Free Performance Poetry Workshops in Keynsham

RELAYS and Bath Spa University are running two free performance poetry workshops in Keynsham, open to everyone. Come and find out how to make your poetry leap up and surprise people!

Lucy English, performance poet and senior lecturer at Bath Spa University, will help you with your confidence and delivery.

Those who attend one of the workshops will be invited to present their poems to a captive audience at the Keynsham Music festival on 4th July!

Dates and Times:
Monday 28th June, 6.30pm – 8.30pm or
Wednesday 30th June, 11am – 1pm

Venue:
The Key Centre, Victoria Methodist Church, Charlton Road, Keynsham

To sign up for a workshop and for further info please call Arilda on 07817 527102.

This project is run in partnership with Keynsham Music Festival.

RELAYS support for student-led projects

Third year students on some courses at Bath Spa University have the option of taking a Creative Enterprise Project module. Students devise and manage their own projects and many include public events. This year RELAYS is supporting some projects which involve significant community engagement and create a positive legacy.

• Livia Stoica is organising a project in collaboration with Bath Fringe Festival to promote cultural diversity and raise awareness of Romanian culture. She has organised a Romanian party for the launch of the Bath Fringe Festival featuring traditional Romanian cuisine and live music from Balkan band Paprika Reloaded. This event takes place in the Fringe Spiegeltent on the Rec ground in Bath on 28 May. The party is followed by a visual exhibition about the fragmentation of Romanian identity in Green Park Station Foyer in Bath from 29 May - 1 June.

• Joel Breen is organising an 'Evolution of Dub' club night on 11 June at the Weir Lounge club in Bath. Joel is interested in the values behind early Reggae music (i.e. self-expression, peace, freedom, togetherness and community) and exploring how these characteristics are still prevalent in these new genres of music.

• Creative Writing student, Bernadette Howley, organised a series of poetry workshops in two local schools in February, followed by a showcase of the young people's work and a celebration of poetry at a community festival on 1 - 3 May in Larkhall, Bath. The project aimed to encourage people from all walks of life to engage with and enjoy poetry.
  

Quick update on various RELAYS projects

I've been really busy lately with project planning so I haven't got round to posting anything for a while. Here's a quick update on a few of the projects I'm working on:

Illuminate Bath:
The festival of Illumination is now called Illuminate Bath. The dates will be 1 - 13 November 2010. The programme is starting to take shape and will include a mixture of installations/ artworks, performance, creative workshops, artist’s talks and debates across various locations in Bath city centre. The finale will be a spectacular light and sound performance taking place in Southgate Square hopefully.

Postgraduate students from Bath Spa's school of Art and Design have done a fantastic job developing the Illuminate Bath branding and we should have a festival website to launch in the coming weeks. Also next week our new Festival Coordinator, a 2nd yr student, starts work in the office with me on a summer work placement.

Performance Poetry at Keynsham Music Festival:
I'm organising two Performance Poetry workshops in June in Keynsham for students and community members who would like to perform their own poetry at the Keynsham Music festival on 4 July 2010. The workshops will be led by Lucy English, a lecturer at Bath Spa University and one of the country's top performance poets.

RELAYS Biennale:
Continuing with the performance poetry theme we're planning to support a group of Bath Spa Uni creative writing students to go to the Eden Project in Cornwall on 25-26 September where they'll be performing their own poetry as part of the RELAYS Biennale. This will be the first of two events showcasing highlights from RELAYS, Eden’s community programme and other events designed for the Cultural Olympiad. The second biennale will take place in 2012.