Spoken Word Antics 2008
8 January 2008, with Zoe Lambert
Zoe Lambert's short fiction has been published by Comma Press, in various magazines and The Independent on Sunday. She is currently writing a 'novel-in-stories' and completing her PhD thesis on British women's short fiction. She lectures in creative writing at The University of Bolton. Some of her work can be found on the Comma Press website.
12 February 2008, with James Nash
James Nash has been writer in residence for institutions as diverse as the National Library for the Blind, Wakefield Prison, and Calderdale High Schools. He also hosts literary events and can often be found chairing events at the Ilkley Literature Festival. His collection Coma Songs (2003) asks serious everyday questions, like 'What do men talk about in the gym? Which people should you steer clear of? What songs would you want played to you in a coma? Why is having sex in an allotment not a good idea?'.
11 March 2008, with Matt Clegg and Chris Jones
Ever thought Spoken Word Antics was too wordy? Well this month we're getting short and poignant! Matt Clegg roams Sheffield's outlying areas with a series of tanka, sound effects courtesy of Brian Lewis; and Chris Jones reads haiku from Cells, a collaboration with the painter Paul Evans, as well as a sequence of haiku and tanka to do with the river Don.
8 April 2008 with Linda Lee Welch and Tina McKevitt: seaside doll and easter rising
Linda Lee Welch will be performing Flossie Paper Doll, a new sequence of short poems set in an unnamed seaside town, with musical accompaniment from The Only Michael (eletronics) and Andy Weaver on guitar and melodica. Linda Lee is an American-born writer based in Sheffield, author of The Leader of the Swans and The Artist of Eikando, and appeared on the Antics radio show in November 2007.
Tina McKevitt performs 'The Last Time I Saw Joe', a dramatic monologue set during Ireland's Easter Rising (1916) about passion as a form of resistance even in the face of death. Find out about the Easter Rising on Wikipedia.
13 May 2008 with Rosie Garner and Catherine Clarke
10 June 2008 with 'Careless', by Matt Black and Adam White
Hot on the heels of 'Surf', their twisted seaside tale about Jonny Donut, ice cream seller, Matt Black and Adam White perform 'Careless', a medley of swirling guitar and poems around the theme of love in its early stages.
8 July with Joolz Denby
In July Antics welcomes Joolz Denby, one of Britain's finest female spoken word artists, to Sheffield. Joolz is a a prolific and engaged writer, and brings her work to life with her dramatic and emotive performances. This month she is bringing out a new collection of her poetry on CD, Spirit Stories, with music by Justin Sullivan from New Model Army.
'For the past twenty-five years, Joolz Denby has been a wild card on the literary scene, treading a line from spine-chilling performance-poet to Orange Prize-nominated novelist. She remains an endearingly forthright figure, taking stories from life’s darkest corners and lacing them with humour and the hint of better times to come. As such, her performances are never less than mesmerising.' (Apples & Snakes, 2008).
