creative South East

Garden Poetry Party – Launch of Rochester Literature Festival – 22nd July 2012 – Rochester – Kent

Creative and Art Events

A brand new festival for Rochester will launch in July under the banner of the Rochester Literature Festival.

With the inaugural Festival planned to coincide with National Poetry Day in October 2013, a number of fringe events will take place beforehand, the first of which is The Garden Poetry Party, on Sunday 22nd July, at Eastgate House Gardens.

Celebrated Medway Poet Bill Lewis will be joined by storyteller and founding RLF (Rochester Literature Festival) member Philip Kane, The James Worse Public Address Method and singer songwriters Abigail Zeiring-Delmado and Didi Bergman. Comperes for the afternoon will be stand up comics CO Jones and Mat Wills.

Among the entertainment will be at least one open mic session and a children’s creative corner, with more activities available for visitors to join in with.The event will take place between 12 noon and 4pm and there will be refreshments available to buy, courtesy of Dot Cafe, Sonya’s Cupcakes and The Cocktail Club.

Should it rain, the event will be held inside Eastgate House itself. A Medway Archive exhibition entitled ‘Metal Men of Medway’ is taking place inside at the same time, which looks at the stories of the art and memorials of Medway’s streets.

A number of book and craft stalls will also be in the garden. Enquiries on how to secure one can be made to rochesterlitfest@gmail.com

Promotions Director Jaye Nolan outlined the aims of the festival: “The Rochester Literature Festival wishes to bring writers, performers, directors, producers and film makers together, anyone, in fact, whose work has creative writing at its heart.

We’ll be looking for challenges and events, and the chance to collaborate with likeminded folk.

Rochester has a fantastic reputation for festivals incorporating dance, music and art, and, of course, our most celebrated author, Charles Dickens. We’re sure he would approve of a dedicated literature festival, especially one that will bring Medway’s huge variety of writers, old and new, to the fore.”

To keep up to date with all the news from the Rochester Literature Festival, visit their website here http://rochesterlitfest.com/ follow them on Twitter @RochLitFest  and like their Facebook page: http://www.facebook.com/RochesterLiteratureFestival

Area: South East

Billy Childish Art Exhibition – Historic Dockyard Chatham – 1st June to 30th September 2012

Creative and Art Events

Billy Childish is a local cult icon, internationally celebrated painter, writer and musician who was born in Chatham, Kent.  He has spent the last 35 years developing an impressive body of work that is staggering in both scope and scale. 

As a young man Billy Childish spent six months in 1976 working as an apprentice Stonemason in Chatham’s Dockyard, and in 2011 he returned to the Dockyard as its first official Artist in Residence. The culmination of this residency will be an exhibition of new paintings, drawings and prints at the Dockyard’s gallery – No.1 Smithery: The Gallery, whilst other work made during this period will be sent around the world and shown in solo exhibitions in London, Seoul, Berlin and then Los Angeles. 

Curated by London based Steve Lowe, the Dockyard exhibition – Frozen Estuary and Other Paintings of the Divine Ordinary – will also show a selection of Childish’s recorded and written work along with other background material relating to his life and times in the Medway area. 

The exhibition will be displayed in the NO.1 Smithery. For opening times please visit http://www.thedockyard.co.uk/Opening_Times

Area:   UK   Britain   East of England   East Midlands   London  North East   North West    Yorkshire    Scotland South East    South West    Wales   West Midlands

Join a French Theatre Company and be part of the Fuse Medway Festival 2012

Creative and Art Events, Creative Opportunities

 

As part of the annual outdoor festival’s commitment to the local Medway community, it is offering a very unusual opportunity to anyone up for a new challenge.  French theatre company Houdart-Heuclin is bringing their new piece of theatre to Medway and Fuse would like to bring a group of people together with the company to produce a stunning piece of outdoor entertainment.

If you’d like to try something new (you never know, you may discover a hidden talent) then do read on.  Fuse and Compagnie Houdart-Heuclin are looking to develop a ‘roving’ piece of theatre called ‘The Padox’, which will perform at the Festival during the weekend of the 15-17 June.  Workshops will take place at Gillingham Adult Education Centre from Wednesday 13th to Friday 15th  June (9.30am to 2.30pm) in preparation for the big weekend.  Participants will learn new skills from the renowned company such as theatre, singing, use of puppetry and other animation techniques. Best of all, they will play a crucial role in this year’s Festival.

The Padox have been developed by Compagnie Houdart-Heuclin and are an incredible collection of characters never seen before in the UK.  They perform everyday acts within the crowd, but they stand out and make us see our surroundings as never before.

Padox participants will appear at the Opening Parade on Friday 15th (4.30 – 5.30pm) will stroll around Chatham town centre on Saturday 16th at the Street Arts Day (12 noon to 5pm) and then wander through Rochester Castle Gardens on Sunday 17th (12 noon to 5pm) There will also be an opportunity for the group to work on a full show of Vivaldi’s Four Seasons.

Participation is free and all those who fancy a challenge should contact Fuse’s Artistic Director Lélia Greci by emailing Lelia.Greci@medway.gov.uk or by phoning her on 07594 578 646.  Places are limited, so please call by Wednesday 23rd May at the latest.

About Fuse

Happening over the weekend of 15-17 June, Fuse Medway Festival brings the very best artists together, taking the colourful and unusual onto the streets of Chatham, Rochester and Gillingham, bringing people together for fun and celebration. Events are free and no tickets are required.  For more information go to the website at www.fusefestival.org.uk or join them on Facebook or Twitter.

Area – South East

An Interview With Zara Carpenter – Milliner and Head Piece Creator

Featured Creatives

Usually found busily sewing away in the Deaf Cat cafe in Rochester, Zara Carpenter is an inspiring craftswoman who leads the way for many creatives. Maybe by learning some more about her we can draw even more inspiration…

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