DIO: Do It Ourselves

DIO: Do It Ourselves

Last week I went to Bradford to the 1 in 12 by an event organised by Bradford Uni entitled ‘Do(ing) It Again’ and was very honoured to do a short talk about protest poetry and the community that exists across the UK.  My point was, if theatres and Arts centres feel the squeeze, will the small-scale DIY element of spoken word and pub-theatre flourish, or at least see positive affects from people seeking alternative forms of art?  Bradford seems to do very well from a ‘lack’ as was discussed at the event.  Got me thinking about York, how in some ways we are ‘DIY by Default, not Design’, fuelled by a lack of venues and a loose community rather than a political drive to create new spaces.

So, what am I up to these days?  Doing quite a lot with young children actually, have written a handful of poems which have gone down really well for under 10s.  You’ll see Letter To The Man (from the boy) my solo show, at the Berry Theatre, The International Youth Arts Festival both in July and The HUB in Leeds in September, but still looking for bookings anywhere in the country for any venue!

I’ll be at Edinburgh Fringe, helping out with Six Lips Theatre’s show Faustus, 11-25^th so if you have any open mics, showcases, slams etc please let me know, always looking for an opportunity to perform at EdFringe!

Finally, next week is WORDS & WHIPPETS!  I had a conversation with York Theatre Royal about this in August, and the date was set in October, so it’s been MONTHS AND MONTHS in the planning. I’ve selected 5 amazing slam/performance poets, and you’ll see acts that don’t always come to York, so please come along and together we can make connections, make a community and build a little scene here in York!

Details of W&W here:  http://www.yorktheatreroyal.co.uk/shows/words_and_whippets.php

25^th May, 7.45pm, YTR Studio, £5 (+£1 booking fee)

One Lovin'

It’s been really busy here at Raby Towers, me and the minty-fresh Jonny Gill and the slinky-stealthy Ben Winterton have been making a BRAND NEW SHOW. It’s a fusion of theatre, poetry, music and comedy all about the perils, pitfalls and portrayals of LOVE. It’s called ONE LOVE. It will make you laugh a lot. It might make you a little sad. Stay tuned.

 

My solo show, Letter To The Man (from the boy) has also been confirmed for the International Youth Arts Festival in Kingston! It’ll be exciting taking the show somewhere entirely new, more details to follow!

I wanted to take this opportunity to reflect on three moments somebody said something, almost off hand, but it’s really stuck with me in my practise and art. Let’s review:

‘If you ask an audience member to help look for your dog, they go, “yeah, alright”’- Alan Lane, Slung Low.

Alan came and spoke in my 3rd year at the Workshop Theatre (BA English Literature & Theatre Studies, 2:1), and he also spoke at a NSDF training weekend I went to.  I really admire Slung Low, they make immersive but political work, and I’m looking forward to their collaboration with Pilot on Blood & Chocolate. But what Alan said is if you give someone a frame or a task, they’ll go along with it. They’ll play along. Audiences aren’t stupid, but they have been made passive and need direction and that’s why in LTTM we tried to really outline XYZ with neat instructions. Theatre is a game, and all the best games have a rule system. It’s about knowing the rules in the performance means the audience can relax and go along with the fun!  Below image from Slung Low's show Beyond The Frontline

 

‘The best writing workshops I’ve been in are ones where I’ve not realised I’ve written something good until it’s finished’- Tom Bellerby

Tom is an old friend and directed LTTM. He’s a director, not a writer by career, but anyone can write and anyone can write good stuff too. Whenever I plan a workshop, I try and use lots of games, techniques and playful formats to almost ‘trick’ people into writing good work. If they are really perturbed by writing, all they have to do is follow the instructions and it falls into place. It takes away the pressure, rather than saying “so now write a poem”.

 

‘The bigger the stage, the more work the eyes do’- Robin Lietch, Random Hand

I’m really paraphrasing, because this is something Robin from Random Hand said years ago before I really knew him as a friend. He was describing their first show at Leeds Festival, and the enormity of the stage. Robin has an amazing stage presence, he can dash around like a ska spider, but then he fixes the crowd with a GLARE. I think I’ve tried to explore my own style of performing, and with help from Tom, to have that fixed spot at the climax or important moment in a poem, to find that pinnacle where, after movement and energy, it gets brought down to the face and the eyes. It’s the difference between a reading and a performance.

 

That’s all for now!

Tiny Touring

It’s been a while since I blogged, but there’s plenty been going on!

I’ve been on something of a mini-tour, with SLAMalgamate in Newcastle, Outspoken Slam at Manchester’s Contact and Forget What You heard About Spoken Word in London.  I’ve also done a handful of York dates, an event for One Billion Rising and a local acoustic gig alongside Robin from Random Hand at the Black Swan.

Though I didn’t win either slams, it just goes to show the wealth of talent in the spoken word network, with artists in both Newcastle and Manchester proving their skills at dynamic performance.  Hat’s off to Zach Roddis with his fantastic celebration of LGBT rights activists.  I also got to see Dominic Berry and Dean Atta, two great professional poets.

Every so often, I am reminded I must raise my game.  This night at London proved just that, a wealth of talents at the open mic hosted by Steph Dogfoot and Matt Cummins.

 

But the event in York organised by VENT rally excited me.  In the small basement of Sontanos, I saw something I’ve been searching for a long time in York, energetic performance poetry delivered to an audience eager for energetic performance poetry.  It really makes me think we can build a strong scene of performance poetry in York.  My DIY sense is tingling.

So, coming up I’m just doing more writing, more little gigs and planning for the summer.  I’m looking for any chance to perform, so let me know if there are any slots of festival opportunities coming up.  We filmed the set at the Black Swan, with special collaboration with Travels By Telephone, so watch out for that soon!

Finally, here’s a poem I’ve submitted to Fit To Work:  Poets Against ATOS

I see my Grandson look drained and hard
Dragging weighted school books like worlds.
I ask him about lessons, he wearily replies
“We have been learning about modern history.”
I see shame in my Grandson's eyes
Despite him being registered blind
And I wish I had seen back then
Weary anger rising.

IF YOU TOLERATE THIS…

This poem was written for a VENT event in York raising awareness of women’s rights and rape across the world.  I wrote it when I was angry, and inspired by female activists over the past 100 years.

 

IF YOU TOLERATE THIS…

In York, 100 years ago in 1913

The suffragettes committed what some might call terrorism

They used explosive chemicals to blow up post boxes

In envelopes labelled to the PM, Lord Asquith

Based in their HQ, now Blue Fly bar

They made women’s right their hometurf war

They were radicals, the militant faction

Not making petitions but taking direct action

Here’s another blast from the past

When Dr King said:  “One day, free at last”

Some Black Americans screamed back loud

“Fuck one day, freedom NOW”

Rosa Parks, who would be 100 this year

Sat on a bus and refused to stir

Not because she just felt like it out of the blue

But because we was part of an existing activist doing what they had to do

Female Anarchist Assata Shakur said:  “Nobody in history has ever gotten their freedom by appealing to the moral sense of the people who oppress them”

Here’s the Emma Goldman, who tied dancing to revolution

No Gods, No Masters, No Borders, No Nations

Here’s to Florence Reece, who in 1931

Penned the great picketline song ‘Which Side Are You On?’

There’s the bosses in their towers, we’re picking at the crumbs

When they chip away our rights, join or build a Union

Here’s to Pussy Riot, could it ever happen here?

Where music and activism get you locked up for 6 years

Here’s to Kate Tempest, Poly Styrene and Eve Libertine

Here’s to Patti Smith, Bikini Kill and Huggy Bear

In 2010 in York streets we cried with schoolchildren “march strike occupy”

Now those kids are off to Uni, or not, so is activism about compromise?

I’ve stood before riot police but their visors masked their eyes

I get annoyed with partisan politics and Trade Union hierarchies

And the reason I’m so angry is I probably listen to too much punk music

All my Facebook friends and twitter follows are socialists and anarchists

Is this hot air and youthful romanticising

Have I watched too many Ken Loach films or read too many Guardian articles?

Check my privilege, white, male, heterosexual and cisgender

The only thing I cling to is at least I’m still bloody northern

And even then, it’s York!

Let’s cut beyond the rhetoric and revolutionary talk

The cuts they made to the arts are tokenistic and sadistic

Education is a right not a fucking privilege

ATOS declares disabled people fit for work

As a result, 73 people die every single week

The NHS is getting privatised, where’s parliament democracy?

Maybe we forgot about it when we waved our flags for the monarchy

They get tax breaks on second homes

Whilst the bedroom tax traps people with nowhere else to go

This isn’t just Tory-bashing, they may vote against equal marriage, refuse the existence of poverty

But under a Labour council, we still have food banks and a reliance on charity in the city

What’s on the rise in the UK:  here’s a quick list of troubles

Deportations, evicts, house repossessions, homelessness, the far right and the suicide levels

So why do Tory and Labour cuts only affect young people, disabled people, ethnic minorities and, well, essentially the poor?

So, is it time to believe they’re waging a class war?

If you don’t agree with this, fine, I’m venting, getting stuff off my chest

But I promise you one thing, never mind your privilege

If you tolerate this, then you’ll be next

FOLKÉMON COMPILATION.

FOLKÉMON

With the latest announcement of Generation X & Y earlier this week, now seems a good a time as any to launch this exciting new project.

Over the course of the next few months I am inviting artists to submit songs and poems based on a very specific theme.  This theme is, of course, the greatest creation of the 20^th century…POKÉMON.

 

This is a call out to musicians and poets across the world.  If you want to write, or indeed already have, a song or poem about the massive life-affirming franchise, please get in touch.

They can be autobiographical, about your experiences in the real world with Pokémon, or fictional based solely in the Pokémon world of the games, cartoon, cards or comics.  About any generation, from any perspective, about specific Pokémon, an event, a place or even an ode to hyper beam.  Or just about being the very best.

 

The intention is probably to create a free bandcamp album of songs and recorded poetry that anyone in the world can download, share and enjoy.

The FOLKÉMON COMPILATION.

E-mail me at henrythepoet@btinternet.com for more information or to sign up to be a part of project.

Once A Year

Once A Year – Henry Raby

Only the elderly moaned to themselves, as the elderly are wont to do

About the fact donkeys, now rare, were chained and locked away in zoos

And beaches were populated by reindeer, much more sturdy and trustworthy

Who gave rides to small children wearing goggles for health and safety purposes.

When the sun was shining, middle-class Dads would invite round neighbours

And proudly BBQ turkeys on their fancy 4 grill-setting charcoal-packed fires.

Snotty teens played music loudly on buses, but were never asked to listen quietly

For they played (through tinny phone speakers) Wizzard, Slade and Maria Carey.

When men were made redundant and unable to put crackers on the table

They’d take their frustration out on their wives without anyone to save them.

And those without trees, whether real or plastic, in their houses

Were inevitably hounded down by cold cults and hung noiselessly

And the wanted man known only to the public as ‘The Christmas Strangler’

Never had it so good.

This week in The Spoken Word Scene

This past week I have had the pleasure, nay, the privilege to catch five of the finest spoken word artists in the UK.

Scroobius Pip is zig-zagging across the country as we speak.  He brought to York the wordsmith PolarBear and speaking siren Kate Tempest.  I’ve seen PolarBear a few times, but he performed a collection of new work which genuinely overshadowed his older material.  His older stuff is generally story-based, but his new stuff had this charm of being about stories.  I’ve seen Kate doing a scratch of Brand New Ancients, so it was a treat to see her poems and Sound of Rum raps in a gig context.  Then of course, the man himself, Mr Pip, doing his gloomy-yet-honed spoken word.  Then last night I was invited to compere Sticks & Stones.  The weather dented the crowd somewhat but everyone there was up for a good night.  Sally Jenkinson, a poet I’ve not heard before, have a lovely intimate style.  But, for me personally, all four of these names are eclipsed by Inua Ellams.  Not necessarily because of any specific poem or writing style or deliver, but Inua has trailblazed this fusion of spoken word, poetry and theatre with his shows The 14^th Tale, Untitled and Knightwatch.  I haven’t been able to see any of them sadly, but his craftsmanship is undeniable in whatever genre he works within.

So 2013 is coming close.  I fully intend to Raise My Game.  To take on all quarters.  To get more gigs, do more events and perform at more festivals.  So…book me please?