I Won the Hat - Gothenburg Poetry Slam!

Perhaps you've already read this piece of news in Swedish with the help of Google translate, but as I don't trust translation programmes, I thought I'd better say in in my own words:

I won the first Poetry Slam for the season at Café Hängmattan in Gothenburg!

And the prize was a hat.

Or rather what was in the hat. The audience were asked to contribute with money, love and other items. Apart from some notes and coins I also got two condoms, a box of throat pastilles, matches, a piece of a keyring, a business card, a poetry book, a flowery pin and blister plasters. Very useful. Thank you!

In Sweden the slam scene is very much focused on the National Championships that takes place in May every year. But if you live in a big or biggish city it's not enough to win a single Poetry Slam to reach the Nationals. Winning last night means that I've qualified for the autumn final and if I do well in the autumn final I'll get through to the annual final and if I'm lucky then, I'll secure a place at the Nationals.

I thought that living in Sweden for a while would mean the end of performance poetry for me as I was so used to my English poetry persona Lou Ice and her material in English. But writing in Swedish and doing something different has been good for me, even though I miss the UK scene and all my poetry pals in Brighton. I can only take my off to you for keeping up the love and the words through cyberspace.

PÅ SVENSKA

At the Library of Memories: Glow Worms and Bumble Bees

Normally when I read poetry, I dip in and out of a collection, but for some reason Maria Jaztrzebska’s book At the Library of Memories, inspired me to read the poems in chronological order from front to back. And then I started to dip in and out, re-reading my favourites.

Perhaps it was the subtitles (starting with Foyer followed by Children’s Area) that seemed like different chapters to me, and made me think of a novel. And even though each poem can be read on its own, the poems become stronger when you have the full picture. A bit like looking in a photo album and connecting up memories. The collection can also be seen as a meditation on memory itself. ”By night children’s memories flicker like glow worms”.

Maria was born in Poland, but has lived most of her life in the UK and I love it how she jumps back and forth in time between her first memories of England and also thinking about her heritage. Now and again Polish words sneak their way into the poems, enhancing them. Overall I find it effortless to read the poems, the author manages to keep the poetic flow without complicating things.

There are also some very sensual poems about love as well as sexual experiences. My all time favourite is The Room of Smells, an interior garden, where the narrator is high on post sex feelings at a bus stop: ”she hates you comparing her scent to food or plants. You can’t help the way your mind runs, bumping into one fragrance after another like a great bumble bee”.

So, If you’re longing to read poetry, don’t wait. Go and find a copy of At the Library of Memories now.

Maria also has a blog.

Wham Bam Slam

This spring and early summer I've been involved in Shake the Dust - a poetry slam  project run by spoken word organisation Apples & Snakes.

My role in the project was to assist magnificent poetry coach Michael James Parker and together we worked with a team of eight young people from a school in Farnborough.

Shake the Dust is a national project and is part of the Cultural Olympics in London. This Monday it was time for the regional poetry slam final in Southampton where our team was competing against four other schools in the South East of England.

Watching the youngsters on stage was much more nervwracking than being on stage myself ... And when the winners were announed I was in tears. I couldn't believe it ... our team aka The Awkward Squad won! I couldn't believe it, not because they weren't good, but because ALL the teams were good. So much power, so many feelings. Next week we're going up to the national final in London to represent the whole of the South East.

I'm also the Digital Champion for my region which means I represent the South East by blogging. You can read about the final and some more of my blog posts here.

Funnily enough my title during the Shake the Dust project has been "shadow poetry coach" which suits me as I'm a shadow in other people's everyday life through my Swenglish project.  The idea of Swenglish was to give up my room, my job and my usual activities in order to take part in someone else's life, but Shake the Dust has been good for me, to go away about once a week to do poetry workshops has been a chance to "be myself" for a day. 

You can read what I'm up to with Swenglish here.

Performing at Brighton Fringe Event - Fashion Tips for the Last Days

Spring isn't really here weather wise, but I've sprung into poetry again! Last week I won the May Hammer & Tongue poetry slam at Komedia, and on Wednesday I'm very honoured to be one of the "very special guests" at Chris Parkinson's book launch.

Where? The Blind Tiger Club, Brighton

When? 8pm, Wed 9 May 2012

What?

Launch party for famous poet Chris Parkinson's second collection of poems. Featuring performing seals*, live music, party politics, missing limbs, dying swans and some very special guests. And poetry. (*possibly)

You can buy tickets here.

I'm still busy with my Swenglish project, but I've allowed myself to sneak out to take part in this very special event. To find out what I'm up to with Swenglish, please check out swenglish2012.blogspot.co.uk

My Poetry on Radio - Castle Fm Edinburgh - This Sunday

I'm taking an Easter Break from my Swenglish project and am celebrating by going to Edinburgh to stay with my friend Laura.

Laura Kerr is a radio DJ and  presents her own music and literature show "Light and Dark" at local station Castle Fm, and I'm very happy to be her special guest tomorrow.

She has also set up a reading for me at the 10 RED Poetry night at the Persevere Pub in Leith, Edinburgh on Wednesday, 7pm. It'll be exciting to perform for the Scots!

Click here to listen to the radio show, Sunday 1 April, 10pm-12am

And please click here to follow my ongoing Swenglish adventure!

Poets Cornered are Meeting in New Venue

I'm having a prolific poetry period at the moment, preferring to capture my thoughts and feelings in short snappy poems instead of putting them into long stories or novel scenarios. (Probably because my every day life feels very bitty at the moment as I'm preparing myself for my Swenglish journey ...)

Last week I went back to Poets Cornered, the poetry group I used to go to a lot a few years back. They are now meeting in The Farm Tavern in Hove. 8pm every Tuesday. And it's free! Do come along and bring a poem, pen and paper. Or a laptop or whatever device you use.

Read one of my latest poems, "Disembodied" here.


PS. new post in my Swenglish blog about snow.

Staring out of the Window is also Work

Writers tend to spend a lot of time staring out of the window. What is not so widely known, is that this is part of the writing process and therefore it can be called work.

I find it very hard to write in rooms with no or very small windows. If I write in a cafe or a pub I usually choose a window seat.

Something is happening when you stare, I believe. Your thoughts reorganise themselves. One morning this week I spontaneously popped into the Medusa Bar in Preston Street for a cup of green tea (miraculously making it last for an hour and a half). In my bag I had a few sheets of poems in progress that I'd printed out. Staring at the street, staring at the sheets things started to happen, and I scribbled frenetically in the margins, making up new lines, crossing bad ones out and moving a few words around. I'd had an idea for a very long time, but didn't get anywhere with it - now I ended up with three different poems on the same theme (compliments).

I am in need of different views now and again, so it's good that Brighton & Hove have an abundance of bars, pubs and cafes. And when I do my Swenglish project I'll have a different view every week, unless someone puts me up in their basement or even worse wardrobe! (The view in the picture belongs to one of the people I'm going to stay with.)

I won the Hammer & Tongue Poetry Slam in Brighton!

It's been a potty autumn for me ... A potty poetry autumn!
Last night I won my second poetry slam: Hammer & Tongue at Komedia in Brighton,
hosted by Rosy Carrick and Mike Parker.

I wasn't going to go out due to November Rain, but I changed my mind
and jumped on my bike to town to do a poem about trains which you can read here.

Winning the slam means that I'll be in the grand slam final on the 1st of December
battling against all the slam winners of 2011.

(if you need the toilet the potty can be found in Queens Park)

Dating Myself in London - Inspiration & Nostalgia

Julia Cameron - the woman behind The Artist's Way - writes about the importance of Artist's Dates. And sometimes we need Artist's Days. Days when we take ourselves out to gain new inspiration and energy. Yesterday I took myself to London.


I started off at the British Library. Little did I know that it was like boarding an aeroplane. You had to check that your bag was the right size, and to go inside any of the reading rooms you needed a pass. The book I wanted to read (a John Cage one) was in Yorkshire which didn't make any sense. A member of staff said "it says DSC in the entry" as if an idiot would know that DSC meant Yorkshire. I didn't let myself get put off though.

Instead I had a look at one of the exhibitions and saw original manuscripts/notebooks from authors like Virginia Woolf and Oscar Wilde. I also put on headphones and listened to Help! by the Beatles while looking at the original piece of paper that John Lennon wrote down the lyrics on ... After all entering a library is like boarding an aeroplane: you are travelling to another place.


The British Library cafe was too full of laptops, books and conversations so I moved to a cafe across the road and spent two hours with myself, my notebook and a gigantic mug of green tea. I found my words flowing in all sorts of directions without forcing myself to writing anything good.


To feed my tummy I had an over-priced sandwich. But my mind was hungry for something else, so I decided to treat myself to Camden. (And am very proud that I found my way there without looking at the map in my bag.) Camden still feels magic to me. Camden changed my life when I was eighteen. And again when I was nineteen. It would take a whole novel to explain why, but basically it was a shock for a small town girl. Like moving from grey to neon. Like moving from safe to dangerous. Like moving from innocence to experience.

Note the punk with the placard in the middle to the right. I bet he's the same guy who stood there when I first came up from the tube all those years ago ... (The next tube could take you to another world was the slogan on the walls then.)


After only five minutes in Camden I was exploding with memories mixed with new impressions and I just had to sit down and write again. At a crossroads someone asked "Where's the rainbow?" because at that very moment it started to rain at the same time as the sun was shining ... I didn't find any rainwbows but I found Spiral (a cafe by the canal) and that was colourful enough with hippies in green trousers and orange tops. I had Spirulina. Not something I would've done ten years ago ... It wouldn't have been "punk" enough ...


Nostalgia hit me really bad so I just had to carry on to Angel ... To Islington Green where me and a friend once sat in October, drinking before going to legendary goth club Slimelight ... This was ten years ago and I couldn't help thinking of the line from the above mentioned Help!: When I was younger, so much younger than today ...


And this is what my novel is about. Someone with a glamorous name who is not glamorous. (REPLACING ANGEL is no longer the title, but Angel is still very much the subject or perhaps the object of my novel.)


This is the real reason I went to London: I was invited to perform at Beat - a diverse but dynamic monthly poetry event at Charlie Wright's Bar hosted by ...


Andreas Grant. Who is a fellow Swede. (Some of the best Swedes have left their native country to grow elsewhere)

So ... This is one of the longest blog post I've ever written. I feel inspired and overtired, but I want to see myself again. After another couple of dates I might even fall in love ...

And if I get bored with myself I have filled half a notebook with thoughts notes hopes dreams fragments of poems and other ideas. It's funny how I had the intention of gaining new inspiration, but got this craving for nostalgia. Sometimes you have to travel to the future to find your past (path.) Oh dear ... I must be in love to write this rubbish. Lust for life la la la ... Bedtime or beertime? "Me!" my pillow calls, like London was calling yesterday ...

Dressing Up for my Hometown

CLICK HERE TO READ A NEW POEM OF MINE

I could've been a banker - Poetry Video by Alison Boston

It seems to get more and more popular to make poetry videos. Why not? Videos are not only for musicians.

Here's a great example of a video made by multi-disciplinary artist Alison Boston whom I worked with at the improv gig.

Rip/Cut/Torn

Wednesday 16th March

eg poetry presents.......’Rip/Cut/Torn’
The result of numerous workshops......a collaborative evening of poetry, improvised spoken word and improvised music

6 Brighton based poets meet ‘4.33’, Brighton’s most inventive music improvisation trio.
With Bernie Cremin, Lou Ice, Annie Kerr, Tom Cunliffe, Alison Boston and Yassin Zelestine

‘4.33’ (Stuart Revill, Tim Woods, Chris Parfitt).....”free of cliché... a fine enigma” Don Spicer. Jazz World/Guardian.

......sometimes you have to go to the edge.........and leap

Not to be missed.
Red Roaster Coffee House, St James St, Brighton. £5/£4 8pm Ko

A Slammy Poem

For the first time since September I entered a poetry slam (Hammer & Tongue at Komedia) and for the first time I got really high scores, and almost won.

I came second, performing a poem called Making-over my Landlord.

Also for the first time I deliberately used rhymes which always go down well. CLICK HERE TO READ THE POEM.

New Poem: 2

CLICK HERE TO READ MY LATEST POEM

New Poem: Reversed Jealousy

CLICK HERE TO READ MY LATEST POEM.