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A special recording of The AdVerb at The Hackney Empire . Ian McMillan introduces six unique collaborations - new commissions between poets composers and musicians in collaboration with BBC Contains Strong Language and the BBC Symphony Orchestra Poets from the East End of London team up with composers to make new pieces that tell stories of this part of the capital city in all its astonishing diversity .1. Keith Jarrett with his new poem 'E Note' set to music by Iain Farrington 2. Hannah Silva performs 'The Empire Memorial Sailor's Hostel ' with music by Evan Jolly. 3. Christian Foley's Learning to Swim, performed by the poet with music by Calum Au. 4. Livia Kojo Alour and composer Charlie Bates present a new arrangement of Livia's piece Soul Death 5. Yome Sode and composer James B Wilson present their collaboration Roots. 6. Kat Francois and composer Lee Reynolds present Roots Presented by Ian McMillan with the BBC Symphony Orchestra conducted by Lee ReynoldsProduced by Susan Roberts
In this bonus episode of What's the TEA? host Jason Blitman talks to Hannah Silva about the exploration of queer single parenting and AI in her book, My Child, The Algorithm as well as Tom Pyun about his debut novel, Something Close to Nothing. What's the TEA? gets the inside scoop on new books–authors are tasked with describing their books with 3 words using the letters T, E, and A.Hannah Silva is a writer and performer working in sound poetry, radio and experimental non-fiction. An Artificially Intelligent Guide to Love (BBC Radio 4) starred Fiona Shaw and was the starting point for My Child, the Algorithm. Silva has authored seven other plays for BBC Radio 3 and 4, winning the Tinniswood Award and numerous placements in the BBC Audio Drama Awards. Her debut poetry collection Forms of Protest was Highly Commended in the Forward Prizes. Talk in a bit, a record of sound poetry and music was in the Wire's Top 25 albums of 2018. She lives in London with her child.Tom Pyun earned his MFA at Antioch University Los Angeles and has been awarded fellowships by the Vermont Studio Center, VONA, and Tin House. His creative fiction and nonfiction have appeared in The Rumpus, Reed Magazine, Joyland, and Blue Mesa Review. His essay, “Mothers Always Know,” was nominated for a Pushcart Prize and Best of the Net 2015.BOOK CLUB!Use code GAYSREADING at checkout to get first book for only $4 + free shipping! Restrictions apply.http://aardvarkbookclub.comWATCH!https://youtube.com/@gaysreadingBOOKS!Check out the list of books discussed on each episode on our Bookshop page: https://bookshop.org/shop/gaysreading MERCH!Purchase your Gays Reading podcast merchandise HERE! https://gaysreading.myspreadshop.com/ FOLLOW!@gaysreading | @jasonblitman CONTACT!hello@gaysreading.com
Gardens, balloons, parties and whales feature in this week's cabaret of the word. Ian's guests include Toby Litt, Roger Robinson, Hannah Silva and Caleb Femi.Novelist, poet and librettist Toby Litt has wrestled Ian, written stories backwards, and been limited to a single verb, in previous Verb commissions. This week he has to write something surreal for us, and then write something even more surreal by the end of the show - whilst blowing up two balloons. Toby is also mine of writing advice and genre-challenging playfulness in his novels, in his book 'A Writer's Diary' and in his substack.Roger Robinson's 'A Portable Paradise' won the T.S.Eliot Prize and there's no one better placed to unpick a poem and explain its most extraordinary lines for The Verb. He shows us how language really works on this week's show, as he does in his books 'On Poetry' and 'On Creativity'. Caleb Femi is an award-winning poet and film-maker. He has said he wants to be a merchant of joy, and there's lots of joy in his celebration of the true meaning of parties in his new collection 'The Wickedest'. Caleb shares new poems with Ian.Hannah Silva is a poet who truly understands how sound can let us into meaning. She performs a brand new commission for The Verb on the balloon - and asks Ian and his guests to play keepy-uppy during the show. Her latest book is 'My Child, the Algorithm' .
HANNAH SILVA HOPS ON THE PODCAST TO TALK ABOUT HER RETURN TO THE FIERCE STAGE ON MARCH 23RD AND HER PLANS FOR THE FUTURE AS AN MMA FIGHTER! TICKETS FOR FIERCE CHALLENGER SERIES 9 ARE AVAILABLE NOW AT FIERCEFIGHTINGCHAMPIONSHIP.COM
Ian McMillan hosts a special performance edition of The Verb recorded in front of a live audience at the BBC's Contains Strong Language Festival in Leeds. Featuring poetry from Hannah Silva, Khadijah Ibrahiim, Malika Booker, Cecilia Knapp, Toria Garbutt and Testament.
From the forceps inventor Peter Chamberlen to letters written by Queen Victoria about giving birth saying ‘Dearest Albert hardly left me at all, & was the greatest support & comfort': John Gallagher and his guests discuss childbirth and parenting. Dr Jessica Cox is the author of In Confinement: The Hidden History of Maternal Bodies in Nineteenth-Century Britain. Dr Laura Sellers is programmes curator at the medical history museum in Leeds The Thackray. We also hear from the dramatist Testament, whose play Daughter was nominated for the Prix Europa and Hannah Silva, whose book My Child The Algorithm is a memoir of queer parenting which started out as a radio play written using text generated by a machine-learning algorithm. The discussion is hosted by New Generation Thinker and historian at the University of Leeds John Gallagher in a recording at The Howard Assembly Room in Leeds as part of the BBC Contains Strong Language Festival. Testament's play Daughter is available on BBC Sounds here: https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m0011545 Producer based in Salford: Nick Holmes You can find a whole series of BBC programmes recorded at the 2023 Contains Strong Language Festival on the festival website and available on BBC Sounds. They include Radio 3's new writing programme The Verb, a Drama on 3, the music magazine programme Music Matters, Radio 4's discussion programme Start the Week and a special episode of Radio 3's The Early Music Show coming later this month.
Ian McMillan celebrates spectral spaces, the pulse of the body, and the power of repetition, in a Verb which showcases emerging talent - new sound designers from the Sound First scheme (a collaboration between BBC Contains Strong Language and Radio 3). Ian is joined by the songwriter, producer and sound designer Benbrick, the poet, playwright and performer Hannah Silva, and Sound First participant Noah Lawson, to explore what sound design can bring to poems, and what sounds are buried in poems themselves. The poems in this show - which the Sound First sound designers used as the basis for their work - were all commissioned for The Verb's 'Something New' series, marking 100 years of poetry on the BBC. Sound First work featured: Listening to Tennyson - poem by Rachael Boast, sound designer Noah Lawson Companion Piece - poem by Glyn Maxwell, sound designer Joe Chesterman The Truth is Never Too Old - poem by Roy McFarlane, sound designer Emily Kiely
Why is poetry such a powerful lens for exploring truth? From personal truths to shedding light on topics society would rather overlook, performed poetry in particular, has a special ability to communicate experiences and emotions in incredible shorthand. In this episode Lemn Sissay is joined by award-winning writer and performer Vanessa Kisuule to explore this potency. Together they listen to interviews and poetry readings from the British Library Sound Archive, featuring Indigo Williams, Anthony Joseph and David J – as well as discussing parallels in Vanessa's own work. Vanessa Kisuule's poem Hollow went viral in the days after a statue of slave-trader Edward Colston was toppled into Bristol Harbour by protesters in 2020. At the time she was Poet Laureate of Bristol (2018-2020) and has also been the official poet for Glastonbury festival. She has published two collections and won more than ten poetry slam titles. Recordings in the episode in order of appearance: Vanessa Kisuule performing her poem 'Hollow' as originally released on Twitter. Link: https://twitter.com/Vanessa_Kisuule/status/1270011146544783361 Indigo Williams on the importance of poetry as a tool to process emotions and stay 'mentally healthy' – with excerpts from her poem 'The Organist', recorded in 2014 by Hannah Silva in the British Library recording studio. British Library shelfmark: C1874/3 Lemn Sissay in performance at the National Poetry Centre, London in 1990 and digitised as part of the Unlocking our Sound Heritage (UOSH) project. British Library shelfmark: C15/440 Anthony Joseph on the act of reading a poem out loud in order to access 'the collective language' as part of the writing process – with excerpts from his poem 'The Art of Ageing', recorded in 2014 by Hannah Silva in the British Library recording studio. British Library shelfmark: C1874/1 David J, Vocal Pugilist, demonstrating and explaining the origins of his unique sound poetry style, recorded in 2016 by Hannah Silva in the British Library recording studio. British Library shelfmark: C1874/15 James Berry performing 'New Reading, Like Rebellion' recorded at the 1983 Angels of Fire Poetry Festival at the Cockpit Theatre in Marylebone, London. British Library shelfmark: C104/6 You can now listen to original recordings from this series, and thousands more, at http://sounds.bl.uk
Celebrate 100 years of poetry on the BBC with Ian McMillan's cabaret of the word. The Verb presents brand new poetry especially commissioned for the centenary, and explores the corporation's relationship with poetry - including highlights from the archive. With poets Paul Farley and Hannah Silva and the Director of The Poetry Society Judith Palmer.
Poet, playwright, rapper and activist Kae Tempest joins Lemn Sissay to discuss the power of live performance. Inspired by recordings in the British Library Sound Archive (see below for a full list) their conversation explores why Kae starting performing spoken word, what the atmosphere of a gig means to them and why they think we love to hear words performed live. Kae has won the Ted Hughes Award, their albums Everybody Down and Let Them Eat Chaos were nominated for the Mercury Music Prize and they're known for their transporting performances on stage. Kae is currently touring their latest album The Line is a Curve. Please note this episode contains moments of strong language. Recordings in the episode in order of appearance: ‘Goodman' by the Smoke Fairies, 2007 demo submitted to the Glastonbury New Bands Competition, donated to the British Library sound archive. British Library shelfmark: C1238/3268 Jamaican dub poet and activist Linton Kwesi Johnson speaks to Sarah O'Reilly in 2015 for the National Life Stories oral history project ‘Authors' Lives'. British Library shelfmark: C1276/60 Paul Simon introduces his song Sparrow in a folk club in Bebbington, Wirral, in 1965. This recording is part of the Stan Mason collection and was digitised as part of the Unlocking Our Sound Heritage project. British Library shelfmark: UAP004/4 S2 C3 An acapella performance by a group of women from the Divis Community Centre Drama Group, recorded in 1985 near Belfast. Copyright of Linda Ballard and performers; National Museums NI. British Library shelfmark: UNMNI002/474 C1-C6 Benjamin Zephaniah performs his poem Thirteen Dead at the Poetry Olympics festival that took place in 1983. This was recorded by the British Library at the Young Vic Theatre. British Library shelfmark: C92/2 C43 Malika Booker speaks to Dr Hannah Silva in 2016 as part of a collection of interviews called Black British Poets in Performance. British Library shelfmark: C1874/12 Susan Musgrove performs her poem Taboo Man the Poetry Olympics festival that took place in 1983. This was recorded by the British Library at the Young Vic Theatre. British Library shelfmark: C92/1 C22 Roger McGough performs his poem Writer of this Poem at the Poetry Olympics festival that took place in 1983. This was recorded by the British Library at the Young Vic Theatre. British Library shelfmark: C92/2 C56
The Verb, Ian McMillan's weekly foray into writing and language examines the appeal of risk and chance. Risk is inherent to writing every time you put words on paper; whether it's risk in the use of form, or language, or subject matter. It's the risk a writer takes when they expose their own lives or the lives of others in their writing. Booker prize winning author DBC Pierre talks about his latest book 'Big Snake, Little Snake: An Inquiry into Gambling and Life'; Hannah Silva on the unpredictability of collaborating with an A-I algorithm for her latest play; poet and novelist Helen Mort, who's always been drawn to the thrill and risk of rock climbing, examines how the world views women who aren't afraid to take risks in her new book 'A Line Above the Sky' and poet Will Harris examines the role of the chance encounter in literature. Producer: Cecile Wright
Monochrome is having a moment at this year's awards season in films such as Belfast, The Tragedy of Macbeth and C'mon C'mon. To discuss the comeback of black and white and its enduring appeal, Tom Sutcliffe is joined by Edu Grau, Director of Photography for Passing and Ellen Kuras, who won the Cinematography Award at Sundance for her debut feature film, Swoon, shot in black and white in 1992. She's since become the first woman to receive the American Society of Cinematographers' Lifetime Achievement Award and is about to embark on Lee, a biopic of the black and white photographer, Lee Miller. As the 2022 Oscar nominees are announced, we talk to Maggie Gyllenhaal who is nominated for Best Adapted Screenplay with The Lost Daughter, the actor's directorial debut, as well as Andrew Garfield, who bagged a best actor nomination for musical tick, tick... BOOM! Husband and wife animation team Les Mills and Joanna Quinn, writer and director respectively about their Best Animated Film-nominated Affairs of the Art also join us. Film critics Larushka Ivan-Zadeh and Leila Latif provide analysis. And we discuss a new experimental drama for Radio 4, An Artificially Intelligent Guide to Love, which sees writer Hannah Silva collaborate with a machine-learning algorithm to create an audio guide to romance. Presenter: Tom Sutcliffe Producer: Simon Richardson Production co-ordinator: Lizzy Harris Photo: Ruth Negga as Clare Bellew and Tessa Thompson as Irene "Reenie” Redfield in the film Passing Credit: Netflix
Ian McMillan and guests delight in the writing and naming of planets (Ian loves Neptune best), exploring how we as writers influence the perception of them, and how our perception may influence how humans treat them. Bettany Hughes is a historian, author and broadcaster. She shares her passion for Venus (planet and goddess) and looks at the first poem where the moon is depicted as 'silvery'. Bettany is exploring the big questions of the universe in films called 'Tea with B', and in her interview with author Ben Okri describes poetry as 'The Mothership'. Two of the earth's most exciting sound poets - Hannah Silva and Tomomi Adachi tell Ian how they created sound poetry for Pluto, and explored its ambiguous status (it is not officially a planet any more). They also perform a spontaneous sound poem, especially for The Verb, celebrating the vast number of icy bodies with fascinating names in the Kuiper Belt. JO Morgan's collection 'The Martian's Regress' is a remarkable thought experiment - imagining humans leaving Earth for Mars, and then returning here in thousands of years' time, only to be disappointed by our solitary moon. In poems which explore what it means to 'subjugate' a planet to make it support life, Morgan also considers the role of myth and story in building our relationship with a planet. Kate Greene almost lived on Mars. She was one of a team selected by Nasa to take part in an experiment in Hawaii, where she lived in a geodesic dome for four months in order to simulate what it would be like on Mars. A journalist, author and poet, Kate found herself thinking differently, and considering the relationship of the body to the Earth. Her account of the experience can be found in her book 'Once Upon a Time I Lived on Mars'.
Our Guest, Hannah Silva, talks about dealing with difficult clients. Keri vents about a frustrating phone call, and Chris vents about co-pay issues.
Poet Daniel Cockrill invites Poet, Spoken Word Artist, Activist and Musician Peter Bearder aka Pete The Temp round his house for a chat. During this chat they explore the visceral space between fact and fiction to reveal certain truths that can’t necessarily be explained by these other fields. They also attempt to answer the Poet Waffle Big Question: What is the purpose of Art? Topics covered include: Adopting, Rejecting, Transcending and Reinventing Labels, The Post Spoken Word Era, The Alternative Cabaret Scene, Being a Street Musician, Being a One Man Band, Hammer & Tongue, Engaging an Audience, Artistic Subcultures, Variety as Audience and Artist, How To Put People Off Their Own Opinions, Is There Too Much Poetry In Spoken Word?, Reviewing and Critiquing Ourselves, Rachel Pantechnicon, John Hegley, Thick Richard, Katie Ailes, Hannah Silva, Lucy English, Jack McGowan, Tim Wells, Russell Thompson, Aleister Crowley, The Magic and Telepathy of Words & Language, The Innovation, Imagination and Conception of Words, The Architecture of Language, The Culture of the Individual and his latest book - Stage Invasion: Poetry & The Spoken Word Renaissance.
We're crossing senses on The Verb this week, examining Synesthesia, with musician LJ Rich, linguist Rob Drummond, and poetry from Ruth Padel, Abi Palmer and Hannah Silva. For musician, broadcaster and synesthete LJ Rich, the world is drenched in music. With the help of a piano, she lets us inside her experience of the world, where tastes, colours and even the most boring train station make beautiful music. Verb regular, the linguist Rob Drummond has been researching the colour associations we all have with certain vowel sounds and has discovered some intriguing patterns. And there's plenty of poetry to stimulate your senses, Ruth Padel's latest collection is 'Emerald' (Chatto). The book is a meditation on grief, but is also shot through with colour. Hannah Silva presents her 'musical shirt', as made for her by Tomomi Adachi, the shirt is an invention that allows her to turn movement into sound poetry. And finally, poet and performer Abi Palmer finds that her synesthesia is heightened by the experience of water, so especially for The Verb she presents a poem written while taking a 'musical bath'... Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Jessica Treen
Ian McMillan presents a special extended edition of Radio 3's The Verb recorded as part of Contains Strong Language, a season of poetry and performance from Hull, UK City of Culture 2017. Ian McMillan is joined by a host of spoken word talent to celebrate the story of spoken-word performance in the UK on the 35th anniversary of 'Apples and Snakes'. John Agard has been performing spoken word across the UK for over 30 years. His poem celebrates the Voice as he reminds us that 'Shakespeare was a performance poet'. Hannah Silva is an innovative playwright and performer, who presents a brand new poem. In this piece, specially commissioned by Apples and Snakes to celebrate their 35th anniversary, Hannah digs around in their archives to find poetic inspiration. The Verb has also commissioned new work, a collaborative piece by SLAMbassadors UK founder Joelle Taylor and Zena Edwards. 'I remember you' examines the political history of spoken word. We also hear from Grace Nichols who brings a carnival spirit to the proceedings, Yomi Sode who takes us back to his awkward teenage years, and Dizraeli reads brand new work addressing toxic masculinity. Apples and Snakes have also commissioned collaborative work from London based poet and grime artist Debris Stevenson and Hull's very own breakout grime star Chiedu Oraka. John Hegley's first public performance was in Hull many years ago, so it's only fitting that he returns to the city to celebrate the birthday of Apples and Snakes, who have been an important part of his career for the past 35 years. And there were so many fantastic performances at this Contains Strong Language event that we couldn't fit them all into the broadcast edition of the show, download our podcast to hear extra performances from all our guests and an extra podcast only appearance from poet and rapper TY and a brand new collaboration, commissioned by Apples and Snakes between Yomi Sode and Dizraeli. Presenter: Ian McMillan Producer: Jessica Treen.
This episode of Conversations on Communism is based on an interview with Helen Lindsay. Helen is a heritage consultant by trade, but she also happens to be the daughter of the Australia-born, British poet Jack Lindsay. She kindly spoke with Henry Stead about her father. This podcast is the forth episode in the Conversations on Communism series in association with Brave New Classics (http://www.bravenewclassics.info). It is also available for subscription via Soundcloud and iTunes. The photo shows Helen on the streets of Greenwich, London. Thanks go out to poets Caroline Bird and Hannah Silva for their readings of Jack's poems.
This episode is in three parts: Part One - David Turner is in Haggerston, London to talk to Hannah Silva about her solo show Schlock! which runs until 26/11/2016. The pair discuss the writing of Kathy Acker, the novel Fifty Shades of Grey and accessibility in theatres. www.hannahsilva.co.uk www.twitter.com/HannahSilvaUK www.rosemarybranchtheatre.co.uk Part Two (27:14) - David Turner is in Lambeth, south London chatting to poet Nick Makoha about professionalism, Nick's own development as a writer and poetry's place in society. www.nickmakoha.com www.twitter.com/NickMakoha www.fathersuperhero.com www.twitter.com/FatherSuperhero www.peepaltreepress.com www.twitter.com/peepaltreepress Part Three (56:16)- David Turner talks to comedian, musician and poet, John Hegley. Songs, poems, biscuits and coffee..... www.johnhegley.co.uk www.twitter.com/JohnHegley Download a transcript of this episode here: https://lunarpoetrypodcasts.files.wordpress.com/2018/07/ep88-hannah-silva-nick-makoha-john-hegley-transcript.pdf
We're at StAnza this weekend and caught up with two Poet Laureates about some of the projects they have abandoned - Glasgow Makar Jim Carruth and Edinburgh Makar Christine De Luca. We also feature our interview with writer & theatre maker Hannah Silva that we recorded at StAnza a couple of years ago. Presented by Ryan Van Winkle @rvwable and produced by Colin Fraser @kailworm of Culture Laser Productions @culturelaser http://www.culturelaser.com We acknowledge the financial support of Creative Scotland for our 2014 season,