july was…
an outward time, performing, playing
WRITING AROUND THE EDGES
July is half and half school time and school holidays. I am still off work and there have been family crises in every direction to attend to.
I’ve always struggled with the 6 weeks holiday and lack of routine. Every year, I try and put something in place for myself, only to have it blown wide open. This year, that is the case more than ever, so I’m settling for writing around the edges, capturing what I can, when I can and will hoover it all up in September. At least, that’s the plan. This year has shown me that you really can’t pin yourself down in such a way.
Whilst writing this, I had planned to go to my co-working space and get some Serious Work Done. I now appear to be sat in a noisy gym cafe whilst the kids swim and go on the machines, typing between requests for expensive smoothies. I’ll take it. The very fact that we are at a gym with my 14 year old is amazing, 3 weeks ago, this would have been an absolutely impossible task for her.
Here’s a poem I was playing around with after reading some of Tim Key’s very funny poems…
QUOB FESTIVAL
QUOB festival was an absolute revelation for me. I went and performed as part of the Barrow Squawk poets.
I saw feminist elf performances, went on a listening walk, heard the sounds rocks make through mics and synths, danced in a barn to a live coded DJ set and hung around with my friend and a very old yew tree. It’s a high festival bar to be honest.
I wrote a new thing for the occasion which I called ‘Ode to the Quiet Weirdos’ and had the honour of performing it in the late evening to lots of gorgeous, attentive people sat on a hill. A summer highlight for sure.
MORECAMBE POETRY SLAM
Ahead of the festival, I took my ‘Ode to the Quiet Weirdos’ to test out at the Morecambe slam competition. Happily, I won myself a spot at Morecambe Winter Gardens for the Poetry Festival in September; what an absolute dream of a venue!
MESSY HUMAN THING
Last, but definitely not least, I took my fringe show- Messy Human Thing to Seek Out festival and Morecambe Fringe Festival. It’s a blend of spoken word, movement and comedy, and I think this is my ultimate combo. I’ll be exploring much more of this going forwards.
My aim for this show was to create something that felt like playing and that felt like me. I am incredibly proud of it. I have spent many joyful hours tucked away in my room, listening to music, moving around, speaking words out loud and then taking them on long walks to embed them into memory.
It was my original intention to create this for the Morecambe Fringe Festival and then leave it there. However in putting it together and taking it out to people I have discovered that I absolutely love the freedom of this sort of work. I’ve reminded myself that it’s only in taking things out of your room and in front of people that you really get to create the work you want to do, and that in order to do that, you have to be good with things being imperfect in public. Not my main skillset. But it’s been very good for me.
I’m now viewing my fringe performances as a work in progress this year. Once my final performance is over this Saturday, I’ll review and look at how to expand my 25 minutes to 45 minutes for a run of fringe shows next year.
That’s about it for July.
It’s actually incredibly useful to write all this down. Some months it really feels like nothing is happening, and liKe you can never quite get done the things you want to do. This is a nice reminder that there is still movement and lots to be thankful for amidst the chaos!