Tuesday 19 June 2012

Egyptian Evening in MINT - المصرية مساء

Marcos is organising this. He's the boss of MINT café in North Lane, Headingley and he was over the moon when the LitFest collaborated with him on a terrific Lebanese Evening in March, which had a bellydancer on the programme along with poems in English and Arabic by the likes of Khalil Gibran and Mahmoud Darwish. 


Now there's going to be an Egyptian Evening on Friday 29 June at 8.30pm with Helena Bellydancer, who will not only dance but talk about the remarkable Lady Lucy Duff Gordon (pictured), who was a mid-Victorian translator and travel writer. Her three volumes of travel letters were not originally intended for publication, and perhaps owe their honest style and natural tone to this fact. 


There will be some other readings too, in Arabic and English - for example from the works of Nizar Qabbani, a poet revered in the Arab world.



The food in MINT is brilliant - you can order an authentic mezze buffet for seven pounds if you want to try it. Entry at the door is three pounds.

Warm and wonderful

Warm and wonderful in the HEART café on 8 June!  Amongst the friends - a bunch of school students, poets all. Singers too. Stella Litras brought along her keyboard and guitar - and a brilliant young group called Caution!

 In the picture - Michelle and Becky.

Thursday 31 May 2012

Michelle and Friends


Charismatic performance poet Michelle Scally Clarke is well-known in Headingley:  for the past five years she has been the creative genius behind the amazing poetry slams held at Lawnswood and city of Leeds schools as part of the Headingley LitFest. Her own poetry lays bare her turbulent journey from care, to adoption, to motherhood, to performer – and she encouraged the teenagers who attended her preliminary workshops to dig deep and find their own sense of identity. She worked with the students for six weeks before each slam, nurturing their talents and offering them her own inimitable style of encouragement.


She will be joined by poet Becky Cherriman, musician Stella Litras and other guests for what should be an unforgettable evening in the HEART Café, Bennett Road.


From 7.30pm      £5



Tuesday 15 May 2012

Lines of Dissent - Ian Parks


Lines of Dissent is the title of our Poetry and Jazz event in the HEART Café on Friday 25 May at 7.30pm      £5 on the door

Poet Ian Parks will be joined by the two Simons from Des the Miner, which is the resident group at the Flux Gallery, and by his guest Kim Moore.


Ian Parks was one of the National Poetry Society New Poets in 1996. He was made a Hawthornden Fellow in 1991 and has taught creative writing at the universities of Sheffield, Hull, Oxford and Leeds.

Described by Points North magazine as 'an heroic figure in Yorkshire poetry and a living legend in Hull', Ian Parks is the only poet to have poems in the Times Literary Supplement and The Morning Star on the same day. His collections include Shell Island, Love Poems and The Landing Stage.

His poems have appeared in Poetry Review, The Independent on Sunday, The Observer and Modern Poetry in Translation. He is currently editing a new anthology of contemporary Yorkshire poetry for Five Leaves Publications and was special guest on the Janice Long Show (BBC Radio 2) earlier this year.

The Exile’s House is published by Waterloo Press and he will be venturing out of Mexborough in November to live and work as writer-in-residence at Gladstone's Library. He's asked them to subscribe to The South Yorkshire Times during his stay.

He has researched Chartist Poetry: his book on this will appear next year.

The Exile's House - Ian Parks: Download

“A poet working big themes and moving in new directions.”  Ed Reiss

“This is a poetry which is universal, profound and as natural as breathing.” David Cooke

 A Last Love Poem - Ian Parks: Download
 Jazz Train - Ian Parks: Download
 Over The Top - Ian Parks: Download
 Lazarus - Ian Parks: Download




Kim Moore works in Cumbria as a peripatetic brass teacher, which involves travelling to different schools to teach brass instruments and drinking cups of tea.  She lives with her husband, two dogs and a cat. 
Kim has recently completed an MA in Creative Writing at Manchester Metropolitan University.  She has been published in various magazines including Poetry Review, The TLS, Ambit, The Rialto, The North and Magma and has recently had reviews published in Mslexia and Poetry Review.  In 2011 she won the Geoffrey Dearmer Prize and an Eric Gregory Award.  She regularly reads for the ‘Carol Ann Duffy and Friends’ series at the Royal Exchange in Manchester and is Reviews Editor for the Cadaverine magazine.  She is currently working on her first full collection. 

Chartists rally on Kennington Common in London -



Wednesday 25 April 2012

Land of Nod - at HEART


The Land of Nod is a Leeds-based comedy sketch show that’s been running since Spring 2010. They have performed in a number of venues in Yorkshire- Bradford Playhouse, Hebden Bridge Fringe Festival, Wakefield, York and regularly at Seven Arts in Chapel Allerton. The show consists of seventeen quick fire sketches ably performed by four actors (2 female/ 2 male) with a wide range of performing experience.

The sketches range from the topical- Our Tribute to the Diamond Jubilee- to the macabre, surreal and satirical. Influences range from Peter Cook, to Big Train, to The Day Today. They cover topics from waiting for god to ‘Airlock Holmes’ a modern day wanna-be detective who never seems to get it right.

They are appearing in the HEART Café in Bennett Road on Friday 11 May at 7.30pm. Tickets on the door - four pounds.


Feel free to click on the poster below and print it out.

For further information visit the website www.landofnod.org.uk


Tuesday 17 April 2012

Three Friday evenings, soon...


 The café in the HEART Centre has just the right sort of atmosphere for poetry, music – and comedy. Now, we are responding to your requests and organising three follow-on events for the Headingley LitFest which will take place in it, all of them starting at eight pm.

There will be more detailed information soon on this blog (have you bookmarked us yet?), but for now please put these dates on your calendar:

May 11 – MIKE NELSON – stand-up comedian who ran a successful workshop for the LitFest in March

May 25 – IAN PARKS – poet who appeared at the Flux Gallery with others in March, with JAZZ from Destheminer

June 8 – MICHELLE SCALLY CLARKE – charismatic performance poet who was the driving force behind the Lawnswood Poetry Slam, with musical friends