The 8th Festival of Suffolk Poetry is taking the best of what it had before the pandemic, learning from its virtual presentation last year, and adding some new variety and more guest poets to broaden its reach.
As it did last year, the festival will cover two days: Friday, 13 May and Saturday, 14 May, although only Friday will be virtual and Saturday will be live in our regular home, the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts, Stowmarket, Church Walk, IP14 1ET.
Click the titles of the events for tickets.
Pascale Petit’s eighth collection, Tiger Girl (Bloodaxe Books, 2020), was shortlisted for the Forward Prize and for Wales Book of the Year. Her seventh collection, Mama Amazonica (Bloodaxe Books, 2017), won the inaugural Laurel Prize for eco-poetry, the RSL’s Ondaatje Prize, and was a Poetry Book Society Choice. Four previous collections were shortlisted for the T.S. Eliot Prize.
Friday 13th will be a day of virtual events to cater for our more distant friends and those unable to travel.
- 10:30-13:00 Pascale Petit presents a workshop ‘Transforming Trauma‘
Pascale says of this workshop: “In my books Mama Amazonica and Tiger Girl I have explored trauma through far-off locations, such as the Amazon rainforest and India. We will delve safely into trauma by estranging the material and embarking on fun adventures – in the imagination, or recollected – and read poets who are intrepid explorers of landscapes and the psyche.” - 15:30-16:00 ‘Under the Influence‘ – Caroline Gay Way presents six poets who have been influenced by a well-known poem. Let us know when you buy your ticket whether you wish to be considered, and perhaps you will be one of them.
- 16:30-17:15 Open Mic – Sign up in order to read your own poems.
Rebecca Goss is a poet, tutor and mentor living in Suffolk. Her first full-length collection, The Anatomy of Structures, was published by Flambard Press in 2010. Her second collection, Her Birth, (Carcanet/Northern House, 2013) was shortlisted for the 2013 Forward Prize for Best Collection, won the Poetry category in the East Anglian Book Awards 2013, and in 2015 was shortlisted for the Warwick Prize for Writing and the Portico Prize for Literature. Carousel, her collaboration with the photographer Chris Routledge was published with Guillemot Press in 2018. Rebecca’s third full-length collection, Girl, was published with Carcanet/Northern House in 2019 and shortlisted for the East Anglian Book Awards 2019. She has an MA in Creative Writing from Cardiff University and a PhD by Publication from the University of East Anglia. Twitter: @gosspoems
Saturday 14th will be live at the John Peel Centre, Stowmarket, although the afternoon and evening will also be live-streamed on Zoom for those unable to attend.
- 10:00-12:30 Rebecca Goss guides a workshop ‘Exploring the Spectrum: The Colour of Poetry‘
André Mangeot’s latest collection (Blood Rain, Seren 2020) blends the public and personal in a powerful meditation on what we’re doing to the planet and ourselves, seen from many individual perspectives. His two earlier collections are Natural Causes (2003) and Mixer (2005) along with two books of short stories, A Little Javanese (2008) and True North (2010). His poems have appeared in the TLS, Spectator, New Statesman and won many competitions, including The Robert Graves Prize in 2019. For over ten years he was a member of the successful poetry performance group, The Joy of Six. A longtime resident of Suffolk, he now lives in Cambridge.
- 10:00-12:30 André Mangeot‘s workshop is called ‘Poetry, Politics and Contemporary Issues’
John Greening has received the Bridport Prize, the TLS Prize, an Arvon and a Cholmondeley Award. He has published over twenty collections, notably To the War Poets (2013) and The Silence (2019), both with Carcanet. There have been several recent pamphlets and his selected reviews and essays on poetry (Vapour Trails) appeared in 2020 from Shoestring. Earlier books include Heath (Nine Arches) with Penelope Shuttle and the Egypt memoir, Threading a Dream (Gatehouse). He has edited Edmund Blunden’s Undertones of War (OUP, 2015), the poetry of Geoffrey Grigson (Greenwich Exchange, 2017) and a selection of Iain Crichton Smith (Deer on the High Hills, Carcanet, 2021). His critical studies cover the Elizabethans, Hardy, Yeats, Edward Thomas, WW1 Poets, and Ted Hughes. Anthologies include Accompanied Voices: Poets on Composers, Ten Poems about Sheds and Hollow Palaces (modern country house poems – with Kevin Gardner, Liverpool UP, 2021). His American Selected appears from Baylor UP in 2023. A longstanding TLS reviewer and Gregory Award judge, he has collaborated with musicians such as Roderick Williams, Cecilia McDowall and Philip Lancaster. He was RLF Writing Fellow at Newnham College. More information at John Greening (poet) – Wikipedia
- 13:00-17:30 John Greening heads up the afternoon with a close reading of a significant poem plus a reading of his own, and is joined by Suffolk and Essex Poetry Cafés, storyteller Josh Harris, plus close readings from Peter Kennedy and Richard Whiting. The afternoon concludes with an Open Mic.
- 18:45-21:30 Two SPS poets, Sue Wallace-Shaddad and Ian Hartley open the evening, followed by a two-act play, All Change!, written in verse by SPS poet Peter Sandberg, with incidental music by Colin Whyles, and performed by professional actors. The festival closes with readings from guest poets Rebecca Goss and André Mangeot.
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2 responses to “8th Festival of Suffolk Poetry”
Hi
I’m Anti-Social Worker, a grime street poet whose new album is getting played on Radio 1, 1 Xtra and 6 Music currently. I am playing the poetry tent at Glastonbury next year. I would like to play at your festival too. I look forward to your reply. Peace P
Here is the press release and background notes for my new album FYI.
Anti Social Worker War Inna Ghetto – YouTube
NME street poet/Cult Ibiza DJ Anti Social Worker returns with new ‘Grime Poetry’ art form and album savaging the Government
Anti Social Worker AKA Paul Wellings has been called a ‘militant music legend’. He’s one of the original rebel pioneers of underground black music on iconic LWR pirate radio. He’s toured with reggae icons like Peter Tosh (Marley’s partner) and Eek A Mouse; He’s performed with Billy Bragg, John Cooper Clarke and Benjamin Zephaniah; He recorded his first album with the UK’s leading dub producer The Mad Professor (of Massive Attack fame); He was championed by Radio 1 DJ John Peel; He’s written for the seminal NME music paper and he’s DJ’d as Madhatter Paul at Pacha in Ibiza and Ministry Of Sound in London. Now he’s returned with a new art form ‘Grime Poetry’ and an album that savages the Government.
Born and raised in the London New Towns and East End – Anti Social Worker is a PR’s wet dream – hustler, writer, MC, DJ, musican, author, freedom fighter. He describes his new album as ‘Johnny Rotten meets Ghetts’.
He added ‘ I moved to the east coast during the pandemic and it gave me peace of mind to create another album after a long absence. I teamed up with West London’s finest rapper Le Magnifiq on his top black indie label M1music.com and the rest is history. I make rightous anger music that comes from a good heart in trying to bring unity, equality and peace. I’m a street poet and multi cultural white Londoner. I was part raised in the East End’s Tower Hamlets borough – the most multi cultural place on the planet. I know the benefits of embracing other cultures and fighting all the bigotry and my music reflects that with influences from reggae, hip hop, trap, grime etc. Unlike the white gatekeepers of some black music scenes who want to seperate the music from the culture that created it at the festivals they run – I never forget the foundations of underground black music that I helped pioneer on the iconic LWR pirate radio station. And above all I’ll never forget the house parties we had to hold because racist club door polices in the 80s and 90s wouldn’t allow a largely black audience in. We had to be militant and fight back in those days. We played mainly message music not the commercial lovey dovey stuff that the gatekeepers played – we created our own scene and were diametrically opposed to the white Essex soul boy mafia. The lyrics on this album are my whole life story about fighting against injustice but I’m a loveable rude boy not a bad boy.’
The album by Anti Social Worker is called ‘Militant Business and Grime Poetry’ and is available on CD format exclusively from leading indie black music label m1music.com.
-Ends-
For interviews, photos, radio sessions, TV and festivals contact pwellings61@gmail.com. You can see see all of Anti Social Worker’s videos and work on You Tube and online.
Background notes: Paul Wellings AKA Anti Social Worker/Paul T/DJ Madhatter (NME) was one of the original rebel pioneers of underground black music on the iconic LWR pirate radio station in the late 80s. He is also an acclaimed author, broadcaster, journalist and spoken word artist. He attended the famous free Anna Scher Drama School in Islington, North London (where Kathy Burke, Spandau Ballet’s Gary and Martin Kemp, Phil Daniels and Oscar-winner Daniel Kaluuya went). He was named after the civil rights singer Paul Robeson (his mum’s favourite). He was born in the London overspill and raised in the East End and is the grandson of a famously philanthropic Miner and son of Public Sector workers.
In 1985 Wellings was lucky to land a prestigious freelance job on the music press with the New Musical Express (NME), thanks to iconic Editor Neil Spencer and also on Black Echoes. He was one of the first to write about the Rare Groove/Rap scene and its links with the soccer casual movement. He hates name droppers (as he told The Pope recently!) but has interviewed hundreds of diverse musicians including James Brown, Barry White, Public Enemy, Lady Leshurr, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols, the Specials, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Yellowman, Paul Weller, Jazzie B, Natalie Cole, Barry White, Ian Dury, Norman Jay, the Wailers, Gregory Isaacs, John Martyn, Ronnie Scott, and random oddities like Hollywood actor Christian Slater, activist Tony Benn and the notorious Reggie Kray.
He also worked on Mojo, the Daily Mirror and London’s Evening Standard, writing about music, sport and the arts. Paul has appeared on numerous TV shows discussing football, black music, youth culture, soccer casuals, and pirate radio. He was interviewed for the major ITV music series S.O.U.L. about underground music. In the early 1980s as a teenager his punk-reggae group the Anti Social Workers released the LP Positive Style, produced by the legendary reggae producer the Mad Professor (of Massive Attack fame) spitting lyrics over his dub tunes, to rave reviews. The group was championed by the mighty Radio DJ John Peel and supported reggae royalty Peter Tosh (Bob Marley’s partner) and Eek A Mouse on tour and did well in the Japanese reggae charts. He is about to release a follow-up album under the name Anti Social Worker on m1music.com which contains new material and one unreleased lyric from the first album given a re-mix. He has performed poetry with the likes of John Cooper Clarke, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Benjamin Zephaniah. He has had five books published: This Is The Modern Word (his poetry collection); I’m A Journalist…Get Me Out Of Here (about life on the NME and Mirror); Spend It Like Beckham (about the greed in football); Sex, Lines And Videotape (about cult movies); The Divine Comedians (about Radical Stand Up Comedy) and the screenplay Thieves (for BBC Play For Today). But his expertise was as a rare grooves DJ with underground radio station LWR (the station that launched Radio 1’s Pete Tong, Carl Cox, Mr C, Westwood, Derek B and Maxi Jazz from Faithless). He inherited the name ‘DJ Madhatter Paul’ after driving to soul weekenders with Trevor ‘Madhatter’ Nelson who went to Radio One and dropped the ‘Madhatter’ tag. He has DJ’d at Festivals, One Dayers, Weekenders, Ministry Of Sound in London and Pacha in Ibiza. In 2021 he launched the pressure group ‘DJs Against Bigotry’ to try and stop DJs with hate crime views playing major venues. He was one of the first DJs to play Public Enemy and Soul II Soul on air anywhere in the world and was a B-Boy DJ as a teenager. Now he just DJs, performs spoken word and writes when he can. He is married to the niece of the late great reggae superstar Sugar Minott. He is fuelled by socialism, the love of a good woman and West Ham United…You can see more of his work on You Tube or Google for pictures by searching ‘Paul Wellings NME’ or on link below.
https://m1music.com/antisocialworker.html
https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Writer/paul-wellings?orderBy=PublishedDate
Hi,
I’m Anti-Social Worker, a grime street poet whose new album is getting played on Radio 1, 1 Xtra and 6 Music currently. I am playing the poetry tent at Glastonbury next year. I would like to play at your festival too. I look forward to your reply. Peace P
Here is the press release and background notes for my new album FYI.
Anti Social Worker War Inna Ghetto – YouTube
NME street poet/Cult Ibiza DJ Anti Social Worker returns with new ‘Grime Poetry’ art form and album savaging the Government
Anti Social Worker AKA Paul Wellings has been called a ‘militant music legend’. He’s one of the original rebel pioneers of underground black music on iconic LWR pirate radio. He’s toured with reggae icons like Peter Tosh (Marley’s partner) and Eek A Mouse; He’s performed with Billy Bragg, John Cooper Clarke and Benjamin Zephaniah; He recorded his first album with the UK’s leading dub producer The Mad Professor (of Massive Attack fame); He was championed by Radio 1 DJ John Peel; He’s written for the seminal NME music paper and he’s DJ’d as Madhatter Paul at Pacha in Ibiza and Ministry Of Sound in London. Now he’s returned with a new art form ‘Grime Poetry’ and an album that savages the Government.
Born and raised in the London New Towns and East End – Anti Social Worker is a PR’s wet dream – hustler, writer, MC, DJ, musican, author, freedom fighter. He describes his new album as ‘Johnny Rotten meets Ghetts’.
He added ‘ I moved to the east coast during the pandemic and it gave me peace of mind to create another album after a long absence. I teamed up with West London’s finest rapper Le Magnifiq on his top black indie label M1music.com and the rest is history. I make rightous anger music that comes from a good heart in trying to bring unity, equality and peace. I’m a street poet and multi cultural white Londoner. I was part raised in the East End’s Tower Hamlets borough – the most multi cultural place on the planet. I know the benefits of embracing other cultures and fighting all the bigotry and my music reflects that with influences from reggae, hip hop, trap, grime etc. Unlike the white gatekeepers of some black music scenes who want to seperate the music from the culture that created it at the festivals they run – I never forget the foundations of underground black music that I helped pioneer on the iconic LWR pirate radio station. And above all I’ll never forget the house parties we had to hold because racist club door polices in the 80s and 90s wouldn’t allow a largely black audience in. We had to be militant and fight back in those days. We played mainly message music not the commercial lovey dovey stuff that the gatekeepers played – we created our own scene and were diametrically opposed to the white Essex soul boy mafia. The lyrics on this album are my whole life story about fighting against injustice but I’m a loveable rude boy not a bad boy.’
The album by Anti Social Worker is called ‘Militant Business and Grime Poetry’ and is available on CD format exclusively from leading indie black music label m1music.com.
-Ends-
For interviews, photos, radio sessions, TV and festivals contact pwellings61@gmail.com. You can see see all of Anti Social Worker’s videos and work on You Tube and online.
Background notes: Paul Wellings AKA Anti Social Worker/Paul T/DJ Madhatter (NME) was one of the original rebel pioneers of underground black music on the iconic LWR pirate radio station in the late 80s. He is also an acclaimed author, broadcaster, journalist and spoken word artist. He attended the famous free Anna Scher Drama School in Islington, North London (where Kathy Burke, Spandau Ballet’s Gary and Martin Kemp, Phil Daniels and Oscar-winner Daniel Kaluuya went). He was named after the civil rights singer Paul Robeson (his mum’s favourite). He was born in the London overspill and raised in the East End and is the grandson of a famously philanthropic Miner and son of Public Sector workers.
In 1985 Wellings was lucky to land a prestigious freelance job on the music press with the New Musical Express (NME), thanks to iconic Editor Neil Spencer and also on Black Echoes. He was one of the first to write about the Rare Groove/Rap scene and its links with the soccer casual movement. He hates name droppers (as he told The Pope recently!) but has interviewed hundreds of diverse musicians including James Brown, Barry White, Public Enemy, Lady Leshurr, Frankie Goes To Hollywood, the Rolling Stones, the Sex Pistols, the Specials, LL Cool J, Queen Latifah, Yellowman, Paul Weller, Jazzie B, Natalie Cole, Barry White, Ian Dury, Norman Jay, the Wailers, Gregory Isaacs, John Martyn, Ronnie Scott, and random oddities like Hollywood actor Christian Slater, activist Tony Benn and the notorious Reggie Kray.
He also worked on Mojo, the Daily Mirror and London’s Evening Standard, writing about music, sport and the arts. Paul has appeared on numerous TV shows discussing football, black music, youth culture, soccer casuals, and pirate radio. He was interviewed for the major ITV music series S.O.U.L. about underground music. In the early 1980s as a teenager his punk-reggae group the Anti Social Workers released the LP Positive Style, produced by the legendary reggae producer the Mad Professor (of Massive Attack fame) spitting lyrics over his dub tunes, to rave reviews. The group was championed by the mighty Radio DJ John Peel and supported reggae royalty Peter Tosh (Bob Marley’s partner) and Eek A Mouse on tour and did well in the Japanese reggae charts. He is about to release a follow-up album under the name Anti Social Worker on m1music.com which contains new material and one unreleased lyric from the first album given a re-mix. He has performed poetry with the likes of John Cooper Clarke, Linton Kwesi Johnson and Benjamin Zephaniah. He has had five books published: This Is The Modern Word (his poetry collection); I’m A Journalist…Get Me Out Of Here (about life on the NME and Mirror); Spend It Like Beckham (about the greed in football); Sex, Lines And Videotape (about cult movies); The Divine Comedians (about Radical Stand Up Comedy) and the screenplay Thieves (for BBC Play For Today). But his expertise was as a rare grooves DJ with underground radio station LWR (the station that launched Radio 1’s Pete Tong, Carl Cox, Mr C, Westwood, Derek B and Maxi Jazz from Faithless). He inherited the name ‘DJ Madhatter Paul’ after driving to soul weekenders with Trevor ‘Madhatter’ Nelson who went to Radio One and dropped the ‘Madhatter’ tag. He has DJ’d at Festivals, One Dayers, Weekenders, Ministry Of Sound in London and Pacha in Ibiza. In 2021 he launched the pressure group ‘DJs Against Bigotry’ to try and stop DJs with hate crime views playing major venues. He was one of the first DJs to play Public Enemy and Soul II Soul on air anywhere in the world and was a B-Boy DJ as a teenager. Now he just DJs, performs spoken word and writes when he can. He is married to the niece of the late great reggae superstar Sugar Minott. He is fuelled by socialism, the love of a good woman and West Ham United…You can see more of his work on You Tube or Google for pictures by searching ‘Paul Wellings NME’ or on link below.
https://m1music.com/antisocialworker.html
https://www.rocksbackpages.com/Library/Writer/paul-wellings?orderBy=PublishedDate