Congratulations, George Szirtes!

Hungarian-born poet George Szirtes’ In the Land of Giants, illustrated by Helen Szirtes and published by Salt, has won the 2013 Centre for Literacy in Primary Education (CLPE) Poetry Award.
The annual award, established in 2003, encourages and celebrates outstanding new poetry for children.

In the Land of the Giants, which includes poems translated from Hungarian, centres on a series of poems in which characters feel small and insignificant in a big world.

George was a contributor to the recent LitFest. In the picture, he is talking to poet Kim Moore. Read the review here.

Big Fish - Hyde Park Picture House

Martin Grund writes:
Tim Burton’s adaptation of Daniel Wallace’s novel fitted the ‘Lives and Loves’ theme of this year’s Headingley Litfest perfectly. The film tells of a son trying to learn more about his dying father’s life through the fantastic stories he has been told over the years.

From the start, the line between fiction and fact, between man and myth, becomes blurred.  The son is a writer, the father a teller of tales.  Storytellers both.  A child is entranced by fantasies and tall tales; an adult is merely embarrassed and angered by lies.  This film weaves the threads of the story, from past to present, from truth to embellishment, into a delightful fairy tale that takes you with it from what you do believe to way past the point where you suspend your disbelief – because you want to enjoy the feelgood effect. Tim Burton uses his unique style to give the look of the film an almost carnival feel, adding to the increased level of the fantastic that makes the stories so compelling. I’m not sure that the willingness to suspend disbelief would be so easy if it had been another director behind the camera.

Dad was fearless, faithful and philanthropic in his enthralling fables, his only son embarrassed, irked and estranged by the fabrication and deceit.  “You’d better talk whilst I’m here,” says the son, recalled to his father’s sickbed, and trying to find out something of his father’s real life. He wants all the facts, none of the flavour.

“No, you’d better talk whilst I’m here!” says the father to the son, aware he is close to death but still relishing the magic of mystery tales. The tale of the elusive big fish, caught only with a golden ring, serves as a metaphor for ‘who dares, wins’ throughout the film.   The father talked of a lot of exciting things he never did, but did a lot of good things he never talked about.  And we finally see the son embrace his father’s life with the telling of a tall tale to take his father peacefully through to death; literally a happy ending as each acknowledges the love between them. 

Thanks to the Hyde Park Picture House (http://www.hydeparkpicturehouse.co.uk/) for hosting our first partnership event.
Read more about the Film Festival at: http://www.leedsyoungfilm.com/

Lawnswood Poetry Slam

June Diamond writes:

The sixth  year of the Lawnswood Slam gave us not just a brilliant event, but an event with history. One by one, mature and confident young people returned to compere , perform, and testify to the transformative power of the Slam and the mentoring relationship. They were role models for the younger performers and an inspiration to us all.

The winners with Michelle

Ms Amanda Stevenson, now head of English, and still spearheading the enterprise, opened the event, stressing that all participants were winners. She passed on the task of introducing the event to Jack and Priya as our presenters.  This confident and charming pair were our guides. They testified to the work that had gone into all the performances behind the scenes in workshops and rehearsals , organised and supported once again by Michelle Scally Clarke, with her team of mentors, Johnie and Stella.  Michelle is not just a hugely skilled actress, poet and teacher, she also maintains lasting and supportive relationships with the young people she works with.

Prya Lota gave a resounding start to the performances with a poem by Catherine Hawthorne, a Lawnswood sixth former, “Stars”, in which we imagined the stars looking down on us, and what they might think.

We moved on to Round One.

Azeel Abdulaziz performed “Giggle, Tickle” with verve and energy, and then moved on to a dialogue with her sister, Nada, “If Love was a Person,” which contrasted the twins, love and hate.

Ingi Hughes, a three-year veteran of the Slam, accompanied herself on the guitar and sang beautifully and touchingly of her “Substitute Family”, who might “quietly hold my hand”.

Kieran Gately gave a deeply-felt performance of “This is Me”, in which he clearly asserted his right to be his own person, “no matter what you say”. Adam Barber gave a lively and  affectionate tribute to his brother in spite of his title , “My little Brother is a Pain”. This was followed by the winning performance (for two poems) by Nada Abdulaziz, “The Innocent One “. 

The judges later commented on her effective delivery and eye contact, the compelling structure of the poem,  with its haunting refrain, and the romanticism of the imagery. Ingi played for us again, this time setting a poem of Michelle’s to music. “I miss you” addressed both the personal and political with anger, energy and emotion. Will she be ‘the next Tracey Chapman’? Esther Moran gave us a beautifully-delivered  account of “Love to Hate”, “I wish people could see the world with clear eyes”.

The next performer has been involved with the Slam since it began, working with Michelle since Year 7. She is now a member  of the Leeds University Performance Poetry Group. She opened the Litfest last year. Fatima el Jack spoke of “Motherland” with  deep feeling and eloquence. Kizzy Jones then performed “Love and Life”. Michelle talked about the power of poetry to release emotion and performer after performer opened their souls.

Michael Quain chose a traditional rhyming format in “Life mine, or just a line “ , which swung with energy from title to conclusion, “I’ll never live it alone”, while Jasmine Williams, who received a special commendation from the judges, gave us her assertive position on life in “Opinion”. Sarah Hamaway led us into the horror of nightmare in “Where am I?” , a powerful account of being “lost in my lonely imagination.”, in the first of two effectively-delivered pieces.

The first half ended with an unusual performance. Charlie Nullmyers used lights, special effects and a cast of two in “The Doll”, to chill our spines with the story of a doll that came to life. Awesome!

Michelle, Johnny and Stella swung the second half into life, and Tanaka Guzuwe, Michael Quain and Victor took on the baton with a powerful, rhythmic piece of rap, “Life”.

India Claybourne in “Hate”, performed the winning song under the category of Best Poem. She sang beautifully of frustrated visions  and dreams. Aidan Foster Green, another commendation, had us on the edge of our seats with the brilliant “Life”, a horror story of corpses and mirrors.

Ayah Almarsi performed the first of two pieces, the second with Azeel Abdulaziz, in which they explored “Slavery” and “Friendship”. Why do people bully each other?

Rosa Weiner and Toni Busby performed a cover of a Kate Nash song, and made it their own. These Slam veterans return to show where there is to go.

Adam Barber, whose delivery of “Hold onto your Dreams” brought him a judges’  commendation, spoke clearly and beautifully of the way forward. “Follow your soul, to be whole".  Nada gave us the second of her prize-winning poems  with “Love is whatever you want it to be” in this brilliant second half. Fatima el Jack mesmerised us with a powerful, angry polemic, exposing the hypocrisy and inequality in society, and showing us yet again that poetry has the power to electrify and persuade, as well as to delight.

Yasmin Mehudin performed on her own, and then with Annie Moran, in two strongly contrasting pieces: “Everything” explored dreams, while “His Life” told of  a life gone wrong, in dialogue. Dylan Fallon delighted us with the best personal performance, in the judges’ view. He didn’t just tell us about a vampire, he was the vampire, concluding the second half with a bang. Rosa and Michelle entertained us while the judges did their thing.

Thank you to all the performers, presenters  and supporting staff for a brilliant evening. Thank you to the judges: Toni  Busby, Slam veteran; Raftery the Poet, and Richard Wilcocks of the Litfest.

This event is always the climax of the Litfest for me, and a brilliant conclusion, this year.

Literary Tea Party

Partnership event with Far Headingley Village Society

Bill Fitzsimons writes:

The Mad Hatter's tea Party came to Headingley on the afternoon of 24 March at The Secret Garden Café. With lashings of tea, dainty sandwiches and cakes to satisfy the bodily hunger of the refined audience, and literary titbits, plus quizzes, to allay the cultural hunger of the most discerning, this event was a hit, a very palpable hit!

Sheila Chapman writes:

The secret garden was covered in snow just as the tables inside were covered with white pristine table cloths. There were also flowers and an eclectic set of china culled from jumble sales, charity shops and home cupboards.  A giant teapot was placed on our table to be followed in succession by sandwiches (including cucumber sandwiches, and we did later hear an extract from The Importance of Being Ernest), scones (with choice of creams plus jam) and, on a cake stand, a mixture of very lovely individual cakes plus biscuits and jam tarts. We could not stop eating and, I am ashamed to confess, our table called for more.

It was terrific to eat a proper tea and we heard how Anna the 7th Duchess of Bedford is credited with creating the afternoon tea to fill the 'sinking feeling' she experienced between lunch and dinner - although how anyone could even contemplate a dinner after this feast I do not know.

But we had work to do as well: quizzes (literary of course) and a word game which you might like to try - make as many words as you can from the LitFest's theme 'Lives and Loves'. There was also a satisfyingly complex scoring system from which it emerged that we had won a prize -what joy, it was a cream egg (by you know who).

All this plus performances and readings- all overseen from the window rail by the Mad Hatter's hat, the Dormouse (nestled in a teacup), and the White Rabbit.

Our thanks to the multi-tasking Far Headingley Village society team (cooks, performers, waitresses and cloakroom attendants) and Tony from the Secret Garden Café 

This was a labour of love and we all loved it!

'Spoken Word' at City of Leeds School

Sally Bavage writes:
Billed as a ‘competition for young writers and performers’, some of our young poets showed first-night nerves at the second poetry ‘slam’ event rehearsal – but stepping up to the mike under the spotlights, with the warm support of family and friends in the audience soon gave their courage wings.  And they flew. How lovely to see the nerves dissolve when the words started to flow and the mood of the evening willed them to reach inside and find their inner John Cooper Clarke. 

Three rounds of the competition gave each performer the opportunity to select the original poems they had written that reflected differences in topic, range and style.  Pathos, anger, loss, longing, looking back, looking ahead, joy, pain – all here in spades. The commitment and talent in this school shone a beacon on all that is so valuable about the way that poetry allows something deeply-felt to be explored in a medium that is both edgy and safe, that allows explanation not exploitation.  Michael Gove, you’d have to be there to know what you are missing.

“I write to forget the world, I write ‘cos no-one’s listening” - Hyab Bereket, in ‘Don’t know what to write.’

“You can’t take my shine” – and we certainly couldn’t as Ghyraiss M’Poussa rapped in ‘Superboy’.  In ‘Unleashed’ an angry cry of “Do you not see me?” resounded over the whole studio.  A poet as well as co-host of the event with Antonio Bessa in a bravura performance of confidence.  Both made for the stage.

“Shut up and listen to my wise words, Don’t hate,” Ben Brennan told us in ‘What’s the matter’. Later, his ‘One love’ included “The first kiss …I loved every millisecond of it.”   “Just accept that I’m different” he pleaded in ‘Don’t judge me’ before going back to his place on the technical sound team again. 

“A knot inside your tummy like butterflies flying backwards” was part of Shannen Oddy’s ‘Heartbeat fear.’  “I might be at the bottom but I’m still trying” came from ‘Sadness.’ “We can’t recycle life but we can waste it” resonated not only with the audience listening to ‘Life moving’ but also won her the Best Line award from the judges.

“The earth is flashed in lightning” according to Farhan Khan in ‘Nature is revealed.’  A serious young man who averred that “As long as we’re together, I will love you forever” in his version of ‘Love.’ Still serious in ‘The devils are back’ with “I thought I’d be OK but I’m broken into pieces.”

                                                                                                 

Then Antonio performed his first poem, ‘Rhythm’ – “It’s every person’s goal to be perfect; This is who I choose to be.”  ‘Earliest memories’ told us that “Now I am in England but I want to go back to my home, my Africa, that happiness, that belonging.”  Powerful performance, powerful message too.

Louisa Kwofie didn’t need her script at all to tell us about ‘My understanding’ – “Forget the past.  I’m by your side. Live.”  ‘My life’ told her “Mother, I will make you happy, I love you dearly.” 

Tafadzwa Mokgwathi’s ‘Home’ was poignant and included “I lose myself in the memory.  A past lit by the light of a fire” hinted at darker things.  It won her the award of Best Poem from the three judges.

Charlize Engelbracht also contributed to some of the Master of Ceremonies duties before ‘Not to love him’ told us that “He was never mine.  Momma said, Never fall in love with a guy who isn’t ready to worship the ground you walk on.”  My goodness, old heads on young shoulders.  “I love thee, and with thee my heart is anchored”, in ‘My Africa,’ again spoke of the longing for homeland. 

Neelam Chohan took us to the first break with ‘Where’s the love’ – “Love is trust, honesty, no cries, no lies.”  And then she blew us all away singing her cover of Alicia Keys’ ‘Girl on Fire’ – such a powerful voice and we watched as her confidence just soared along with the notes.  Fantastic.

Jade Gilbertson is a more accomplished performance poet, having already worked with Leeds Young Authors.   She found the evening “inspiring” and “a unique experience,” she said when asked.   She also admonished us in ‘Our generation’ to “Tell the world, Peace is in, Violence is out.”

Courtney Morton in ‘Remember’ spoke of “The empty space in the chair”. Rather chilling.

Emma Rose wondered, in ‘Valentine,’ if it was worth it to “Spend all day chafing your feet in high heels.  Get rid of Valentine’s Day. Pointless.” She found ‘Angel of the North’ both a “Rusting massiveness” and a very sad reminder of a broken family.

Finally, Darren Phillip’s ‘Til death do us part’ reminded us in Headingley LitFest 2013: Lives and Loves that “Love is about the heart and the rest power within.”  He won the judges’ hearts and was awarded Best Overall Performance.

We were also richly rewarded by a performance of breakdancing from Shane Fenton and two young colleagues, Beanz and Georgina (an ex-pupil of City of Leeds), who perform as ‘Speak to the Streets’.  They give up their time to encourage youngsters to use dance and celebrating hip-hop as an expression of energy rather than get involved with guns and gangs and knives.  “It’s not where you’re from, it’s where you’re at!  Stay positive and passionate.  Love life.”  Poetry in motion, too, as they defied gravity and the expectations of what a human body can do.   

Thanks to our three judges – June Diamond of Headingley LitFest, Carrie-Ann Merifield from City of Leeds music department and Saji Ahmed from Leeds Young Authors, who finished the night with an original performance poem, Freedom.’   “Poetry in life”, he said, “is not just Shakespeare, good though he is, but it is in songs, books, the world around you.”  Thanks, too, to artist Michelle Scally Clarke for all her weeks of workshops to nurture and encourage the poet in each performer, and to Jonnie Khan (who was part of the sound team on Refugee Boy  at the West Yorkshire Playhouse, on till 30^th March).  What a feast of talents.

Performances in poetry, dance, music, songs.  If whooping was a sport for medallists, then the assembled crowd in the Drama Studio won gold. What a noise!  What a night! 

Leeds Combined Arts Cultural Poetry & Music Evening

Doug Sandle writes:

Leeds Combined arts lived up to its title with a programme that included poetry, song, music and visual art in a multicultural presentation that featured several languages and traditions. The evening was varied but always interesting and engaging, including some exceptional performances of quality and skill that were received with appreciative enthusiasm by a room full audience. IMOWI, (Indian Music On Western Instruments) opened the proceedings with a fusing of background recorded sitar music with live flute and tabla providing an overlay of more western musical forms, which skilfully fused and counterpointed with the sitar background in a meditative and relaxing opening.

Local poet Bill Fitzsimons followed with a rhyming evocation of his Irish background, opening with Dublin Boy that told of his love of words and poetry. His Irish past was evoked in Back Home and in the second half of the evening Teanga Dhύchais, which was read in Irish Gaelic, ironically lamented his frustration in not being proficient in his ‘mother tongue’. His poem Searching was for me the more evocative and powerful of his contributions, perhaps for not being restricted by the constraints of rhyming couplets, but also for its imagery and expressiveness – it ended as follows:

A gang of raucous ravens mock me

from tall trees and my spirit slumps.

There is no revelation here, no mystical

bonding with ancient ghosts – merely

inadequate memory and a longing

for a childhood that was never mine.

Jacqueline Zacharias from York read work from her Poems on the River Ouse, which were powerfully delivered evocations of nature, myth, folk lore and her personal responses to the river. Her strong presentation beautifully captured the moods and nuances of the river and its landscape in a reading in which voice and body combined - her arm and hand moving as if in a dance with the words and the images she brought forth. Her homage to the Ouse climaxed with a powerful incantation of the sublime and darker supernatural forces of the river – an engrossing performance.

Poetry and folk songs from Russia, spanning over 250 years, were sung and recited by Natasha Mwitta that included work by Pushkin, Tsvetajeva and Pasternak. A regular contributor to Combined Arts, Natasha confidently engaged the audience with both Russian and English versions and the poetic tones and cadences of the Russian language were sensitively expressed to perhaps surprise the non Russian speakers in the audience (99%?) with its lyricism.

The ‘unexpected’ happening of the evening were two presentations that included some actual paintings, held aloft by a volunteer, while local artist Lilliane Gosling explained the origins of her subject matter. Drawing upon myths and folk tales from different eras and cultures, Lilliane’s art illustrates and explores the narratives and their symbolic meanings. In a delivery that was assessable but informed, she recounted the fascinating background to each of the pictures displayed. The audience were intrigued as she deconstructed the imagery to reveal their wider cultural meanings and uses, drawing upon feminist analysis as well as the psychology of archetypes. Her painting The Waq Wag Tree, for example illustrates a mariners’ folk tale about a mythical tree that grows women, but which is both beautiful but empty. The artist having used words to inspire her paintings, the paintings are then used for further words by popular local poet Linda Marshall in poetic responses that were presented in her usual sharply crafted and observed manner. For example, Lilliane’s painting of the Waq Waq tree and Linda’s poem are as below:                                                    

Have you heard of the Waq Waq tree?                                                          

Eyes hang off it like berries.

Skulls surround it like fallen fruit.                                 

Once it was a tree of human heads                                 

All speaking at the same time

In convoluted languages.

If someone had stuck an apple

Into each of those mouths,

It still wouldn’t have been an apple tree,

Or a silent tree.

Look at its glittery jewelled colours!

It is the tree of paradise, of earth, of hell.

Its vociferous lips agree

There is only one word for pleasure

And that is pain.

IMOWI having opened the evening were also featured several times elsewhere in the programme.  Maisie Bannister delightfully played the classical guitar featuring Etude 6 by the Cuban guitarist and composer Leo Brouwer. Sam Lewis on the saxophone and John Ball on tabla closed the evening as they played to a background sitar playing Ahir Bhairav, a Hindustani classical raga. The tones of the sitar provided a background like a rippling meandering brook as the saxophone soared, fluttered and swooped above it like a singing bird – it was an exquisite piece to end the evening, skilfully executed.

However, earlier in opening the second half of the presentation, IMOWI had provided perhaps for many the ‘show stopper’ of the evening  – two songs, one from North Africa and the other from Bengal, sung by Vanessa Chuturghoon, accompanied most professionally by guitarist Joe Harris. Both were most beautifully sung, (in Swahili and Bengali), with a haunting and poetic voice that sonorously filled the room with its lingering notes and hypnotic rhythms.

Carol Downing’s Combined Arts evening has become a regular feature of the Headingley LitFest and, as this evening ably demonstrated, their contribution has gone from strength to strength.