My BBC/It's My Shout Documentary Broadcast
My debut as film director, The Wall and The Mirror, reveals how past and present converge in Shirley Walker’s barbershop. Photos reflecting generations of customers make this a focal point in a changing village.
​
This is second broadcast of the documentary which was first aired in Feb 2019.
​
S4C Heno Cyfweliad am Llwyn Celyn
Hyfryd i fynd yn ôl i Llwyn Celyn ar ôl fy nghyfnod preswyl. Great to go back to Llwyn Celyn to talk about my two year residency at this special house, how observing its renovation was deeply significant for my poetry and my Welsh!
​
Cliciwch yma i wylio. Click HERE to watch, 24mins 55 in
Hay Festival 2019 - Writers At Work
Thanks to Literature Wales that this year's bursary recipients were invited to attend the industry day at the Writers at Work tent. As a previous Hay Festival Writer at Work, I was eager to go back and hear from encouraging editors, publishers, agents and organisations that facilitate international collaborations. Thanks for yet another lovely photo Paul Musso
Cross Generational Poetry Workshop
Little ones and big ones come to the Pontypridd Children's Book Fest for a fun workshop where we will create poems or stories from special objects. Bring your own object or dive into my battered suitcase for a treasure. 11 am Ponty museum, £3. Lots of other wonderful workshops and author talks. See the link. Wela chi yna!
Supporting Hollie McNish 2019 Tour @ WMC 15th May
After reading with Hollie at the Swansea Fringe I'll now be supporting her on her 2019 tour at the Wales Millennium Centre's Ffresh Cabaret Bar.
​
This is event is now sold out but call for cancellations.
​
Chapter: First Thursday Poems From Cardiff Pamphlet Launch
Poems from Cardiff is part of a Seren series of pamphlets 'celebrating the spirit of place'. Contiributors will be sharing their poems. I'll be reading my poem about Whitchurch Hospital. May 2nd at Chapter Arts Centre. Tickets £3 on the door. Open mic following so bring your Cardiff poems.
Voices on the Bridge: Chapter Readings
I do many readings but this was one of the most meaningful. Poets and audience sat in darkness, words projected and our voices began, poems about working through the dark, coming into the light as gradually we let the evening light fill the room. It was cathartic and powerful.
Writers' Bursaries Recipients 2019 - Literature Wales
Delighted to be announced as one of 26 writers who will be supported this year. The Writer’s Bursary will enable me to reflect on my observation of the creative processes of craftspeople. This research will inform a new approach to writing poetry for my new collection.
My BBC/It's My Shout Documentary Premiere
My debut as film director, The Wall and The Mirror, reveals how past and present converge in Shirley Walker’s barbershop. Photos reflecting generations of customers make this a focal point in a changing village.
TEDx - The Gifts My Grandmother Gave Me
After years of seeking, I realised my grandmother had all the answers I needed.
Watch here
Company of Words
I'll be reading poems to celebrate ONE YEAR of COMPANY OF WORDS with Josh Heaton Jazz
Tickets here
Eisteddfod 2018
Hen Wlad Fy Nhadau, Y Babell Lên
It was a good experience not only to translate from English to Welsh for the first time, but to do so with the work of Meltem Arikan. I felt an affiliation with her cross generational stories anchored in a fairy story. Her beautiful rhythmical work made it an enjoyable task to represent that in Welsh
​
The event was a gift, and begun with Eric Ngalle Charles and Idrissa Camra on traditional Cameroonian instruments, with Ifor ap Glyn performing, like a shapeshifter, his translation of Eric’s poems. It was hypnotic.
Tonight, we launch Eric’s anthology Hiraeth Erzolirzoli which includes 36 writers from Wales and Cameroon. I’m pleased to have some poems there and amazed at the synchronicity, given that my MA supervisor at the University of Southern Mississippi, some 20 years ago was from Cameroon. The world’s a handkerchief, they say.
Gwaith Cyfieithu/Translation
​
Mae’n fraint i cael y cyfle i cyfieithu gwaith awdur Twrcaidd Meltem Arikan am yr Eisteddfod 2018.
It’s a privilege to be translating some work of Turkish writer Meltem Arikan for the National Eisteddfod 2018. Looking forward to talking to her on August 6th 11 a.m. on the Literary Pavilion with National Poet of Wales Ifor ap Glyn sharing his translations of former Cameroon refugee writer Eric Ngalle Charles
​
Read Meltem’s account of making work in Wales and in Turkey, how she is able to create without death threats here.
One thing is certain, Meltem was forced to leave Turkey because she dared to question the patriarchy, and this determination to speak free hasn’t stopped with her arrival in Wales. In this article she raises the fact that we in the ‘West’ tend to be ‘alienated from our own issues.’
Why is it considered a social phenomenon when women are killed in the name of honour in the East but an individual crime when women are killed in the name of passion, obsession or jealousy in the West? Child marriage in the East is seen as a nightmare. But, in the West, does calling pregnant children “teen moms” prevent their lives from turning into a nightmare?
Standing Together: Tri-Lingual Poetry, Story, Song.
Last night I had the pleasure of participating in an event to support linguistic rights. Chapter’s Associate Artist Programme PEILOT and Be Aware Productions initiated the event as part of Chapter Readings and it was supported by Wales PEN Cymru.
​
It was a sell-out and Luca Paci said ‘the overlapping of languages and songs, like waves in the sea.’ A real joy and a sorrow to hear the poignant lyrics of songs/poems in Kurdish (Kurmanji and Zazaki dialects) about separation, massacre, and exile. There was defiance too in the music, in the gorgeous voices that lifted cherished Kurdish songs into the room in Chapter. Testimony to how a culture can endure and delight and empower others.
​
Geraint Rhys sang powerful songs in Welsh reminding us to ‘paid â syllu’n wag at y tywyllwch/ lliwio’r gorwel, teimlo’r teyngarwch’ (Don’t gaze emptily into the darkness/ colour the horizons and feel unity with others.’
​
Ali Sizer a Kurdish dengbej (bard singer) had us hypnotised with his ‘klam’ poetry/song/music. It laced between us all, speakers, singers, uniting us in one voice, one human heart beating in different languages that on the stage last night understood one another.
​
Here’s a podcast of the performance.
BBC Radio 4 The Listening Project
Yesterday, Fi Glover introduced the conversation I had with my father for The Listening Project. Dad is a retired tool-maker and fireman and has recently begun writing poems. It started with phone calls when he was out walking by a river or on a mountain, something miraculous he’d seen, heard or realised. Eventually, I told him he had to start writing his observations down. They came out as fully formed poems. It’s remarkable.
​
You can listen to our conversation Here
