A week of poetry kicks off on Monday 28 September, ending 2 October, online as part of Wandworth Library’s cultural events this year. We spoke to Kate Halbura, Library Manager at Wandsworth Town Library, and recorded ourselves reading some of our poems from London Undercurrents – which was great fun. Do tune in to their […]
Wandsworth Library Poetry Week — London Undercurrents
As the inevitable Christmas songs start to ring out, I’ve begun to assess my poeting year, and it appears as if 2019 was the year I did LOADS! (Thank you very much for reminding me to look back and reflect, John and Yoko.)
2019:
1. Wowee – I had my very first book published: London Undercurrents, a joint collaboration with Hilaire, which uncovers the hidden histories of London’s heroines north and south of the river. It took us five years to research, write, secure funding, employ a mentor and find a publisher – 2019 was the year we turned all those hours of endeavour into a physical book.
2. I experienced what it’s like to have the might of a passionate publisher behind you. Holland Park Press took a chance on us – they hadn’t seen us read, or met us, but they saw merit in our manuscript and I’m so glad they did. Bernadette Janseon op de Haar came into our lives like a beautifully dressed whirlwind and, along with her brother Arnold, has been tirelessly promoting our book ever since, including securing us a reading spot at London Book Fair, and throwing a wonderful launch party at Art Workers Guild.
3. I felt the wonderfully happy/weird sensation of launching a book to a crowded room filled with people from many aspects of my life; family, non-poetry friends some of whom hand never heard me read before, poetry friends and colleagues, other authors from our publisher’s stable. Now I know what that feels like.
4. I also got to feel how it feels to sign my name on the title page of my book for a queue of eager readers, and found out how suddenly you can’t spell anyone’s name, not even your own, and your handwriting goes all wrong.
5. I got to go on the telly box. London LIVE tv channel interviewed us about London Undercurrents, you can watch it here. We had no script, no rehearsal and no idea what questions we were going to be asked – an extraordinary experience, trying to forget about the cameras, cables and lights, while trying to sound coherent and not hugely nervous. All this, while also perching on a low level sofa, which is something that gets less and less easy for me the older I get. Watching the show back later, we did good – we clearly know our stuff and the way we interacted with each other was a true reflection of the respect we have for each other as writers and people. Which leads me on to…
6. I realised how lucky I am to have such a lovely, respectful working relationship with my fellow author, Hilaire, and I continue to thank my lucky stars that we met at a Spread the Word workshop, because our friendship, both in the poetry world and outside of it, has enriched my life in so many ways.
7. In my own writing practice I got oh-so-close to having a pamphlet of poems published by Live Canon. Making it onto the long list of 14 pamphlets in the Live Canon Pamphlet Competition 2019, among such wonderful company of established talented poets, was the affirmation I needed to keep going. Maybe 2020 will be the year I find a publisher for my collection exploring how women navigate living in a patriarchal world. Bring it on.
8. I submitted to magazines, journals and publishers. Which all means that I must’ve been writing too. Due to many submission rules requiring non-simultaneous submissions, I’ve had to keep generating new work. Which brings me to…
9. I have written many, many first drafts and beginnings of poems and ‘things’ that might turn into poems or prose at Malika’s Poetry Kitchen sessions every other Friday. I love being part of MPK, not just because I get to be taught by and hang out with the wonderful Malika Booker who founded the collective, but I get to meet big names on the contemporary poetry scene and to feel a kinship with the other collective members who continue to support, share and nurture each other in a truly wonderful way. It’s a brilliant way of generating new work.
10. I earned some money from poetry. Not enough to retire on, that’s for sure, but enough to put a meal on the table and splurge out on coffee and cake, and enough to reinvest back into the purchasing of poetry books, tickets to readings and events.
So then, 2020 – what ya got for me?
I’ve been the official Copywriter for BBA Gallery in Berlin for a few months now, creating publicity materials for shows and working together with the Directors Nele Ouwens and Renata Kudlacek to create a new Tone of Voice which has now been successfully rolled out across the content of their website, and social channels. So it was a real moment of pride when they asked me to don one of my other ‘writer’s hats’ – my poet hat – and to be their featured poet at the private view for their group show Poetics of Change. This touring show has travelled to Dubai, and seeing as I’d written the publicity materials for it, I knew just how brilliant it is and how lucky I would be to be a part of it in some way. So I packed my bag and headed out on an early flight for a whistle stop visit to Berlin.
Earlier in the year, shortly after the publication of London Undercurrents, a friend and poet from Japan was passing through London and asked me to take her to some of the locations of my north London Undercurrents poems, so that I could explain more about the culture of London life.
We met at Holloway Road tube, walked up the Holloway Road, back down to Islington, along Upper Street, veered off to Liverpool Road, then on into Barnsbury, stopping off for refreshment at The Albion pub and finishing up near Angel. At each stop I read the London Undercurrents poem that corresponded to the location: Hollywood comes to Holloway outside the Holloway Odeon; Regular Service outside what was once Jones Bros department store; Permitted to Play outside Arsenal Emirates Stadium; Paying for the Poor House outside what was once a poor house on Liverpool Road; A Lock In with Widow Liquorish outside the site of the Peacock Tavern. It was a great experience – like evoking the spirits from the dead and honouring the memory of many local women whose voices have gone unheard.
This might be something that co-author, Hilaire and I will take further – London Undercurrents walking tours. With actresses who read the poems at each stopping off point. Watch this space.
Photos by Hideko Sueoka
I can’t actually believe that I didn’t blog about this when it happened back in 2017. Getting a poem accepted by Magma has been No. 1 on my list of ‘I will be a proper poet when…’ ever since I started writing. And I have submitted and got rejections a few times.
But this time, success! I jumped up and down when I got the acceptance notification. I may have squealed, there was possibly a fist pump and a yell of YES!
The launch of Magma 68 Margins, took place at London Review of Books bookshop and I was asked to read. Reading at the London Review of Books bookshop is probably No 2. on my list of ‘I will be a proper poet when…’ So it’s ridiculous that I’ve waited until now to post about it. Maybe it’s because even when it was happening, none of it felt real? Oh the nerves were real alright. I was terrified. Here I was reading alongside Fleur Adcock and Katy Evans-Bush on hallowed ground. My knees were buckling and although I got positive feedback, I can see the tension in my body in the photos taken of me reading.
I think there are things in life that you build up and build up in your mind, and if/when they ever happen it’s too much to process at the time. It’s not until now, a year and a half later, that when I glance at my bookshelf and see my contributor’s copy of Magma, that it all feels real. Thank you to editors David Floyd and Lucy Howard-Taylor, and to the Magma Board members, particularly Lisa Kelly, for making a dream come true.
I’m just about to have another dream come true – my first joint poetry collection London Undercurrents, with poet Hilaire, is being published by Holland Park Press on Thursday 28th March, detail here.
A book.
That’s, like, No 1. on my list of ‘I will be a proper writer when…’
This time I vow to stay in the moment and to channel nervous energy into excitement instead. I very well may fist pump and yell YES too.
Founded in January 2012 by Jane Ormerod, Thomas Fucaloro, and Brant Lyon, great weather for MEDIA are a New York based writers collective which ‘focuses on the unpredictable, the fearless, the bright, the dark, and the innovative..’
They run regular monthly poetry readings at Parkside Lounge, Manhattan, and publish fiction and poetry, plus an anthology of international writing each year. I had the pleasure of being one of their featured readers at Parkside Lounge a few years ago and since then have submitted poems to their anthology call outs. Second time lucky, my poem Day Four was accepted for publication in their anthology The Other Side of Violet.
Jane Ormerod (pictured below) asked me to be one of their featured readers at the UK launch of the anthology, at the Poetry Cafe Betterton Street in September 2017. I joined a stellar line-up of writers – Martin Ouvry, Roddy Williams, Gayle Richardson, Chris Stuart and Jane Ormerod – the newly refurbished Poetry Cafe proved to be a fantastic venue, and indeed it was great weather for it.
Off the page and onto a cup and plate. It seemed like a good idea at the time – writing poems onto china for a reading at the Ledbury Poetry Festival 2016.Weeks before the festival, off I went to the charity shops of Islington and bought some white plates and cups – 50p each, not bad. Then, help! How do you write on china? Thankfully a graphic designer friend knew what pens to use. So off I went to the art shop and found said pens – available in lots of lovely colours, like sweets. I raced home and laid out the plates, pens and poems onto a table. Then it dawned on me – my handwriting is appalling! Truly bad. Would anyone be able to read my scrawl? In fact – would I even be able to read my scrawl?
Having to slow down, use my best handwriting and really concentrate, meant I got to spend real quality time with every letter, each line, phrase and thought of my poems. Some of the poems were written especially for the occasion – site specific plate and cup poems. Some were existing poems that I was curating into the theme. Each one took on new meaning and showed me things I hadn’t noticed. It was great fun, and illuminating. And also a good lesson in editing – can you commit this word to ink on a china plate? No? Then edit, edit, edit.
Once the plates and
cups were finished, I practised displaying them and picking them up as part of the reading. It made me swear and giggle. And it made me panic. What if using props was a big mistake and I should’ve stuck to good old-fashioned poems on paper instead?
Finally, the day of the reading arrived. Once my nerves had settled, I really enjoyed using the props, and relished the theatricality and symbolism. Each cup haiku and plate poem became a character in its own right, and an accomplice. I was no longer on stage by myself.
Thankfully I didn’t drop any of props, so the front row was spared any cuts or bruises. But I still had a …wait for it…a smashing time.
In November, after dipping our toes into the international poetry water of New York, Jill Abram and I headed off to Chicago for another poetry feature slot, and also for the splendid weirdness of the Thanksgiving parade (watching it, not in it twirling a baton or dressed as a turkey).
Every Wednesday, at The Gallery Cafe in North Oakley, Chicago poet David Gecic hosts ‘a rather free-wheeling show’ where he likes to ‘do things a little different’.
One of these differences involves Dave sitting stage-side throughout, interjecting with questions and engaging with each reader. After being used to a sort of ‘fourth wall’ of quietness created at many poetry events, it was an unusual experience, and gave the evening a feeling of anything-could-happen chat show liveness.
Dave had heard good things about us, but hadn’t seen either myself or Jill read, so he took a bit of a risk inviting us to feature at his night. But then again, we also took a risk in turning up at a night we’d never been to, in a city we didn’t know. Life is full of leaps of faith, and this one paid off for all involved – it was a cracker of an eccentric, raucous, thought-provoking and rewarding night.
Kate Cullan did a comedy turn and Chicago poet Eric Richmond did a semi-feature. In the second half, there was a memorial tribute reading in dead poets corner, which I found poignant and very moving, as the poet in question – Helen Degen Cohen – had only recently died.
My poems were well-received, and the stage backdrop rather helpfully was a painting of a river – I was reading a selection of water-based poems, including a couple from my joint project with Hilaire – London Undercurrents which are set north and south of the river Thames. Dave picked up on the north/south divide and asked about it, which led on to a discussion about accents in the UK and also whether I ‘d noticed a distinct Chicagoan accent (I hadn’t).
Jill Abram was up next and, despite the loudness of pre-thanksgiving holiday makers drinking at the bar, took command of the stage with a set of new poems that show a maturing of style and a clearness of direction. A great end to an extraordinary night.
Another highlight of the Chicago trip, was a whirlwind visit to the Poetry Foundation. We got there a few minutes before it was due to close and only got the briefest glimpse inside , but it was enough to see how impressive this facility is. Definitely one to revisit another time and one to put on your must-do list if you’re visiting Chicago.
All-in-all our USA mini-tour was a great success, and now I’ve got a hankering for more international poetry forays. 2016 – bring it on.
Here’s January’s listings:
Tuesday 5th January – Beyond Words
Feature slot with Hilaire reading a selection from our joint project:
LONDON UNDERCURRENTS
The Gipsy Hill Tavern, 79 Gipsy Hill, SE19 1QH
20 yds right of Gipsy Hill StationDoors open 7.15 for a 7.30 start -Entry £4 / £3 concs.
Wednesday 13th January – Loose Muse
Feature slot with Hilaire reading a selection from our joint project:
LONDON UNDERCURRENTS
Poetry Cafe, 22 Betterton Street London 22 Betterton Street, London WC2H 9BX. 8.00 pm £6.00/£5.00
Tuesday 19th January – Lumen Poetry
Feature slot reading with fellow members of Malika’s Poetry Kitchen
Lumen, 88 Tavistock Place, London WC1H 9RT
Nearest tube stations:Russell Square, Kings Cross St Pancras, Euston.
Entrance £5/£4
(doors open 6.30 for 7pm)
Wine and Soft Drinks Table in aid of homeless
All proceeds go to support the homeless in the Cold Weather Shelters
joolz sparkes 
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