Today is Sunday, today is like creamy mud

 

Satisfyingly exhausting.

This morning I awoke before my alarm, which is always an achievement. It’s hard to sleep with so much to take in. My bedtime has averaged at 5 and I am looking forward to one more night before returning to curtains and walls. I have discovered that Berrocca is in fact the best thing straight away even if you don’t want to drink it, and that a shower doesn’t have to be long just cool enough to take the heat of the hangover away.

As I listen to Scott Tyrell, the tent slowly fills. He reviews Bethlehem Inn which I’m guessing from his review is like sleeping over at Glastonbury (Yes, in my mind we are all at one big giant sleepover!) He cautions our anger and tries to persuade Dave (id Cameron), that we, like humans, do care about stuff! From what I garner, Scotts festival tips are:

– Embrace the mud – Jesus was born in it

– Say no to anger – its victim may want to save you

– Buy a spare t-shirt with poets as owls on it – Save the owls, take them home, care about them.

Later today, we welcome the fantastically great, Michael Rosen at 14.00. This is a real treat and a perfect Sunday afternoon must see.

We also have the SLAM at 17.00, last years slam winner, Torrey Shineman, will be taking to the stage at 15.45 for a full set, This full set can be won today at the slam.

But before then, we have some more feature sets including: Rob Auton – Glastonbury Poet in Residence (14.50), Raymond Antrobus (15.20), and Helen Gregory (16.45).

So come see there’s loads to see, it’s chilled there is a mat to lay on and we are a deaf friendly tent!

Ill be staring at you all from stage at 16.15!.Deanna.xx.

 

 

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“I like writing because writing is like talking” part 2

 

Jonny Fluffypunk

With his frank introduction, “stand up poet, give up guitarist” I decided that whatever this man says, I am going to trust… heres a spell I think we should all memorise and deconstruct at Stone Circle at sun rise

 

Coffee let me smell you

Coffee let me spell you

 

Come alive with your hot kiss

Oh so much better than tea

F(th)ree cups before night

Fuck tea

Energy giver

Essence of space travel condensed into beverage form

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Molly Case

She stood naked in front of the Queen before she really met her, well that is certainly one way to get over nerves!

Here are some tips I garnered from her poetry set

 

Look up once in a while, take a look at the stars

Sit still ‘silent as an oak’

Nurse the nation, do more, be more it will be the hardest thing you would have done, financially, spiritually and physically but remember all the other arches you’ve walked under. Remember the  thunder that broke

 

 

Stephen James Smith

As it was his first time here at Glastonbury, he decided to break his Glasto virginity with a  poem about losing his actual real V with Anya; the celtic goddess of love.

One of my favourites to listen to and watch. His eyes closed during his poem to his mother was what poetry is at its most precious form, words that release the valve of all the things we need to say.

What is left to say is that he also hosted a great open mic to a packed tent, while the sun was shining! Here are a few bits I heard and wrote down:

 

Louise Loudspeaker

Dove of peace

Higher laws of justice

Man kind should live kind

To buy ourselves back from the open prison of the nation state it doesn’t come cheap

 

The Don

Things we can get funding for

Want a revolution but can’t get the funding

But don’t fit the criteria

Find your natural way

 

Eric Dickson

On the other side of the door

Watch grass grow

Don’t say goodbye to your senses

Green fields to brown

Grey skies to sunsets

Strangers are no stranger than yourself

Naked ground is steady it will hold us

Roll in the mud and wash yourself clean

Love life, live it together

 

Jack Bridgwater

Diary of a Glastonbury tower watcher

6.41

Heard a rustle thought is was  a … Oh it’s a squirrel

Repeat every hour

 

Lord Trotsky

Traits of the Festival bastard: Certain people you will meet at festivals that you may not want to meet

1. Bash you out the way with their Novelty hat

2. Shout through all the things you want to listen to

3. Pass wind next to you at breakfast

4. Passed out asleep with trousers down

5. Play drums at three in the morning

6. Chill out it’s a festival I’m only pissing on your tent

 

Slam on Sunday.

Sign up and be in so a chance of securing your very own slot at Glastonbury 2015

The full line up

 

Deanna.xx.

We are almost very nearly there!

 

The tent and sign getting set up…*

 

 

 

     EQUALS 

 

 

 

Jack’s excitement – (Jack is a part of stage crew brilliance)

 

Once in Bella’s field, say hello Winston Plowes, who is doing a cycle-about for Theatre and Circus, 11.30 – 12.30 everyday

Spoke-n-Word

(The world’s first random poetry generating bicycle)

Step right up and Spin the wheels! Create the inspiration for your very own be-spoke poetic creation and amaze yourself with hitherto unknown poetic powers with the aid of this new and remarkable invention of Mr Winston H. Plowes B.Eng. Msc. CTC.

4 wheels for the body, 2 wheels for the soul

* The weather has changed colour in the sun and become fire ash grey, I say, ” Gaffa tape your tents move everything to the middle and don’t forget your raincoat”

Tonight Dreadlockalien, Helen Gregory (the woman behind the tent) and myself will be pushing our voices into Worthy FM – Tune in!

Theres loads to get stuck into today and tonight at Glastonbury, here are my personal recommendations:

15.30 – The Guardian presents 20 feet from Stardom – Williams Green

16.00 – Jazz Disater – Avalon

20.00 – Andy Riley – Genosys, Block 9

21.00 – Kate Tempest – The Rum Shack

And tomorrow, WE OPEN!!!!!! 11.45 – Benita Johnson opens the stage, join me and her and each other.

Deanna.xx.

So close I can smell the leaves – Headlines and Hosts

You, my friends who I haven’t yet met, you are in for a super lovely treat as your hosts for this years Poetry&Words tent are Dreadlockalien & Paula Varjack. I have met these two awesome people many times before and each time I think of them a smile comes to my face, they are warm and generous people and will make you feel like there is no more perfect place to be, come along, wave at them, cheer, applaude and maybe even give some flowers/notebooks/pencils (gifts of a positively useful manner will be appreciated I am certain!)

These two super humans will be introducing our brilliant, brilliant headliners…Deanna.xx.

Michael Rosen

Photo courtesy of Goldsmiths, University of London

Sunday 14.00

Michael Rosen is one of Britain’s best known writers and performers for children. The book that he and Helen Oxenbury made –  ‘We’re Going on a Bear Hunt’ – has sold over 8 million copies and if coaxed, he will perform it,  with arm movements as an optional extra. He is a former children’s laureate, a university professor (Goldsmiths, University of London) and a regular visitor to schools, libraries, theatres and colleges where he does various versions of his spoken word show. His latest books are ‘Alphabetical, how every letter tells a story’ (publ. John Murray) (for adults) and for children:  ‘Send for a Superhero’, ‘Aesop’s Fables’, ‘Choosing Crumble’ and ‘Fluff the Farting Fish’.

 

John Hegley

Saturday 18.05

Mr Hegley was born in Newington Green, North London, and was educated in Luton, Bristol and Bradford University.  His first public performance monies came from busking his songs, initially outside a shoeshop in Hull, in the late Seventies. He performed on the streets of London in the early Eighties, fronting the Popticians, with whom he also recorded two sessions for John Peel, and has since been a frequent performer of his words, sung and spoken, on both local and national radio.

He has produced ten books of verse and prose pieces, two CDs and one mug, but his largest source of income is from stages on his native island. An Edinburgh Festival regular, he is noted for his exploration of such diverse topics as dog hair, potatoes, handkerchiefs and the misery of human existence.  He is an occasional DJ, dancer and workshop leader, using drawing, poetry and gesture. He has been awarded an honorary Doctorate of Arts from what is now the University of Bedfordshire, and once performed in a women’s prison in Columbia.

The Fugitives

Friday 18.00

The Fugitives are an indie folk-poetry collective based out of Vancouver, Canada. They have released three full-length LPs and toured multiple times through Canada, Europe, and the UK. They have been nominated for a Canadian Folk Music Award for Pushing the Boundaries, and have toured as a supporting act for folk legends Dan Bern and Buffy Sainte-Marie. They are signed to Light Organ Records.

www.fugitives.ca

“Whether you go for the poetry, the music, or both, this show is simply brilliant” – CBC  “The missing link between Leonard Cohen and the Pogues” – Georgia Straight

www.brendanmcleod.ca / www.fugitives.ca

Pre-order the new Fugitives album Everything Will Happen now from Light Organ Records

 

 More about the hosts

Paula Varjack (U.K./U.S) is a writer and performance maker. She has been making and touring her work since 2008. She is particularly drawn to true stories, and is often intrigued by the unspoken subtext that lingers underneath what we say. Her work has taken shape in a variety of forms; spoken word, devised performance, documentaries, audio pieces, stories and poems. She was one of  nine artists in residence for the E.U. funded Poetry Slam Days project, creating a multilingual show: Smoke and Mirrors, that toured to twenty European cities. In 2009 she represented the U.K. in the Berlin International Literature Festival. She is also the creator and co-producer of the Anti-Slam, a satirical take on poetry slams where the worst poet wins. This event, a comedy-poetry hybrid, launched in Berlin and has since happened in Warsaw, Cologne, London, Turin, Sydney, Sheffield, Oxford and Newcastle, with a national event in London planned late this summer.

She was one of the thirty-six storytellers in the critically acclaimed London Stories Festival, at the Battersea Arts Centre last autumn. Her first solo show, Kiss and Tell, premiered at the Berlin 100 Degrees Theatre festival. Her second solo show The antiSocial Network, made in collaboration with director/dramaturge/designer Lesley Ewen, was performed at the Notes From The Upstream Festival, The PBH Free Fringe Festival, and The Vault Festival. Her third solo show: How I became myself (by becoming someone else) premiered at Chelsea Theatre, as part of Fresh Blood, a programme of emerging artists,  last February. This is her third time at Glastonbury ,and her second time as a compere in the poetry tent.  Get varjacked at www.paulavarjack.com

Birmingham Poet Laureate 2005, Dreadlockalien wanders the world saying poems to people, living a project called Poet Without Residence.  He co-hosts Glastonbury’s Poetry&Words stage and Shambala’s Wandering Word. Dreadlockalien is a trustee of the Green Gathering Charity, fighting for our planet.

The Super 7*

We are in our penultimate countdown, I have a suitcase/travel bag next to me saying, “come on Deanna, can we go now?” I say, “no we can’t suitcase but we can read about The Super 7* and get really excited”.

 

Andy Craven-Griffiths

Friday 12.50 & Saturday 14.15

Andy Craven-Griffiths is a writer, rapper, musician and educator from Leicester who now calls Leeds home. He has performed poetry across the UK including at festivals such as Latitude and Glastonbury, where he won the Slam in 2005, his first ever festival. He has performed on Radio 1, Radio 4, and BBC 2, and had work commissioned by the Arts Council and Rethink mental health charity. He has worked and performed abroad for The British Council, run poetry workshops for over 15,000 young people, and has a chapter in the forthcoming book Making Poetry Happen.

Andy chooses nurture over nature, bonobos over chimpanzees, left over right and sticky toffee pudding over lemon drizzle cake. He aims at hedonism over narcissism, honesty over convenience, and kindness over pretty much everything. Sometimes he fails. Reads hungrily, travels at every opportunity, stage-dives occasionally and very rarely feels like he is productive enough. If you like stuff about altruism, finding beauty and poignancy in the banal, Alzheimer’s, feelings bigger than our bodies, and streams of consciousness at public urinals, you might like watching him.

With his band, Middleman, he has toured Britain, Germany, Holland, Belgium, Ireland and America, including Festivals such as Leeds, Reading, Fusion (Berlin) and SXSW in Austin, Texas. Plus live sessions on Radio 1, 6 Music and XFM. More than half of the music from the band’s 2 albums has been synchronised to TV, Advertising and computer games (Channel 5, Channel 4, E4, NBA2K11).

@andy_c_g

youtube.com/AndyPoetry

Aisling Farhey

Friday 14.30 & Saturday 17.15

Aisling Fahey has been writing and performing her poetry since the age of 13. She has performed in various locations across England and America, including the Barbican, the Southbank Centre and the Houses of Parliament. She won the London Teenage Senior Slam in 2009 and SLAMbassadors UK, run in association with the Poetry Society, in 2010. She is a member of the Burn After Reading collective who hold monthly poetry nights at The Gallery Café in Bethnal Green. Earlier this year, she was short listed to become the first Young Poet Laureate of London. You can follow her on Twitter @_AislingF and see some of her work on her blog: getyourheadtogether.wordpress.com

Jonny Fluffypunk

Friday 14.55 & Saturday 17.40

An economic refugee from the Home Counties, stand-up poet, sit-up storyteller and give-up musician Jonny Fluffypunk has been dragging his art around the poetry, comedy and alternative cabaret circuits for over 10 years. A multiple slam champion who hates competition in the arts and an outspoken voice for anarchy, peace and bicycles, Jonny ‘does’ poetry that deafly fuses bittersweet autobiography, political disillusionment and surreal whimsy in an act which has established him as a firm favourite at festivals, arts centres and housing benefit offices up and down the country. His slim volume The Sustainable Nihilists’ Handbook is published by Burning Eye Books and he has recently premiered his solo show, Man Up, Jonny Fluffypunk- One Man’s Struggle with Late-Onset Responsibility, which he intends to tour around the garden sheds, allotments and summer houses of Britain in a blatant championing of homespun DIY culture.

As well as performing, Jonny runs poetry and performance workshops, putting shapes and colours into the minds of the young. He is co-host of the West Country’s pop-up poetry gig, Hip Yak Poetry Shack, and host of Stroud’s Mr Fluffypunk’s Penny Gaff, bringing obscure art to the masses.

‘Acute social observation, intricate humour, surreal fantasy, sharp irony and wit… and England’s most pretentious moustache’- The Independent

‘This man truly relishes language. Go see him!’- Tony Allen (‘the godfather of alternative comedy’)

http://www.jonnyfluffypunk.co.uk/www.jonnyfluffypunk.co.uk

Porky The Poet

Saturday 15.40

Porky The Poet emerged as part of the ranting poetry scene in 1983. Inspired by performers like John Cooper-Clarke and Linton Kwesi Johnson, he followed their example and started gigging with bands. It was here he met Billy Bragg, who took him on tour as a support act in 1985. This led to a fruitful period opening for The Housemartins, The Style Council, The Pogues, Gil Scott-Heron and many others. On the poetry scene, Porky became a London circuit regular for Apples & Snakes and Cast New Variety. Around about this time Porky lost all his poems in Newcastle, decided to quit, changed his name back to Phill Jupitus and did other stuff. In 2007, Phill was cajoled by fellow ranting luminary Tim Wells to start writing again and return to the performance poetry scene. In 2012 at The Edinburgh Fringe he did his first full-length show Twenty Seven Years On, followed that up in 2013 with Zeitgeist Limbo and this year debuts the all-new Juplicity as part of the PBH Free Fringe.

“Surprisingly beautiful…” N.M.E.

“Punchy, chippy, funny…” The Guardian

“Hugely entertaining…” The Scotsman

Helen Gregory

Sunday 16.45

Helen is a poet and academic, which means that she not only lives in an ivory tower, but can describe it using vivid imagery and interesting metaphors.  She works on both stage and page, and has performed her poetry at festivals, theatres, pubs and pavements around England, North America and Japan.  She has released one chapbook and two CDs of poetry.  She is also one half of the poetry-music duo, Yaffle, (with Benita Johnson), with whom she has released a CD, Howling at the Moon.  Oh, and she’s the stage manager for Poetry&Words…

Ffi: http://www.hgregory.co.uk

Abe Nouk

Friday 17.05 & Saturday 16.50

Abraham ‘Abe’ Nouk, the founder and director at Creative Rebellion Youth, is a spoken-word poet, hip hop fanatic, MC and an author whose craft developed from the realization of the freedom of speech. Motivated by words and their empowerment, Sudanese-born now an Australian citizen, ten years ago Abe was illiterate when he and his family arrived in Australia under the high commission refugee status.

Since realizing his illiteracy, he began reading and writing to improve his lyrical content for hip hop music when it became apparent to him – ‘the best thing you can do for yourself is to feed your mind.’  Abe went on to become third in the Australian National Slam Poetry (2013) and self-published ‘HUMBLE’ his first collection.

Deanna Rodger

*I have included myself in this list because I believe I have super powers poised to emerge any day now… maybe on

Sunday 16.15

Deanna Rodger is an actor and spoken word poet. She is the youngest UK Poetry Slam Champion (2007) and completed vocational acting training in The National Youth Theatre’s (NYT) REP Company 2012.

She has written and performed as a poet and actor in 2012 Olympic Team Welcome Ceremonies (NYT commission), Buckingham Palace (NYT commission), Speakers House (NYT commission), 10 Downing street (somewhere to_ commission) and Honey Coated Dream (Lyric Hammersmith commission). She has recently completed the audio book recording of ‘Feral Youth’ by Polly Courtney.

Deanna is co founder of two popular spoken word events, Chill Pill and Come Rhyme With Me and is in poetry collectives: Point Blank Poets (winners of the Biennale UK Artist International award 2011), and Keats House Poetry Forum, as well as Poet Director for Podium Poets – a collective supported by Spread The Word, whose debut anthology will be released under Nasty Little Press and a board member of Safeground.

She is an experienced spoken word and drama facilitator, and is currently writing and developing her one-woman show ‘London Matter’ which has received support from POP Productions (Sky Arts and IdeasTap), Roundhouse Camden, Albany Deptford and Arts Council.

“Deanna is one of the few performers I could listen to over and over again. Her honesty, passion and humility come through with every single word she speaks and it is an honour to hear her thoughts on stage”

Hollie McNish

“Rodger is an energetic and hugely entertaining performer, and one with interesting things to say”

A Younger Theatre

Deannarodger.co.uk

The First Famous-for-being-Fantastic Five

Benita Johnson –

Will be the first performer on the Poetry and Words stage and so I had to put her as my first performer to announce. Listening to her on youtube I have absolutely fallen for her voice tone, melody and lyrics, ‘Beam of Light’ happens to be my favourite. She will be the gentle rocking voice, bringing you back into the world of poetry each morning at 11.45.

Official Biog –

Singer-Songwriter Benita Johnson has supported the likes of Hugh Cornwell (The Stranglers), Boo Hewerdine and Patrick Duff (Strangelove). Her songs are dynamic and accessible. An experienced performer, she regularly brings her wide-ranging repertoire to venues large and small across the south-west. She will be opening the stage at Poetry&Words each day of the festival with songs both mellow and uproarious. “It’s not folk and it’s not rock or pop, it’s Benita Johnson doing her thing and it’s beautiful. . . simply breathtaking. . .” Malcolm Carter, Penny Black Music Reviews.

Raymond Antrobus –

A great friend and colleague of mine (Chill Pill UK and Keats House Poets) and a fine performer, his poems are crafted to sit in the place with all lines of poetry meet – Spoken word, page, narrative and emotional. He is absolutely awesome and you can see him live on Friday at 13.15 and Sunday at 15.20 and  i-net stalk him here https://www.youtube.com/user/chillpillshorts

OFFICIAL BIOG –

Raymond Antrobus is a spoken word poet, photographer and educator, born and bred in Hackney. He is co-curator of popular London poetry events Chill Pill (Soho Theatre and The Albany) and Keats House Poets. Raymond’s work has appeared on BBC Radio 4, The Big Issue and recently at TedxEastEnd and in The Guardian.

His second collection, Shapes & Disfigurements Of Raymond Antrobus, is published by Burning Eye Books. He writes a blog dedicated to poetry-films, social commentary, interviews and spoken word: www.raymondantrobus.com.

“His monologues are stunning studies of voice and substance, and his lyric poems are graceful and finely crafted” (Kwame Dawes)

Currently Raymond is completing the Writer/Teacher MA in Spoken Word Education at Goldsmith’s University. He is Hackney’s first spoken word educator and teaches at Cardinal Pole Secondary School.

Chris Redmond –

Tongue FuChoo Choo Chris is going to be gracing the stage, oh yeah. This guy is cool and suave and his poems are pretty super. Though the band will be left behind this guy should be watched with both ears, great wit and humour. Watch him in absolute brilliance live on Friday at 12.00 and Saturday at 13.50 and online here

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=o4ocZcKKaYE

OFFICIAL BIOG –

Chris Redmond is a writer, performer and musician whose work often focuses on cross-media collaboration. A regular at UK music and literature festivals, he has performed on BBC Radio One, BBC Radio Four (Bespoken Word and Pick of The Week), Sky Arts, BBC Scotland’s Culture Show and recently on Scroobius Pip’s XFM show The Beatdown.

Chris is the creator and host of Tongue Fu, one of the UK’s leading spoken word and music shows, where poets, comedians and storytellers perform with improvised music and films. Guests have included Kate Tempest, Akala, Robin Ince, Omar, Salena Godden, Ty and Howard Marks, with gigs at London Wonderground, The Udderbelly, The Barbican, Royal Albert Hall’s Elgar Room, Edinburgh Festival and many UK music festivals.   “Poetry, but not as you know it…amazing.” The Guardian

The Lost Menagerie, Chris’s first poetry/music/theatre show was commissioned by Battersea Arts Centre. Other commissions include contributions to The Nine O’Clock Slot – Ice and Fire’s new show, and the Spoken Word All-Stars UK tour. He is currently writing a spoken word musical comedy with award winning author and poet Anna Freeman and the Tongue Fu band supported by Bristol Old Vic. The show premieres in London in September ‘14 at London Wonderground, followed by a UK tour.

“A wordsmith wizard, whose sublime art of storytelling in verse is impossible to ignore.” The Poetry Book Society

www.chrisredmond.co.uk

www.tonguefu.co.uk

@thetonguefushow

Sally Jenkinson –

Oh yes! This post may just be my favourite to write!!! I LOVE this woman, I love her face her hugs her chatter her laugh and most importantly her words. Subtle and gentle, she lifts you through her poems of complicated feeling as if you are silk in a late summer breeze, and as if that wasn’t enough she has the most endearing stage chatter. Get your hugs ready! See her on stage onFriday at 13.40 and Saturday at 12.25

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ai80ufik1pg

OFFICIAL BIOG –

Sally Jenkinson is a poet, writer and performer who lives and works in Bristol, but she is from Doncaster, where they say poem like this ‘poym’. She has just returned from a tour of Australia where she took her debut show Folly (written with musician Nuala Honan) to the Adelaide Fringe Festival, with support from the ACE and British Council.

Her debut collection of poems, Sweat-borne Secrets, was released in 2012 through Burning Eye Books; poet Kate Fox described it as “sensuous, surreal, bold and beautiful, Sally Jenkinson’s image-filled poems spill gloriously across the page. Often, a line will leap out and squeeze you by the throat. Poetry that sings from a poet whose song I’d like to hear more of.”

 In 2013, she was awarded the Poet of the Year award from Bristol Poetry Festival. She works as a poetry programmer for the Wandering Word Collective, and runs poetry and creative writing workshops for schools and community groups around the country, including for Apples and Snakes’ Shake the Dust project and Take Art’s Word/Play project.

‘This world oscillates between the certainty of an emotion and the uncertainty of its longevity, between the beautiful and the tedious. There is genius at work here, lines that stick with you through the mundane… Sally’s ear for life, the rhythm of a personal moment made wonderfully recognisable, is a skill to be marvelled at.  Some lines slip smoothly down the throat like “the sanctity / of Heinz Tomato soup”, only to throttle you all of a sudden with the jarring turbulence of life’s upsets. Whilst the image-saturated poems could become suffocating, Sally’s command for cadence turns the mundane into lyrical magic. This is where a relationship is no more consequential than “a puddle in a car park”, and yet somehow one lone puddle can reflect an entire world.’ – Emily Kate Groves (Poejazzi)

Rob Auton –

Official Poet in Glastonbury Residence, Find this mans palace in his performance of off beat wit, literal meanings suddenly take on new form and laughter is carried away. I think you will love him as much as the yellow tinged face of the sky does on its happiest of days when Rob is out to play! A member of the Bang Said the Gun gang, bring your voices for laughing and celebrating this wonderful poignant northerner. Catch him on stage onSunday at 14.50

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wIQHkD77s4U

OFFICIAL BIOG –

This year’s Glastonbury Festival official website poet in residence Rob Auton has ideas, writes them down and says some of them out loud to audiences at poetry nights, comedy nights, cabaret nights and more recently in theatres at theatre nights. He has had his poetry played on the radio and on the television and was recently described by the Independent as both “lanky” and “a talent to watch.” He was in the news for a day in 2014 for winning an award with a joke he wrote about Chinese Wispas. He has performed two critically acclaimed Edinburgh Fringe shows, 2012’s The Yellow Show and 2013’s The Sky Show and is currently working on his third solo show The Face Show. Last year Rob had his first full collection of poems, stories and illustrations, In Heaven The Onions Make You Laugh, published by Burning Eye Books. Rob also continues to co-run the hugely popular London poetry extravaganza Bang Said The Gun. This will be Rob’s seventh time at Glastonbury but his first time with any responsibilities. He once had his photograph taken with Michael Eavis but the flash didn’t work. Expect words coming from the mouth of a man who knows what a pigeon looks like.

“Few artists have ever managed to consistently provide me with such joy and pleasure as Rob Auton. I always leave in awe of how good he is.” (Scroobius Pip)

“That’s just sad.” (Vanessa Feltz)

www.robauton.co.uk

twitter @robertauton

 

 

 

 

HALLO & WELCOME! To the 2014 Poetry&Words Blog

Hallo! My name is Deanna Rodger and I am your poetry blogger for Poetry and Words 2014 – *applause, whoops hollers and foot stamps* and I can’t wait to get stuck into the metaphorical poetry mud, wading through words and rolling in similes!

So you may be able to tell by now that I am myself a poet and though this makes me hugely biased to the poetry tent, it’s blatantly the best place to spend your day before skanking hard in the dark fuzzy fun that Glastonbury can offer.

Why have I taken on this task of writing before, during and after watching the writers? What can you expect?

Well last year was my first year at Glastonbury and I frikking loved it! Sat on my bottom in the poetry tent listening to poets I usually only see online, surrounded by punters who whoop and cheer and chortle their best beer-ed support, I could hardly say no to being responsible for capturing that online. And that is what I intend to do.

This blog will slowly release the hand-selected line up, detailing where and when and who and why you should be in their faces as they take the stage. It will chat informally about certain sets and will hopefully not become over run by childlike excitement and bad grammar (note. I use the grammar rules of Deanna; lots of exclamations, random dashes and bracket overkill)

But, before the real poets are brought to the blog stage, let me introduce myself properly:

I am Deanna, I am in my 20’s and like to describe myself as a fun, gregarious character that has a unique sense of humour and a battery life that runs on coffee, dried mango and mint clubs. I am a Londoner but many holidays were spent in the countryside – wellies on, mucking out horse stables, walking dogs and eating bacon butties, so I am more than qualified to operate a smartphone in a pit of mud! – You can check out my online identity here www.deannarodger.wordpress.com and here www.facebook.com/deannarodgerpage and here @deannarodger

 

Here is a video of me in TedX action

and one from last year’s Glasto set

Ok first blog completed and signed off! The line up is to follow, so follow this blog to stay up to date

Deanna x

Featured Artist: Hollie McNish

 

We’ve decided to interview some of our past performers to find out what they’re up to now, hear about their enduring memories of the festival and whet your appetite for the new Poetry&Words  line up in 2013.  Here’s an interview with the first of our featured artists – Hollie McNish.  (Photo by Gary Death.)

 

What is your connection with Poetry&Words?
I have been invited to perform once at Poetry and Words. I entered and won the Glastonbury Slam during that time. The prize was to perform at the next year’s festival, so I got to go again. Was pretty damn chuffed. On the way to the festival that year I found out I was pregnant and spent three days with morning sickness in a single tent wandering around in a haze and trying not to be ill on stage. I didn’t want to tell my partner over the phone so had three very strange, surreal and amazing days! But I definitely have a special relationship to the festival now!

 

Ed: Hollie also contributed to the BBC Radio 4 show, Glastonbury Poetry Diaries, while she was on site with us in 2010.

 

If you had to describe the Poetry&Words stage in just three words, what would they be?
A Poetry Pocket

 

How would you describe Glastonbury Festival to someone who’s never been there?
It is not what you expect – unless you only stay in the main areas. Glastonbury is one of the most diverse festivals there is. You can spend 3 days getting massages and healings in the Green fields or completely mashed in the dance arenas. I reckon a balance is good. There is so much more to the festival than you can ever imagine and instead of sticking to the areas you know, you should explore it all. Take a two hour break to just walk around and find stuff. Like the Poetry and Words Stage. It’s right at the end. Next to the most amazing areas, like Green Fields and Arcadia. Arcadia. Arcadia. I’ll say it once more. Go to Arcadia! Fire bass monsters.

 

Can you name two other poets who you admire?
My current favorite poets to watch are Keith Jarrett and Dan Cockrill (of Bang Said the Gun). I like them because they talk to you. They don’t shout at you. I like poets that shout too but right now, I’m leaning on the side of talking with quiet passion. I’m trying to stop shouting so much myself. I don’t shout off stage at all so not sure why I always seem to start on stage!

 

What kinds of things inspire you to write?

I think, honestly, mainly, newspaper articles, adverts, magazines, studies, my daughter and food. I’m not so deep! I’m quite easily inspired to write, generally when I don’t have enough space inside me to fit the aggravation some things cause me, or, on the other side, the love and amazement. I like to get them both off my chest or I feel overwhelmed by things a lot of the time. The world is so messed up and so amazing all at once.

 

Where is the most unusual place you’ve performed your work?

On a public bus in Paris banlieue at rush hour. I had to do it for a festival to ‘include the town’, which is good in theory, except I think some people genuinely do not want poetry on their bus to work and that perhaps sometimes poets forget that! I finished one poem and an old man tapped me on the back and said, “merci, je n’ai rien compris, mais merci. (Thanks, I didn’t understand a word but thanks). That made up for it a bit!

 

What are you working on at the moment?
I’m working on how to balance an amazing toddler, sleepless nights, relationship, day job and a growing amount of poetry work! But in terms of poetry, a few things at the mo. I’m developing a set of poems into a show called ‘Something we don’t talk about’ with Battersea Arts Centre, being shown on November 23rd and 24th for the first time. I’m also working on putting together a lot of my poems into another set about immigration, emigration and scones. I’m project managing a Walking Tour of Cambridge, looking at the history of women through poetry, photography, art and architecture. That’s with my day job. I work at an Architecture Centre. Apart from that, I’m still writing a lot, some for kids now, and just wondering what to do with it all other than save it on my computer and leave it there!

 

What’s the closest rhyme for ‘orange’ you can find?
Je mange. Can we use other languages cos that works well? Je mange // une orange!

 

Can we have a poem please?

Here is one I wrote at Glastonbury, which might be most relevant. The video also shows the greener side of the festival which some might miss. Hope you enjoy it x

 

Where can we find out more about your work?

I have finally set up a website, here… www.holliemcnish.com.