Another packed and varied night of poetry and verse at RARA last night. Not for the first time, we had over thirty people wanting to read. Sadly this meant some didnt get to so from now on, Julie Pritchard has opted to say the maximum reading time allowed will be eight minutes rather than the ten people have been able to have so far. And on particularly busy nights that slot length might have to reduced further to be as fair as possible to as many readers as possible. Thirty read last night which is amazing for an ongoing monthly open mic night, but shorter slots mean we can hear even more voices in the future. Of course well hear them even better if everybody who comes to read listens to everybody who comes to read ;-) RARA is, after all about being welcoming to whoever wants to read and the last thing we want is anyone to be thinking regulars get more leeway. First timers, old hands, and everyone in between all given equal respect, and equally attentive ears, that was what Julie Pritchard set out to set up a year ago and that spirit is something Im sure we are all keen to maintain. And if those of us who have read often remember how it felt to be doing it for the first time, Im sure we can support new readers who may be a little timid at first and help them grow in confidence by giving them the respect we hope we get from them when we read, yes? Balloons and cakes are great and as well as celebrating the first year of the event it is surely also a time to celebrate the first thoughts that brought it into being! Julie Pritchard opened proceedings last night with a song for Gaza, followed by her poem Goddess of Dawn. Then she followed that by reading Knights of the Brown Table on behalf of Joshua Allan Adam, a former regular RARA face who has moved back to Canada but wanted his words to be part of the first RARA anniversary in some way :-) Julie Samways, writer of a booklet callet Growing Old Disgracefully read Salad Days and Whats for tea? In her self effacing but slyly humorous way she let us know that Anything is the wrong answer if she is asking what you want to eat Alan Roderick from Newport, a seasoned reader of his poems (and runner of a regular poetry night in Newport at Ye Olde Murenger) read Mobile phone and Elvis and two other poems in another case of not first tome reader but first time here He raised a few laughs with his evisceration of whoever was once foolhardy enough to steal his phone! Bernard Pearson from Newport, a third consecutive non-first time reader who was at RARA for the first time, reading Grudge, Mid wife, Desert soul and more, and some were at first a little concerned about the things being said about an ex until the revelation that the words were the self defensive barbs of the kind that can be sent out by the broken hearted :-) Julie Croad made me feel peckish with her words, reading pieces including the food related Magic Mushrooms and This thing called Veg. Not her first time at RARA and hopefully not her last :-) Ron Savory, poet musician on a break and organiser of an excellent art exhibition and performance event in Swansea earlier this year made his RARA debut. His pieces included Belisha Beacon and Karma and at some point there will be a book of his work and he has expressed interest in having one of his launch events in Cardiff, so to misquote Arnie, he will in all likelihood be back. Nice one Ron for making the trip, and bringing along the next in this list: Will Macmillan Jones, sometime rattler of short pithy gags and writer of Fantasy Fiction (check out his stuff on Amazon) was ANOTHER RARA first-timer gifting our ears with pieces including Summer Lady and Leaving Time. Sheila Hart, who has grown as a reader since I first saw her perform relaxed into her delivery of pieces including Each and Every Day and Cloak, which explored the different ways we present ourselves to the world. After some not so easy times of late, Sheila eased into her time behind the mic :-) Fran Smith a returning open mic performer at RARA , very much the humanist and hopeful healer of inner hurts in her day job brought hopefulness and pleas for the better side of us to assert itself with her readings of Games of Hunger, St Agnes, Grey matter and Peace One Day. Her heart on her sleeve as she read, only implacable cynics could fail to join with her spirit :-) Dave Daggers, a RARA regular deliverer of wit and song gave us his believable at first but then increasingly surreal How i discovered Poetry. Well have to agree to disagree though about the damage done by rap though, dude! Christian Searle once again brought his gentle presence to the mic and once again delighted with Bulgarian Travel Agent and Conceptual Prayer,the latter being a verbally complex examination of cinema as an art form and exploiter of baser tastes. John Brooks brought the first half to a close with his latest RARA stint, his sonorous voice seductive enough to make the winks of cynicism in his words humorously palatable but with Thunder Cloud Tremorfa demonstrated an hitherto unseen (by me at least) ability to create a cuddly and sweet image of a smaller thundercloud trailing slightly incompetently in the wake of a larger, more overtly impressive, one Then came the cake, and some bangs during the break as a balloon or two was popped (By Julie?) Julie Pritchard reopened proceedings, starting the second half with a repeat of her short song for Gaza and then she introduced... Bridget Leggy Tanner, after a false start managed to recite her short piece Hate from memory, showing how she is growing in confidence since starting to read at RARA and she followed up with Serial Killer parts one and two, with the killer not being a human being... I read most of The Coward, my extended poem from the POV of a First World War deserter writing his tale during the last night of his life, trying to make sense of his crime before his imminent execution. Not very cheerful stuff, but I was happy with how it went over. Jack Pascoe,a very experienced reader with slam wins under his belt appeared for his second time at RARA, giving us a Hot Spot, lamenting the holding on to by some people of ideals that he feels became almost immediately commercialised and generically bland via Punk is dead. Soon he will be returning to his native London, so it was good to see him strut his stuff Ceri De Stefano, once more brought RARA her particular yearning sounding delivery of thoughts of the sadder and tougher sides of life, faced with imagination and defiance Sean Wolf and Vincent Thomas each read one poem in their RARA debuts, and would be cool to hear more from them to get a better handle on what they are about as poets, but both pieces were delivered confidently so that bodes well for future reading from them :-) Mab Jones, soon to be performing in the Edinburgh free fringe stepped out of her previously self created box of comic poet to deliver a sweet little bit of prose that may soon be on her blog for anyone to examine at their leisure. Johnny Giles, with Mab in life and also to be with her in Edinburgh (each with books to sell) read 4 poems in his inimitable way. Gordon Anderson returned to RARA seeming more at ease with himself behind the mic than he has previously and read two poems, one of which he delivered particularly strongly, about trying to write in his favourite spot but the weather making it too cold to use a pen. If I remember correctly, this was the one he said was written at a workshop run by Christina Thatcher (her second mention from the stage from behind the mic, since one of Johnnys pieces was announced as being written at a workshop run by her). Keep it up Gord, youre starting to get the hang of it, dude :-) Arthur Pineapple aka Mark made the journey from Llanelli to read Killer Hangover, Raising the Flag and more. His work is now being studied by school pupils and he has the dubious honour of me doing an impression of him on the radio last week (in my defence, I had never met him and I was just copying Mabs impression of him as I stumbled my way through first time being on the radio confusion!) Leon Lazarus read 3 poems, the local Prince of Darkness when it comes to poetry including among his set avery bleakly humorous way to deal with a break up. Ben Mearden read part of a story of a sequence of events that ended in a hospital visit, seemingly based on some real life experience. This was the second time I have seen him at RARA and this time he relied on old fashioned paper to read from, after being utterly sabotaged by the refusal of his Kindle to obey page turning commands the last time I saw him. Nicodemus Longbottom brought a piece he has read at RARA before, which I would explain if I could, but involves reference to Ninjas and there never being any in Beijing, with the whole story (if I am not completely reading it wrong) taking place in the mind of a clockwork cat Ian Cross briefly returned to take the RARA mic, giving us one gently delivered piece, before melting back into the crowd in his unassuming way Brian Marshall read Marisa, Barry and Bo, followed by... Semi regular at RARA and appearer in many other places, Mark Blayney donned shades and evoked the spirit and persona of John Cooper Clarke, affectionately deconstructing the man who has been seemingly around forever as a performance poetry legend. Always good to see Mark, ever expanding his repertoire of sometimes semi, sometimes outright comic, verse and character pieces Lastly, but very much not leastly, Simon L Read once again brought the lovably surreal delivered in the manner of the slightly perplexed, offering the spectacle of a club where unicorns go to dance, and not even a death cause by a unicorn horn stops them grooving. I dont know where you get this stuff from, Simon, but please keep going there! All in all, another night of great diversity at RARA, and next time out, two Anthologies are going to be launched, The first RARA anthology and the second Roath Writers collection. September the 8th 2014, hope to see you there!
Posted on: Tue, 12 Aug 2014 19:46:29 +0000
Trending Topics
Recently Viewed Topics
© 2015