Wednesday, 23 October 2019

POEM: 'Is There Anybody Out There? launched on BBC ARTS + GOOGLE ARTS





IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE? 
the back of the internet


Your random internet questions answered… by art 

6 artists try to answer the big and impossible questions

What is love? What does it mean to be British? What if I fall?

I chose the question: Is there anybody out there?

A commission by BBC Arts and Google Arts and Culture goes live online today!


Check out all 6 brilliant films and additional material on BBC Arts and Google

BBC ARTS : https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/articles/zdrcvk7

GOOGLE: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/RQUhklNrUCsy-A

And follow the tag #youaskedartanswered


We were also asked to choose just 6 items from the google archives to answer our question

Hard to choose! I selected David Bowie and bees and great women scientists and more...

Visit my gallery here: https://artsandculture.google.com/story






This work was broadcast on TV for the first time on BBC Four (29.09.2019)

Rhyme and Reason presented by Lemn Sissay 

https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes


Poem written and performed by Salena Godden

Film made with thanks to Michelle Tofi and Phil Macdonald

It is a Northern Town production 

Produced with thanks to Edward Morgan  

Make up by Michelle Strain 

I enjoyed this project, hope you do too! 

Thank you! sgxx


BBC ARTS: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes

GOOGLE ARTS:  https://artsandculture.google.com





BBC: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes


GOOGLE:  https://artsandculture.google.com
the back of the internet


I just went around the back of the internet.
I must have pressed a wrong button
but suddenly this other page came up
It was like being on the other side of a mirror
and being on the other side looking in

I was on the inside of the other side
and you were all there staring into your screens
You had goldfish bowl faces, glowing white and ghostly
illuminated by interwebs and the information mines
which shone like gold in your glittering eyes

I grinned and waved
but you’d never see me here,
not even, if you used your binoculars 

I just went around the back of the internet

I quite liked it 
and I might go back

It was dimly lit by a pale dusty old sun
The air smelled of wires
old tooth fillings and burnt plastic
There were no windows or doors
It was a ghost land, a dried out sea bed
a gritty desert and wasteland

I was outside, on the other side
I found two dead bees 
Not one, but two
And I wondered if the bees were friends
when they were on the other side.

Then I pushed an abandoned 
shopping trolley about for a bit
it had a wonky wheel

I just went around the back of the internet
It was derelict and as out-dated 
as a page of a real newspaper

I took a selfie of me
me on the other side
around the back of the internet

I walked for a bit and kicked a rock down a hole
There were no buttons to push
and there was nothing to like or favourite
It was boring #hashtag boring #hashtag other side
Please retweet

I went around the back of the internet
It was just my feet doing the walking thing
to nowhere and into nothing and for nobody

I was on my own 
with my own head doing thinking
which was a bit like tweeting
but all in my own head box
and on a timeline only I could see
and I couldn’t share it
or change my profile pic
to the selfie of me
me on the other side
and around the back by the bins.

It started to water from the ceiling.
Fat drops fell from a film of sky above,
Well, needless to say, I didn’t like that,
water falling from up there
onto my actual face
hashtag #rain

I just went around the back of the internet
I might go there again
but its alright
I'm back online now



(C) Salena Godden / 2019






around the back of the shoot












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love poems books art music 
festivals vinyl poetry stories
CD's zines gigs film radio posters t-shirts 
 spoken word pamphlets love love
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Tuesday, 22 October 2019

LIVEwire: Día de Muertos, November 1st 2019










💀🌸 💀🌸💀🌸💀🌸💀




OWN IT presents... 
a gathering of old souls and ancient spirits
LIVEwire: Día de Muertos 
for all souls ... for all saints



Salena Godden 
Zena Edwards
Courttia Newland
Rachel Rose Reid
Matt Abbott 


We warmly welcome you 
to call your ancestors 
and raise a glass to celebrate 
this matter of life and death

This will be an extraordinary night 
of ritual and reaffirmation
poetry, stories, dancing and music

With special guest publication 
HATE ZINE

Happening at Second Home 
Bethnal Green, Hackney
Friday November 1st from 7pm 
Early bird tickets just £5!!  





You don't have to wear black 
you don't have to bring flowers
just bring you and your love, grief and fire


💀🌸 💀🌸💀🌸💀🌸💀








💀🌸 💀🌸💀🌸💀🌸💀






I HAVE JUST 5 MORE LIVE SHOWS TO DO THIS YEAR ... 
THIS DECADE? WHAT A YEAR! WHAT A DECADE! 
CATCH ME IF YOU CAN!
love poems books art music 
festivals vinyl poetry stories
CD's zines gigs film radio posters t-shirts 
 spoken word pamphlets love love


💀🌸 💀🌸💀🌸💀🌸💀

 3 NEW POEM-FILMS FOR AUTUMN 2019 


  'IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?'

FIRST BROADCAST BBC ARTS, BBC FOUR


BBC ARTS: https://www.bbc.co.uk/arts/articles/zdrcvk7

GOOGLE ARTS: https://artsandculture.google.com/story/RQUhklNrUCsy-A



'SORRY TO TROUBLE YOU' 
LIVE MUSIC COLLABORATION WITH TONGUE FU BAND



'SUNCREAM IN FEBRUARY' 
LIVE AT OUTSPOKEN, SOUTH BANK, LONDON 







💀🌸 💀🌸💀🌸💀🌸💀


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Thursday, 3 October 2019

Poem: Suncream in February + NEW work for National Poetry Day, October 2019








Suncream in February 



 You finish writing a book but you don't send it off right away. You sit reading it pretending to be the poet you hope will read it one day. You erase a comma. Then put it back. And then erase it again. You wonder why you spent this winter writing a book. Because one day we might burn books for heat. And one day we might use books to build rafts. We'll tether books together to sail to safety. I think the world will end with dead unread books.

You snap your lap top shut. 

 You go downstairs and switch on the TV. The news is on. There are images of empty supermarket shelves. The news reader is talking about stockpiling food and medicine. They cut to footage of a couple stockpiling tins. A couple stand side by side. They smile into the camera by a wall of baked beans. They grin down the lens and tell us all at home that they are Brexit ready. I'm Brexit ready the man repeats. We want to be Brexit ready his wife nods. We want to be Brexit ready. They say this in unison as they fill plastic storage boxes with tins of baked beans. 

I think the beans situation is covered now with thanks to John and Elaine in Maidstone.

At the end of the world will baked beans be like heroin? You imagine swapping a book for a tin of baked beans. You wonder which book would you sacrifice for a tin of beans? You picture yourself scoring a cheeky hit of beans on toast behind a public toilet. Hey man, got any dirty brown sauce? I'll swap it for Ayn Rand.

You switch off the TV and make tea. You stare out of the window at the pink and the sky and the light. It is summer. But it is February. It is summer. But it is February. And too bright and too warm and too weird and too sunny. It's alarming that they don't mention this heat on the news. We need sun cream in February and my neighbour is having a barbecue in February and the last super tusker elephant died. And it is summer. And it is February. And it is summer. And what was the point of writing a book all winter? When our time is so fractured. Divided. Distracted. Interrupted. Our attention is demanded and demanding attention 

But then if not for love, then why are we all here? 

And what is your soul for? If not for books. For poetry. For vinyl. For music. For art. For sharing. For dreaming. If not for your glad heart. Your joy. For your faith and belief. And for love love. If not for love love. For humanity and connection? Then? What else is there? And what are we all getting out of bed for? And what are your eyes for? And what are you looking at? And what do you want? And what is the point of any breath? If not to sing for freedom and survival and light and colour and you, yes you, what will you march for? And what are you all fighting about? What will we all fight for? If not for the elephants? If not for the Amazon rainforest? If not for the love love? ... Then what was it all about? Why are we here? Was it really just about baked beans?
*first draft of new work in progress 

 (c) Salena Godden. 2019








***



This week I recorded two poems for the BBC 'Suncream in February' and 'Gentle Reminder' to celebrate #NationalPoetryDay. I had a most delightful time chatting with the brilliant comedian Jessica Fostekew. The two interviews and new poems are broadcast Wednesday 2nd October  and Thursday 3rd October at 10:55pm on BBC Radio 4 Extra  
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'A blind old lady with silver eyes 
all milky-white her face,
 her begging bowl is shining stars 
and deep as outer space.'


Happy Publication Day! 

 Gorgeous new children’s poetry anthology themed on this beautiful home we share and must protect - #poemsfromagreenandblueplanet is edited by Sabrina Mahfouz and published by Hachette this National Poetry Day. Excited to be part of this book and this gorgeous collection with a supreme line-up of contributors. If you have children that love books and words and planet earth I reckon they will really love this book! 


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Happy Publication Day! 

 Not one but TWO beautiful children's books are published this National Poetry Day and both are very special anthologies. Happy to have some work published in this food-glorious-food themed collection #midnightfeasts edited by A.F Harrold, illustrated by Katy Riddell, published for National Poetry Day with Bloomsbury - This delicious collection is essential for the budding cake-baking book-loving wordsmith in your family! 

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My new film is featured on BBC FOUR's 'Rhyme and Reason'
Presented by the inimitable Lemn Sissay
Come find us around the back of the internet... 











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Matt Abbott Poet's October spoken word column 
for The State of The Arts celebrates 
the poetic powerhouse that is Salena Godden



"Having the opportunity to work so closely with an artist like Salena is one of the greatest privileges you could possibly hope for – not just in terms of her creative output but in terms of her drive, her spirit, her optimism, her fire, her laughter, her love and her relentless need to create; to spread her message; to stick two fingers up to all that’s wrong in the world; and to celebrate others that are doing exactly the same. Most artists only think about themselves and their own “careers”. Salena does the opposite – her energy is all about the family, the fight and the community that we find ourselves in as protest artists."


https://www.thestateofthearts.co.uk




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'SORRY TO TROUBLE YOU'


Poet and activist, Salena Godden celebrates the brave but troubled political writers of the world with 'Sorry To Trouble You', filmed at the Arnolfini, Bristol for last year's NationalPoetryDay live stream, courtesy of The Space Arts. With improvised music from the Tongue Fu band. She joins us for our Tongue Fu - Change Special at CHANGE Festival, Warwick Arts Centre along with Rachel Rose Reid and Amerah Saleh on October 18th. 

Change Festival is a weekend of art, talks and performance exploring how we change the conversation around climate change from one of fear and helplessness to one of hope and action. Please join us and help spread the word. 
Info and tickets here https://bit.ly/2IrTEXo






YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Ktg1-4et_Bk



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OCT 11: XR OCTOBER REBELLION, WRITERS REBEL, TRAFALGAR SQUARE


NOV 1: DIA DE MUERTOS



love poems books art music 
festivals vinyl poetry stories
CD's zines gigs radio posters t-shirts 
 spoken word pamphlets love love
 - 3 NEW FILMS -


  'IS THERE ANYBODY OUT THERE?'
BBC ARTS, BBC FOUR, DIRECTED BY MICHELLE TOFI 



'SORRY TO TROUBLE YOU' 
LIVE MUSIC PERFORMANCE WITH TONGUE FU BAND



'SUNCREAM IN FEBRUARY' 
LIVE SPOKEN WORD AT OUTSPOKEN, SOUTHBANK, LONDON 
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