Saturday 31 December 2016

Here comes the love, here comes the light





Here's the long dark

Here's the big night

 Here comes the love

 Here comes the light




Here comes the love, here comes the light

I'm waving goodbye to 2016, the year we lost so many heroes, great artists, poets, writers and musicians, bold hearts and truth slayers. We lost some originals, mentors and leaders. Humanitarians. One of the things these beautiful souls had in common was not shiny fame or celebrity, but a lifetime that contained rejection and betrayal, the fear of being different, of having to go first, and of being misunderstood. They shared perseverance, that inspiration and courage to carry on, to fail and fail again, to keep making work and to continue. We must let people mourn and be kind. Personally I mourn because it isn't what was lost, but what was found, what was discovered and left here to teach us. As I said at the beginning of the year in my Bowie poem, you'll find that here

The tears are not for love is lost
I cry for what was found and tried
That is why I cried
The day that David died


As I write this blog, my farewell to 2016, more and more bad news pours in, death and war and death and politics and now I'm thinking you can read the headlines and despair and wring your hands OR you can switch off the fake news and choose to get more creative, more proactive and more determined. Feed your head. Let every slammed shut door be a reminder that you have work to do, every loss a cold slap that everybody counts and nobody is to be taken for granted. We clearly have no time to waste. We all want a better world and so we're going to have to work for it and this is the perfect time. Now is always a good time, the best time to do anything is Now.


I have seen posts and tweets to the effect of I just hope new heroes are being born this year... but surely your heroes are all already here, darling, your heroes are here, I follow them, never giving up on their dreams, crowd funding their books and kick starting their albums and tours, writers and artists are more punk and DIY than ever. This generations heroes are in the queue at the food bank, your heroes are broke, with no funding or arts grants. Or maybe, our heroes are in Calais and Dunkirk volunteering to help the refugees, your heroes are down in Soho donating food and blankets to the homeless, your heroes are working overtime in the NHS A&E departments, your heroes are taking phone calls at the Samaritans and talking people down from the edge. Our heroes are everywhere, they walk among us.

The support and nurturing of these heroes is our responsibility. We can all do our part to help others, to help others who help others. We are losing our libraries, museums, galleries, independent bookshops, pubs and venues, so the beautiful spaces where writers and artists could meet and gather and blossom and dream are slowly being erased. The survival of the now generation is ours, here and now. It is more important now more than ever to fight for all of this, from diverse voices in publishing through to our most basic Human Rights. Because we need heroes, volunteers, humanitarians, kindness, we need the poets and thinkers and doers and creators, science and art and books and music, otherwise what is the actual point of living? Why are we all here if not for the love? Are we all here just for our safe Hygge? Pass me a fleece blanket I'm going to vomit lavender candle wax all over my fluffy woollen socks...

2017 marks the 50th anniversary of the summer of love. 1967 was tumultuous, 475,000 were serving in Vietnam and thousands attended demonstrations and peace rallies. Martin Luther King denounced the war in Vietnam and America exploded in protests and race riots. Mohammed Ali was stripped of his boxing titles for refusing induction into the army. Israel went to war with Syria, Egypt and Jordan. The Beatles released Sgt. Peppers Lonely Heart Club Band, it was the summer of love, multi-coloured beautiful people, all smoking pot, wearing daisy chains, beads and beards, afro and long hair, the love revolution and The Grateful Dead, Jefferson Airplane and The Byrds.

This is a cliche' picture in my head, of course, this was all way before my time, but I do remember that 1987 was also declared a summer of love and that 1987 was also a terrible year. Ronald Reagan was the hilarious clown in the White House then and Margaret Thatcher reigned Downing Street. I vividly recall that trippy yellow smiley face and that 1987 was the beginning of more exciting counter culture, aciiiiid and illegal raves. I guess what I'm saying is that we've been here before, we've seen this brand of political ambition and xenophobia. There is nothing new about power drunk and opportunistic businessmen and politicians and their dirty handshakes and dodgy arms deals, their disregard for the poor, elderly and weak, it's like we are going in circles, a stupid loop, we've been here before, we will survive, stand our ground and hold the line.

2017 is gonna be a helluva of year, 2017 will be a summer of love, there will be happenings, there will be LSD fuelled orgies, daisy chains and strawberry ohms and free love and naked bodies writhing in Woodstock mud and 24hour raves and we'll wear flowers in our hair! Haha! Perhaps ... perhaps not. I mean to say now is a time to share the love, feel the love, to get creative, to use that  DIY punk ethic, to roll up our sleeves and help each other. To feed the light, get connected, be vocal and active within our local communities and the global community. We have to nurture our books, our diverse writers and artists, as they are documenting this time we withstand and live through. We have a planet to save, this isn't a rehearsal, climate change is real and one direct consequence of war and climate change is migration and refugees.


There are more lovers than haters, more good than bad, there is a beauty inside this to be seen and shared. If a manbaby will be made president of the USA in 2017 in spite of his foul intolerance and ignorance, just think how far we can go with some intelligence and consideration, and with one love forged in the fire of our united best intentions. Please don't you tell me the sky is the limit when I've seen men walk on the moon. When hate is rising, then love will rise higher. New years hippy rant over and out!


Here is the love, here is the light





Here in my small poetry bubble 2016 was a manic year. I took lots of trains and travelled with my suitcase of books to hundreds of gigs and talks, festivals and events, I did some radio and TV. I woke up in strange places and beige hotel rooms. Thank you for the lovely adventures: Edinburgh Book Festival, Green Gathering, Neu Reekie, The Roundhouse, Arvon, Bookslam, For Books Sake, WOW Festival, Stoke Newington Lit Festival, Inside at L'Escargot, Spoken Beat Night Amsterdam, Backlisted Podcast, Cosmic Trigger, Festival 23, Margate Bookie, Churchtown, Cheltenham Lit Fest, Durham Book Festival, Manchester Lit Festival, Outspoken and all the amazing festivals, gatherings, podcasts and parties I contributed to this year. I met some incredibly inspiring people this year and had some illuminating conversations, I went around the back of the internet and through the mirror, and it was remarkable. Life changing stuff. 

 Also this year I had two very small parts to play in two feature films - Indie comedy Brakes directed by Mercedes Gower starring Julian Barratt and Noel Fielding was released at Edinburgh Film Festival to rave reviews. And I was honoured to be the narrator for feature film documentary Cahier Africain which garnered director Heidi Specogna great accolades including the German Human Rights Film Award and the DOK Silver Dove.  

 My short story Blue Cornflowers was shortlisted for the Guardian Short Story prize and will be published in 2017.



Books, books, books...

 I had new writing published in four beautiful and diverse books: Untitled Two published with Neu Reekie and Polygon, The Unreliable Guide to London with Influx Press and poetry anthology Word Life published with Opus Independents My essay Shade was published in The Good Immigrant, edited by Nikesh Shukla, crowd funded and published by Unbound. It was bloody exciting this year to witness The Good Immigrant soar, to see this crowdfunded independently published anthology become a best seller and a book of the year on every notable book list. It trended and featured on BBC Radio 4 book of the week and won the Readers Choice Book Of The Year Award. Above all this I will always remember with pride seeing The Good Immigrant in book shop windows, I'll remember that forever, that for a brief few weeks in the winter of 2016, we were visible, we were seen, we had a book in the shop window of Foyles on Charing Cross Road, this is something I have dreamt of since I was a girl. I'm so proud to be part of it and so happy that it resonated with so many people.Huge thanks and love to Nikesh Shukla and my fellow contributors and Unbound crowdfunders. If you already read The Good Immigrant and want to read more from the 21 contributors please scroll down for a further reading list. The paperback for The Good Immigrant is published in May 2017.









'my tits are more feminist than your tits' film is now on youtube
The Nymphs and Thugs LIVEwire album launch party was in Soho on December 7th and it was a great success. Thank you for all that made it out! We raised lots of money for the Refugee Community Kitchen RCK and gave prizes to people we believe to be 100% originals, rebels and renegades, DIY punk spirits and true LIVEwires, the first ever LIVEwire prizes and love and thanks and 3 cheers and ahip hip hooray to: Tim Wells, Joelle Taylor, Kevin Richards, Chris Redmond, Tongue Fu, Anthony Anaxagorou, Karim Kamar, Outspoken, Daniel Cockrill, Laurie Bolger, Bang Said The Gun, Oli Spleen, The Naked Grace Missionaries, Kelly Anne Davitt, John Lee Bird, Bishi, Nikesh Shukla, Iona Lee, The Bundy Brothers, Gemma Rogers, Sally Dunbar, Janie Mac and the Refugee Community Kitchen.

My first show of 2017 will be January 19th-22nd in The Hague, I'mperforming at Writers Unlimited, Winternachten Festival in Holland. 

 I'll be back on tour in the spring with the release of the special edition LIVEwire double vinyl LP!! Yes! Nymphs and Thugs are releasing LIVEwire on VINYL! It's gonna be an exclusive, limited edition, and feature work not on the CD album. That's all I can tell you now. It'll be a thing of beauty ... I cannot wait to share it with you!

Thank you for subscribing to Waiting For Godden. Please scroll down to click on some links to articles, things to read or listen to and cool projects and sites to check out. I wish you peace and love in 2017, happy new year, keep fighting the good fight, sgxx

Here comes the love, here comes the light








a selection of 2016 winter highlights 
and things to read or listen to



Matt Abbott's Spoken World - The State Of The Arts

LIVEwire review - TV Bomb

Jon More (Coldcut) on Soho Radio features track from LIVEwire

Excerpt from Shade published in the Lit Hub 

Literary Friction with Salena Godden

LIVEwire review by Tim Wells, Rising

Hope not Hate 

LIVEwire review Woven Tale Press

'Fuck Hygge' by Octavia Bright

Riz MC Swet Shop Boys

Outspoken Books

Vinay Patel - Murdered By My Father - BBC iPlayer

The Good Immigrant Further Reading List

Unreliable Guide to London - Influx Press

'Cahier Africain' Feature Film Documentary 

'Brakes' movie



Salena Godden Reviews Zadie Smith Swing Time 








LIVEwire review: 'truly electric'  The IPaper: https://inews.co.uk

 'my tits are more feminist than your tits' on youtube

We now have LIVEwire CD's, my tits are more feminist than your tits T-shirts, badges 
and tote bags, you can buy them at: www.nymphsandthugs.bandcamp.com 

Salena's Bookshoppe http://www.salenagodden.bigcartel.com
"A spoken word album that truly is electric." 5* The i Paper
"Everybody needs to hear #LIVEwire." Prowl House
"Godden is at the vanguard of this particular publishing moment." The Empathy Library
"Go see this girl - she's an angel in boxing gloves." Mike Garry































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Friday 2 December 2016

The LIVEwire launch party and fundraiser


Salena Godden's LIVEwire album launch and RCK fundraiser in Soho
Join us on 7th December at Carnesky’s Finishing School Soho, in the basement of the old Foyles, for an electric night of celebration, poetry and music. Salena Godden's #LIVEwire album has already received 5* in The i Paper, and we're launching it with a bang - so click here to grab your tickets!
The LIVEwire album was released with independent spoken word label Nymphs & Thugs. Written, performed and produced by Salena Godden, this new album features live and studio recordings, archives and brand new unpublished work. LIVEwire also includes performances from books ‘Springfield Road’ published by Unbound and ‘Fishing in The Aftermath poems 1994-2014’ published by Burning Eye Books. LIVEwire is currently available on CD and download, go to Nymphs & Thugs for details. The eagerly awaited double vinyl release will be in 2017.
At the LIVEwire launch we're excited to announce, we'll have live spoken word from Salena, as well as Unbound poet Iona Lee and Nymphs & Thugs very own Matt Abbott. We'll hear live music from Gemma Rogers and The Bundy Brothers and guest DJ sets. We're honoured to announce that we'll also hear live readings from some of the fantastic contributors from award-winning Unbound crowd funded book 'The Good Immigrant' - Huge congratulations to Nikesh Shukla on his recent success, The Good Immigrant is the 2016 winner of The Readers Choice Book Of The Year!
We're using this LIVEwire launch as an excuse to gather excellent people together for a party to raise money for Refugee Community Kitchen, in order to aid their vital work in the Calais and Dunkirk refugee camps as well as here in the UK. They have served millions of hot meals to the homeless and the refugees and they need our help to continue this work. We hope to raise money with a raffle and give proceeds from our ticket sales too. The RCK has just been awarded the Community Project of the year by the European Diversity Awards. They're doing phenomenal work and this is only possible through the hard work of the volunteers and your generous donations,  Please check out RCK here
2016 has been a tumultuous year (to put it mildly) and so for fun we've decided to stage the first ever #LIVEwire awards, which sees us handing out shiny trophies to folk that've blown our socks off in 2016. This feels like a good time to highlight the people that have been true LIVEwires! There will also be brand new #LIVEwire merchandise on sale. 
This is a celebration; a coming together, a poetry party, a meeting of minds and a chance to dance and share some love and positivity. So don't miss out! 
The event starts at 7:30pm and the bar is open 'til late.
See you there...
Thank you!


"A spoken word album that truly is electric." 5* The i Paper
"Everybody needs to hear #LIVEwire." Prowl House
"Godden is at the vanguard of this particular publishing moment." The Empathy Library
"Go see this girl - she's an angel in boxing gloves." Mike Garry


COMING UP...


Dec 8th: 'The Good Immigrant'  The Big Green Bookshop, London

Dec 17th: Stroud Valley Artspace with Elvis McGonagall & Johnny Fluffypunk










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Monday 21 November 2016

Hey, that's no way to say goodbye...




I loved you in the morning, our kisses deep and warm, 
your hair upon the pillow like a sleepy golden storm, 
yes many loved before us, I know that we are not new, 
in city and in forest they smiled like me and you, 
but let's not talk of love or chains and things we can't untie, 

your eyes are soft with sorrow, 
Hey, that's no way to say goodbye



Rest in power, rest in beauty, rest in peace, 
Beautiful poet, Leonard Cohen




Hey, you super moon super stars, how are you all doing?

I hope you are ok. I mean really, are you ok? It is all crap. I know. We all feel it. The news is dreadful. Abysmal. Catastrophic. There is so much to process. I don't know about you but this month I have been doing some crying, bursting into tears over tiny and beautiful things, crying when people are nice and good and kind, the smallest kind word or song and there I go welling up with tears again. Thank you to all the strong and inspiring people who are trying to make a difference, get back to work, fight the good fight and share some positivity. Everything is going to be alright in the end, and if it isn't alright then it isn't the end. Is that a cliche' or is it just a bit true? 

This month I have been glued to the internet, reading your tweets and messages, seeing some hand wringing, some negativity, reading some truly beautiful posts too .. mostly I'm seeing people being positive. Bottom line is we have a lot of work to do. The latest news has me building a war bunker and getting ready to stock up on tinned food and batteries, preparing for the apocalypse. Today I'm not so despondent, but we do need to fight harder, for the vulnerable,  for the outsiders and minorities, for the sick and elderly, for the disabled, for the homeless, the poor and hungry, for the refugees, for things that might not touch our cosy lives today, our safe Hygge, but that that will affect us all soon enough.

Last week my mum, a pensioner in her seventies, was on a train with my sister. My youngest sister Jo-ann was born with Williams Syndrome and has learning difficulties. They were together on the train home from a day trip to Hastings when a young couple, mid-thirties, boarded the train at St Leonards. As the train bumbled along through Sussex countryside, they began intimidating and frightening my mother and sister. They started talking loud and rough and being intentionally racist. My mother ignored them as best she could. Then the man said directly to my mother 'What are you looking at you black bitch?' 

My mum goes on to describe the scene to me. I would have placed in another time and era and another country. She tells me how she had to bite her tongue and keep her eyes down on her book, squeezing my sisters hand, telling her to look out of the window. She said how she remembers from experience how to react to this sort of thing from the sixties. She recalled how to be passive and shrink. And this telling hurts - I don't want to picture my powerful and beautiful mother re-learning how to cower for fear of things escalating. My mum says she hasn't been spoken to like that since 1968. 

So are you with me? Can you picture this - this is a grown man and his girlfriend in their thirties, being volatile, getting a kick out of bullying and intimidating two women, a pensioner and her daughter with disabilities. He was rambling loudly to his girlfriend, who encouraged him along, interjecting with "and what else do you think?..." As he brazenly continued ranting loudly about how "America has the right idea..." and Trump this and black that, emboldened by recent events and made brave by The Daily Hate and Farage and all their delightful friends. Nobody in the train carriage interrupted him. No-one said anything or spoke up or stepped in. Mum says there was a 13 or 14 year old school boy across from them and that she felt bad for him. My mum was concerned about this boy, the school child, the example this was setting, she saw the boy shrinking down lower and lower into his winter coat. Making himself invisible, this is how people learn to be invisible, this is where we learn to be silent. And for the record the couple were well dressed. They weren't what we regard as thugs or criminals, there was no knife or gun. This wasn't a TV show. This wasn't 1930's or America either, but here in our own green garden, 4pm teatime, on a train in leafy Sussex.  

It could have been worse, I know that, but I share this episode as an example of ignorance and intolerance. I share it here to say this is not usual nor acceptable. Thank you to all the people that sent messages and tweets on my twitter when I blurted this out in frustration and outrage. It has been dealt with now, thank you. However I share this for all the times people on programmes like BBC Question Time deny that these incidents are becoming commonplace again. It is like the rise of the ghost of Alf Garnett without the canned laughter. 

Advice: If you see something like this, verbal abuse, race and hate crime, if you can please say something or do something. You could just go and sit with the victim. Or maybe ask them if they want to switch seats or walk with them to another train carriage. If you are frightened yourself, please just quietly get up and go and get the train guard. Someone tweeted me this number, make a note of it should you witness anything like this. Please don't be frozen into staying silent. This is not acceptable language and this is not acceptable behaviour. Please text transport police on 61016.

Basically I want us to learn from our shared history, we must listen to people who know the signs. I mean if a person with life experience of bad weather tells you "There is a storm coming..." the response should not be that its "not newsworthy" or that "all lives matter". When you see a person run out into the street yelling "Help! My head is on fire!" you don't shout and wave back "My head is potentially quite flammable too! All heads matter!" 

As usual I urge you to follow your poets and artists, to support people working for the spirit of our communities. Love is the answer. Don't promote these wealthy politicians by sharing every shit article and crap inhumane thing they said, share the work of volunteers and charities and the good people trying to make the world a better place instead. Stop giving them free press and free reign all over your social media. They are eating up all the airtime, sucking up all the oxygen, so nothing good can breathe. Read books and avoid reading click bait articles that feed the fear. Don't be so afraid you are frozen by fear. People keep saying its getting like the 1930's but it isn't. It is here and now, this is 2016, there is a fundamental difference, we have pizza delivery and we have disco, and don't you forget it, baby...

Hate crime is rising, then so must the love, make the love rise higher and louder and brighter. Lets turn on the light. Turn up the heat. Lets turn the volume way up and then rip the knob off. We all want a better world and so we're gonna have to roll up our sleeves and get stuck in and work for it. Now is the time to march, to gather and to sing louder. We have no time to waste, the time is now o'clock. Hold the line. Hold your own. Live life alive. Tune in. Live and wired in. I AM A LIVEwire. Offline. Over and out. 

Please scroll down for my news, links to books, LIVEwire gigs and parties and all the good stuff. Thank you for being brilliant and thanks for sharing my stuff, looking forward to seeing you soon, you beautiful people! sgxx







LIVEwire 

London Launch Party 
Wednesday December 7th 2016
7pm 'til late


Nymphs & Thugs
Presents
SALENA GODDEN

with special guests
rebels & renegades 
DJ's & live music & raffle

Carnesky's Finishing School Soho
Basement of the old Foyles 
6 - 12 Manette Street
W1D 4AT

50% of proceeds to go to 











HOT DATES - WINTER 2016





Dec 8th 'The Good Immigrant'  The Big Green Bookshop, London

Dec 17th Stroud Valley Artspace with Elvis McGonagall & Johnny Fluffypunk















Congratulations to Heidi Specogna and team Cahier Africain

Winning gongs and prizes and awards galore, at Lorcano Film Festival and Dok Film Festival! Winner of the Silver Dove! Winner of the German Human Rights Film Award! Director Heidi Specogna has also just been given the Pearl Award for women in film! Bravo! This is great news, the film is breath taking, heart breaking, hopeful and inspiring. The German narration is by Eva Mattes and the English is by Salena Godden. You must check it out, its being broadcast in Germany right now ... I look forward to the UK premiere!

More info: http://www.filmpunkt.com/en/filmsDetailed/cahier-africain/22/





'Jock Scot Services to Rock and Roll' the movie

Please can I draw your attention to this #crowdfund for the notorious poet and raconteur Jock Scot and the feature film documentary JOCK SCOT SERVICES TO ROCK AND ROLL 

The documentary is directed by Robert Rubbish and it features archives and exclusive interviews with Shane Macgowan, Peter Doherty, Anna Chancellor, Keith Allen, Salena Godden, Baxter Dury, Humphrey Ocean, Suggs, British Sea Power, John Cooper Clarke, Murray Lachlan Young, Neneh Cherry, Kosmo Vinyl and more... 


https://www.indiegogo.com/projects/jock-scot-services-to-rock-n-roll-poetry#/  - Lets all get together and make this happen! Thank you! 





things to check out, read or listen to























LIVEwire review: 'truly electric'  The IPaper: https://inews.co.uk

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