After experiencing catastrophic production delays which wreaked havoc around Europe, we finally have our Disarm Hate x Poetry vinyl! Firstly, we’d just like to apologise profusely to the customers who’ve pre-ordered these and have been waiting patiently for them to arrive.
The records were pressed at Deepgrooves in the Netherlands, which is the greenest pressing plant in the world. But when we sent them our masters back in spring 2021, not even they could have predicted how long it would take for the job to actually be finished. It turns out that COVID + Brexit = quite the combo.
But the important thing is that they’re here now, in all their glory. And as pre-orders are shipped around the UK, out to Europe, and over to the US, the remaining copies are available to purchase here for £20 plus P+P.
You can read more about the Disarm Hate x Poetry project here. And it’s important to note that all profits from these vinyl sales will be split between LGBTQ charities. Apologies again for the delay. And fingers crossed you’ll all love this album as much as we do…!
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!
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.
As part of the ‘Disarm Hate x Poetry‘ project, we issued a public call-out for audio responses. These were linked to a couple of free virtual workshops, with the chosen submissions being released on a free digital album alongside ‘We Will Keep On‘ at the weekend.
The result was a seven-track album called ‘Sometimes, The Revolution is Small‘. We love this extra strand to our project and are excited to expand the number of LGBTQ poets who are responding to the project and its themes. The album is available free of charge, with an option to donate if you like. Any income will be split between Contigo Fund in the US and Stonewall UK.
After 10 months of grafting, planning, bidding, tweaking, writing, recording, mixing, mastering, designing, crying, loving, sharing, and everything else that’s gone into it…the culmination of the ‘Disarm Hate x Poetry‘ project is finally out in the world.
This ‘We Will Keep On’ album features specially commissioned responses to the ‘Disarm Hate‘ documentary from 16 leading LGBTQ poets. The poems feature alongside documentary clips layered over Ralph Stevens’ original soundtrack. And the album has been released worldwide to commemorate the five-year anniversary of the Orlando massacre.
All profits from album sales will be split between Contigo Fund in the US and Stonewall UK. There’ll be a 2LP gatefold album released later in the summer, which is available to pre-order through our Bandcamp site. We’re immensely proud and humbled to have released this album, and hope that it’s received as a valuable contribution to the global LGBTQ community.
We also issued a call-out for public responses as audio submissions. As promised, a selection of these submissions have been released on a free digital album – entitled ‘Sometimes, The Revolution is Small’.
Special thanks to Arts Council England for part-funding this as part of their National Lottery Project Funds, and to Rugged Entertainment for approaching us last summer. Enjoy…
Our ‘Disarm Hate x Poetry‘ project sees 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 audio responses to ‘Disarm Hate’ and/or the aftermath of Orlando.
A selection of these submissions will be released on a free digital album through our Bandcamp site, alongside the main ‘We Will Keep On’ album. There’ll be an option for customers to make a donation if they choose, and as with ‘We Will Keep On’, all donations will be split between Contigo Fund and Stonewall UK.
We encourage submissions from a diverse range of LGBTQ poets at all stages of their careers. Any poems that are accepted will be subject to a very basic written agreement with the label. However, full copyright on the poem will remain with the individual poets and any agreement will only be for clarification’s sake.
‘Disarm Hate x Poetry’ virtual workshops
As part of this call-out, we’re staging two free virtual workshops with poets featured on the album. Joelle Taylor is leading the session on Monday 24 May (tickets) and Andrés Nicolás Ordorica will be leading the session on Wednesday 26 May (tickets).
Also, toward the end of June, we’ll be staging another two workshops which will be linked to a call-out for written submissions. We’ll be dedicating our Instagram feed to these submissions and will publish a selection of them in a digital presentation booklet.
Our requirements for the audio submissions are as follows:
Submissions deadline: Sunday 6 June at midnight BST
Send via email attachment or WeTransfer to matt@nymphsandthugs.net
Recordings to be no longer than 2½ minutes
Most smartphone microphones are of sufficient quality. However, we strongly recommend recording under a duvet (or similar) as it significantly increases the quality of the recording
You’re fine to say the title of the poem before reading it if you like, but please don’t give any preamble
This goes without saying, but any poems that are deemed to be offensive or inappropriate won’t be considered
Finally, just be yourself
This is our first ever public call-out of this nature and we can’t wait to hear your responses. The five-year anniversary is a landmark event for the LGBTQ community and we want these poems to show the world what it meant, what it continues to mean, and what will be done in resistance.
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 to free virtual workshops with poets featured on the album. This is linked to a public call-out for audio submissions (more info here).
The workshops encourage LGBTQ writers to shape their responses to the ‘Disarm Hate‘ documentary. Writers of all experiences, abilities, and backgrounds are invited to register. All you need to bring to the workshop is a free Zoom account, a reliable internet connection, and something to write with.
Each workshop is limited to 20 participants each, and we encourage you to only choose one, in order to maximise the number of potential participants overall. Our guest tutors are Joelle Taylor on Monday 24 May (tickets here) and Andrés Nicolás Ordorica on Wednesday 26 May (tickets here).
‘Disarm Hate x Poetry’ workshops
The album ‘We Will Keep On’ is available to pre-order on 2LP gatefold vinyl and digital here.
Our new project is our most ambitious to date and underlines our core aim when it comes to social and political issues. The ‘Disarm Hate x Poetry’ project has seen us commission 16 of the world’s leading LGBTQ poets to respond to the ‘Disarm Hate‘ documentary. The resulting album will be released digitally on 12 June, which marks five years since the Orlando massacre.
The poems will be interspersed with interview excerpts from the documentary, which feature on Ralph Stevens’ soundtrack album. We’ve worked in partnership with Rugged Entertainment in LA to create this as an official response to the documentary and are immensely proud and honoured to have been given this opportunity.
The album, entitled ‘We Will Keep On‘, will also be released on 2LP gatefold vinyl later in the summer. Both the vinyl and digital release are available to pre-order here. And thanks to some funding from Arts Council England, we’re able to split the profits between Contigo Fund in Florida and Stonewall UK. It’s vital to us that as much of this project as possible goes back into the LGBTQ community.
The Orlando massacre sent shockwaves through the LGBTQ community. We wanted this album to represent a cross-section of that community and to hopefully provide a valuable contribution to the dialogue. It’s a major landmark for LGBTQ people around the globe and we’re overwhelmed by our poets’ final pieces.
A huge thank you to everybody that’s helped to make this a reality. Stay tuned for more…
Nymphs & Thugs 