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Performances 2013

 

 

 
 
ROAD KILL PERFORMANCES IN 2013:
 
These are the confirmed dates- see below. I will add more in the future. I do hope we will meet at one of these venues! Entrance is free, unless indicated otherwise.
REVIEWS OF ROAD KILL PERFORMANCES:

www.garylongden.wordpress.com BILSTON VOICES April 2013

The headliners, and second half readers, were David Calcutt and Nadia Kingsley reading from their new collection and collaboration “Road Kill”. The title is somewhat macabre, the pieces individually, however, are elegiac and celebratory. A carcass of a fallen animal can be magnificent, and can be pathetic, both scenes are captured in this collection.

They did not read every poem, incentivising the listener both to return to future performances, and read the collection in full, providing a sense of spontaneity. Nonetheless the work lost none of its fluency and cohesiveness in so doing. David has always excelled in writing about birds, “Two Crows” stood out as a succinct, startling vignette. “Road Kill” itself is a shocking piece of magpie brutality, seemingly glorifying in Clockwork Orange style malevolent violence,“ a heavy shouldered thug, putting the boot in, and keeping on doing it”. By contrast his excerpt from “Aten”, inspired by Egyptian mythology – “But for this quivering of wings/ At the blades tip/Poised at the zenith, before the long slide down/ the nirvana of a drop”, soars as magnificently as the bird swoops.

Nadia’s “Red Deer Stag” combined grandiloquent description worthy of her subject, stripped of sentimentality, but awash with emotion. For her, the “antlers hewn from ancient forests” transcend mere mortality, offering animal myth as dignified as any hunter’s noble quest. In sharp juxtaposition was her modern take on the magpie in “Pica Pica” ,in which she asks us to:

“watch it choose select pieces/ while judging car’s speed/then confidently hop aside”

Both writers pieces were stylistically, as well as thematically, complimentary. Sometimes they split up poems to offer contrasting voices in a performance, other times they simply read their own work. It was always rewarding and easy on the ear, and a delight to hear a collaboration so fully realised, it was akin to musicians touring their album live.

EMMA PURSHOUSE. Bilston Voices APRIL 2013:

I was already a huge fan of the collection but it was great to hear the pieces performed and I loved the mix of your voices which really brought out the haunting quality of the work.

 

DATES:
January 8th – CITY VOICES, Wolverhampton
this is held at City Bar, King Street, Wolverhampton. The evening starts at 7:45pm, and runs for approx 2 hours.
February 2nd – Shropshire Radio
Listen to us for the following week on iplayer, Graham Mack Breakfast Show. We are on at 8:38am for about ten minutes

“STATES OF INDEPENDENCE” –  16th March 2013 – A day celebrating Midlands independent publishing. Fair Acre Press will be there, on a stall; plus David and Nadia will be performing part of ROAD KILL    www.statesofindependence.co.uk

March 26th – Poetry Bites, King’s Heath
this is held at Kitchen Garden Cafe, 17 York Road, King’s Heath B14 7SA
food is served from 6:30pm; readings start from 7:30pm
entrance is £5 at the door, or you can book in advance by contacting Jacqui Rowe on [email protected] or 07971 018825.
April 25th – Bilston Voices
run by Emma Purshouse, from 7:30 pm at Cafe Metro, 46 Church St, Bilston WV14 0AH (tel 01902 498888)
entrance £2
homemade cakes; hot, cold and alcoholic drinks
May 2nd – Parole Parlate, Worcester
 runs from 7:30 to 10 pm Worcester
 June 6th – Shrewsbury Coffee House Poetry, Shrewsbury
 run by Liz Lefroy,from 7:30pm,  it is held at 5 Castle Gates, Shrewsbury SY1 2AE (tel 01743 242610)
AT LUDLOW FRINGE FESTIVAL:
1.From the Horse’s Mouth
A reading by Keith Chandler and Nadia Kingsley
June 22nd    1:30 to 2:30pm    FREE entry
2. Nadia Kingsley
A talk by Nadia Kingsley about Fair Acre Press with readings of poems from the press’ four (so far!) publications by Tom Wentworth
June 30th    2 to 3 pm                 £3
October 1st – Poetry Alight, Lichfield
run by Gary Longden
runs from 7:30 pm at The Spark cafe bar, 19 Tamworth St, Lichfield WS13 6JP (tel 01543 898252)
 
 
 
 

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