I've started...
Red Hot, Raucous And Riveting
proudWORDS got of to a riotous start on Tuesday 5th October with Kitty Fitzgerald and Fiona Cooper.
In association with Durham Literature Festival.
and now...
Friday 15th October, 6 p.m.
proudWORDS 2004 Launch
Newcastle Central Library,(Princess Sq)
Featuring Edinburgh based writer
Ellen Galford and readings from Lesbian and Gay community groups. Join us for a glass of wine to celebrate the launch of the 6th annual
proudWORDS festival.
Ellen Galford's novels include The Fires of Bride (Women's Press), The Dyke and the Dybbuk, Moll Cutpurse: Her True History and Queendom Come (all Virago). She lives in Scotland, where she works as a freelance writer, occasional arts reviewer and as a project coordinator for the Remember When Project, an oral and community history project on LGBT life in Edinburgh.
Saturday 16th October 10 a.m. - 1 p.m.
Mesmac, Nelson Street, Newcastle.
Queer History
How different was the experience of lesbians and gay man in the past compared to now? Was the gay scene a seedy shadow of its present
caffe latte glory? Following on from a proposal to make February the UK's first LGBT History Month (which has received backing from the government's Equality Minister) we're hosting a workshop/ discussion on the whys and wherefores of developing an LGBT archive right here in the NorthEast. If you're interested in people's stories in the context of a wider struggle for sexual equality and are keen to find out how we might document our history, come along to what promises to be a fascinating event.
We'll be joined by
Ellen Galford who is working on an oral history project with the LGBT community in Edinburgh, and
Zelda Baveystock who is Senior Keeper of History at Tyne and Wear Museums.
Sunday 17th October
The Queer Story Telling Festival on Tour
Workshop: 2-5pm at Newgate Suite, Copthorne Hotel
7.30 evening event in Cuthbert Suite, Copthorne Hotel
Swank down to the Copthorne Hotel on Newcastle's Quayside to join Tim Redfern and other writers to tell your stories. The workshop will be followed by an evening performance.
Following the sell out success run in The Drill Hall Theatre, London, QSF events provide a platform for new, emerging, existing and never performed before queer writers, artists and performers to bring their experiences and histories from beyond the straight and narrow to an audience of queer listeners. It is not stand up comedy, open-mic or poetry evening. It has been described as personal testimony meets performance.
Food and a bar will be available all day/evening. You can book separately for each event, please specify when booking.
Monday 18th October, 6.30 - 8 p.m.
The Dobson Room, Royal Station Hotel, Neville St, Newcastle
"What has the gay community done for us?"
A discussion about the impact of the lesbian/gay community on society: apart from being responsible for the breakdown of 'traditional' family values, hi-energy dance music and the first mention of 'fisting' on prime time TV, what else can us queers be proud of? Come and put in your two-pennies' worth; be inspired, cajoled and stimulated by writers and television broadcasters,
Bea Campbell and
Tom Shakespeare.
The evening will be hosted by former chair of
Pride on Tyne,
Catherine Donovan.
Tuesday 19th October, 6.30 p.m.
Blackwell's Bookshop, Percy Street, Newcastle.
"Funny and Clever"
Gilly Love and
Linda Innes read from their work. Free wine.
Charlotte G. Arnold (Gilly Love) is the writer of the recent north east lesbian romance
Carved in Stone - "a Sapphic-Mills-and-Boon-in-the-rain!" - the first English publication from
Egales SL Press, based in Barcelona. Written with a wry humour - and very English - it is set in the wilds of Northumberland.
Gilly lives near Rowlands Gill.
Linda Innes has written the highly acclaimed novel
Smother (
Diva Books)which was described by
Julia Darling as "
... a hugely exciting debut novel... This is a powerful new voice, exploring difficult and important territory, and it's immensely readable too." Strands of comedy are woven with destructive love, passion, obsession, hatred, humour, hurt, betrayal, revenge and death: a story of everyday lesbian life.
Linda lives in Saltburn, Cleveland.
After the readings, there'll be time for discussion on writing, getting published, and life in general.
Thursday 21st October, 6 - 8 p.m.
Thursday 21st October, 8.30 p.m.
Caedmon Hall, Gateshead
"Cultivating Spontaneity: A Journal Writing Workshop"
with
Shaun Levin, former
Gay's the Word Bookshop writer-in-residence and author of
Seven Sweet Things. Shaun is the founder of
Queer Writers and Poets and the editor of
Chroma, the new queer literary journal.
Journal keeping is one of the oldest methods of self-exploration and expression. It is a response to the psychology, philosophy, and poetry of daily life. And everyone can do it! Journal keeping is a form of meditation and a crucial artistic tool. In this practical creative writing workshop you'll get to explore new and inspiring ways to start a journal, or add pizzazz to the one you're already keeping. The exercises - from creative list making, sketching, and wild ranting, to fantasizing and fictionalising - will help you develop a fun and insightful engagement with the details of your own life.
STOP PRESS: line-up for the 8.30pm reading event In addition to
Shaun Levin, there'll be readings from
Biscuit Prize runner-up
Romi Jones, the counselling poet
Jenny Secretan, performance from Open Clasp Theatre's
Trina McHugh,
Bernard Carr (Teesside's answer to Melvyn Bragg) and
Mary Lowe,
proudWORDS' chief executive.
A bar will be available from 7pm.
Free parking outside Gateshead Central Library. Free entry.
You can book separately for each event, please specify when booking.
Friday 22nd October, 6 - 8 p.m.
Mesmac, Nelson Street, Newcastle.
How Gay Are Your Genes?
Creative writing with Lisa Matthews, poet and chair of proudWORDS
Would you like to add your voice to a major public artwork showcasing the LGB communities of the north east? What makes you LGB? Were you born that way? Is your sexuality a choice, or maybe it was caused by your hormones, your parents, your upbringing, God, or even the weather?
Come along and take part in an interesting debate and a fun writing workshop that'll try to answer some of these questions. Non-writers, non-scientists and those not sure of anything are particularly welcome - this workshop is about your ideas and your voice is unique, so make sure it's heard.
Saturday 23rd October, 1 - 2 p.m.
Saturday 23rd October, 2 - 4 p.m.
Live Theatre, Quayside, Newcastle
Gay Shorts Lunch
In association with
New Writing North (as part of NWN's festival of short stories)
Join top gay writers in conversation about the gay short story.
Adam Mars-Jones (editor,
Mae West is Dead) and
Louise Welsh (
The Cutting Room and
Tamburlaine Must Die). Lunch will be provided.
Louise Welsh's debut novel
The Cutting Room was a sinister tale of gay sex and antiques. It was translated into seventeen languages and was nominated for the Orange Prize. Her second novel
Tamburlaine Must Die was published by
Canongate Books in August 2004. Louise lives in Glasgow.
In 1981
Adam Mars-Jones published a book of short stories
Lantern Lectures which won a Somerset Maugham Award. Two years later he was named one of the Best Young British Novelists by
Granta. He is a novelist, editor and reviews "everything that moves and some that don't" for the
Independent,
Times and
Observer. He regularly appears on
Newsnight Review on BBC2.
Followed by:
Gay Short Story Workshop with Adam Mars-Jones
What constitutes a short story, does it need a beginning middle and end? Join Adam- Mars Jones for an insight into writing gay short stories and turning a fragment into a piece of short fiction.
Saturday 23rd October, 8 p.m. onwards
Newcastle Arts Centre, bottom of Westgate Rd, Newcastle
"Words, music, drink, dance"
proudWORDS party
Tickets £5 (£3 concessions)
To book:
Ring Newcastle Arts Centre: 0191 261 5618
Or fax: 0191 233 0525
Join top writers Adam Mars-Jones and Louise Welsh to celebrate
proudWORDS and music with the help of singer/guitarist Sherron Levy with her inimitable set of soulful songs, followed by 'dance till you drop' to
DJ StrictMachine (not Rock 'n' Doris - please note this change).
*if you've any 'must - dance' party tunes and don't mind bringing them along, we'll do our best to play them (no
Birdy Song or
Bob the Builder though).
Sunday 24th October, 2 - 5 p.m.
Tyneside Cinema (The Clinic), Pilgrim St, Newcastle
Introduction to Screenwriting
Tina Gharavi, filmmaker and lecturer in film studies at Sunderland University, leads a workshop on
Introduction to Screenwriting: how to begin to write for the screen - idea generation, structure, characters, dialogue, and formatting in one whirlwind of a session!
Please bring three objects which have significance to you (or the idea you might want to develop) to the session!
Tina Gharavi is a writer/director currently based in the North of England. Her recent projects have featured a dynamic blend of documentary and fiction-film techniques focusing on issues of gender, sexuality, and identity. In 1997, she founded
Bridge + Tunnel Productions and has recently completed a commission by Channel Four UK to produce
Mother/Country, a docu-drama about returning to her mother's house in Iran 20 years after the Islamic Revolution. Tina is currently commissioned by
New Writing North to complete the first draft of her feature script,
Ali in Wonderland, about the experience of Iranians living in Tyneside (a classic Geordie/Persian romantic comedy!).
She is currently a Lecturer in English (Digital Media) at the University of Newcastle.
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