West Euston Time Bank Purple Poets

Babushka, Bithi Das, Brenda Stevenson, Carol Moon, Eileen Francis, Eppie Caredda, Ferdous Rahman, Serajul Islam Molla, Jean Watt, Kathy Randle, Nahar Islam, Norah Platt, Patsy Futatsugi, Shelagh Beale. West Euston Time Bank, London

PURPLE POETS CAMDEN HEROES ARCHIVE CLICK HERE for The Purple Poets'  on-going list of Borough of Camden Heroes Send us a hero! Send us a poem!

contact details for the Purple Poets
Writer-in-Residence
Kim Morrissey

poster by Urmi Alim and cartoonist Colin Shelbourn

CAMDEN POSTCARD POETS
(and written postcards for the archive)
The First Open Reading of CAMDEN HEROES
at the Purple Poets' Camden Town Hall Celebration
National Poetry Day 2009

PROGRAMME 08.10.2009
Welcome by the Mayor of Camden,
Councillor Omar Faruque Ansari

Special Guests Poets reading
Alan Brownjohn and Elaine Feinstein

Open reading by Camden Postcard Poets


a special poetry/film presentation by JoWOnder
six Days Good-bye Poems to Ophelia


October is Black History Month.
As a gift to the West Euston Time Bank,
Janett Plummer read a poem to celebrate
Black History Month
Janett will also be reading at the Lewisham Library
8:00 - 9:30 November 10th.
for more Black History Events, please check:
www.black-history-month.co.uk/lists/events_list.html

with a special display of sketches of Camden writers
(Beryl Bainbridge, Adrian Mitchell, Andrew Motion, Ruth Padel and Harold Pinter)
by artist and poet Heather Spears
drawn during her ten years
as artist-in-residence
at the Cheltenham Literary Festival


archival photographs of the readings
taken by Tony Bloor and Steve Merrick

ARCHIVE:  06.10.2009 contributors and confirmed guests (in order of confirming) UNSUNG HEROES: DID YOU SEND US A POEM, OR READ OR ATTEND THE TOWN HALL READING ON OCTOBER 8th 2009? IF YOU'RE NOT ON OUR LIST, PLEASE LET US KNOW! National Poetry Day, Camden Town Hall Thursday October 8th 2009 hosted by the Purple Poets and Kim Morrissey (writer-in-residence for West Euston Time Bank) Mayor of Camden, Councillor Ansari Special Guest Poet 2009 Alan Brownjohn Special Guest Poet 2009 Elaine Feinstein Honoured Guest: Richard Price (Purple Poets' Special Guest Poet 2006 NPD) Honoured Guest: Rosemary Howes editor of the Camden Golden Gazette Honoured Guest: William Radice translator, playwright and poet Honoured Guest: JoWOnder artist, who will show her work-in-progress Honoured Guest: Katya Schmidt poet, journalist, and spontaneous dancer visiting from Germany (Katya painted our CAMDEN HEROES banners) Honoured Guest: Bernard Miller novelist and researcher (and the Purple Poets' constitution expert) Honoured Guest : Barbara Hughes much loved three times Mayor of Camden Honored Guest; Karen Katkin Islington journalist and novelist Honored Guest: Abdul Mohen North London Writer's Group Honoured Guest: Janet Plummer poet (reading a poem written for Black History Month) Black History Month monthly events 2009 10th November, 8:00 - 9:30 p.m. Lewisham Library. Janett Plummer introduces Lifemarks. Multi-slam winner for performed poetry and recipient of the Gwendolyn Brooks Award for her written work, Janett Plummer’s Lifemarks explores the journey from girl to woman. www.black-history-month.co.uk/lists/events_list.html Honoured Guests: Clapham Park Time Bank Poets Honoured Guests: Rushey Green Time Bank Poets bringing poems to honour Black History Month http://rgtb.org.uk/groups.html Honoured Guests: Hilldrop Time Bank Pegasus Poets (sending best wished from their poetry tutor, Tessa Dummett) Euwla Harrison Joan Hewitt Honoured Guest: Laura Snoad journalist, City Lit Honoured Guest: Rhiannon Rees Members' Services Co-ordinator Camden Council Honoured Guest: Colin Ikeji West Euston Partnership West Euston Partnership’s One Stop Shop corner of Robert St & Hampstead Rd London NW1 3ED telephone 020 7388 7932 www.westeustonpartnership.co.uk Honoured Guest: Christine Grand-daughter of poet Marjorie Pallitt Honoured Guest: Etienne (with his mother) baby son of poet Vincent Berquez TADs (THIRD AGE DRAMA) will perform poems by absent Postcard Poets and write their own 'Living Library of Heroes' directed by their tutor, Gary Kielty NAMED HEROES OF CAMDEN Anita (hero: Virginia Woolf) Bridget (hero: Nell Gwynn) ; poem written by her son (to Mom) Eileen (hero: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson) ; poem Kathy (hero: Nell Gynn's servant); poem to Michael Palin Martin (hero: Dylan Thomas); read Michael Kietley's poem to Kenneth Williams Pamela (hero: Christina Rossetti) Anita and Peter (hero: Dr. Jose Rizal) poem-in-progress Rita (hero: Sylvia Plath) poem to Slyvia Eppie Caredda's poem written to Father Alan Fudge HERO (and general dogsbody) Tony Bloor West Euston Time Bank and Third Age Project co-ordinator (part of the West Euston Partnership) Tony, who had the courage and vision and madness to trust National Poetry Day to a poet! HONOURED GUESTS AND POSTCARDS: CAMDEN POSTCARD POETS (written postcards for the archive) Babushka Camden Postcard Poet HERO 1: The young soldier poem: Hero HERO 2: The Soldier's Mother poem: 'Heroine' Shelagh Beale Camden Postcard Poem HERO: 'My Godfather' Vincent Berquez Camden Postcard Poet HERO: The Camden Artist poem: 'The Last Bloomsbury Artist' "Vincent Berquez is an artist, poet, a curator and sometimes works in Broadcasting –" www.vincentberquez.com http://.www.writeoutloud.net/poets/vincentberquez http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/record.asp?id=6591 Eppie Caredda Camden Postcard Poet HERO: Father Alan Fudge Poem: 'My Hero (dedicated to Father Alan Fudge who changed my life)' Bithi Das Camden Postcard Poet HERO: Tagore Poem: 'Remembering Tagore' Ottis Edwards Rushey Green Time Bank Poem: 'A Notable Woman' (to Winnie Mandela) poem to celebrate Black History month Eileen Frances Camden Postcard Poet HERO: Elizabeth Garrett Anderson Poem: 'Who Am I?' Michael Kielty (poem read by Martin of the TADs) Camden Postcard Poet HERO: Kenneth Williams Poem: 'Blue Plaque, 57 Marchmont Street: (unveiled October 11th 2009)' Patsy Futatsugi Camden Postcard Poet HERO: Johnnie Morten Poem: 'A HERO' Fiona Green Camden Postcard Poet HEROINE: Roisin Gadelrab Poem: 'Heroine: Roisin Gadelrab - CNJ Campaigning Journalist' Euwla Harrison Hilldrop Time Bank Joan Hewitt Hilldrop Time Bank Camden Postcard Poet HERO: John Betjeman Poem: 'His Words Live On' HERO: Charles Dickens Poem: Camden Characters: 'Charles Dickens' Nahar Islam Camden Postcard Poet HERO: Camden Mothers Poem: 'Every Mother is a Hero' Irma Kurtz HERO: The Camden Hoodie poem: 'A Camden Hero: The Boy in a Hood' Serajul Islam Molla Camden Postcard Poet HERO: William Radice poem: 'The Bridge-maker: for Dr. William Radice' Kim Morrissey Camden Postcard Poet HERO: Rose Hacker poem 'Imagine Rose Dancing' published in Atlas 02 (edited by Sudeep Sen) http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/issue.asp?id=642 Richard Niman Camden Postcard Poet HEROES  Camden artists http://www.youtube.com/user/Opheliapoems Camden artist and poet (website) http://www.richardniman.co.uk/index3.html Mrs. Marjorie Pallitt Camden Postcard Poet HERO: Nigerian Carers Poem 'Nigerian Carers' other work: article 'Queen of the Road' and poem 'Sunrise to Sunset' published in the Camden Golden Gazette summer 2005 guest: Christine (her grand-daughter) Janett Plummer poem to celebrate Black History month http://www.theapoets.com/Biographies.html William Radice Camden Postcard Poet HERO: Betty Radice www.williamradice.com (Dr. Radice is also the invited hero of S.I. Molla) Ferdous Rahman Camden Postcard Poet HERO: Frank Dobson Poem: 'If You Were a Book: For Frank Dobson' HERO: Roger Moore POEM: 'Moore is More! Wendy Richards Camden Postcard Poet HERO: Eileen Hunter Poem 'Our Local Hero - my mother - Eileen Hunter' Sudeep Sen Camden Postcard Hero HERO: ROSE HACKER Poem:'Remembering Rose Hacker' (for Kim and Paul) Joy Swaby Rushey Green Time Bank 'My Favourite Heroine' to celebrate Black History month Brenda Stevenson Camden Postcard Poet HERO 1: Everyman Poem 'Just an Ordinary Hero' HERO 2:  John Betjeman Poem: 'Sir John Betjeman Poet 1906-84  Poet Laureate' Sandra Wheen Fitzrovia Culture Club (Poetry Division) Camden Postcard Poet HERO: The Whitefield Street Wino SONG: "The Whitefield  Street Wino Song"   FILM: Artist JoWonder http://tinyurl.com/qvz5fg  6 Days Goodbye Poems of Ophelia : A Work In Progress by JoWonder OPHELIA POEMS : http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=vXv9Mc5KbI0&feature=channel This project is an inter-active work-in-progress. Please watch the YouTube clip (Days 3 and 5 of the Good-bye Poems to Ophelia) and write your own poems. POEM FOUR:   Ophelia, This is Your Mother: the Secret of Love (written by Bithi Das 01.10.2009) JoWOnder's 6 Day Good-bye Poems to OpheliaYouTube video shows Days 3 and Day 5 of a living a painting created by bacteria* telling the story of Ophelia's death as a beautiful form of transformation a return to the landscape. This long term project originally funded by The Wellcome Trust, uses stop frame filming of bacteria to create an animated installation of John Milles famous Ophelia painting. This Work-in-Progress was shown at The Wellcome Trust Gallery, New Compounds Gallery, Euston organised by CreateKX. The final stage of the project will be projected onto a wall in Central London, UK, in 2009. The public during this period will be encouraged to provide their own text contributions to the work as goodbye poems which will appear within the installation. The vast complexities of life processes which usually reside below the limits of detection of the human eye. *Bacterial research created by Dr Simon Park and music from Bacterial DNA by Milton Mermikides. JoWOnder POSTCARD FOR OPHELIA http://tinyurl.com/ohwqko http://www.britishwomenartists.com/art-show.php?art=1053 6 Days Goodbye Poems Of Ophelia A video installation by JoWOnder dedicated to the tragic heroine. Created with the scientific expertise of Dr Simon Park, Music by Milton Mermikides based on the genome structure of the bacteria. The work in progress includes living bacteria and 'Ophelia' poems by:- Annouchka Bayley, from her play 'Saoshyant'. Bithi Das Richard Niman Kim Morrissey Children's poems created in a workshop by Janet Plummer BACKGROUND INFORMATION ON SOME OF THE POETS AND ARTIST: JoWonder is a visual arts activist using the power of image to challenge established notions. She works with painting, print, sound and moving image. Her on-going project, Six Days Good-bye Poems to Ophelia is supported by the Wellcome Trust. source: British Women Artists Profile of JoWonder www.britishwomenartists.com/user-view.php?user=3 Janett Plummer is an accomplished performer and a multi-slam winner. She has performed at venues such as the Barbican, Tate Modern, Poetry Cafe and Paradiso (Amsterdam). A winner of the Gwendolyn Brooks Annual Award (2005), her work is featured in many anthologies including 'Flowers on a Shoestring' and 'A Storm Between Fingers' (flipped eye, 2007). Janett is the founder of Inspired Word - a women's writing collective, and she leads poetry and creative writing workshops for children and adults. Lifemarks (Mouthmark) by Janett Plummer was published in 2009. Bithi Das is a founding member of the West Euston Time Bank Purple Poets and a former committee member of the Third Age Project. Her work has been read at London City Hall's Capital Age Winter Festival 2007, the Capital Age Southbank Summer Festival 2007 and most recently, to the Mayor of Camden at the Camden National Poetry Day Celebrations 2009. www.purplepoets.com Kim Morrissey’s books include Batoche, Poems for Men Who Dream of Lolita, Dora: a Case of Hysteria and Clever as Paint: the Rossettis in Love. Mrs. Ruskin is forthcoming from Aark Arts. Kim is writer-in-residence for the West Euston Third Age Project and West Euston Time Bank Purple Poets in London. Recordings of her poetry are featured in the International Literary Magazine Atlas 02 (edited by Sudeep Sen) on the Saison Poetry Library site; as well as in various issues of painted, spoken (edited by Richard Price), also digitised on the Saison Poetry Library site.       http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/issue.asp?id=642 Annouchka Bayley began her theatre career as part of the KyoRyuKan Theatre Company in Kyoto Japan. She then trained in Lecoq Physical and Masked Theatre at LISPA, (London) Roy Hart Voice Technique at Pantheatre, (Paris) and Stanislavski & Method Acting at CityLit (London). She has travelled extensively in Mongolia, apprenticing in Mongolian singing with the Tumen Ekh National Folk Theatre, (Ulaanbaatar) and observing shamanic and ritual performance across the country as a whole. Annouchka has worked closely with the UK based company Escape Artists to develop and deliver theatre pedagogy to socially excluded groups. She is also a founder member and an artistic director for the Luxury Goods Group, London, which offers a platform for new artists and outsider artists to show and publish their work in London, (see www.luxurygoodslondon.com for more details.) She has performed extensively in theatre and voice and has written and produced several plays and is theartistic director of Shameless Theatre.She is the managing editor of THE MAWLANA RUMI REVIEW, a publication of the Rumi Institue, Near East University, Cyprus & The Rumi Studies Group of the Institute of Arab and Islamic Studies, University of Exeter, U.K.  Richard Niman is a poet and artist. His work is included in British Surrealism and Other Realities: The Sherwin Collection, mima, Central Square, Middlesbrough (www.visitmima.com ) and his statue of Hitler, portraying Hitler as a little girl holding a doll , has been on exhibition at the Imperial War Museum since 1990. “The philosophy is to stand on your hear while appearing not to and simultaneously not to stand on your head while appearing to do so. By the same token the best art works are both the most luxurious and also the most necessary. Thanking God for this is purely optional." www.richardniman.co.uk If you would like to contact the artist for more information about the project please contact: jo@jowonder.com INVITED HERO:    WILLIAM RADICE (SOAS lecturer, writer and translator of Tagore) www.williamradice.com (WITH REGRET .... NAMED HEROES WHO COULD NOT ATTEND THIS TIME) HERO: Roisin Gadelrab journalist Camden New Journal HERO: Michael Palin who was launching his new book in Bath PURPLE POET HERO: Gareth Edwards BBC producer (Speial Guest, NPD 2006) who was in a conference out of town HERO: Urmi Alim Third Age Project who was in bed with chickenpox! HERO: Josie Nakos Greenlight Pharmacy who couldn't leave the H-Pod because Urmi was ill HERO: Frank Dobson who was in a meeting HERO: Roger Moore Dr. Lizbeth Goodman Anna Birch theatre director The Wollenstonecraft Project www.fragmentsandmonuments.com Councillor Roger Robinson (out of town) Councillor Penny Abraham (in an inescapable meeting) Camden Council Staff: Margaret Humphreys, Caroline Bartram, Martin Cornish (PING), Lesley Ambler (who were working). JO Cammack documentary film-maker, at an international film festival ON DISPLAY: a still from Jo Cammack's film The Time of Their Lives, her award-winning BBC film featuring Rose Hacker, Hetty Bower, Alison Selford, residents of the Mary Feilding Guild, Highate http://www.timeoftheirlives.com OTHER PEOPLE WHO COULD NOT ATTEND: West Euston Partnership trustees                      FIVE STAR RATING! INTERNATIONAL ARTISTS (THESE TALENTED VISUAL ARTISTS HAVE DONATED THEIR TIME AND WORK FOR OUR CELEBRATION) Colin Shelbourn (designer of our NPD poster) cartoonist and writer, Lake Windamere. UPCOMING: 2010 design workshop with the Purple Poets www.shelbourn.com Heather Spears - art exhibition of Camden Writers poet and artist, Copenhagen sketches from 10 years of the Cheltenham Arts Festival: Beryl Bainbridge, Harold Pinter, Adrian Mitchell, Andrew Motion, UPCOMING: International Womens' Day 2010 Poetry and Art workshop with the Purple Poets www.heatherspears.com http://www.poetrymagazines.org.uk/magazine/issue.asp?id=642 Marshal Seltzer - internet website mentor graphic designer, Pennsylvania (host of www.purplepoets.com) PROJECT: Webpage Design Creating Text Accessible webpages -- e-mail conversations with Cenlyt Designer Marshal Seltzer http://www.cenlyt.com Bithi Das for designing the cloth Purple Poet banner Katya Schmidt, for decorating the Town Hall Council Chamber hanging the drawings by Heather Spears, and designing the white and purple  paber banners: Purple Poets National Poetry Day 2009 Camden Heroes (with special thanks to Steve Merrick, for taking archival photographs, and to our own Tony Bloor,  for setting up the West Euston Time Bank and Third Age Project's video-camera,  and taking photographs throughout the event)

POETRY FOR ALL
HEROES ON A POSTCARD, PLEASE
(Kim Morrissey in conversation with editor Rosemary Howes)
background conversation for an interview in the September 2009  issue of Camden's  Golden Gazette
(this is not the final article that appeared)

On 8 October this year, Camden's Council Chamber will ring to the sound of poetry.

West Euston Time Bank Purple Poets are hosting a celebration of National Poetry Day by inviting residents to write a poem on a postcard which will then be read out to the Mayor of Camden. Kim Morrissey, writer-in-residence with the Purple Poets tells us more

"As soon as I heard the National Poetry Day theme was 'Heroes,' I had a chat with the Mayor of Camden, Councillor Ansari, and I also discussed my plan with Margaret Humphrey of the Mayor's office. We agreed. What better venue than the Town Hall to celebrate the Borough of Camden's Heroes in poems? It's free.  It's wheel-chair accessible. It has microphones for people with weak voices. It fits  the William Morris definition of something acceptable: it's beautiful, and useful.

"Heroes and poets are all ages, and poets write in all languages. The Purple Poets would like readers to send us your own original poem on a postcard, using the theme of My Camden Hero, by September 25. We'll be inviting as many people as there are seats in the Council Chamber to read out their postcard poems on 8 October to other poets and heroes and the Mayor of Camden.

"This isn't a competition. The only prize is the gift of your time and your poems for the display. We want to encourage people to write down their thoughts and share their memories of their own Camden Heroes with us. It's that simple.

"Sometimes people think 'Oh I'm not a poet' or 'I don't have time to write a poem' but everyone has time to write a postcard, and everyone has a hero they'd like to celebrate. The choice of the postcard becomes part of the fun and we'll be donating the archive of the Postcard Poems after the event (so remember to keep a copy of your poem).

"Purple Poet Serajul Islam Molla said, after our 2006 National Poetry Celebration, 'I enjoyed every second of it!' and then he added, 'at my age, I can't afford not to!' I want every poetry celebration we host to have the same sort of joy, and delight in meeting new people and old friends.

"My own heroes include my friends Rose Hacker and Bernard Miller, Michael Palin, Kathy Randle, William Morris, Boudica, Kenneth Williams, Elizabeth Garrett Anderson, George Orwell, Karen Givens, Jan Groves, and Sudeep anhd Priti's son, Aria Sen, aged 10. who showed me how to make 5 Minute Ice Cream for my Poetry on a Platter  Inter-generational workshops at the H-Pod (summer 2009, with the Purple Poets).

Heroes can be as unknowing as the cat at the hospice where my husband's aunt, Olivia Sandford (who was a hero, herself) spent her last weeks. Generosity of time and spirit changes lives. There can never be too many heroes, or too many poems.

"Every Thursday afternoon in September, The West Euston Time Bank Purple Poets are holding an open Poetry Workshop on Heroes, with me, in The Crypt Centre in Munster Square (1-3). Everyone is welcome and the Crypt is wheel-chair accessible. Come make your own postcard as well as your own poem! THE FEE: you will have to write at least one poem about a hero, and work with one of the Purple Poets to translate it into another language, for the display."

Since 2005 the Purple Poets have performed readings with Andrew Motion, Rose Hacker, David Neita. Sudeep Sen and Richard Price. So much good poetry and arts in general, happens on a local level and we should rightly be proud of the creative energy, time and commitment local organisations such as The Third Age Project put into 'the Arts'. For more information about The Purple Poets, and for details of upcoming performances, google 'Purple Poets.'

Please send your postcards to the address below
(and don't forget to keep a copy of your poem for yourself):
Tony Bloor and Urmi Alim
West Euston Time Bank, Crypt Centre
Munster Square, West Euston, London NW1 3PL
Phone: 020 7383 4922

LOCAL CAMDEN HEROES

PEOPLE WHO HAVE LIVED OR WORKED
OR  er, PERMENANTLY RESIDE (i.e. are buried)
IN THE BOROUGH OF CAMDEN.

(with a list of poets who have also written poems to them)
THIS IS AN ON-GOING LIST. Please click here.