Skip to main content

Camarade VI: The Enemies Project

S.J. Fowler masterminded another huge mash-up of poetic talent in the hip heart of London's East End last night, here is what he sent out today as announcement...

A thank you to everyone who contributed and attended last night. There were a few hundred in attendance and the performances were inspiring. I’m very happy the Enemies project could begin in such an atmosphere of pluralism and ingenuity, and that everyone is so enthusiastic about the project. Here is the footage from the event:
 
Carol Watts & George Szirtes http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=8phvyg1Euhc
Holly Pester & Daniel Rourke http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tlA21GaQCz4
Astrid Alben & Sophie Mayer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cCzbkoXL9Cs
Ryan Van Winkle & Kirsty Irving http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SyNJTr_o9Qo
Marek Kazmierski & Stephen Watts http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OcxSzAxyyrY
Lucy Harvest Clarke & Stephen Emmerson http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ICDHyV2B010
James Wilkes & Christodoulos Makris http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nt3PZHhjOoU
Roddy Lumsden & Carrie Etter http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=1N_GrfOqKMM
Daniel Barrow & Ollie Evans http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=iFFHV1Mk274
Thanks to Ben Morris for his poster design magic, and to David Kelly for his usual help on the night. Gratitude too to the Jerwood Charitable Foundation and Arts Council England for making it possible, and the Rich Mix, as ever, for their generosity.

Comments

Popular posts from this blog

CLIVE WILMER'S THOM GUNN SELECTED POEMS IS A MUST-READ

THAT HANDSOME MAN  A PERSONAL BRIEF REVIEW BY TODD SWIFT I could lie and claim Larkin, Yeats , or Dylan Thomas most excited me as a young poet, or even Pound or FT Prince - but the truth be told, it was Thom Gunn I first and most loved when I was young. Precisely, I fell in love with his first two collections, written under a formalist, Elizabethan ( Fulke Greville mainly), Yvor Winters triad of influences - uniquely fused with an interest in homerotica, pop culture ( Brando, Elvis , motorcycles). His best poem 'On The Move' is oddly presented here without the quote that began it usually - Man, you gotta go - which I loved. Gunn was - and remains - so thrilling, to me at least, because so odd. His elegance, poise, and intelligence is all about display, about surface - but the surface of a panther, who ripples with strength beneath the skin. With Gunn, you dressed to have sex. Or so I thought.  Because I was queer (I maintain the right to lay claim to that

IQ AND THE POETS - ARE YOU SMART?

When you open your mouth to speak, are you smart?  A funny question from a great song, but also, a good one, when it comes to poets, and poetry. We tend to have a very ambiguous view of intelligence in poetry, one that I'd say is dysfunctional.  Basically, it goes like this: once you are safely dead, it no longer matters how smart you were.  For instance, Auden was smarter than Yeats , but most would still say Yeats is the finer poet; Eliot is clearly highly intelligent, but how much of Larkin 's work required a high IQ?  Meanwhile, poets while alive tend to be celebrated if they are deemed intelligent: Anne Carson, Geoffrey Hill , and Jorie Graham , are all, clearly, very intelligent people, aside from their work as poets.  But who reads Marianne Moore now, or Robert Lowell , smart poets? Or, Pound ?  How smart could Pound be with his madcap views? Less intelligent poets are often more popular.  John Betjeman was not a very smart poet, per se.  What do I mean by smart?

"I have crossed oceans of time to find you..."

In terms of great films about, and of, love, we have Vertigo, In The Mood for Love , and Casablanca , Doctor Zhivago , An Officer and a Gentleman , at the apex; as well as odder, more troubling versions, such as Sophie's Choice and  Silence of the Lambs .  I think my favourite remains Bram Stoker's Dracula , with the great immortal line "I have crossed oceans of time to find you...".