From Anglia to Inaclete; A poetry reading by Colin Myers and a short conversation with Ian Stephen
Colin Myers reads his poem 'Tide's Reach' a nostalgic look at East Anglia. He goes on to describe his meeting with Stornoway Blacksmith Calum ‘Stealag’.
The Image 'Tide's Reach' accompanies Colin's poem and the two images of metalwork by Ian Stephen illustrate the pieces described in Colin's recording.
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Both Colin and Ian's work Feature in this years Faclan writers festival hosted by An Lanntair and available to view and listen to on line free here. https://vimeo.com/showcase/7814586
'Tide's Reach'
by Colin Myers
'Metal Plate one'
by Ian Stephen
'Metal Plate Two'
by Ian Stephen
Caught in This Moment of Time
My name is Ron Coleman and I am an aspiring play writer I am mentored in my work by Laura Cameron Lewis as part of the An Lanntair mentoring program. I also suffer from memory problems and have been told I have a cognitive impairment. This play was premiered at An Lanntair Stornoway Isle of Lewis in September 2019 and was for me one of the best moments of my life. The play uses humour to explore the relationship between a man with dementia and his artificial intelligence system Alexa. it is based on my own relationship with Ai and during lockdown we worked to turn the stage version into a radio play hope we hope you enjoy it. You can also view a video of the live premier of Ron's play here.
Karl Leon
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Old Georgian, King Edwardian and proud renaissance-man revivalist. I am a scientist and scholar by trade. However, a dramatically inclined athlete, artist and religiously relegated from the norms of conventional linear progression with an eye for a laterally inclined career path with ambitious progression in mind. More than a consummate journeyman with a welcoming, multi-lingual manner.
I've spent my time in lockdown as much as possible sharpening my writing and editing skills with the help of two mentors Ryan Von Winkle and Alycia Pirmohamed. It hasn't been easy to leave my pad, to be honest, but that's where the creativity comes from, arenas of discomfort. Producing a portfolio of poetry for the purpose of publication and finishing off my second volume "Poems in K Major" a follow on from my first publication, "Poems in K minor".
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Pauline Prior-Pitt
Pauline Prior-Pitt lives on the island of North Uist. She has written nine collections of poetry and four pamphlets. She regularly performs in literature festivals and poetry events in Scotland and England and her poems have appeared on BBC Radio 3 and 4, and on Channel 4 television.
Pauline's poems, alternately funny and poignant, beautifully reflect the preoccupations of women's lives covering birth, death and everything in between. A recent collection Be an Angel is a selected works of her poems about women.
She also writes poems about North Uist, a land of wind and water and stone.
Her collection, North Uist Sea Poems won the Callum MacDonald Award.
Her latest collection in which she combines women and the sea, is called Written on the Shore.
Professionally trained as an actor, she is an experienced performer, used to any size of audience. She is also happy to discuss her own creative practice. Pauline is the founder of Last Thursdays poetry evenings at Taigh Chearsabhagh Arts Centre where she also runs monthly poetry workshops.
This poem is in three parts. It comes from the section on ageing in my selected poems about Women, called
“ Be an ANGEL”. published by Longstone Books.
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A SERIES OF THREE POEMS ABOUT DEATH
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When someone close to you has just died, everything you look at seems to remind you of them.
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I was watching people walking towards me in shopping mall, and it suddenly struck me that all of them were carrying dead people inside of them, including me, mothers, fathers, friends, children
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This poem is about loss
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A SERIES OF THREE POEMS ABOUT THE SEA
From “ Storm Biscuits “ Published by Spike Press
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DAY 60
"This poem was written on day 60 of lockdown and imagines self isolation to be a guest staying in my house"
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IN THE END
From her Collection ” Elsewhere”, Published SPIKE PRESS
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A SERIES OF THREE POEMS ABOUT WOMEN
All three of the poems are taken from my selected works of poems about women, called “Be an Angel”.
Eve, and The Angel are from “Be an Angel” published by Longstone Books.
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A wee diary at the time of the virus 3 by Ian Stephen
There are inherited narratives. Many are being shared on line now as a safe way of meeting. Linda Williamson is generously offering transcriptions of the stories heard from Duncan Williamson. These are widely shared but you can catch them on Facebook sites for The Society for Storytelling and Scottish Storytelling Forum. The Orcadian Tom Muir has also been sharing his powerful and entertaining versions of a trad story a day as ‘Tales for Troubled Times’.
Now here’s a Long Island version of a timeless myth which claims many settings:
A wee diary at the time of the virus 2 by Ian Stephen
It was sore last weekend, knowing that we would have been over rejoining the generous community that is Ullapool Book Festival. But events happened on line. And projects will have to be developed that way too, without meeting face to face. TRACS commissioned me to collaborate with Mike Vass (also met at UBF) to make a new show which will be essentially the spoken storyline of the novel within a novel I’m just completing.
We may or may not be able to perform live at the Scottish International Storytelling Festival, late this year. But the work will have been developed and I’ve been asked to bear in mind that it could take different versions, some of them digital.
Here’s a first instalment: (Read Ian's full blog post here.)
Dystopioid Lullabies’ by Richy McKendrick
Way back at the start of the lockdown, when I knew I wouldn’t be back at my ‘normal’ job till at least the end of June; I felt exceptionally motivated to begin writing, producing and recording reams of Music. The problem with this was that the aforementioned enthusiasm was coupled by a sense of impending dread and worry about our predicament as a species and how this pandemic would impact my family and myself.
I managed to push through and spent several hours over three days recording and producing a demo version of an instrumental song I had written some years ago…
Dalbir Singh Rattan
This is a selection of tracks recently recorded at Black Bay studio in Bernera
Dal was working in collaboration with two friends who he met from doing Tabla workshops in Nottingham at the New Art Exchange
Danny Ladwa who is an acclaimed singer and beat boxer (he actually has a school of beat boxing in London) and Pippo de Palma who is a guitarist and producer. Dal met them both at a community workshop they were part of. They had a great time and really connected musically.
Read more about Dal in his blog post.
Andrew Eaton Lewis
A few days ago, before Coronavirus confined us all to our homes, I was in a studio in Edinburgh recording music for a theatre show that has, of course, now been postponed. The show, How The Light Gets In, takes its title from Leonard Cohen's famous song, Anthem - a signature song for Camille O'Sullivan, one of the creative team.
One of the songs we recorded was a cover of Anthem - more a cover of Camille's version, actually, than a cover of the original - with me singing a guide vocal that would later be replaced. We then decided Anthem wouldn't make it into the show, since licensing it would be a nightmare, and we wrote a new song to replace it.
Read more on Andrew's Blog Post
Gerry Blaine
Gerry and The Shed would like to share our live performance at the EDF festival 2018 of our song Seven Sisters. We are unable to perform live but hope this wee snippet of our band will help. We are a wee family band made up of Niamh Blane bass and vocals, Calum Blane lead guitar and vocals. Ken MacLennan on drums and me Gerry Blane on guitar and vocals. We write all our own songs and you can find out more from our website. www.theshedband.uk