Jenny has been writing poetry since her teenage years, initially personal pieces. Then in response to an article in her church’s magazine in 1999, she submitted a short poem to a Christian publishing house, and was surprised but pleased when it was accepted for publication. Further submissions were regularly included in their poetry anthologies. Writing in a range of styles including verses, traditional rhyme and more abstract narrative, her work often includes wordplay and structural patterns. These occur instinctively as she has had no formal instruction in poetry composition. Her poems often reflect her Christian faith and she believes her ability is a true gift. Jenny first read one of her poems in public at a Good Friday service in 2011 but was initially concerned about sharing her work in this way. However her experience of performing in choirs, drama, dance, and creating craft work reminded her that no art form is truly complete without an audience to appreciate it!
Thanks from Kathryn Robinson and I, as organisers, to all those who took part and to St Paul's Woodford Bridge for hosting us.
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Van Morrison - Rave On John Donne.
Thursday, 11 October 2012
Celebration of Poetry
If you are thinking about the possibility of coming to tomorrow's 'Celebration of Poetry', 7.30pm at St Paul's Woodford Bridge (part of the Woodford Festival and the Arts Festival for the Barking Episcopal Area), then here is a taster of the type of poetry you can enjoy ...
'Tim Cunningham's poems are as various and fascinating as the animals in Noah's Ark. He has a most musical ear, a keen eye and an open heart. His aim is true. He writes beautiful poems.' Adrian Mitchell. Click here to read 'Mystery Tours' and here to read 'Cathedral of the Pines'.
Jane Grell - "Thank you for sharing your wonderful work with us. People felt extremely inspired by your stories and poems." Viv (INSET Co-ordinator). Click here to read 'Welcome Cousins', 'Poor Mrs Carnelley', 'La Pluie Ka Tombé, Soleil Ka Claywé (Dominican Creole)', and 'Hold On'.
‘I recommend the work of Malcolm Guite, an English poet and Anglican priest who plumbs the depths of poetry and religious faith like a true metaphysical.’ Luci Shaw. Click here to read 'My poetry is jamming your machine' and here to read 'Saying the names'.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Malcolm Guite - My Poetry Is Jamming Your Machine.
Friday, 5 October 2012
Church draws on art
Henry Shelton and I feature in the Ilford Recorder this week as this weekend sees the beginning of the Arts Festival for the Barking Episcopal Area (https://www.facebook.com/#!/events/345602858863275/) to which commission4mission are contributing two events. This year's Festival is being run in tandem with the Woodford Festival.
The first is this Saturday (6th) between 12 noon and 5.00pm when Mark Lewis, Francesca Ross and Peter Webb together with other artists will be providing hints and tips on drawing portraits at the Big Draw event being held at St Mary's Woodford. All are welcome.
The second is a one day exhibition at All Saints Woodford Wells on Saturday 13th October from 10.00am - 8.30pm. This exhibition will feature work by Elizabeth Duncan Meyer, Alan Hitching, Mark Lewis, Janet Roberts, Francesca Ross, Joy Rousell Stone, Henry Shelton, Peter Webb and myself.
I have also been involved in organising a 'Celebration of Poetry' event for the Festival which is on Friday 12th October at St Paul's Woodford Bridge from 7.30pm. I will be reading poetry as part of the event which also includes Tim Cunningham, Jane Grell, Malcolm Guite, Alan Hitching and Jennifer Houghton. At both events the 'Run with the Fire' digital exhibition will be available for viewing.
--------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Bill Fay - Jesus Etc.
Sunday, 16 September 2012
Celebration of Poetry
Together with Kathryn Robinson, Performing Arts Adviser for the Barking Episcopal Area, I am organising a poetry evening as part of the Woodford Festival and Arts Festival for the Barking Episcopal Area.
This Celebration of Poetry will be on Friday 12th October, 7.30pm, St Paul's Woodford Bridge, Cross Road, Woodford Green, Essex IG8 8BT. There is no admission charge and the evening will include local poets, published poets, musical/storytelling interludes and a showing of the 'Run with the Fire' Olympic-themed digital art exhibition. Among those reading their poetry are: Tim Cunningham, Jane Grell, Malcolm Guite, Alan Hitching, Jennifer Houghton and myself, among others.
This Celebration of Poetry will be on Friday 12th October, 7.30pm, St Paul's Woodford Bridge, Cross Road, Woodford Green, Essex IG8 8BT. There is no admission charge and the evening will include local poets, published poets, musical/storytelling interludes and a showing of the 'Run with the Fire' Olympic-themed digital art exhibition. Among those reading their poetry are: Tim Cunningham, Jane Grell, Malcolm Guite, Alan Hitching, Jennifer Houghton and myself, among others.
The Big Draw – Saturday 6th October, 12.00 noon – 5.00pm, St Mary’s Woodford, 207 High Road, South Woodford, London E18 2PA
Drawing workshop with hints and tips from commission4mission artists.
Art exhibition - Saturday 13th October, 10.00am - 7.30pm, The Atrium, All Saints Woodford Wells, Inmans Row, Woodford Green, IG8 0NH
No admission charge. Exhibition of art works by members of commission4mission, an arts organisation which aims to encourage churches to commission contemporary art. Includes the 'Run with the Fire' Olympic-themed digital art exhibition. This exhibition will include work by Alan Hitching, Mark Lewis, Janet Roberts, Francesca Ross, Henry Shelton, Joy Rousell Stone, Peter Webb and myself.
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Tim Cunningham - Kyrie.
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Tim Cunningham - Kyrie.
Thursday, 11 June 2009
Kyrie
Kyrie, Tim Cunningham, Revival Press
To have written a volume of poetry that, by being based on Church furniture, festivals and liturgy (albeit the Roman Catholicism of his Limerick upbringing) will inevitably remind readers of George Herbert’s The Temple, reveals Tim Cunningham as a poet of high ambition.
Kyrie, with the sharpness of its form and insights and the lyricism of its tone and humour is ample reward for such ambition. Cunningham has been called the poet of good endings and his apposite phrases serve to illuminate the everyday encounters which characterise his poetry.
We meet Father Pat who “hit the introit like a sprinter” and could say the weekday mass in fifteen minutes flat. At his funeral, the mourners agree that he was also “slow to judge, quick to compassion.” An elderly lady blossoms through the Parish’s mystery tours before beginning a different mystery tour by ambulance with Murillo’s Madonna safe inside her purse.
The title poem is a confession of our lack of insight and faith including: "For not walking on water when all / It needed was the buoyancy of faith, / Kyrie eleison." ‘Pater Noster’ meanwhile explores his relationship with his Grandfather as an analogy for relationship with God before concluding: "I would jump up on the bar / Of his old Raleigh any day / And listen to his stories / While he pedalled all the way / To an eternal paradise / That I already know by analogy."
Analogy is the clue to Cunningham’s experience of faith. It is in the connections between ordinary existence and the Christ event that faith becomes real. A friend “a mere unlucky Thirteen years” collapses at play, dies and is lifted up across a wall into the garden that becomes the parent’s Gethsemene, the wall shaping their pieta. The statue of the Virgin “looks down at the girl stanching tiny / Dams of tears, the girl whose secret was not / Whispered by an angel in her ear.”
The final poem finds Cunningham mute in a church that, apart from God and he, is empty. He is on hold, his turn missed at the exchange, but, he reasons, God will perhaps call him back, after all God has his number. The wry humour of Cunningham’s experience and verse reveals faith.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taize - Kyrie Eleison.
To have written a volume of poetry that, by being based on Church furniture, festivals and liturgy (albeit the Roman Catholicism of his Limerick upbringing) will inevitably remind readers of George Herbert’s The Temple, reveals Tim Cunningham as a poet of high ambition.
Kyrie, with the sharpness of its form and insights and the lyricism of its tone and humour is ample reward for such ambition. Cunningham has been called the poet of good endings and his apposite phrases serve to illuminate the everyday encounters which characterise his poetry.
We meet Father Pat who “hit the introit like a sprinter” and could say the weekday mass in fifteen minutes flat. At his funeral, the mourners agree that he was also “slow to judge, quick to compassion.” An elderly lady blossoms through the Parish’s mystery tours before beginning a different mystery tour by ambulance with Murillo’s Madonna safe inside her purse.
The title poem is a confession of our lack of insight and faith including: "For not walking on water when all / It needed was the buoyancy of faith, / Kyrie eleison." ‘Pater Noster’ meanwhile explores his relationship with his Grandfather as an analogy for relationship with God before concluding: "I would jump up on the bar / Of his old Raleigh any day / And listen to his stories / While he pedalled all the way / To an eternal paradise / That I already know by analogy."
Analogy is the clue to Cunningham’s experience of faith. It is in the connections between ordinary existence and the Christ event that faith becomes real. A friend “a mere unlucky Thirteen years” collapses at play, dies and is lifted up across a wall into the garden that becomes the parent’s Gethsemene, the wall shaping their pieta. The statue of the Virgin “looks down at the girl stanching tiny / Dams of tears, the girl whose secret was not / Whispered by an angel in her ear.”
The final poem finds Cunningham mute in a church that, apart from God and he, is empty. He is on hold, his turn missed at the exchange, but, he reasons, God will perhaps call him back, after all God has his number. The wry humour of Cunningham’s experience and verse reveals faith.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Taize - Kyrie Eleison.
Monday, 27 April 2009
Dramatic contrasts & stylistic diversity
An evening of dramatic contrasts and stylistic diversity was enjoyed this evening by a select audience at St John's Seven Kings as part of the Redbridge Book and Media Festival.
The evening began and ended with Tim Cunningham (one of the White House poets), whose engaging and amusing anecdotes added to the combination of apposite phrases illuminating everyday encounters that characterised his poetry. The work in his latest volume Kyrie, with poems based on the liturgy, festivals, furnishings of Catholicism, stood out for its sharpness of both form and insight. The title poem is a confession of our lack of insight and faith including:
"For not walking on water when all
It needed was the buoyancy of faith,
Kyrie eleison."
Pater Noster meanwhile explores his relationship with his Grandfather as an analogy for relationship with God before concluding:
"I would jump up on the bar
Of his old Raleigh any day
And listen to his stories
While he pedalled all the way
To an eternal paradise
That I already know by analogy."
In her two slots Naomi Foyle gave acted readings of two ballads and drama was certainly one characteristic of her vibrant celebrations of football, nature, politics and sex. She introduced us to several of her poetic heoines including Anna Akhmatova, Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath. Her work was particularly strong when speaking in character to describe relationships but the poem that left the strongest mark involved the rhythmic repetitions of [and 13 Israelis] /a copyleft poem - pass it on where she instructs:
"Donate an hour of your day
to stand up and demonstrate
peace is a process of learning to listen,
and giving is not 'giving in'."
Ken Champion was an unexpected addition to the night's roster of poets. Born in London’s East End, Ken lectures in sociology and philosophy, and has worked as a decorator, sign writer, mural painter and commercial artist in addition to being a published poet. His dry and nonchalant delivery tended to downplay the wordplay in contrast to that of Cunningham and Foyle but his work was slyly observant and sometimes, as in Interview, surreal.
The evening was made complete, for me at least, in that I was indulged with the opportunity to read three of my poems including Worthship, which can be read by clicking here.
To read examples of Tim Cunningham's work click here, here, here and here. The first of these, Mortuary, was among those read by Tim this evening. For examples of Naomi Foyle's work click here, here, here, and here. The first, Natasha: The Ballad of the Love-Torn Russian Count, was given a dramatic performance by Naomi tonight, complete with drawn-on pencil moustache!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Blue Aeroplanes - A Map Below.
The evening began and ended with Tim Cunningham (one of the White House poets), whose engaging and amusing anecdotes added to the combination of apposite phrases illuminating everyday encounters that characterised his poetry. The work in his latest volume Kyrie, with poems based on the liturgy, festivals, furnishings of Catholicism, stood out for its sharpness of both form and insight. The title poem is a confession of our lack of insight and faith including:
"For not walking on water when all
It needed was the buoyancy of faith,
Kyrie eleison."
Pater Noster meanwhile explores his relationship with his Grandfather as an analogy for relationship with God before concluding:
"I would jump up on the bar
Of his old Raleigh any day
And listen to his stories
While he pedalled all the way
To an eternal paradise
That I already know by analogy."
In her two slots Naomi Foyle gave acted readings of two ballads and drama was certainly one characteristic of her vibrant celebrations of football, nature, politics and sex. She introduced us to several of her poetic heoines including Anna Akhmatova, Emily Dickinson and Sylvia Plath. Her work was particularly strong when speaking in character to describe relationships but the poem that left the strongest mark involved the rhythmic repetitions of [and 13 Israelis] /a copyleft poem - pass it on where she instructs:
"Donate an hour of your day
to stand up and demonstrate
peace is a process of learning to listen,
and giving is not 'giving in'."
Ken Champion was an unexpected addition to the night's roster of poets. Born in London’s East End, Ken lectures in sociology and philosophy, and has worked as a decorator, sign writer, mural painter and commercial artist in addition to being a published poet. His dry and nonchalant delivery tended to downplay the wordplay in contrast to that of Cunningham and Foyle but his work was slyly observant and sometimes, as in Interview, surreal.
The evening was made complete, for me at least, in that I was indulged with the opportunity to read three of my poems including Worthship, which can be read by clicking here.
To read examples of Tim Cunningham's work click here, here, here and here. The first of these, Mortuary, was among those read by Tim this evening. For examples of Naomi Foyle's work click here, here, here, and here. The first, Natasha: The Ballad of the Love-Torn Russian Count, was given a dramatic performance by Naomi tonight, complete with drawn-on pencil moustache!
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Blue Aeroplanes - A Map Below.
Wednesday, 22 April 2009
Lyricism with a twist of humour
Enjoy an evening of poetic contrasts in the company of internationally renowned poets Tim Cunningham and Naomi Foyle at St John's Seven Kings (St Johns Road, Seven Kings, Ilford, IG2 7BB) on Monday 27th April from 7.00pm. Tickets cost £2.00 (available on the door). This evening of poetry is part of the Redbridge Book & Media Festival.
Lyricism with a twist of Irish humour can be found at the heart of the poems of Limerick born Tim Cunningham. Naomi has a background in theatre and her poems cut straight to the drama of the human experience.
Tim Cunningham's latest collection is entitled Kyrie. Reviews of his previous collections include:
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Blue Aeroplanes - And Stones.
Lyricism with a twist of Irish humour can be found at the heart of the poems of Limerick born Tim Cunningham. Naomi has a background in theatre and her poems cut straight to the drama of the human experience.
Tim Cunningham's latest collection is entitled Kyrie. Reviews of his previous collections include:
- “Tim Cunningham is at his best rewriting myths and parables . . . . He’s also at his best when his quirky imagination takes off from the documentation of actuality. . . . I liked these, often shorter, poems, and the book adds up to a good sense of the co-existence of past and present.” Herbert Lomas, Ambit
- “This is sensitive, assured writing.” Susan Burns, The North
- “. . . The poet of good endings becomes a poet you can’t put down ... He writes tenderly about the human condition: his consistently generous attitude to experience is not sentimental, just refreshingly positive ... the wisdom of a grown-up poet – without any of the callow pretensions of youth, it has all of youth’s enthusiasm.” R.V. Bailey, Envoi
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
The Blue Aeroplanes - And Stones.
Saturday, 4 April 2009
Seven Kings Poetry Evening
Enjoy an evening of poetic contrasts in the company of internationally renowned poets Tim Cunningham and Naomi Foyle at St John's Seven Kings on Monday 27th April from 7.00pm.
Lyricism with a twist of Irish humour can be found at the heart of the poems of Limerick born Tim Cunningham. Naomi has a background in theatre and her poems cut straight to the drama of the human experience.
Tickets cost £2.00 (available on the door). This evening of poetry is part of the Redbridge Book & Media Festival.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Cunningham - Kyrie.
Lyricism with a twist of Irish humour can be found at the heart of the poems of Limerick born Tim Cunningham. Naomi has a background in theatre and her poems cut straight to the drama of the human experience.
Tickets cost £2.00 (available on the door). This evening of poetry is part of the Redbridge Book & Media Festival.
---------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Tim Cunningham - Kyrie.
Tuesday, 31 March 2009
Did Darwin Kill God?
Good to see the BBC providing, in Did Darwin Kill God?, a well-made and well-presented balance to earlier programmes in the Darwin season which argued that evolution equates to atheism.
Executive Producer Jean Claude Bragard describes presenter Conor Cunningham's argument as being:
"that we have been witnessing an unnecessary cultural war between religion and evolution that is damaging to both religion and science. Cunningham reveals that since the early days, mainstream Christianity’s view of God and Creation has not been literal. The idea of reading the Book of Genesis literally is essentially a 20th century American phenomenon that had very little to do with science and religion and a great deal to do with the morality and politics of the time."
The programme specifically came from the realisation that, while Richard Dawkins' 'The God Delusion' has fuelled a widespread perception that the theory of evolution makes belief in God redundant, it remans clear that many Christians have easily been able to reconcile their belief in God with the theory of evolution. So how is this possible?
This is the question that the programme explores and its answers are partly theological (the Church Fathers did not understand Genesis literally), partly historical (Creationism is a recent aberration primarily of Bible-belt Christianity) and partly critique of Ultra Darwinianism (the application of Darwin's theory beyond the domain of science to all aspects of life undermines the cogency of evolution as a science).
It is interesting to read some of the advance comments on the programme from atheists purporting to second guess and dismiss Cunningham's likely arguments. These reveal the extent to which prejudice, faith and lack of rigour characterise the arguments of some who hold atheistic beluefs, just as the same can be said of some holding Christian beliefs.
Having watched Did Darwin kill God? I don't think that the same can be said of Cunningham whose arguments add to the critiques of the New Atheists already raised by the likes of Flew, McGrath and Ward, among others.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
King's X - We Were Born To Be Loved.
Executive Producer Jean Claude Bragard describes presenter Conor Cunningham's argument as being:
"that we have been witnessing an unnecessary cultural war between religion and evolution that is damaging to both religion and science. Cunningham reveals that since the early days, mainstream Christianity’s view of God and Creation has not been literal. The idea of reading the Book of Genesis literally is essentially a 20th century American phenomenon that had very little to do with science and religion and a great deal to do with the morality and politics of the time."
The programme specifically came from the realisation that, while Richard Dawkins' 'The God Delusion' has fuelled a widespread perception that the theory of evolution makes belief in God redundant, it remans clear that many Christians have easily been able to reconcile their belief in God with the theory of evolution. So how is this possible?
This is the question that the programme explores and its answers are partly theological (the Church Fathers did not understand Genesis literally), partly historical (Creationism is a recent aberration primarily of Bible-belt Christianity) and partly critique of Ultra Darwinianism (the application of Darwin's theory beyond the domain of science to all aspects of life undermines the cogency of evolution as a science).
It is interesting to read some of the advance comments on the programme from atheists purporting to second guess and dismiss Cunningham's likely arguments. These reveal the extent to which prejudice, faith and lack of rigour characterise the arguments of some who hold atheistic beluefs, just as the same can be said of some holding Christian beliefs.
Having watched Did Darwin kill God? I don't think that the same can be said of Cunningham whose arguments add to the critiques of the New Atheists already raised by the likes of Flew, McGrath and Ward, among others.
------------------------------------------------------------------------------------
King's X - We Were Born To Be Loved.
Wednesday, 18 March 2009
TASK Newsletter No. 14
Welcome to our latest TASK e-newsletter as the sun shines and we move towards spring. As ever, there is a huge amount going on so please read this as a thank you to all our volunteers, and as a set of summary headlines.
Seven Kings Library
This was undoubtedly our big campaign of 2008, and efforts continue to develop permanent library provision in the area, as demanded by residents from all parts of the community. Meanwhile, though, we are generating valuable additional outreach services for local people, to include a 'beefed up' mobile service and regular family reading events at St. John's Church.
A regular programme of children's Storytelling sessions is now happening at St John's Seven Kings on a monthly basis. Future dates include Friday 13th March; Wednesday 1st April; Friday 24th April; Wednesday 13th May; Friday 5th June; Wednesday 24th June; Friday 17th July; Wednesday 5th August; Friday 28th August; Wednesday 16th September; Friday 9th October; Wednesday 28th October; Friday 20th November; and Wednesday 9th December. The times of these Storytelling sessions will be: Fridays - 11.30am to 12pm; and Wednesdays - 2.00-2.30pm.
A book group is also being started. Intended as quite a casual set up, without set questions or structured feedback and just an open ended discussion about how each person responded to the book. It will meet about four times a year and the first book to be discussed will be Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet. The group will meet to discuss this book on Thursday 23rd April at 8pm. The venue is to be confirmed but will probably be at St John's. The group is open to anyone who wants to come along and for more details, contact Huw Jacob on: huw.jacob@gmail.com.
The next Library Services Coffee morning at St John's is being planned for 11.00am on Wednesday 8th April and will feature a talk on gardening by Nick Dobson. Finally, for the moment, an Evening of Poetry featuring Tim Cunningham and Naomi Foyle will be happening on Monday 27th April at 7.00pm at St John's as part of the Redbridge Book and Media Festival. Tickets are just £2.
Money for Westwood Recreation Ground
Good news- funding has been secured by the Council to allow for an upgrade to play facilities at Westwood Recreation Ground, on Meads Lane. The sum, thought to be around £60 000, will allow for an upgrade to the old school style play equipment, and officers are consulting with the community on how it might best be spent.
TASK have offered some opening thoughts on the desirability of imaginative free style play kit, maybe using the same kind of interesting and stylish designs now being installed at Valentines Park, and suggested leisure staff talk first to the young audience - and their families - who we hope will make good use of it.
The hope is that consultation can happen fast over the spring, allowing action in time for this summer's peak use season. If you have any thoughts on this development, do please address them direct to Leisure Officer, Edward Smith, at Edward.Smith@redbridge.gov.uk, or by phone to 020 8 708 3745, mentioning you are responding to a call for input from TASK.
As we go to press, we have also just heard that there will be a public consultation meeting on Thursday March 26th, starting at 7pm at Farnham Green School. All local residents are welcome so do please let your family, friends and neighbours - and their kids - know so the borough can benefit from the widest possible pool of ideas.
(Yet) more consultation on the Roman Road
It seems like public authorities love to consult more and more often, and having made some input in January to a group looking at the design of urban high streets on behalf of London Mayor, Boris Johnson, we are now giving feedback on a much more specific project aimed at regenerating the Roman Road- basically the road out of Ilford to Romford, covering the entirety of run down Seven Kings High Road. The local press have made much of this new action plan, and we are hopeful too that with political will and funding support, real advances can be made.
Our initial points are summarised below:
Blood and guts on Cambridge Road
Residents on Cambridge Road have been having a tough time recently, with a spate of violent incidents, racist taunting and anti-social behaviour coming from tenants of two rented houses on the street. Despairing residents contacted local councillors and TASK, who, after hours of feverish email exchanges with cabinet member Cllr Vanessa Cole, council staff and the local safer neighbourhoods police team managed to get the tenants moved on. Overall, it was a good team effort that worked on this occasion, but not before time, and with some evident service lapses we need to learn from. The real worry is that these tenants will simply be shuffled to a new location, possibly even locally, where they will reproduce the violence and mayhem once again. This cannot happen and TASK hope that we can all learn lessons, and develop practical strategies and actions, that allow other residents in other streets to benefit from much more rapid responses to displace this kind of offensive behaviour.
It is an issue that is bound to come up at our next Area 5 meeting at 7.15pm on Monday 23 March, at Barley Lane School, which majors on crime and policing. All major players will be there and it really has never been more important to come along.
Next walkabout date
The next community walkabout is scheduled to happen on Friday April 24 starting at 0900 from outside Goodmayes station heading towards Seven Kings station. It is designed to get local residents to join council officers, the police and councillors to pick up on, and immediately address, irksome streetscape issues like dumping, graffiti, public drinking, vandalism, highways, planning and licensing breaches. This time round rail operator national express will also be taking part, and can update us on what is happening at and around our station, the subject of radical and much needed upgrade throughout 2008.
Area 5 festival
Plans continue to develop a small community event at Barley Lane Recreation Ground this summer ahead of a much bigger festival idea for 2010 and a dedicated working group now meets regularly on this to work up a programme and schedule. Already confirmed are martial arts displays, dancing, community group stalls and sale of allotment products. With scope for lots more to happen.The hope is that this will run on Sunday September 20 from noon until 5pm The next working group meeting is on Wednesday April 1 at 7pm. The venue is Barley Lane Primary School.
Redbridge Green Fair is on Sunday 24 May
The biannual Redbridge green fair has now been running for the best part of 20 years and comes around again over the late May Bank Holiday weekend when Melbourne Fields - at Valentines Park - is appropriated for one day only as a giant community and environmental festival space. Its always an inspirational event, with live music, a solar powered cinema, brilliant food outlets and lots of community information and stalls. TASK are hoping to be one of the exhibitors and need volunteers to run our stall across the day. Please contact Chris at chrisconnelley@ntlworld to find out more and/or offer time.
That is it for now. Expect more soon. And do please share your news and stories with us at chrisconnelley@ntlworld.com or ahai@deloitte.co.uk.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Over the Rhine - The World Can Wait.
Seven Kings Library
This was undoubtedly our big campaign of 2008, and efforts continue to develop permanent library provision in the area, as demanded by residents from all parts of the community. Meanwhile, though, we are generating valuable additional outreach services for local people, to include a 'beefed up' mobile service and regular family reading events at St. John's Church.
A regular programme of children's Storytelling sessions is now happening at St John's Seven Kings on a monthly basis. Future dates include Friday 13th March; Wednesday 1st April; Friday 24th April; Wednesday 13th May; Friday 5th June; Wednesday 24th June; Friday 17th July; Wednesday 5th August; Friday 28th August; Wednesday 16th September; Friday 9th October; Wednesday 28th October; Friday 20th November; and Wednesday 9th December. The times of these Storytelling sessions will be: Fridays - 11.30am to 12pm; and Wednesdays - 2.00-2.30pm.
A book group is also being started. Intended as quite a casual set up, without set questions or structured feedback and just an open ended discussion about how each person responded to the book. It will meet about four times a year and the first book to be discussed will be Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet. The group will meet to discuss this book on Thursday 23rd April at 8pm. The venue is to be confirmed but will probably be at St John's. The group is open to anyone who wants to come along and for more details, contact Huw Jacob on: huw.jacob@gmail.com.
The next Library Services Coffee morning at St John's is being planned for 11.00am on Wednesday 8th April and will feature a talk on gardening by Nick Dobson. Finally, for the moment, an Evening of Poetry featuring Tim Cunningham and Naomi Foyle will be happening on Monday 27th April at 7.00pm at St John's as part of the Redbridge Book and Media Festival. Tickets are just £2.
Money for Westwood Recreation Ground
Good news- funding has been secured by the Council to allow for an upgrade to play facilities at Westwood Recreation Ground, on Meads Lane. The sum, thought to be around £60 000, will allow for an upgrade to the old school style play equipment, and officers are consulting with the community on how it might best be spent.
TASK have offered some opening thoughts on the desirability of imaginative free style play kit, maybe using the same kind of interesting and stylish designs now being installed at Valentines Park, and suggested leisure staff talk first to the young audience - and their families - who we hope will make good use of it.
The hope is that consultation can happen fast over the spring, allowing action in time for this summer's peak use season. If you have any thoughts on this development, do please address them direct to Leisure Officer, Edward Smith, at Edward.Smith@redbridge.gov.uk, or by phone to 020 8 708 3745, mentioning you are responding to a call for input from TASK.
As we go to press, we have also just heard that there will be a public consultation meeting on Thursday March 26th, starting at 7pm at Farnham Green School. All local residents are welcome so do please let your family, friends and neighbours - and their kids - know so the borough can benefit from the widest possible pool of ideas.
(Yet) more consultation on the Roman Road
It seems like public authorities love to consult more and more often, and having made some input in January to a group looking at the design of urban high streets on behalf of London Mayor, Boris Johnson, we are now giving feedback on a much more specific project aimed at regenerating the Roman Road- basically the road out of Ilford to Romford, covering the entirety of run down Seven Kings High Road. The local press have made much of this new action plan, and we are hopeful too that with political will and funding support, real advances can be made.
Our initial points are summarised below:
- although we are committed to consultation and action for change, the creation of Action Plans that don't result in action does over time lead to the building up of cynicism amongst local people;
- local people strongly associate with the High Road but think it has been run down over generations;
- currently it has a limited and inadequate shopping base dominated by too many takeaways;
- a mixed economy is needed along the High Road; we need a greater variety of retail outlets and community facilities/organisations with a new local library as the major priority;
- introducing this mixed economy may involve changing usage in some instances to enable community services to be delivered from what are currently retail outlets and/or using existing community building (such as schools and faith community buildings) for the delivery of local community services;
- new developments should be high quality which includes environmentally friendly and aesthetically pleasing;
- equivalent parking to that which is currently available should be delivered in new developments in order to sustain business levels for local traders;
- encouraging walking and use of bikes will be best achieved by locating community facilities locally. When libraries and post offices are more than one mile away most people will use cars to get to them; locate these and other community facilities locally and many more people will walk/cycle;
- attention should be paid to enhancing local heritage, where it exists, and enhancing awareness of that heritage. Public art could play a part in doing so;
- the area looks generally run down and needs: better street cleaning; trees/flower displays; enhancing of shop frontages; aesthetic new developments; and public art;
- the area in front of Seven Kings station is dangerous because it is used as a cut through; pedestriansing the area would be an option;
- although the railway is a major barrier, there would be little benefit to building more pedestrian crossings over the railway. Attention should be paid to traffic congestion caused by limited road crossings over the railway.
Blood and guts on Cambridge Road
Residents on Cambridge Road have been having a tough time recently, with a spate of violent incidents, racist taunting and anti-social behaviour coming from tenants of two rented houses on the street. Despairing residents contacted local councillors and TASK, who, after hours of feverish email exchanges with cabinet member Cllr Vanessa Cole, council staff and the local safer neighbourhoods police team managed to get the tenants moved on. Overall, it was a good team effort that worked on this occasion, but not before time, and with some evident service lapses we need to learn from. The real worry is that these tenants will simply be shuffled to a new location, possibly even locally, where they will reproduce the violence and mayhem once again. This cannot happen and TASK hope that we can all learn lessons, and develop practical strategies and actions, that allow other residents in other streets to benefit from much more rapid responses to displace this kind of offensive behaviour.
It is an issue that is bound to come up at our next Area 5 meeting at 7.15pm on Monday 23 March, at Barley Lane School, which majors on crime and policing. All major players will be there and it really has never been more important to come along.
Next walkabout date
The next community walkabout is scheduled to happen on Friday April 24 starting at 0900 from outside Goodmayes station heading towards Seven Kings station. It is designed to get local residents to join council officers, the police and councillors to pick up on, and immediately address, irksome streetscape issues like dumping, graffiti, public drinking, vandalism, highways, planning and licensing breaches. This time round rail operator national express will also be taking part, and can update us on what is happening at and around our station, the subject of radical and much needed upgrade throughout 2008.
Area 5 festival
Plans continue to develop a small community event at Barley Lane Recreation Ground this summer ahead of a much bigger festival idea for 2010 and a dedicated working group now meets regularly on this to work up a programme and schedule. Already confirmed are martial arts displays, dancing, community group stalls and sale of allotment products. With scope for lots more to happen.The hope is that this will run on Sunday September 20 from noon until 5pm The next working group meeting is on Wednesday April 1 at 7pm. The venue is Barley Lane Primary School.
Redbridge Green Fair is on Sunday 24 May
The biannual Redbridge green fair has now been running for the best part of 20 years and comes around again over the late May Bank Holiday weekend when Melbourne Fields - at Valentines Park - is appropriated for one day only as a giant community and environmental festival space. Its always an inspirational event, with live music, a solar powered cinema, brilliant food outlets and lots of community information and stalls. TASK are hoping to be one of the exhibitors and need volunteers to run our stall across the day. Please contact Chris at chrisconnelley@ntlworld to find out more and/or offer time.
That is it for now. Expect more soon. And do please share your news and stories with us at chrisconnelley@ntlworld.com or ahai@deloitte.co.uk.
-------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Over the Rhine - The World Can Wait.
Monday, 23 February 2009
Books, stories, coffee & poetry in Seven Kings
Community outreach events by Redbridge Library Services, which were initiated through discussions with TASK, are continuing to develop.
A regular programme of children's Storytelling sessions is now happening at St John's Seven Kings on a monthly basis. Future dates include: Friday 13th March; Wednesday 1st April; Friday 24th April; Wednesday 13th May; Friday 5th June; Wednesday 24th June; Friday 17th of July;
Wednesday 5th August; Friday 28th August; Wednesday 16th September; Friday 9th October; Wednesday 28th October; Friday 20th November; and Wednesday 9th December. The times of these Storytelling sessions will be: Fridays - 11.30am to 12pm; and Wednesdays - 2.00-2.30pm.
A book group is also being started. Intended as quite a casual group, without set questions or structured feedback just an open ended discussion about how each person responded to the book, it will meet about four times a year. The first book to be discussed will be Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet. The group will meet to discuss this book on Thursday 23rd April at 8pm. The venue is to be confirmed but will probably be at St John's. The group is open to anyone who wants to come along. For more details contact Huw Jacob on: huw.jacob@gmail.com.
The next Library Services Coffee morning at St John's is being planned for Wednesday 8th April and will feature a talk on gardening by Nick Dobson. Finally, for the moment, an Evening of Poetry featuring Tim Cunningham and Naomi Foyle will be happening on Monday 27th April at St John's as part of the Redbridge Book and Media Festival.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leonard Cohen - A Thousand Kisses Deep.
A regular programme of children's Storytelling sessions is now happening at St John's Seven Kings on a monthly basis. Future dates include: Friday 13th March; Wednesday 1st April; Friday 24th April; Wednesday 13th May; Friday 5th June; Wednesday 24th June; Friday 17th of July;
Wednesday 5th August; Friday 28th August; Wednesday 16th September; Friday 9th October; Wednesday 28th October; Friday 20th November; and Wednesday 9th December. The times of these Storytelling sessions will be: Fridays - 11.30am to 12pm; and Wednesdays - 2.00-2.30pm.
A book group is also being started. Intended as quite a casual group, without set questions or structured feedback just an open ended discussion about how each person responded to the book, it will meet about four times a year. The first book to be discussed will be Oh Pure and Radiant Heart by Lydia Millet. The group will meet to discuss this book on Thursday 23rd April at 8pm. The venue is to be confirmed but will probably be at St John's. The group is open to anyone who wants to come along. For more details contact Huw Jacob on: huw.jacob@gmail.com.
The next Library Services Coffee morning at St John's is being planned for Wednesday 8th April and will feature a talk on gardening by Nick Dobson. Finally, for the moment, an Evening of Poetry featuring Tim Cunningham and Naomi Foyle will be happening on Monday 27th April at St John's as part of the Redbridge Book and Media Festival.
----------------------------------------------------------------------------------
Leonard Cohen - A Thousand Kisses Deep.
Saturday, 10 May 2008
1 cafe, 2 exhibitions & a coincidence
We've been into London today sampling the Visual Art exhibitions in the Pentecost Festival. We started with the Social Issues & Our Response photographic display at the Cafe Eterno in Covent Garden where the above photos were taken.
This is a modest but varied exhibition including scenes from SOULINTHECITY, a Compassion project, Hertford stns (my contribution) and a Miss Pole Dancing competition. Active response is contrasted with the enduring challenge of sin and the efficacy of our responses questioned.
While enjoying a healthy and appetising lunch at the Cafe, we opened up a leaflet about a performance at the Cafe from the previous night only to find a photo and write up of our good friend Mandy Stone. Mandy had given her testimony at the Cafe following a performance of Does The Shoe Fit? What a coincidence that we had both had a link with the Cafe over the same weekend!
From there I went to Westminster Central Hall for the Gifts exhibition that was a part of Pentecost People. Here I found a much more varied exhibition than I had anticipated including installations, ceramics, photographics and both abstract and representational paintings. The exhibition had been curated by Alison Lilley Berrett using artists linked to the Ark T Centre in Cowley, Oxford. The Art T Centre is a creative arts project opened in 1997 at the initiative of a church and a group of artists committed to creating space for the arts. It believes that creativity through the arts can allow people to discover new things about themselves and others and so unlock the potential for change. The Centre has six resident artists who, as well as developing their own work, provide workshops enabling others to discover their creativity sometimes for the first time.
Sue-Jane Mott's ceramic installations instantly attracted the eye. 130 ceramic bottle forms were shaped to form a pathway symbolising our life journeys while 24 Golden Bowls drew on the image from Revelation of 24 elders offering golden bowls symbolising prayers to God. From their exterior Mott's bowls looked like fragile papier-mache constructions composed of written prayers but, with their shining metallic interiors, were solid constructions, that gleamed in the light of the room.
Clay Sinclair paints backwards in acrylics onto perspex and the results are vibrant, primal images laced with humour and questioning what we see. Alison Lilley Berrett also works in an abstract expressionist style creating meditative images reflective of core Christian themes of love, life, breath. Tim Steward's work, while popular and ubiquitous at Christian festivals, is only pleasantly decorative in its weaving of enlongated charismatic figures into abstract backdrops. Finally, Kate Cunningham had created a photographic series of still lifes that used contrasts of light and dark to explore communion and crucifixion.
Gifts revealed a diversity and energy that I had not expected to find in an exhibition at what is at base an evangelical Christian festival. This is, therefore, an exhibition of encouragement for the future and a sign of the value of artists grouping together for mutual support, critique and development.
For posts on other aspects of the Pentecost Festival see Dave Walker's Church Times blog by clicking here and here.
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onehundredhours - King Of Every Heart.
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