Monday, 27 April 2020

LOCKDOWN EP: New film premiere + Goody in Poland + BBC's The Verb



Hello my dears, 
I hope you are all safe and sound and I send love from my bunker to yours.  In case you missed it...

On Friday we announced ‘The Lockdown EP’ A set of five carefully curated poems to be released digitally on 8 May 2020, you can now pre-order it at Nymphs and Thugs Bandcamp site. 


The 5 poems include:

  1. I Want to Be Your Wife
  2. Suncream in February
  3. Every Disaster Movie Begins with the Government Ignoring a Scientist
  4. I Saw Goody Proctor Jogging Without a Face Mask
  5. Pink Moon

Tracks 1, 2 and 3 were recorded live at Nymphs & Thugs ‘LIVEwire Leeds’ event at Hyde Park Book Club back in October 2019. The lead track, ‘I Want to Be Your Wife’, includes a video produced by Idle Work Factory which will be premiered at 5pm on Monday 27 April. Tracks 4 and 5 are brand new poems, written and recorded during this lockdown, April 2020. The closing track, ‘Pink Moon’ premieres on BBC R3 The Verb. 

50% of all profits of this release will be donated to NHS, with the hope that it’ll boost depleted PPE stock and also go towards providing mental health support for NHS staff: 

Find out more about all of this at N&T: nymphsandthugs.net 





GOODY PROCTOR IN POLAND

This weekend we were so excited to see featured poem from The Lockdown EP, 'I Saw Goody Proctor Jogging Without a Face Mask' published in the Polish national press, Wyborcza. This translation is by Bartosz Wojcik "WidziaƂam Goody Proctor" Thank you Bartosz!







NEW FILM: 'I WANT TO BE YOUR WIFE'

Released Monday April 27th: This poem is the lead track on our new release 'The Lockdown EP'. The video was filmed and edited by the excellent Jordan Scott Kennedy at Idle Work Factory. The film is a glorious visualisation of the poetry, it features poignant vintage footage cut with an electric live performance by Salena Godden at Nymphs & Thugs' LIVEwire Leeds event at Hyde Park Book Club in October 2019. Visit Nymphs and Thugs on Facebook and YouTube to see our new collaboration.


'PINK MOON' ON THE VERB

If you’re looking for a more reflective lockdown listen: The final track on 'The Lockdown EP' is my new palindrome poem, ‘Pink Moon’ which premiered on the latest edition of The Verb hosted by the ever so wonderful Ian McMillan. In this show we hold a mirror up to language. I really enjoyed recording this programme from my home and listening and chatting with very special guests Rebecca Solnit and Deborah Levy and poet Ira Lightman. Treat your ears and tune in on BBC Sounds. Highly recommend! BBC Radio 3 The Verb





ONLINE PARTY FOR N&T 5TH BIRTHDAY

Come and join my beautiful Nymphs & Thugs family and myself getting together to raise a glass for the Nymphs & Thugs 5th birthday party this week! 


+ SALENA GODDEN + LUKE WRIGHT + 
+ TORIA GARBUTT + KEVIN P. GILDAY + 
+ LOUISE FAZACKERLEY + MATT ABBOTT +

Save the time slot, save us a space on your sofa, it’s this Wednesday, 29th April, bring a bottle, bring yourself. The gig will be streamed from 8pm - 10pm on Facebook Live and YouTube. If you want to make a donation during the event, please send a gift to iammattabbott@gmail.com via PayPal and it'll be divided between the acts.


Congratulations for 5 years outstanding service to poetry and parties and publishing, we have had the best of times and here’s to more good times after the lockdown too. I look forward to seeing all your faces again. Thank you! Lots of love to you all Xx 




watch again on youtube!!








SEA CHANGE FESTIVAL GOES ONLINE

 Thank you to Drift Records and all who attended the Sea Change Festival this weekend. What a brilliant online festival of music and poets and talks and live performance and film and more. Thank you! I was there with my friends of Rough Trade Books in the online bar, rolling around in the grass outside the cyber beer tent. The festival featured two of my poems... Check it all out via seaschangefestival.co.uk 


"The key to the weekend’s success was that by moving across platforms — from video streaming to Soundcloud, Twitter to Spotify to Instagram live – and providing links to explore works further (or purchase online), it managed to create both texture and a sense of companionability. Not once did it feel a flat or lonely endeavour; rather it found a great swell of congregation."
top tip: If you're a book blogger, journalist 
or librarian, Canongate have just added 
new books to NET GALLEY, including ...

 #mrsdeathmissesdeath


Published by Canongate January 2021
My debut novel is now available to pre-order 
from your favourite local indie bookshops,
and Waterstones, Amazon, etc.. 
Read books! Stay home! Stay safe! 



Posted by No comments:

Friday, 24 April 2020

NEW: The Lockdown E.P by Salena Godden available to pre-order now with Nymphs & Thugs










This is already a familiar narrative. Society has imploded around us and the world has changed irreversibly, right before our eyes. So, who do we turn to…? Salena Godden, that’s who. A pioneer of the UK spoken word scene for a quarter of a century, she is perfectly placed to hold our hand and soundtrack the lockdown.

With her apocalyptic poetry that already rallied against climate change and populist governments, she’s charging headfirst into the current crisis with poetry that’ll be firmly etched in the history books. In this carefully curated set of five timely pieces we explore a maze of other worlds; one where dutiful wives become unhinged; where we stockpile baked beans to swap for books; where nurses are angels, hospitals are churches and Goody Proctor has been seen jogging without a face mask.

The Lockdown EP will be released digitally by Nymphs & Thugs, Friday 8 May and is available to pre-order via their Bandcamp site now.
50% of profits will be donated to NHS Charities, with the hope that it’ll boost depleted PPE stock and also go towards providing mental health support for NHS staff.


  1. I Want to Be Your Wife
  2. Suncream in February
  3. Every Disaster Movie Begins with the Government Ignoring a Scientist
  4. I Saw Goody Proctor Jogging Without a Face Mask
  5. Pink Moon

Tracks 1, 2 and 3 were recorded live at Nymphs & Thugs ‘LIVEwire Leeds’ event at Hyde Park Book Club on Wednesday 2 October 2019. The lead track, ‘I Want to Be Your Wife’, includes a video produced by Idle Work Factory which will be premiered at 5pm on Monday 27 April. Tracks 4 and 5 are brand new poems, written and recorded during the lockdown, April 2020. The closing track, ‘Pink Moon’ premieres on BBC Radio 3’s The Verb on Friday 24 April.







Pre-order The Lockdown EP





Artist + Label

Salena’s first release with Nymphs & Thugs was her 2017 album ‘LIVEwire’. The album was shortlisted for The Poetry Society’s prestigious Ted Hughes Award and is available on 2LP gatefold vinyl, CD, zine and download. She also released the ‘Live at Byline Festival EP’ in October 2018, with lead track ‘Pessimism Is For Lightweights’ coming from her acclaimed pamphlet of the same name on Rough Trade Books. Her poem ‘Pessimism is for Lightweights’ is a public art piece, it was donated to The Peoples History Museum, Manchester, where it is now on permanent display. The poem was unveiled in February 2020 to mark the museum's 10th birthday.

 Salena Godden is a high-profile poet based in London. She is also an activist, broadcaster, essayist and memoirist whose work has been widely anthologised. She has had several volumes of poetry published including ‘Under The Pier’ (Nasty Little Press) ‘Fishing in the Aftermath: Poems 1994-2014’ (Burning Eye Books), ‘Pessimism is for Lightweights’ (Rough Trade Books) and a literary childhood memoir, ‘Springfield Road’ (Unbound). Canongate pre-empted world rights to her debut novel ‘Mrs Death Misses Death’. ‘Mrs Death Misses’ Death has been described by the publisher as an “electrifying genre- and form-defying firestarter.” It will be published in January 2021.

Nymphs & Thugs are the UK’s leading spoken word record label. They were formed in 2015 by poet and activist Matt Abbott and are based between Leeds and London. Current artists include Salena Godden, Luke Wright, Toria Garbutt, Louise Fazackerley and Kevin P. Gilday, as well as releases from Matt Abbott himself. They were due to conclude a national theatre tour of ‘LIVEwire’ events in April, which has so-far included sell-out shows in Manchester, Bristol, Birmingham and Leeds.



PARTY NEWS: NYMPHS & THUGS 
are celebrating their fifth birthday 
with an online gig on Wednesday 29 April, 
which will feature all of their acts 
on the same bill for the first time. 
It’ll be broadcast live on their Facebook page 
and YouTube channel between 8-10pm BST.













Posted by No comments:

Sunday, 12 April 2020

Poem: I saw Goody Proctor jogging without a face mask



I saw Goody Proctor 
jogging without 
a face mask 

I saw Goody Proctor 
and John Proctor 
walking side-by-side 
holding hands 
two-abreast 
with devils breath 

I saw Goody Proctor 
clapping for the NHS 
she were too very close 
to her neighbour 
and both 
without bra or manners 

I saw Goody Proctor 
under the full pink moon 
this very week
she was a-gazing up 
with bare 
unwashed hands 
and naked 
unshaved legs
and virus eyes 

I saw Goody Proctor 
and John Proctor 
they were not near home 
and they were under 
the open sky sun 
and they had 
two whole toilet rolls 
each in merriment 

I saw Abigail Williams and 
Elizabeth Proctor together 
and close as devils breath 
with eggy mouths and 
unwashed knotted hair 
and no lipstick 
nor hand sanitizer

I saw Goody Proctor 
doing yoga with a black cat 
and she did warrior pose 
‘twas the dance 
of a devils whore 

 I saw Goody Proctor
have a double Baileys
with her breakfast coffee
to take the edge off

I saw Goody Proctor 
cough once and 
cough twice and 
then thrice cough 
and her flem 
was the black of 
Satan’s cock and 
her droplets 
made sick all 

I saw Goody Nurse 
be told she be 
unwelcome and 
immigrant of 
foreign blood 

I saw Goody Nurse 
unpaid proper 
and made to 
risk her own life 
for nowt but 
a hand clapping
(C) Salena Godden / April 2020
OK. Update. Lots of friends asking for a performance of this...
Spent today dressing up and making a film of this poem:




Easter Weekend

 Hey my friends, 
Hope you are all safe and sound in your homes today...

 Sharing a new sketch of a poem today, I went right into one with friends on social media with Goody Proctor jokes yesterday morning, so, here's my tweets made into a new poem. The Salem Witch Trials in Arthur Millers play 'The Crucible' remind me of here and now with the mania of hysterical finger pointing and blame passing. This crisis is terrifying enough without it. The blame and burden must be on our government and the ineptitude of the old boys club, that could and should have acted faster, to stop contagion, to lock down, to pay people instead of 'carrying on as usual' and 'taking it on the chin'. The inequality is blatant, the lack of protection and aid for NHS nurses and other frontline key workers who are primarily immigrants and the working class is a travesty. 

 What can we do this Easter but be grateful for all we have, if you are reading this you probably have a computer or phone and a safe home to be safe in. We are the lucky ones. I had a clear out and put a box of very good books outside my house so my neighbours can pick up a free book on their daily walks. It is satisfying to see the box empty and know my neighbours like a good book too. On Thursday I joined my neighbours and went outside and banged a spoon for the NHS and the key workers and carers on a pot. I banged and hollered and banged it so loud and hard that the wooden spoon snapped in half. We all do our bit, share and donate to various charities and connect and text and phone and zoom with friends and family, all so worried about it, all of it, all of it, worrying, worrying, worrying...

 We must do what we can, take each day as it comes, and have gratitude for all small things which are now big things: food in the fridge and books and poetry and music and telly and movies and radio and the truth of each other. We hold our loved ones close in our isolated households as though we are small wooden boats waiting for this huge tsunami wave to crash to our shore. Please be as open and big-hearted as you can, be kind and generous online and outside there. Because we have to remember everyone is hurting right now, everyone is coping with this catastrophe in their own way, many are numb, others are mourning and navigating a great grief, fear and fury. Everyone knows someone who lost their job or home, everyone knows someone who is sick and someone who lost someone: 'We ALL know a lot of dead people now.' 

Here's a quick handful of charities and initiatives, please share the links and donate and help from your home if you can. Subscribe to this page if you like - I'll add and top up this blog with good things to inspire or ways to help others help others help us all as the days pass. Stay safe and stay home, Happy Easter, I miss you mum, I know you'll see this and read it, I love you xx 
BIGlove, sgxx







1. Funding for writers list: 

2. New children’s book about the Coronavirus. Every penny earned from YouTube advertising will go to NHS: youtu.be/1qnBaqmv5Zc


3. Are you a frontline health worker who needs #PPE? frontline.live is a community of volunteers working to get healthcare workers PPE


4. Refugee Community Kitchen serving food at home and abroad: Bit.ly/RCKdonate

5. Domestic abuse: 
Help and support: bit.ly/3dVNIUJ 


6. Petition for Financial package for funeral of #CoronavirusPandemic deaths. Stop Family anxiety and debt: chng.it/bNyB4k7s7N
7. A Life of Wearing White EP by Matt Abbott 
50% of profits donated to Foodbank @LUFCFoodbank www.nymphsandthugs.net


8. CITY LIGHTS Bookstore: 


9. Creative writing clinic 
Nikita Gill and Nikesh Shukla: https://www.watershed.co.uk/whatson


10. The Big Issue Foundation: bigissue.org.uk


11. Find a foodbank: 


12. Issues with landlords: 








Mrs Death Misses Death 

Published by Canongate January 28 2021
This book is now available to pre-order 
from your favourite local indie bookshops, 
Waterstones, Amazon, etc.. 

 Read books! Stay home! Stay safe! 









 ROARING 20's RADIO 

The self-isolation sessions out NOW presented by 

Salena Godden, Amah-Rose Abrams and Matt Abbott.

Roaring 20s Radio is available as a podcast 



Posted by 3 comments:
Subscribe to: Posts (Atom)