Saturday 21 December 2013

Happy Solstice and Merry Christmas


Ah what an epic week it was for me! This was the week that Springfield Road reached Unbound #crowdfund target - order yourself a copy at www.unbound.co.uk/books/springfield-road
Huge thanks to all of you!


Its been such a wonderful and busy year! Now its Winter Solstice, the traditional time to celebrate the truly important things in life: your family, your children, your home and time to look forward to the wonderful new year to come. I appreciate all your support. Sending lots of love to you all! It only gets lighter and brighter every day from here on in. HAPPY SOLSTICE & A VERY MERRY CHRISTMAS TO YOU ALL !! xx




Tuesday 17 December 2013

Springfield Road is 100% funded!


What a fantastic way to end a fabulous and industrious year

Thanks and love to all for your support and to all at Unbound

You can order your copies now from unbound.co.uk/books/springfield-road

Hear some of the gig and radio highlights of my crowd funding adventures on my mixcloud

And read excerpts from this journey on my tumblr

Wishing you all a very merry Christmas! Ding Dong! 



Last Gig Of The Year - Special Event  / Wed. 18th December
Christmas double bill with Salena Godden and Sam Berkson 
Notorious fish-hating vegetarian Angry Sam Berkson and legendary Hastings fish and chip shop chick, Salena Godden,  put on a night of poetry about life, death, sex and fish in a photo gallery in a former fishbar in Dalston. Only 40 tickets available: £5 on the door / £4 advance from http://fishbar.ph/Spoken_Word.html And more details on Facebook

Thursday 12 December 2013

Woody Guthrie's New Years Rulin's "read lots of good books, stay glad, dream good, love everybody..."


'Woody Guthrie’s New Years Rulin’s'
Source: The Woody Guthrie Foundation
January 4th 2014:
Each year, every January, without fail, I spend the first days of the year in a strange holier-than-thou space wondering what to give up and what to stop and the answer is always the same, don't give up things but take more things on. ie. If you must worry so much then you have to swim and dance more. This year I think these resolutions by Woody Guthrie best sum up what I plan to do this year - read lots of good books, stay glad, dream good, wake up and fight, love everybody - maybe this year it is all just as simple as this because these are the things that make us happiest. As poets and artists we make up our jobs as we go along. Nobody asked us to do this with our time and energy but we still do it don't we. Someone once wrote that you'll never work a day in your life if you are doing something you really love to do. A famous American poet quipped that in life all you have to do is find something you love to do and do it until it kills you. Another says that if you want to write a book just sit at a desk and bleed. Sometimes I wonder how this life began, its not easy, I don't remember choosing the writing and the adventures, the travel and the performance, the music and the radio making, somehow it found me, and I feel very blessed right now...never, ever give up.


On January 4th 2013, exactly a year ago today, we said goodbye to our dear friend and brother Gigi Gianuzzi. I remember coming home from the funeral and locking myself away only to spend the month of January writing, recording and borrowing sounds with the sole aim of trying to capture the feel of our friend and his extraordinary life. With thanks to Hannah Trolley, this work took on its own life. It was presented as a sound installation with images from Gigi’s vivid journey and premiered at The Trolleyology Exhibition, Londonewcastle Project Space, Redchurch Street. It was sent to be exhibited in France at the ‘Paris Loves Gigi Party’ in February at Au Café Le Béguin and then it was shown in New York. Finally it was taken to Gigi's birth-home of Italy and exhibited at the successfully Kickstarter funded Trolleyology Book Launch as part of The Venice Biennale on May 28th 2013. Gigi’s Soundgarden & The Trolley Radiopicture by Salena Godden is on Mixcloud  here.


Its been a busy and productive time, I have much to be grateful and glad about. I completed new short stories and poetry and you'll find those pieces published in books by Tongue Fu, Bang Said The Gun, Book Slam, Influx Press and Paraphilia Magazine. Also this year I enjoyed some great gigs and festivals, performing at Hay-on-Wye, Cornbury Festival, Stoke Newington Literary Festival and Wilderness. Notably this year I fulfilled an ambition to follow my father's footsteps to perform at The London Palladium, it was a wonderful evening with fellow poets supporting John Cooper Clarke. Later in August, I completed a commission to celebrate the 50th Anniversary of Martin Luther King's 'I Have a Dream' speech, I recall delivering my version of that speech with much gusto to the crowds of London's South Bank. I also supported and read poetry at The House Of Lords for United Nations 21st Annual International Day of Disabled People. Meanwhile over at the BBC in the springtime I was delighted to take part in The Sound Women Festival and in June I recorded an episode of From Fact To Fiction with Kate Fox. I also wrote a commission for Click Radio on The BBC World Service. This year saw much travel and adventure, most of all I had a wicked and inspiring time at the brilliant Ubud Writers Festival in Indonesia and if you add to that my continued work with the young people and the fantastic team at First Story...for me 2013 was quite a year.


 
Coming up in 2014 we see 'Springfield Road' published with Unbound Books. There are no words to describe how pleased I am about this and how relieved my nearest and dearest are. Thank you to my brilliant family and friends who are and were so generous and patient. We reached our target in December, it was a stunning finale' to a stunning crowd funding journey. You must order your copies now from unbound.co.uk if you'd like to read this book before it hits the shops later in 2014.

Throughout these wintry months I will mostly be hibernating and working on the writing. In the wings I have a beautiful big fat poetry collection getting ready to be published this summer. This winter I'm working on a new BBC commission and will be flying to America to make a new documentary, alongside my producer, the award winning and uber-talented, Rebecca Maxted.

Thank you for reading this far down the page. I wish you all the best for 2014. I have no idea what's around the corner, probably more gigs and more parties, more writing and more radio making, but seems there is nothing to do right now and today but follow Woody's wise words and resolutions: read lots of good books, stay glad, dream good, wake up and fight, love everybody.

 

'Silver Spoons: can you write without one?'
An evening jointly hosted by the RSL and First Story.  
Jonathan Dimbleby asks whether the world of literature is becoming more, or less, closed 
Chair: Jonathan Dimbleby  
Panel: Alan Johnson, Stephen Kelman, Kate Fox, Salena Godden
Bloomsbury Street Hotel, London WC1B 3QD
Tickets £10: BUY TICKETS



Wednesday 4 December 2013

Poem / How Does A Blind Person Cross The Road

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How many cars make a traffic jam?
How much noise? How much pollution?
How does a blind person cross the road?
How can we find a solution?

How many MP’s does it take to change a light bulb?
How many benefits slashed and cut?
How come the privileged continue to thrive?
How long the waiting list now the hospitals shut?

How long is a piece of string?
How come you know why the caged bird sings?
How long until we finally hear
the bells of equality ring?

How much free speech is taken for granted?
How can we hear the small voices?
How does a blind person cross the road
 - If the blind person has no choices?

How does the light get in?
How do you measure isolation in there?
How important is a sense of independence?
How important are the carers? How vital the care?

How many signatures have to sign the petitions?
How many press releases, updates and tweets?
How can we  raise more awareness?
How can we make safer these streets?

How the spinners spin keeps spinning and
How does the left hand not know the right?
How can you walk past and do nothing?
How do you sleep well at night?

How would you like to be treated?
How can we all ignite the fuse?
How come the disabled, sick, poor and elderly
Are the ones who suffer cut backs and lose?

How can you shut the door when there are no walls?
How can we educate? How can we unite?
How can we combat greed, apathy and ignorance?
How do we fight the good fight?

How come everyone isn’t treated equally?
How come we can’t enrich and enable all life?
How do actions speak louder than words?
How do your words cut like a knife?

I believe we can find the truth and the answers -
And we’ll reap all the seeds that we sowed
But lets start by asking one question -
How does a blind person cross the road?


© Salena Godden / 2013
Read at The House of Lords - December 3rd 2013 
The United Nations 21st Annual International Day of Disabled People.
Written in support of the House of Lords premier of 'The Sea of Change' film, asking the question "How Does A Blind Person Cross The Road?" Find out more about the film by watching this short trailer on youtube: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkVfe0I5sbM

Last night as I left The House Of Lords I listened to Big Ben strike 6pm. I was so inspired by the afternoon, by the lively debate and the excellent people I met, most of all the wonderful Sarah Gayton who organised this event and the campaign. So I came straight home and made a new 3minute sound-garden-radio-picture
CLICK HERE TO HEAR: http://www.mixcloud.com/salenagodden/how-does-a-blind-person-cross-the-road-poem-by-salena-godden/


 
 

Sunday 1 December 2013

December 2013: Wordsmiths & Co / The House of Lords / Edinburgh






DECEMBER 2nd: 
Wordsmiths & Co / Warwick Arts Centre. Event features  / / / A quartet of exciting voices, plus unique poetry films, commissioned by Apples and Snakes for their Architects of Our Republic event.

DECEMBER 3rd: 
On Tuesday I've been invited to speak at The House Of Lords as part of The 21st Birthday of the United Nations International Day for Persons with Disabilities. I'll be speaking out on the behalf of disabled and blind people at the red carpet premier of the 'Sea Of Change' film. Lord Low the inspirational blind Lord is sponsoring the event. This is a great honour. My mother is a full time carer of my little sister and so I'm both humbled and excited to be given the opportunity to write and speak up for the UK's disabled, the blind, those with learning difficulties and those that care for them, the very people that need our help, support and understanding most of all.

There is a group of amazing blind and partially sighted pensioners from the National Federation of the Blind of the UK - Their film is called 'Sea of Change' and they ask one simple question 'How Does A Blind Person Cross the Road?'  This powerful film documents the life changing impact these new road designs are having on blind people in the UK. This will be its big screen world premier in the House of Lords. With Victor Jackson from the National Federation of the Blind of the UK from Leeds asking the questions here in the trailer http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nkVfe0I5sbM 
The issues discussed within the ‘Sea of Change Film’ were investigated on the BBC Radio 4 Intouch you may listen again to the programme here http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b01qm4pw.


DECEMBER 6th-8th:
I'm contributing to a weekend of performance and poetry in Edinburgh, details at http://inkyfingers.org.uk



 Did you know if you pledge for my book Springfield Road you get a copy of the book about 6months before anyone else, I didn’t realise that bit, did you? So get in there early and make your pledge, you’ll get your name published in every copy of the book plus other goodies, and you’ll be helping us reach target and we are so close now. Thank you for all your kindness and generosity, its been an awesome #crowdfunding adventure, i can see the light at the end of the tunnel and its very shiny and bright! Thank you all so much! Please read, share and RT the link. http://unbound.co.uk/books/springfield-road