And then,
the walking, the way... Thanks to an Arts Council bursary a few years ago I was able to write the long poem Camino, and this Friday at 6pm I will perform the first of what I hope to be an ongoing series of shows based on it and on the technique I've been developing of using heteroglossia in long poetic pieces. The show is free, lasts half an hour and will be followed by a Q&A. All are welcome! Dear all,
I need to complain about the 'No campaign' marriage equality referendum posters publicly displayed all over Cork city and, I assume, the rest of the country. Apart from their extreme offensiveness, I believe that they contravene this country's equality legislation on grounds of gender and sexual orientation: by implying that gay parents are unable to raise a child properly, that a child 'needs' straight parents (one of each gender, to be precise) and that the presence of gay people within the institution of marriage somehow devalues that institution. There are countless other examples. Substitute race for sexual orientation as the focus for this campaign, and you have apartheid. Substitute religion, and you have penal laws and Naziism. Please tell me you will not stand by and let our nation's children witness yet another abuse of one population by another on grounds we have already defined in our laws as being protected from such action. When I called the Referendum Commission to complain about these posters, they told me it was a Garda matter. At Anglesea Street Garda Station they told me it wasn't a criminal matter (though I stressed that I thought a law was bring broken) and directed me to yourselves and to the city council. The council said it was a matter for the Office of the Taoiseach, who told me it was a Department of the Environment matter, and that department transferred my call to an unnamed man who said he would call me back. He hasn't. I know it's easy to let this stuff slide and see if you get re-elected, but discrimination on this level will haunt us through history if we don't speak up about it and stop it. Having exhausted every other avenue for doing this, I now appeal to you. I'll keep this letter to show future generations that I didn't stay quiet and allow this to happen. Best, Kathy D'Arcy Here's something free and fun for the day that'll be in it:
Public talk on equality campaigner Elizabeth Cady Stanton City Library, Grand Parade this Saturday, 7th March at 2.30pm along with Songs of the Suffragettes performed by Kate Kirwan. Just some events I'm reading at soon - click on the boldface to follow the link, it's a smorgasbord!
With with William Wall and Sarah Clancy on the writers' panel of the Northern/Irish Feminist Judgements Project (a great project re-examining landmark judgements from a feminist perspective) Workshop in UCC Law School on Feb 5th: it's invitation only, but recordings will be available from irishfeministjudge@gmail.com; At the Farm Gate Cafe on Wed Feb 11th at 4pm as part of the Cork Spring Poetry Festival's 'Examiner Poets' Reading - free event, all welcome; As part of the Over The Edge Reading Series in The Kitchen @ The Museum, Galway, on Saturday March 14th at 8pm - free event, all welcome. My Ardmore project is also back, funded for a third year by the fantastic Waterford Council Arts Office: Ill be conducting a series of adult writing workshops, school workshops and the Writing Walking Workshop which has been so rewarding for participants since it began. Details to follow on the 'Ardmore Project' page - watch this space! I'm about to add a new blog to my website: called 'blogpoem' it will document my participation in the UCC Creative Writing MA 'Writing and Experiment' module as part of my IRC-funded PhD in creative writing, which I've begun this year. I'm not sure what it will evolve into, but I'm interested in the idea of a continuous blogged poem as an experiment...all feedback welcome! My UCC writing course 'Finding Your Voice' will return in September, and my Ardmore writing project will run for the third year in a row this May - contact me if you'd like to be involved in either! I'm currently in Ardmore beginning the second year of my Ardmore Project (click here for details) and finishing the long piece, 'Camino' that I was able to write here last year thanks to the Arts Council. Being by the sea and specifically being here seems to be right for creative work, and I'm hoping that the free writing workshops I'll be running in the community will be as inspiring and successful as they were last year. Renowned film historian and film maker Kevin Brownlow is hosting one of his fantastic one-day film events on June 7th at the Molly Keane House here in Ardmore: this one features 'The Great War' which created the greatest male star of the silent era, Rudolph Valentino. For more details see www.mollykeanewritersretreats.com or call 021 94225.
Here's the link to the podcast of me and lots of others performing our work from Arena's fantastic new anthology, New Planet Cabaret (New Island Press) on New Year's Eve: http://vodhls.rasset.ie/his-vod/audio/2013/1231/20131231_rteradio1-arena-arena_cl10237108_10238302_261_.mp4.m3u8 Last night's launch of the SIXTH volume of work by students on my UCC writing course 'Finding Your Voice' was a great success, with participants' readings inspiring lots of audience members to start writing themselves! We've raised over 300 euro so far for the Cork Simon Community, who do such vital work, often voluntarily. If you want to buy a copy of this lovely book (10euro, all for Simon at this stage as we've covered printing costs) you can contact me at this website - and if you want to be a part of the next one you can sign up for my course on UCC's website or by calling 021 4904717! Happy Christmas Everyone!
|
Archives
March 2021
Categories |