Renga Poetry Workshop at Granby Park

For my final involvement with UpStart's Granby Park project I'll be running this collaborative writing workshop under the auspices of Trade School Dublin. Trade School is a non-traditional learning community that runs on barter, and which currently operates in 48 locations (cities) around the world.

Renga is a form of collaborative poetry that originated in Japan in the 11th century, in which a three line verse is followed by a two line verse then a three line verse and so on. Participants will be introduced to the basic elements of the practice, and will work together to produce a chain of linked verses.

To ensure a place at the workshop, scheduled for Sunday 15 September at 12.30pm, you can sign up at Trade School Dublin. Don't forget to bring along your barter items!

Vice Versa at Granby Park

Granby Park is now up and running. I went along to the official launch on Thursday and found the vibe quite amazing. The space looks and feels incredible - beautiful, welcoming and edgy at the same time - while the surrounding area has been infused with new vitality & an air of possibility. I'm really happy and proud to be one of the many people helping bring it to life.

For my second contribution to the project I'm putting together a spoken word event called 'Vice Versa' in which poets will perform "covers" of each other's work in pairs.

Intended both as an experiment in re-interpretation and a celebration of the diverse strands of the poetry and spoken word scene in Dublin (and beyond) the event also chimes with the project's overall spirit of community/collaboration/exchange.

With:
Kevin Higgins & Dimitra Xidous
Kit Fryatt & Cah-44
Eileen Casey & Anne Fitzgerald
Eleanor Hooker & Christodoulos Makris
Máighréad Medbh & Patrick Chapman
Enda Coyle-Greene & Susan Connolly
Raven & Temper-Mental MissElayneous
Alan Jude Moore & Anamaría Crowe Serrano

The date is this coming Sunday 1 September. We start at 3pm. Weather permitting our venue will be the park's wonderful makeshift amphitheatre. This promises to be a fascinating event: come along if you can! Like everything at Granby Park, admission is free and everyone is welcome.

Granby Park: a communal poem

Upstart, the arts collective that brought art and poetry to the streets of Dublin during the 2011 general election campaign, is for its second project transforming a vacant site in inner city Dublin into a pop up park and place of creativity for a period of one month, starting this coming Thursday 22 August.

I'm delighted to be involved in several ways with this brilliant initiative.

First up I'm directing an interactive poetry installation, scheduled to run throughout the project's duration, through which visitors to Granby Park will create a communal poem to mark the site. The poem will be composed using the 'exquisite corpse' technique: each contributor will add to the text while being aware of the last contributed element only.

So, visit Granby Park from 22 August for an array of free arts events, outdoor performances, cinema, live music, educational activities and a pop up café - and help write the 'Granby Park' poem by responding to the last line with three or four of your own.

It's a Wrap: UpStart poster giveaway party

To mark the close of the poster project and to raise funds for future projects, UpStart - the group that put art and poetry on the streets of Dublin during the Irish General Election campaign of February 2011 - is throwing a poster giveaway party on Friday 14 October at Block T, Smithfield, Dublin 7.

It'll feature bands, DJs, performances, speakers, screenings and a poster exhibition. And everyone attending will receive a wrapped poster - their own piece of UpStart history to keep.

Somewhere among it all I'll be reading from new work.

The entrance fee is 7 Euro (though it's free for contributors to the original project) and like all UpStart events it's BYOB. 7pm till midnight.

The UpStart Slam: Poetry vs Wrestling

This Saturday 10 September I'll be taking part in UpStart's second 'Slam' night, which inevitably pits poetry against American Superstar Wrestling. Like UpStart's hugely successful first 'Slam' of last February, it will happen at The Complex in Smithfield Square, Dublin 7, and it's a BYOB event. Food will be on sale. It starts at 8pm and it's €10 in (tickets at the door).

Poem of the Day on UpStart blog

My poem 'Ginsberg in Fingal' was Friday's Poem of the Day on the UpStart blog. As noted there, it's taken from my chapbook Round the Clock, and was composed out of lines from Ginsberg's poem 'America', written in January 1956.

It places the figure of Allen Ginsberg at a specific location (Fingal, a relatively wealthy county in Ireland and home of Dublin airport) and a particular time (late 2000s), and gives this figure a voice. As such it's a straightforward dramatic monologue, or 'persona poem'. But this persona's voice wasn't an invention: at the time of composition correspondences between impressions of contemporary Ireland and 1950s America seen through Ginsberg's poem were too intriguing to ignore.

Upstarts out and about

The UpStart posters are up around Dublin city. Among the earnest political promises that hold little currency we find the unexpected: a fantasy scene, a political cartoon, a startling line, a combative message... The impact is not enormous - these posters are dotted here and there, sometimes overwhelmed by the bankrolled electioneering slogans and those familiar rigid faces - but for those with even moderately roving eyes they provide relief and make a bright splash in their day.

Great credit is due to Aaron Copeland, mastermind of the initiative, and to everybody working for months now to bring it to fruition; kudos too to all the artists, writers, filmmakers and musicians who have donated their - mostly uncredited - work to the project.

All the work for UpStart, including the images/text on the posters, is now being added to the project's website, where there's also a lively blog. I haven't yet managed to locate the poster with my contribution - eventually I hope to add to this post an image of it in situ.


*Update, later on 20/2/2011: Here it is, courtesy of Unkie Dave's photostream on Flickr.

UpStart: The Video (with Stephen Rea)

UpStart

UpStart is a non-profit arts collective which aims to put creativity at the centre of public consciousness during the Irish General Election Campaign in 2011. It plans to do this by reinterpreting the spaces commonly used for displaying election campaign posters in Dublin City and is calling on all artists to submit work for this exhibition.

The objectives of UpStart are to encourage a debate on the role of the arts in the state. The hope is to highlight the importance of creativity and ingenuity when society is in need of direction and solutions, and to emphasize the value of the arts to public life. UpStart believe that the future development of the country requires a healthy cultivation of the Arts.

UpStart are asking for submissions to this project from the full range of artistic disciplines. The aim is to receive 500 submissions from writers and visual artists, photographers, painters and graphic designers. These works will be duplicated and 1000 pieces will be printed as election size posters and be erected throughout Dublin city. Works from musicians and film makers are also accepted: these will be hosted and exhibited through the website, which will be launched on the day of the electoral poster campaign.

UpStart is now open for submissions, which will be accepted until the 15th of January. Submission details (please read these carefully) are available on the website, where you will also find information on how you can donate or otherwise help out with the project. There is also an UpStart Facebook page.

UpStart comprises artists and writers from Ireland and abroad and is non-aligned to any political party. It respects and follows Dublin City Council litter regulations and operates within the requirements of Irish law.