The inimitable Joelle Taylor is touring her new collection ‘C+nto & Othered Poems‘, and we’re over the moon to have linked her with The Leeds Library for the Yorkshire leg. She’s at the stunning 253-year-old venue on Friday 3 September.
Joelle headlined the first-ever ‘Chelping at The Leeds Library’ event way back in April 2018 and we’re honoured that she’ll be joining us in Leeds on this new tour. Get tickets whilst you can…
A quick update on our We Will Keep On vinyl. Firstly, huge thanks to everybody that’s pre-ordered it so far. For all little indies, whether it’s record labels or publishers, pre-orders make a colossal difference and make life much easier in many ways. So, thank you!
Originally – when I first started building the project last autumn – I wanted the vinyl to be released alongside the digital album on 12 June. When our first Arts Council England bid was unsuccessful, I tweaked the plan so that the vinyl would follow later in the summer (ideally mid-late August).
However, due to the beautiful combination of COVID-19 and Brexit, all of the vinyl manufacturing plants are experiencing severe and unprecedented delays. It mainly relates to metal shortages, as far as I can tell. But either way, timescales are like nothing ever seen before.
The current estimate for the We Will Keep On vinyl is mid-late October, which is obviously far letter than I ever imagined it would be. So, to manage expectations, we’re tentatively planning for a November release.
Our designer’s mock-up of the We Will Keep On vinyl
We want to coincide this with a special screening of the Disarm Hate documentary at the OnePulse Museum in Orlando, which takes place on 19 November. Our plan is to host a virtual launch event, featuring a combination of poets from the album and also cast members from the documentary.
So, I wholeheartedly apologise for any disappointment caused. If it were up to me, you’d all be holding the vinyl in your hand right now! But these are crazy times, and I know that our plant are going to work as hard as they can to turn this around for us.
In the meantime, the album is available digitally via most major stores and streaming sites. And if you haven’t pre-ordered the album yet, so you can do so here!
Last night, I was joined by Jonathan Kinsman for the 50th and final Insta session. It still hasn’t properly sunk in that there won’t be any more. And as I’ve said a few times, these sessions have been a real crutch for me since the pandemic struck.
Like most people, I disappeared into a bit of a shell when Lockdown 1.0 was first announced towards the end of March 2020. I wasn’t sure how to respond as a human being, let alone as a record label boss. But during April, I decided that we’d combine our first-ever virtual event with the label’s 5th birthday – seeing all of the acts performing on the same bill for the very first time.
The event took place on 29 April, which was supposed to be the date of our LIVEwire Colchester event. It felt so good that I decided to start a regular event off the back of it, and dreamt up the format for relaxed 30-minute weekly ‘Insta sessions’. I approached Nafeesa Hamid to do the first session, she agreed, and we were off.
This month we welcomed Gemma Rogers to be our live guest in the Soho Radio studio! You should be able to find it wherever you usually listen to podcasts, but if not, it’s available here.
Thanks as always to everybody that listened live! We’re back with Episode 21 on Saturday 31 July.
Since the beginning of May 2020, we’ve hosted (almost) weekly Insta sessions with guests from all over the UK and further afield. These relaxed 30-minute sessions have blended performance with insightful conversations from leading and emerging poets.
For our 50th and FINAL SESSION, we welcome Jonathan Kinsman! Jonathan is a trans poet from Manchester. Raised Church of England and with a background in theological study, he lives his life marrying his spirituality and their sexuality.
As well as being founding editor of Riggwelter Press and associate editor of Three Drops From a Cauldron, he is also a BBC Edinburgh Fringe Slam finalist. He received a distinction for his MA in Creative Writing at the University of Sheffield. His début pamphlet & was joint-winner of the Indigo Dreams Pamphlet Prize 2017 and his second, witness, was published by Burning Eye in 2020.
Insta sessions #50: Jonathan Kinsman on Tuesday 6 July
In his latest monthly spoken word column for The State of the Arts, Matt Abbott argues that poetry from Gaza would be far more beneficial in the classroom than poetry from 2018. You can read the column here.
Since the beginning of May 2020, we’ve been hosting weekly Insta sessions with guests from all over the UK and further afield. These relaxed 30-minute sessions blend performance with insightful conversations from leading and emerging poets.
Our ‘Disarm Hate x Poetry‘ project saw the album ‘We Will Keep On‘ released on 12 June, to mark the five-year anniversary of the Orlando massacre. It features specially commissioned poems from 16 leading LGBTQ poets alongside interview excerpts from the ‘Disarm Hate‘ documentary.
However, we don’t want to stop there. The Orlando massacre sent shockwaves around the global LGBTQ community and we want to engage as many members of the community as possible. So, we’re issuing a call-out for written responses to ‘Disarm Hate’ and/or the aftermath of Orlando.
We want our ‘Disarm Hate x Poetry‘ project to engage as much of the LGBTQ community as possible. As part of the project, we’re staging two more free virtual workshops with poets featured on the album. This is linked to a public call-out for written submissions which will be announced on 17 June.
