I’ve been living in Cambridge for nearly ten years now (come July) and – much as I rail at its many structural inequities, and the inaccessibility of many of the wonderful things it does, there are some major things (and people!) I properly love. Among all the art, history, culture, and technology (and things which span all of these categories!), there’s an attitude of proper liberalism and a truly international spirit here. The first time I visited with a view to “we’re going to live here shortly” I heard about five languages spoken on the streets in the first hour or so, and it immediately felt more home-like than Milton Keynes, where I was living at the time.
Without Milton Keynes I may never have been pushed to write poetry (take that as you like!), but I grew up in Cardiff, a massively multicultural place, raised by polyglottal people who considered themselves Europeans, and raised me and my brother to think likewise. The idea that I can no longer call myself European is... painful to me. The idea that wonderful people (some of whom I work and make art and memories with) in this city I now call home would feel unwelcome here after the end of March is abhorrent.
So while I’m applying for an Irish passport (born in Belfast in the 70s, I’m entitled to one), and resolving to learn and use more languages, and signing any petition that comes my way, none of that feels like a celebration of what we are and can be together, culturally, artistically, and linguistically.
This morning, it finally, finally hit home for me how close Brexit is, and that I really wanted to do something to commemorate how amazingly international Cambridge (and the UK in general) is. Within about 90 seconds, the following Crazy Project blossomed in my brain: I’d like to put together an Allographic anthology of creativity in all sorts of languages by the end of the month.
It would be in the mould of the long-overdue-for-resurrection publication “Small Words” – small (A6), environmentally sourced, physically pleasant to hold, short run, and a mix of poetry, stories, photography, artwork, (and I think essays this time too, given the subject matter). We’d launch at the next Allographic open mic (Sunday 31st March).
From concept to Proper Project in a couple of hours – this is how I do. So, if you would like to submit poetry, short fiction, essays, artwork, or photography to the Allographic Small Words Brexit Special celebrating multiculturalism and international cooperation in Cambridge and the UK, go here: http://bit.ly/smallwordsbrexit. The deadline is Thu 21-Mar-19 8pm GMT.
Pieces should reflect the themes (however loosely) of multiculturalism, international cooperation, Cambridge(shire)/ Britain and its international links, and the power of peaceful protest.
There’s no money to be offered for your work (this will be a short run, aimed at breaking even), but no entry fee either, and you will receive a free copy of the anthology. We especially encourage multilingual pieces (i.e. those incorporating more than one language), though monolingual pieces in any language are also welcome.
The anthology will be published in hard form (A6, recycled materials), and electronically.
Please feel free to share this wherever you think it would be welcome. ☺
Showing posts with label publishing. Show all posts
Showing posts with label publishing. Show all posts
Monday, 4 March 2019
Wednesday, 30 January 2019
“Can I Perform At Your Show?”
Want to know my answer? Read on; there are headings and links and everything…
Introduction
This is a question that, as I’m sure you can imagine, I get asked a lot. If you don’t know why I’d get asked that, let me elucidate: I run two spoken word shows a month, ten months of the year in Cambridge (Hammer & Tongue Cambridge and Allographic Open Mic). I run a dedicated spoken word stage all day at Strawberry Fair, Europe’s largest open-air free festival called Wild Strawberries, also in Cambridge. I also run six spoken word cabaret shows a week, every week of the Edinburgh Fringe most years. (I also run the occasional visiting artist/ one-off thing in Cambridge. That’s different – I’ll come on to that later.) They’re all a mix of featured artists and open mic/ slam slots.
I help to programme the Spoken Word element of PBH’s Free Fringe, and to look after and promote the artists we programme. I have been involved in the BBC Edinburgh Fringe Slam in a non-competing role most years it’s been running. I used to run a calendar promoting spoken word events in south-east England and the Midlands. I used to run a combined featured artists-open mic-slam event in Milton Keynes. I’m part of the Bardic Council for Cambridge (though that needs a thorough reviving right now), which I set up, along with the In Other Words Festival (ditto).
And I’m also a performance poet. But it’s probably fair to say that more people know me as an host/ administrator of other people’s performance than as a performer in my own right.
I had a wee whinge yesterday on Facebook about the particular teeth-gritting phenomenon which is people asking me if I can recommend female spoken word artists for their programme. Since most people think of me as female, this is galling, but I consider it an application in humility and thence character-building to recommend other people. (It’s easier when they ask for people who are of a different demographic or geographic location from me but yeah – character-building.) And I do it, because, at the end of the day, I do like talking up the artists that get me excited, and everyone loves being asked their opinion…! ☺
Back to that other question I get asked – “Can I headline/ perform at your show?” I get asked this so many times, that I thought it might be neater to put all the criteria down in one post, and then I can point people at it in future. It’s a question of spoons, you understand… ↑ Top
Not many people seem to realise that all the various H&T franchises are just that – semi-autonomous facets of the whole. The way it works is that we are sent the month’s headliner (October-December, February-June inclusive), who will tour through all the (currently) six locations: Cambridge, Brighton, Hackney, Bristol, Southampton, and Oxford (order depending on how the month falls, day-wise). Once a year or so, we’re asked to a) provide our own list of spoken word artists we’d like to see headline on the H&T circuit, and b) vote on the full list between all of us. Steve Larkin (H&T Boss/ Director/ Founder/ Capo) then books and sends us the gen about each one as they confirm.
Short version: I don’t have any control of who’ll be headlining when.
We programme support acts, and for Cambridge they tend to be local artists/ artists with a strong local connection. (They’re often, but not always, H&T Cambridge slam winners.) There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it’s part of showing how engaging with the event can see you rise as an artist in terms of platform and respect (that clear path of audience ➔ slammer ➔ support act ➔ headliner – especially as many of our headliners are former/ current slam champions of some kind). Secondly, it’s good to support local talent, for a variety of hopefully obvious reasons (especially if you’re intent on building the local arts scene, as I am). Thirdly, in an utterly mercenary philosophy: local artists are more likely to bring friends/ relatives/ colleagues with them, and we need the money to pay the artists. And I do pay my artists.
Short version: unless you have a local connection and I’ve seen you perform before, I’m excessively unlikely to book you as a support act.
Apart from those two acts, all the other people on stage during H&T Cambridge are slammers and me, and I rarely perform anything other than my usual hosting schtick. (My job here is to keep the audience motivated and excited about the performers.) During the Regional Final, it’s just three rounds of slam – we just don’t have time for anything else!
(Oh, and we also have a “sacrificial slammer” before each new slam round in the heats. They tend to be the winner of the previous heat (again as part of demonstrating that progression thing), and they tend to get free entry (and travel expenses if they’ve come from out of town) and a chance to show off.)↑ Top
Short bit of background: I started helping out with Hammer & Tongue Cambridge in 2010, having an increasingly central role until February 2012 when I started hosting and programming as well as the other admin. (Frankly, I need to get other people doing the other admin stuff these days – delegating is not my strongest suit.) For a while in late 2010/ early 2011, we were being sent a lot of mostly white, straight, able-bodied, British, cis male performers within a narrow age range as headliners. They were all lovely chaps and very talented, but I found I wanted to be hearing other stories and voices. I’d started suggesting female, queer, of colour, and generally “other” performers as support acts, but that felt wrong too. I wanted to curate my own events that had “other” voices front and centre. I also wanted to run an open mic again. Somewhat haphazardly, I set up Allographic (“nebulous poetry concept” – thanks, Tim Clare) to be a platform for other voices – either as work I published or promoted on stage. It swiftly became an umbrella for all the non-H&T stuff that I do, whether it’s an anthology of local artists, a stage of predominantly female and non-binary performers at a literary festival, a stall of “Poetry To Go” at various festivals and other gatherings, or the “Other Voices” spoken word cabaret at Edinburgh Fringe. Plus other things that crop up from time to time.
Nowadays, the regular open mic (poetry, storytelling, any other spoken word that people want to bring) often (but not always) features guests for short spots who often also lead workshops in the afternoon of the same day. The events are designed to be accessible, in as many different ways as you’d like to use that term, though do we encourage people to bring and perform difficult and challenging work. Allographic open mic is supposed to be a friendly, safe-yet-fierce space for new and/ or difficult work/ performance. The only rules are: don’t kick down, and don’t apologise (unless you’ve kicked down). Part of that accessibility is making it free at the point of entry and encouraging people to donate whatever they can afford/ think the event is worth in order to help with our costs and to at least pay the guest artist’s expenses (travel and subsistence). Any money donated at the workshop goes straight to the workshop leader, and we provide means for them to sell their merchandise, if any.
The “platform for other voices” thing holds true for the guest artists – we want to be deliberately platforming people who are still marginalised: female artists, artists of colour, LGBTQIA+ artists, disabled artists, neurodiverse artists, etc. (We need to be doing better at getting working class voices on the bill to boot, especially those combining the above.) We don’t currently have any external funding, so making this viable for people from outside Cambridgeshire and nearby is… challenging.
Short version: if you want to perform at Allographic open mic as a guest artist (rather than on the open mic – obviously everyone’s welcome to that!), travelling to Cambridge needs to be economically viable for you, and you need to be an “other” voice. If I’ve not seen you perform, I’m relatively easy to persuade with a good bit of footage – audio, or audiovisual for preference. It probably goes without saying, but: I also need to rate your work pretty highly and trust you as an artist.
If you’re up for it, the form is here: http://bit.ly/agoguest ↑ Top
Wild Strawberries is the yearly spoken word (poetry and storytelling) stage at Strawberry Fair in Cambridge. Strawberry Fair is on the first Saturday of every June. A form for expressions of interest for short guest slots and open mic will go out in the next couple of months, and I’ll post the latest here each time it’s ready. If I’ve not seen you perform, I’m easy to persuade with a good bit of footage – audio, or audiovisual for preference. The Fair is free, everyone there is a volunteer, all the payment for what we do pretty much comes out of our own pockets and any fundraisers we’ve done over the months proceeding. We cannot pay anyone. Yes, you can bring merch. No, you can’t have a longer feature set unless you’re either an act that combines poetry/ storytelling and music, you are crazy famous and we’re lucky to have you, or you’re the Bard of Cambridge.
Even shorter version: a ten minute slot at a Cambridge outdoor festival in early June needs to be economically viable for you. ↑ Top
We’re part of PBH’s Free Fringe. All cast members and guests are “other voices”, and there is open mic available to everyone. I am excessively unlikely to book you unless I’ve seen you perform/ you have a compelling bit of footage to wave at me. Again: we’re looking to cover our costs, and we can’t pay anyone, but please do bring merch if we’ve booked you. The forms for featuring/ being in the open mic will be made available by May/ June of any year we’re running it. ↑ Top
This one’s a bit different – this is where I use the Allographic banner to promote a spoken word event that’s touring/ wants to come to Cambridge/ needs curation or collaboration from our “stable” of local spoken word artists. We negotiate publicity, payment, etc. between us. I find you a venue and support artist(s) if needs be. While we obviously favour promoting “other” voices, it’s not a central criterion for the “specials”. Again, it probably goes without saying, but: I also need to rate your work highly and trust you as an artist.
If you’re up for it, the form is here: http://bit.ly/agpresents ↑ Top
That’s it, really. Any further questions, please comment here so we can create a kind of FAQs section. ☺ If that’s too exposed, email me (remove the gaps if you’re not a robot) on:
cambridge @ hammerandtongue. com for Hammer & Tongue Cambridge
events @ allographic. co. uk for Allographic events
fay @ fayroberts. co. uk if you’d like to book me as a host or performer (hey, you never know!) ↑ Top
Introduction
Hammer & Tongue
Allographic Open Mic
Wild Strawberries
Other Voices Spoken Word Cabaret at Edinburgh Festival
Allographic Presents…
Queries
Introduction
This is a question that, as I’m sure you can imagine, I get asked a lot. If you don’t know why I’d get asked that, let me elucidate: I run two spoken word shows a month, ten months of the year in Cambridge (Hammer & Tongue Cambridge and Allographic Open Mic). I run a dedicated spoken word stage all day at Strawberry Fair, Europe’s largest open-air free festival called Wild Strawberries, also in Cambridge. I also run six spoken word cabaret shows a week, every week of the Edinburgh Fringe most years. (I also run the occasional visiting artist/ one-off thing in Cambridge. That’s different – I’ll come on to that later.) They’re all a mix of featured artists and open mic/ slam slots.
I help to programme the Spoken Word element of PBH’s Free Fringe, and to look after and promote the artists we programme. I have been involved in the BBC Edinburgh Fringe Slam in a non-competing role most years it’s been running. I used to run a calendar promoting spoken word events in south-east England and the Midlands. I used to run a combined featured artists-open mic-slam event in Milton Keynes. I’m part of the Bardic Council for Cambridge (though that needs a thorough reviving right now), which I set up, along with the In Other Words Festival (ditto).
And I’m also a performance poet. But it’s probably fair to say that more people know me as an host/ administrator of other people’s performance than as a performer in my own right.
I had a wee whinge yesterday on Facebook about the particular teeth-gritting phenomenon which is people asking me if I can recommend female spoken word artists for their programme. Since most people think of me as female, this is galling, but I consider it an application in humility and thence character-building to recommend other people. (It’s easier when they ask for people who are of a different demographic or geographic location from me but yeah – character-building.) And I do it, because, at the end of the day, I do like talking up the artists that get me excited, and everyone loves being asked their opinion…! ☺
Back to that other question I get asked – “Can I headline/ perform at your show?” I get asked this so many times, that I thought it might be neater to put all the criteria down in one post, and then I can point people at it in future. It’s a question of spoons, you understand… ↑ Top
Hammer & Tongue Cambridge
Not many people seem to realise that all the various H&T franchises are just that – semi-autonomous facets of the whole. The way it works is that we are sent the month’s headliner (October-December, February-June inclusive), who will tour through all the (currently) six locations: Cambridge, Brighton, Hackney, Bristol, Southampton, and Oxford (order depending on how the month falls, day-wise). Once a year or so, we’re asked to a) provide our own list of spoken word artists we’d like to see headline on the H&T circuit, and b) vote on the full list between all of us. Steve Larkin (H&T Boss/ Director/ Founder/ Capo) then books and sends us the gen about each one as they confirm.
Short version: I don’t have any control of who’ll be headlining when.
We programme support acts, and for Cambridge they tend to be local artists/ artists with a strong local connection. (They’re often, but not always, H&T Cambridge slam winners.) There are a few reasons for this. Firstly, it’s part of showing how engaging with the event can see you rise as an artist in terms of platform and respect (that clear path of audience ➔ slammer ➔ support act ➔ headliner – especially as many of our headliners are former/ current slam champions of some kind). Secondly, it’s good to support local talent, for a variety of hopefully obvious reasons (especially if you’re intent on building the local arts scene, as I am). Thirdly, in an utterly mercenary philosophy: local artists are more likely to bring friends/ relatives/ colleagues with them, and we need the money to pay the artists. And I do pay my artists.
Short version: unless you have a local connection and I’ve seen you perform before, I’m excessively unlikely to book you as a support act.
Apart from those two acts, all the other people on stage during H&T Cambridge are slammers and me, and I rarely perform anything other than my usual hosting schtick. (My job here is to keep the audience motivated and excited about the performers.) During the Regional Final, it’s just three rounds of slam – we just don’t have time for anything else!
(Oh, and we also have a “sacrificial slammer” before each new slam round in the heats. They tend to be the winner of the previous heat (again as part of demonstrating that progression thing), and they tend to get free entry (and travel expenses if they’ve come from out of town) and a chance to show off.)↑ Top
Allographic Open Mic
Short bit of background: I started helping out with Hammer & Tongue Cambridge in 2010, having an increasingly central role until February 2012 when I started hosting and programming as well as the other admin. (Frankly, I need to get other people doing the other admin stuff these days – delegating is not my strongest suit.) For a while in late 2010/ early 2011, we were being sent a lot of mostly white, straight, able-bodied, British, cis male performers within a narrow age range as headliners. They were all lovely chaps and very talented, but I found I wanted to be hearing other stories and voices. I’d started suggesting female, queer, of colour, and generally “other” performers as support acts, but that felt wrong too. I wanted to curate my own events that had “other” voices front and centre. I also wanted to run an open mic again. Somewhat haphazardly, I set up Allographic (“nebulous poetry concept” – thanks, Tim Clare) to be a platform for other voices – either as work I published or promoted on stage. It swiftly became an umbrella for all the non-H&T stuff that I do, whether it’s an anthology of local artists, a stage of predominantly female and non-binary performers at a literary festival, a stall of “Poetry To Go” at various festivals and other gatherings, or the “Other Voices” spoken word cabaret at Edinburgh Fringe. Plus other things that crop up from time to time.
Nowadays, the regular open mic (poetry, storytelling, any other spoken word that people want to bring) often (but not always) features guests for short spots who often also lead workshops in the afternoon of the same day. The events are designed to be accessible, in as many different ways as you’d like to use that term, though do we encourage people to bring and perform difficult and challenging work. Allographic open mic is supposed to be a friendly, safe-yet-fierce space for new and/ or difficult work/ performance. The only rules are: don’t kick down, and don’t apologise (unless you’ve kicked down). Part of that accessibility is making it free at the point of entry and encouraging people to donate whatever they can afford/ think the event is worth in order to help with our costs and to at least pay the guest artist’s expenses (travel and subsistence). Any money donated at the workshop goes straight to the workshop leader, and we provide means for them to sell their merchandise, if any.
The “platform for other voices” thing holds true for the guest artists – we want to be deliberately platforming people who are still marginalised: female artists, artists of colour, LGBTQIA+ artists, disabled artists, neurodiverse artists, etc. (We need to be doing better at getting working class voices on the bill to boot, especially those combining the above.) We don’t currently have any external funding, so making this viable for people from outside Cambridgeshire and nearby is… challenging.
Short version: if you want to perform at Allographic open mic as a guest artist (rather than on the open mic – obviously everyone’s welcome to that!), travelling to Cambridge needs to be economically viable for you, and you need to be an “other” voice. If I’ve not seen you perform, I’m relatively easy to persuade with a good bit of footage – audio, or audiovisual for preference. It probably goes without saying, but: I also need to rate your work pretty highly and trust you as an artist.
If you’re up for it, the form is here: http://bit.ly/agoguest ↑ Top
Wild Strawberries
Wild Strawberries is the yearly spoken word (poetry and storytelling) stage at Strawberry Fair in Cambridge. Strawberry Fair is on the first Saturday of every June. A form for expressions of interest for short guest slots and open mic will go out in the next couple of months, and I’ll post the latest here each time it’s ready. If I’ve not seen you perform, I’m easy to persuade with a good bit of footage – audio, or audiovisual for preference. The Fair is free, everyone there is a volunteer, all the payment for what we do pretty much comes out of our own pockets and any fundraisers we’ve done over the months proceeding. We cannot pay anyone. Yes, you can bring merch. No, you can’t have a longer feature set unless you’re either an act that combines poetry/ storytelling and music, you are crazy famous and we’re lucky to have you, or you’re the Bard of Cambridge.
Even shorter version: a ten minute slot at a Cambridge outdoor festival in early June needs to be economically viable for you. ↑ Top
Other Voices Spoken Word Cabaret at Edinburgh Festival
We’re part of PBH’s Free Fringe. All cast members and guests are “other voices”, and there is open mic available to everyone. I am excessively unlikely to book you unless I’ve seen you perform/ you have a compelling bit of footage to wave at me. Again: we’re looking to cover our costs, and we can’t pay anyone, but please do bring merch if we’ve booked you. The forms for featuring/ being in the open mic will be made available by May/ June of any year we’re running it. ↑ Top
Allographic Presents…
This one’s a bit different – this is where I use the Allographic banner to promote a spoken word event that’s touring/ wants to come to Cambridge/ needs curation or collaboration from our “stable” of local spoken word artists. We negotiate publicity, payment, etc. between us. I find you a venue and support artist(s) if needs be. While we obviously favour promoting “other” voices, it’s not a central criterion for the “specials”. Again, it probably goes without saying, but: I also need to rate your work highly and trust you as an artist.
If you’re up for it, the form is here: http://bit.ly/agpresents ↑ Top
Th-th-th-that’s All, Folks!
That’s it, really. Any further questions, please comment here so we can create a kind of FAQs section. ☺ If that’s too exposed, email me (remove the gaps if you’re not a robot) on:
cambridge @ hammerandtongue. com for Hammer & Tongue Cambridge
events @ allographic. co. uk for Allographic events
fay @ fayroberts. co. uk if you’d like to book me as a host or performer (hey, you never know!) ↑ Top
Friday, 18 October 2013
Women's Work
I was asked, back last year, to perform in a show in February 2013
called “Women’s Work” – an all-female line-up of poets, musicians, a dancer, a storyteller,
and anything else we could make happen.
It was in aid of the Cambridge Rape Crisis Centre
(CRCC) and, as far as I know, our donated time, effort and merchandise raised
good money for a good cause.
Alice
Nicholls, who organised the original, asked us to come back and, in slightly
different company, we are about to do a very similar thing again
in the same place, on 1st November at The Fountain, Cambridge.
I posted
the following on my Facebook wall a few hours ago:
“Have
just finished putting together a creative fanzine of local women’s work with
the aim of raising money for CRCC,
featuring work by: Alice Nicholls, Ashley Fox, Carla Keen, Cathy Dunbar, Elaine
Ewart, Emma Ormond, Hollie
McNish poetry, J.S.Watts,
Kay Goodridge, Leanne Moden, Netta Chachamu, and Nikki Marrone.
“Special
praise and thanks go to: Leanne, for help, support, and co-production; Carla
for a remarkable and inspiring cover design; Alice for getting us all together
in aid of CRCC in the first place and, of course, to the Centre itself, for all
its amazing work.
“You’ll
be able to get your own copy at Women’s
Work: A Celebration of Female Performers on 1st November at The Fountain
Cambridge.”
I was stoked. Not
only had we produced this in record time, but it was rather beautiful, and will
hopefully raise another little bit of money for a very worthy cause. In addition, I’d managed to say “yes” to
someone who’d offered to help. I even delegated
tasks and everything (don’t faint!)… Yes, we’ll make it available online, but only
after the “launch” of the physical version on 1st November. I’d also broken the back of fear around
producing another Allographic anthology
(I may go into this at some other point on this blog; who knows…) by just
getting on and doing it. Expect more
goodness in the near future.
Anyway, I was then asked (by a friendly, feminist, cis-male
friend) on Facebook if there was any justification in having the aforementioned
pamphlet raising funds for CRCC featuring only work from female artists (takes
action from both sides of an equation to break down inequality, etc.). Without revealing who this was, and in the
interests of keeping everyone informed who’d like to be, opening the debate to
anyone who’d like to get engaged with it, here’s the justification (warning:
potentially tl;dr):
Firstly, it was meant to be a fund-raising publication of
work from the female performers who would be appearing on the night (people
seem more likely to donate if they get something back; people like to buy stuff
by people they’ve seen; this was a good solution to combine forces rather than
providing separate merch so that potential punters had to choose between
artists; not everyone on the bill would have merchandise to offer for the
donation stall in any case).
But the women from the 1st November gig didn’t respond in
sufficient numbers (for a start, not everyone had the right genre of material
to go into print) to fill a decent-sized pamphlet, so we expanded it to those
who’d been in the previous show, and then to other notable feminists from the
local area (Rebel Arts Women’s Radio), etc.
I decided to stick with female contributors for several
reasons:
1. It was the original remit as the performers in the
show(s) were all female.
I’m not saying that only women can talk about feminism, or
sexism, or rape (which involves all genders in all parts of the issue). Not in the slightest. However, the CRCC is run by women for women and
girls, the night chose to highlight the work of women, and I chose to follow
that theme with the accompanying product.
2. The title of the show is “Women’s Work” - producing a
pamphlet entitled “Women’s Work” filled with work by women seemed pretty
logical.
3. It’s still very much (in fact, more so now than
previously) the central tenet of Allographic to provide showcases for “other
words, other voices”; since women’s creative work is still, to my mind,
under-exposed in many (if not most) fields, I figured that retaining that theme
would fit nicely with Allographic’s core position.
4. You know what? Still, and all too often, even strong
women get stuck in that “so pleasantly assertive it’s borderline apologetic”
mode, so why not positively celebrate the creative work of women rather than
just emphasise the nature of victimhood associated with rape, and emphasise not
only the fight of feminism against the negative things that happen to women but
also in raising the profile of the positive things that women do? This is something that local homeless charity
FLACK does particularly well, for example.
Was the person who opened this debate with me worried about
that notion that feminism is seen as anti-men rather than pro-women? The thing is: to be feminist is to be
pro-people; to raise people up who are in a position of being discriminated
against is to elevate the whole human race and to improve the lives of those
who’ve just been stepped up to as well.
Feminism is a human rights movement while women are still in a worse
position than men. When the lot of women
across the globe is as good as that of men, I will no longer need to call
myself a feminist, and I’ll hang up my spurs with a smile.
I want the need for “positive discrimination”* to be dead and
buried, having done its job and been retired. But, until that halcyon day when
51% of people in the limelight are women, I’m going to keep trying to
positively promote the creative work of women, LGBTQI* people, people of colour,
disabled people, vulnerably housed people, and anyone else in the margins until
I no longer need to.
Have at it, interwebs.
________________
* A friend has just mentioned that “positive discrimination” should more accurately be called “positive action” - I like!
________________
* A friend has just mentioned that “positive discrimination” should more accurately be called “positive action” - I like!
Tuesday, 21 May 2013
Ahem. A Small Announcement...
So, after interminable internal wrangling, I've only gone and done it.
The next few paragraphs may give the impression that I'm not really excited. This is untrue - I'm so excited that I've passed beyond it into a state of mildly disbelieving calm as though I've gone and done this behind my own back which, in a way, I kind of have done. I had to.
Done what?
This:
http://allographic.bandcamp.com/merch/spring-a-poetry-pamphlet-by-fay-roberts
And this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CWOU890 (http://www.amazon.com/Spring-ebook/dp/B00CWOU890/ for those of you in the US)
Yes - I've put together a "pamphlet" (i.e. it's 4 pages short of a "book") of my poetry. I've self-published it in a limited run of 100 copies, some of which - why not?! - will get sent to places that review such things, and hopefully most of which - why not?! - will get sold (at least enough to make me my money back).
Yes - I've self-published. The reasons for this are many. Some of them are these:
It's been sent off to the printers and will likely turn up just in time for the ceremony. (I hope, what with me probably competing with all the people getting their thesis printed...) It's also been added to Kindle (yes - Amazon are evil; no - I couldn't think of a better way to do it; anyway - I've not put DRM on it so feel free to lend it around...).
It's really real, I've really done it, and you can really get a copy if you want. Review copies available on request.
Anyone who wants to discuss the merits and demerits of self-publishing can go at it - I'm all fired-up! :D
(Anyone who wants to ask about Allographic publishing their pamphlet should contact books@allographic.co.uk.)
The next few paragraphs may give the impression that I'm not really excited. This is untrue - I'm so excited that I've passed beyond it into a state of mildly disbelieving calm as though I've gone and done this behind my own back which, in a way, I kind of have done. I had to.
Done what?
This:
http://allographic.bandcamp.com/merch/spring-a-poetry-pamphlet-by-fay-roberts
And this:
https://www.amazon.co.uk/dp/B00CWOU890 (http://www.amazon.com/Spring-ebook/dp/B00CWOU890/ for those of you in the US)
Yes - I've put together a "pamphlet" (i.e. it's 4 pages short of a "book") of my poetry. I've self-published it in a limited run of 100 copies, some of which - why not?! - will get sent to places that review such things, and hopefully most of which - why not?! - will get sold (at least enough to make me my money back).
Yes - I've self-published. The reasons for this are many. Some of them are these:
- This way it actually happened. Coz, you know...
- I'm pretty sure that many (certainly the more recent) of my poems aren't eligible to enter into pamphlet competitions anyway because they've already been published in some form (t'internet, anthologies, vocal recordings).
- It's about time.
- With the Saboteur Awards ceremony coming up, I felt that I needed more than a few home-printed 4-page booklets of haiku and senryū to punt at people. When will I get a better opportunity in the next few months to have a stall in a room full of people who like indie poetry pamphlets...?!
- What's the point of owning a small press if I can't inflict my own stuff on people...?!
It's been sent off to the printers and will likely turn up just in time for the ceremony. (I hope, what with me probably competing with all the people getting their thesis printed...) It's also been added to Kindle (yes - Amazon are evil; no - I couldn't think of a better way to do it; anyway - I've not put DRM on it so feel free to lend it around...).
It's really real, I've really done it, and you can really get a copy if you want. Review copies available on request.
Anyone who wants to discuss the merits and demerits of self-publishing can go at it - I'm all fired-up! :D
(Anyone who wants to ask about Allographic publishing their pamphlet should contact books@allographic.co.uk.)
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)