57 Events Intro

It is a solemn start to the New Year, Xmas having witnessed the final farewell of Adrian Mitchell, who will be much missed by family, friends & the whole community. Through the year 57 will be party to public commemorative events, details of which will be posted here. Adrian's new collection for adults 'Tell Me Lies' is due out from Bloodaxe in Spring, to be followed by the appearance of his new & collected works for kids 'Umpteen Pockets' from Orchard, with special events around both to be announced

Other event highlights for the New Year include:

Linton Kwesi Johnson: Jan. 16th - The Black Box, Belfast

Patience Agbabi: Jan. 26th - Poets in the City, Kings Place, London, plus ... please see Patience's individual entry

Jean 'Binta' Breeze: Feb 10th - Leicester, workshop & performance

followed by a performance in The Little Theatre, Doncaster on Feb. 14th. plus ... please see Jean's individual entry

Linton Kwesi Johnson: April 19th - Rose Theatre, Kingston-upon-Thames, London

with much more t.b.a.

Stop Press: 57 is party to the launch of the late, great Michael Donaghy's Collected Poems and Prose (Picador) on the 14th of March at the Southbank, London - featuring recordings made by Michael for 57 & the iPoems system being set to music by the composer Terry Mann - & in an associated launch event at Newcastle University where the film of Michael in performance 'Black Ice and Rain' (see the Poetry Video Jukebox) will be screened

Spring 2009 also sees 57 participating in the 'E-Poetry Module' as part of the MA in Creative Writing & New Media, taught by Peter Howard, run through De Montfort University, Leicester - aiming to facilitate a critical understanding of electronic poetry practices in the context of historical artistic movements within literature & other audio & visual arts, & to enable students to create, distribute and promote E-poetry in a variety of delivery platforms including the web

In 2009 57 will release new content for the iPoems system - including the selected works of Jane Draycott, John Hartley Williams, Lorna Goodison & Cecil Rajendra, plus generous samplings of the work of Shamshad Khan, Crisis, Mark Gwynne Jones, Paul Lyalls & Jacob Sam-La Rose - along with their new entries on the Poetry Jukebox

Watch this space!