Category: Events

Swapping Shirts with Shakespeare: Dover versus Forest Green

Enter Edgar, King Lear, Jon Parkin, Ye Beast, Dale Vince as Duke of Frocester, Scotty Bartlett and various morris dancers as footballers
Scene ; The white cliffs of Dover

‘Come on, sir; here’s the place: stand still. How fearful
And dizzy ’tis, to cast one’s eyes so low!
The footballs high that wing the midway air
Show scarce so gross as the Beast: half way down
Hangs one that goal-hanger lurks, dreadful trade!
Methinks he seems no bigger than his head:
The football men, that walk upon the beach,
Appear like mice; and yond tall anchoring Beast,
Diminish’d to a speck; a speck, a Beast
Almost too small for sight: the murmuring surge,
That on the unnumber’d idle pebbles chafes,
Cannot be heard so high. I’ll look no more;
Lest my brain turn, and the deficient sight
Topple down headlong.
But wait anon! The Beast doth soar high yet –
He crashes the ball high in the Dover net.
My Lord! Come thee hence to scry this wondrous scene.

A late winner methinks for the lads of Forest Green.’

Walking the Avon from Bath to Bristol: Sunday April 3rd

Richard White writes…

Greetings walkers and supporters!

Here is reminder of a date for your diaries. Sunday April 3 the next walkout on the enchantment!  I saw the exhibition at Tate Britain the other week Artist and Empire very powerful…not hiding away those huge dramatic Empire era paintings..but providing another level of truth and engagement about the stories they tell. This in a way is what I am trying to do with the architecture of Bath and the River Avon landscape…find a way of both enjoying it but discovering traces and facing uncomfortable legacies and making sense of our times as we walk.

Anyway I do hope you will be able to join me on foot or online on Sunday April 3!
Walking from Bath to Bristol along the River Avon, Leaves 0900 from outside 44AD gallery by the Abbey in Bath. Please note an earlier start…this will be a full day of walking…back at Bath at station around 6….

About 16 miles or so to central Bristol. Nice pubs and spectacular scenery on the way.
This is a recce for part of the project I am developing around revealing, facing and making creative responses to the legacies of the Atlantic slave trade. On foot and online I hope you can help uncover the stories, find ways to tell them and generate contemporary resonances. Here’s a link to the whole route but  I propose to break it at Bristol and on another Sunday day walk up from Avonmouth to Bristol, and in Bristol walk the slavery trail. Seems a more appropriate direction of travel…..

http://my.viewranger.com/route/details/ODQ3NzA=

Feel free to join for all or part of the walk. Just let me know! Please share and circulate this to anyone who you think might be interested. More details to follow.


—

Richard White

mob: 07717012790

tw: @walknowlive

web: www.walknowtracks.co.uk

Sunday March 6th: First Sunday walk out on enchantment! Bath to Saltford

Richard White writes…

Hi folks,

On Sunday 6 March I am writing to invite you to the next  walk in my year of walking out on enchantment!

This is the walk that was kind of muddied out at the start of the year and begins perhaps the development of a longer walking project reflecting on the legacy of slavery.

Short version is that its a walk out from Bath to Saltford.

10.00 Leave from outside 44AD Gallery in Bath, Abbey Street. http://www.44ad.net/

Walk mainly along the river on the old two path to Saltford.

Return about 16.00.

At Saltford you could get a bus back into to town or leave  a car ….  I’ll leave you to sort that out.

I will be looping back and walking in to town on the old railway line.

In total its about 10 miles but the return 4miles along the railway is very easy…

Here is a link to the route I worked out for the project that kicked this off a couple of years back finishing at Cleveland Pools…but thats another story. This one starts and finishes at 44AD.
http://my.viewranger.com/route/details/MjcyMjY=

Back in Bath around 4 depending on how long we stop at the pub in Saltford!

I do hope you can join me, bring cameras and notepads and iphones etc Our destination is Saltford Brass Millhttp://www.brassmill.com/saltford_brass_mill_005.htm where goods were made to sell in exchange for human beings….

…so this walk begins another stage in exploring the local connections to the first leg of the Allantic Slave Trade and I hope you will help me uncover and explore the stories along this route, consider the legacy and generate resonances.

Please share this and invite others to join us. On foot and online. I’ll be tweeting on the account below, then sharing  and writing up eventually on my blog.

You might be interested to check out this very quick snapshot account of the February walk in Germany I did this with Lorna Brunstein as part of our project, Honouring Esther:https://forcedwalks.wordpress.com/2016/02/06/winsen-to-belsen-walk/

See you next Sunday? 

Best wishes

Richard


— 

Richard White

mob: 07717012790

tw: @walknowlive

web: www.walknowtracks.co.uk

Thursday, 25 February 2016 The Brunel Goods Shed Maze

When you explore the Brunel Goods Shed’s maze,
You might want to reflect on the parallels
Between mazes and labyrinths and the human mind –
Amaes: Old English, delusion or delirium …

A maze:
A representation of self-analysis and mystification,
A wander through the mind so as to discover
The fundamental assumptions and determinants
Of one’s thoughts, ideas and ideology:
The a priori and the posteriori in a young life’s
Acculturation, socialization and mystification;

Mystification:
The presentation of social facts as though natural:
Inequality, austerity and capitalism, for example;

Don’t forget to take your thread with you:

A stitch in time might save your mind.

Names for the Chartist Beer and Chartist Film Progress Report

WHAT’S NEW:

Two updates:

1. The beer – a message from Greg at Stroud Brewery: ‘We have the John Frost artwork, and putting it together on a bottle label. Chartist whisky aged organic smoked porter to be bottled Sept/October. So beer will be ready for sipping in November.’ We are now deliberating on the accompanying text.

2. Film news from John:

Dear all,

Firstly I must apologise for the delay in getting in touch. I had hoped that we would have started filming by now but other things have unfortunately got in the way – most noticeably the theatre festival which will take place in Stroud from 9th to 11th September (www.stroudtheatrefestival.co.uk) – apologies for the little advertisement!

I am looking to start as soon as possible with filming and would like to know people’s availability through August and September (as these look like the best times to film) in a bit more detail so that we can cast and begin filming scenes.

I have spoken to the Museum in the Park and it will be possible to use there for some filming. The Sub Rooms is being painted at the moment but again we can use the space for filming when this is done. The big common scene which sparked the whole film off I will know more about later this week when I have had the chance to discuss wildlife issues further with the Stroud District Council green spaces person.

I have sent this to as wide a circulation as possible and some of you may not have attended any of the meetings we have had so far. We need people! To inhabit crowd scenes for meetings in pubs, outdoors and churches. When I have a clearer idea of availability I will be able to say when we need people. Sorry I realise this is a bit vague but I have ideas as to who will be cast in some of the roles and it is really when I know all the availabilities that I will be able to move things further on.

If you know of any musicians who want to write songs from the chartist songbook the link is https://www.calderdale.gov.uk/wtw/search/controlservlet?PageId=Detail&DocId=102253

If you know of anyone else who should be involved in the project please also let me know.

Thanks for your patience and apologies again for the delay.

All the best

John Bassett

Director – Spaniel in the Works Theatre Company

www.spanielworks.co.uk

Ten new faces among the committed group of people who read through the script on Monday – good to see some young people present too. We have a potential troupe now of some thirty people. John and Andy will start filming very soon. We have asked SVA if we can show the film at the Brunel Goods Shed on November 4th.

This was posted on Facebook to advertise the June event :

Good People of Stroud and Ye Five Valleys,
Hear Ye, Hear Ye:

We are having a meeting on Monday June 13th to read through the latest version of the script and start casting and sorting dates for filming on the Chartist film project. This will be at the Sub Rooms at 7.30 in the George Room. If you have not been on John Basset’s email list, then please let John or myself know if you wish to attend so that we can link you to a draft script.

In addition, if you are a musician or know any musicians who might want to write music for songs we found in the Chartist songbook please pass on our details and we will send a copy of the words for people to peruse and hopefully write songs for. We are looking for all genres, not just the folk idiom.

The Republic of Ireland’s game will be over by 7.30, so no worries on that score.

Thank You, Good People of Stroud and Ye Five Valleys

Read through of script and casting at the Subscription Rooms in the George Room on Monday June 13th at 7.30. John (Bassett) of Spaniel in the Works will email scripts.

In addition if you are a musician or know any musicians who might want
to write music for songs we found in the chartist songbook please pass
on my email details and I will send a copy of the words for people to
peruse and hopefully write songs for.

All the best

John Bassett
Director – Spaniel in the Works Theatre Company

Calling all Stroud musicians! You may know about a film we are making about the Chartists. As part of the research for this we found a “Chartist Hymnbook” – the word hymn is very loose by the way. We are looking for musicians from all backgrounds, styles and genres to put some of the verse from these to music. If you are interested please message John Bassett. Thanks.

1. Andy Wasyliw and John Bassett will shortly lead the next read through of the completed script. They have agreed a schedule for the filming of the interior scenes. This filming will take place quite shortly. John will then speak with SDC about when filming could take place on Selsley Common. Please contact John at info@spanielintheworks.co.uk for anything to do with the filming (I deal with the walks and spoken word events).

2. I had a pleasant time on Selsley Common on the anniversary date of May 21st, taking pictures of the footpaths that would have been used on May 21st 1839, as well as the hawthorn in all its may blossomed splendor. A talk followed at the Bell about Chartism in general, and the Selsley meeting in particular. The porter was tasted, praised and self-referentially toasted.

3. Jim Pentney has sent through this review (partly in haiku) of the Stroud Radical Reading Group’s Chartist spoken word event at the Golden Fleece on May 18th.

Review in haiku.

Back room radical reading

of the Northern Star

Radical reading

‘When Adam delved and Eve span’

Chartist poetry

Full Marx Arts and Crafts

that shoulder giants still stand

in the Chartist rhymes

Wednesday 18th May, Golden Fleece back room.

It was, I think, the jolliest Radical Reading evening, partly because the Northern Star verses are so accessible and direct and not trying to be clever. They deserve to be sung – probably were in just this sort of setting. Part of an essay was read and it was said, although stifled and suppressed, Chartism was the most significant political movement of the nineteenth century laying fertile ground. I put a word in for Alan Davenport.

A potted history of Chartism and a contextualization of the 1839 Selsley Hill meeting can be found at http://radicalstroud.blogspot.co.uk/2016/05/the-5-ws-and-h-of-chartism.html

1. Tom Brown has finished the art work for the bottled beer: a splendid depiction of John Frost.

2. Stroud Radical Reading Group members have earmarked their next meeting on May 18th 7.30 pm for an evening’s discussion on Chartist poetry. This is at the Ale House in Stroud.

3. I hope that two further, future events might develop from this meeting: (a.) a spoken word event, (b.) written/other media responses as though participants were Chartists from 1839, visiting our times in 2016. (What’s good and what’s disappointing sort of thing.)

4. In addition, I envisage 3 walks with performance and readings in the landscape etc.: 1. From Stroud Brewery to the Bell at Selsley. 2. One from the Ale House to the workhouse and Stroud cemetery. 3. One involving Allen Davenport – nationally famous Chartist born at Ewen by the source of the Thames.

5. John Bassett (Spaniel in the Works) has finished our third version of the script – we have been absolutely and patiently pains-taking in ensuring that we have a perfect piece that we run with. We have listened carefully to the suggestions offered at the last meeting when we collectively read through the script: gender balance and family viewpoints.

6. Initial filming (thanks to Stroud Festival) gets closer. John will shortly be contacting Andy Wasyliw about the schedule; storyboarding etc. We are still hopeful of being ready for November 4th. The other events listed above will definitely be happening before that date.

7.The photocopying bill for the last read through was nearly £50 – we need to email the script in future. Please let John know your email address etc., if necessary (see email address on the Spaniel in the Works website).

The Chartist commemorative beer has been brewed at Stroud Brewery – likely name ‘Chartist’ on the basis that ‘A pint of Chartist, please’ rolls off the tongue quite easily. The beer is a good old fashioned porter – just the ticket. The label is quite possibly going to feature an image of John Frost who was the leader of the Newport Rising in 1839, but was also selected as prospective Chartist parliamentary candidate for Stroud on Rodborough Common on Good Friday, 1839.

We’d like to thank people for putting us right about the necessity to avoid May through to late July as a date for filming our take on the 1839 Chartist rally on Selsley Common. The last thing we want to do is harm any wildlife. And we’d also like to put peoples’ minds at ease about how we create the illusion of 5,000 people present: it will be an illusion.

It is also important to point out that “Day of Hope” is a small community based production with limited funds made for and by Stroud people. This is not a massive production with lots of vehicles and a massive crew invading the common.

The well documented May 21st Selsley Common Chartist meeting was an important moment in Stroud history and a part of the introduction to true democracy for the whole of the country. Using the actual location is important to us but it is also important not to offend people or indeed disturb wildlife.

We are currently in communication with Stroud District Council about when and how we film outside on Selsley after late July.

We will be able to meet our deadline for the film’s finish, however, as we shall now film the inside scenes first.

With thanks again,

Day of Hope production

NEED TO PROTECT SKYLARK FLEDGLINGS, SO NO LONGER FILMING ON SELSLEY COMMON IN MAY. IT WILL BE SOMETIME AFTER THE 3rd WEEK OF JULY. DETAILS WILL FOLLOW after discussions with Stroud District Council.

WE ARE AIMING TO SHOW THE FILM IN EARLY NOVEMBER, TO COINCIDE WITH THE ANNIVERSARY OF THE 1839 NEWPORT RISING. HOPING FOR THE BRUNEL GOODS SHED. SHED BOOKED FOR NOVEMBER 4th.
John Frost – who had earlier been provisionally selected to oppose Lord John Russell as MP for Stroud – was sentenced to be hanged, drawn and quartered for his involvement in the Rising. The sentence was commuted to transportation.
Newport has recently held a whole day of official commemoration of the Rising and we are in close contact with Newport – we hope to link up.

OLDER NEWS:

I thought it a good idea to have a central place to review progress towards the Chartist film; the associated events such as 2 or 3 Chartist walks, the Chartist spoken word event, the Chartist writing workshop, and of course the NAME OF THE BEER.

This is the link/place and I’ll update through the winter, spring, summer and autumn. Twenty people met for the first read through of the script at the Sub. Rooms on February 23rd; it was a most encouraging start and John is now working on the next draft, pondering on the date for the next meeting, and even having some preliminary thoughts about casting.
Filming can then start: inside scenes as and when; Selsley in the late summer; editing in the early autumn.

At the moment, we are envisaging a walk or two for the Stroud Fringe and Stroud Festival in the late summer; a workshop, spoken word event and film in Stroud (SVA and/or Brunel Goods Shed).

I think it would be great to have an event at the Stroud Brewery, too.

See https://chashtownley.wordpress.com/2015/11/10/john-frost-chartist-candidate-for-stroud-meeting-at-rodborough-common-29-march-1839/ for more information on John Frost.

‘Hi Stuart,

I would love to support the project, and sure we can have a beer aptly named for the occasion. It is still a bit far ahead to work out how exactly we will pull it off. Our seasonal calendar is fairly set but we have a few options including re-branding any of the bottling brews we are doing at the time. We are also looking at a porter aged in oak casks, which if we get on with it soon, could be ready for autumn and we could dedicate this to the Chartists of Stroud, past, present and future…

Some suggestions for names would help and any images you have will get us thinking.

Cheers

Greg’

“Calais Allez” by James Pentney

Haiku Hiking (cont.)

Overlook repetition
Calais allez vous

Fireworks overhead (5th Nov), the Stroud charity Marah, organised a sleep out in Saint Lawrence churchyard in recognition of homelessness.

The name Marah comes from the book of Exodus – a hard place.

Twenty five years before with a Leonard Cohenite drone in my head, I scribbled  ‘Platerest Fireworks’. Platerest, near Bucharest, was where there was a so-called orphanage: Windows with no glass, spasmodic freezing running water, dodgy wiring and no light bulbs. On the fifth of November a coach arrived from Cornwall and amongst the contents was a box of bulbs.

Late afternoon on the fifth of November
Darkness was closing on tiny hands frozen
Like hatched little birds without any words
What do they know and remember?

There they remain on the fifth of November
Filaments broken in darkness unspoken
Silent as time, how they should shine
What do they know and remember?

The fifth of November, cross Europe to trail hereMattresses, towels and a box of light bulbs
What should we give, how should we live
What do we know and remember?

The night of the fireworks, the fifth of November
Screwing the bulbs in and switching the switch on
They clapped and they cheered, lit up the tears
What did they see and remember?

The fifth of November, still glows in the embers
But beauty is candlelight silent on Christmas night
What will they see and where will they be
Where will they be in December?

At least at Platerest there was a roof. Multiply by ‘n’ re the refugees of today.

Things link – carving stone at Marah led to the Independence Trust above the launderette.

There a group photocopied and hand stitched Haiku Hiking, which Stuart Butler kindly encouraged by posting on his blog ‘Radical Stroud’ Tuesday 8am; mindful meditators sit in silence at St Laurence Church. 9am the following week Richard Pond handed me six sides of sheet music set to the words.

What should we give now?

Snug in boots with felt innards, last year I trudged off to a dentist appointment in Dursley. The boots were covered in mud when I arrived so I left them outside. Sat in the waiting room wearing just the felt insides, an elderly gentleman approached.

“I have not seen boots like that since I was a boy,” he said in a broken accent. “I used to make them in Siberia. We would dip them in water and they froze immediately with a coating of ice. They kept me alive.”

He explained he was born Polish and his parents were dead. Alone he had crossed Europe somehow and by the end of the war he was in Palestine where he became a British army cadet. Demobbed he came here and married a Dursley girl.

Tuesday 5th January 2016
Down along the Downs
A rainbow trunk leads on east
Through moss green branches

Wednesday 6th
Sub-merged in the mist
Verging West Dean’s wader birds
Merge in the wet lands

The Long Man looks down
Mist lifts to see refugees
And the Iona stone

Battle Abbey siege
Come on in said the stone man
Don’t say we saw you.

 Dover’s Castle Inn
Where Wellington planned defeat

Fab four penned Day Tripper

Battle of Britain

Pilots eye dope smoking maid
‘She’s not so dumb’

Thursday 7th January
Wild Dover dawn
Day tripper beats into the port
Spray over the bow

Dolphin guards Calais
High razor wire board border guards
Piss into the wind

Waste landed fenced in

Bulldoze ferry terminal
Exit demolished

Eritrean Christmas
Tree bells ring out nourishment
Shaking their cold hands

Armour clad riot police appeared under the road bridge at the entrance as I made my way out of the Jungle.
“Twit, forgot the pocket Scrabble.” I turned back.
A boy, Syrian at a guess, rode by on a bike.
“Do you want to learn English?”
He nodded. I gave him the Scrabble. “It’s a game.”
The so-called Jungle is a frontier township of domed tents huddled around the busy, muddy high street of improvised shops and kiosks. On foot through squally showers I trudged beside high white fences topped with coils of razor wire, round roundabouts, passed an occasional bleak factory site, white police vans and over the railway track back to the port. Lines of lorries thundered by.                A onetime ferry terminal was being demolished.

Signs “sortie, depart, exit” tumbled onto the puddled sea front.
Foot passengers are few
A fellow day tripper asked
“So where are your boots?”
He had also been aboard on the morning crossing from Dover. I had muttered “Merci beaucoup”, when he helped me shoulder the rucksack over two coats, weighed down with Iona stones, mallet, chisel, camping stove, gas, food. On my feet paraded the felt lined, Canadian arctic boots. It was his scarf that made me assume him to be French.

Now I was returning considerably lighter if wetter:
“Tell me what you’ve been doing,” he enquired in a strong Irish accent.
I tried to explain about the boots; about the carved stone from Iona; that today is Christmas day in Ethiopia; about the church made of timber and plastic by the Eritrean refugees and how I had shared Christmas dinner with them. He asked interested probing questions.
“Are you with a church group?”
“No, I often go to church, but I’m here independently.” It was my turn. “And where are you from?”
“Derry.”
“Hasn’t Derry lately been the City of Culture?” I think he was pleased I knew that. “And you, are you a philosopher?”
“I have a degree in philosophy,” he paused, “from the Open University. I did it when I was a prisoner, a political. I was first put away for seven years when I was sixteen.”
It could not have been long after Bloody Sunday.
“Then I did a life stretch.” He would have known the hunger strikes and dirty protest of the H blocks.
We went on to talk about the cruel things we do when we are young and think we are right, both now being grandfathers. How one needs to learn to see things from others’ perspective.
“And faith for you?” I questioned.
“There’s an intelligence to evolution,” he replied.  In a word perhaps, God.
Two lads from Derry about his age were working as volunteers with West London Cyrenians for homeless people in the late 1970s. They could well all have been at school together.

Brian and Tommy knew they could not remain in Derry and not be drawn into the troubles, so they left; and he stayed. The same choice faces those in Syria, Iraq, Eritrea (cont.)

Between a stone and a hard place
Haiku Hiking (cont.)
From the Long Man to Long Kesh
Au revoir, my friend

Friday 8th January 2016
Pilot hunched in stone
Looking up to the sun rise
Over the Channel

Seven hours later
The western skyline blazes
Down from the Ridgeway

Monday 11th January
Cricklade’s slipway’s lost
In Old Father’s overflow
Splashing old boys’ boots

 

The Ale House in Stroud, Stroud’s Workhouse and Pauper Burials

The first meeting of the Stroud Radical Reading Group took place in the aptly named Ale House in Stroud, hard by Union Street. Union Streets very often came into named existence after the passing of the 1834 Poor Law Amendment Act – parishes were grouped into Unions, with a central workhouse: NO OUTDOOR RELIEF. Individual parishes lost their workhouses with their possibly more lenient atmosphere andallowance of outdoor relief. Henceforth, conditions inside the workhouse were to be made worse than if you had the worst paid job outside (called ‘lesser eligibility’).
In effect, POVERTY WAS CRIMINALISED.
How excellent then, to sit near the plaque in the Ale House, with its Mr. Bumble praise:

Stroud Ale House Plaque Image

IN GRATEFUL MEMORY OF THE BENEVOLENCE INTEGRITY AND PERSEVERANCE WITH WHICH THE LATE EDWARD PALLING CARUTHERS ASSISTED FOR THE LAST FIVE YEARS OF HIS LIFE AS CHAIRMAN OF THIS BOARD IN THE ADMINISTRATION OF THE AFFAIRS OF THE POOR. THIS TABLET IS INSCRIBED BY THE UNANIMOUS WISH OF THE GUARDIANS NOVR 1842.

Jump down to the end of this piece for a piece on Stroud Workhouse, but for now, here’s a few lines on the meeting on Wednesday January 13th 2016: ‘This month we will be reading ‘Reform or Revolution?’ by Rosa Luxemburg. We will be discussing this short pamphlet and the important ideas which arise from it. It’s our first meeting so feel free to come along, even if you have not read the book! The reading is free online at www.tinyurl.com/srrg01  For more details get in touch: Search ‘Stroud Radical Reading Group’   StroudRRG@gmail.com

“Are there no workhouses?” asked Mr Scrooge,
(In a manner of speaking)
“Well, yes there are”, she politely replied,
(In a manor of speaking)
“Do you know Stone Manor on Bisley Road,
Near Stroud Cemetery’s Pauper’s Path?”
(Rattle his bones over the stones,
He’s only a pauper who nobody owns)
Here comes the creaking wheelbarrow,
With the open hinged, burnished coffin,
The shrouded corpse ready for the open pit,
An abrupt incarceration on the hard rock,
Without ceremony or by your leave,
Anonymous resting place for the restless dead,
Feeling gravity’s pull down the steep scarp,
And the noxious effects of the acid soil;
But with soil so thin, rock so hard, pits so shallow,
Cotswold storms raining in from the sea
Would disinter corpses, the slipping dead,
Strange meandering memento mori,
Gewgaws, bones, trinkets, keepsakes,
Grave work for Old Father Time in his sou-wester,
Leaching the dead down rain-washed rivulets,
Down to the Frome, thence the Severn and the sea,
While forget me nots waved goodbye in the wind.

Forced Walks and Holocaust Day

A message from Richard White:
Greetings walkers…I thought you might be interested in this update on the Honouring Esther project I am doing with Lorna Brunstein….repatriating memory, renewing stories, generating resonances.

Our project to complete the Forced Walk: Honouring Esther is now in good shape for the walk in Germany on 4 and 5 February. We will walk the actual route of the death march from the site of the slave labour camp to the Belsen-Bergen Memorial, stopping as we did in Somerset in April at points along the way to listen to Esther’s testimony and other thoughts and sounds. At those points we will share as much as we can of the experience, amplify the resonances via social media, and welcome online interaction with those who want to share it with us. We will gather sounds and images from those moments as we walk the route 71 years to the day that Esther did.

More detail on the web site herehttps://forcedwalks.wordpress.com/the-walk-in-germany-2016/

If you are thinking of joining us on foot it is time to make your arrangements and please contact us directly.

There will be a further briefing for those wanting to follow online soon.

We have spent a lot of time on logistics and fundraising and now it istime to focus on the art, with that in mind for those of you able  to get to Bath we would like to invite you to an open conversation at
44AD Gallery, Bath on Sunday 17 Jan afternoon 16.00-18.00.
An opportunity to explore the issues and help us reflect on our practice as artists in this context. If you are thinking of joining us on foot, but haven’t decided, do come along.  If you are able to make this please RSVP, thanks.

Our networking in Germany is taking off and it looks like we will have some great support and local walkers joining us. It may be that we will meet someone who saw the group of Polish Jewish women leaving the camp called Waldeslust, 71 years ago. In Somerset we had Mayors and it looks like we will be met by the Mayor at Winsen at the end of day 1. This will be a powerful experience, whatever your involvement has been to date, you are making this possible. Join us on foot or online

Best wishes
Richard


— 

Richard White
mob: 07717012790

web: www.walknowtracks.co.uk

Bath Disenchantment Walk

A message from Richard White:
Hi folks,

Here’s an instant write up of the walk on Sunday. Thankyou to the intrepid Kathryn for joining me if only for part of the way…it got worse but then it got better!

https://rswpost.wordpress.com/2016/01/04/a-journey-to-the-edge-of-the-enchanted-city/

This is an open project, I am really keen to develop it further looking for some points to stop and think about walking out of necessity, poverty, dreams, memorialising and enchantment/disenchantment.  I hope we can develop this together, share thoughts, ideas and information….it would be good to weave into this stories of individuals, families etc. In this walk I want to draw attention to the Bath Union Workhouse burial ground…seems wrong to me that all those people, all those lives, are not memorialised in some way in a city where the great and the ‘good’ are so well memorialised however short their stay! I am indebted to John Payne for helping get this started….check out his contribution on the burial ground to the Honouring Esther walk in Somerset here

The plan is to come back to this later in the year and I hope you will join me then.

Meantime its full on for our  Forced Walks:Honouring Esther project in February, if you are thinking of taking part on foot it is time to get organised!

If you would like to join in online you will be able to do so via facebook and twitter I will email an update on that. If you would like to find out more and join the conversation come along to the session at 44AD on Sunday 17 Jan at 16.00. More details here

best wishes
Richard

 

—

Richard White
mob: 07717012790

web: www.walknowtracks.co.uk

James Pentney and the Alien Factory

A message from James Pentney:

I’ve tried to explain a bit more about The Alien Factory although it remains something of a mystery until we’ve done it on the 16th. I am finding the process interesting and creative if also on the edge.
What follows is written in the form of the opening scene of a play introducing characters J, C and K. It is also reportage on the conception of a performance / drama workshop that will take place this month with the Allsorts youth club in Stroud.

THE ALIEN FACTORY (Episode One … true so far)
Youth club hub-ub, kids mulling, eating crisps
J (late middle aged, balding, bearded, beside a pool table)
“Hello everyone, can we turn the music off for a minute please
I’ve just popped in to ask if anyone would like to try to do a show after Christmas.
You know there’s pantomimes and things so I thought we might do something in the hall here;
maybe make up a story
How about Aladdin or Jack and the Beanstalk, Aladdin and the Beanstalk, Jack’s Cat …”
C (teenage girl) “Charlie And The Chocolate Factory”
K (boy) “How about aliens?”
C “Charlie and the Alien Factory”
K “Just The Alien Factory”
J “We’ll need a bit of a script to follow”
C “I’ll do that”
J “Fine I’ll come back next time then”
As good as her word, two weeks later C produced her pencilled pages
C “… so the founder of the factory is Jimmy Zonka, that’s you (J)
J “ Does the factory make aliens or do aliens work in the factory?
C Yes and Jimmy Zonka has an idea for a competition for kids to make something new so there are tickets and there’s a nerd kid who has a ticket, that’s you (K) and I have a ticket and I come up with the new thing
K So you’re like the hero
C And the aliens are free to go home to their own planet
J Sounds like you’re a new Doctor Who. Let’s do it.

(to be continued following the performance workshop on 16 January that will involve set construction, music, dance, storytelling and shadow puppetry for alien production)