WORD ABOUT TOWN 2005
A warm welcome to the third annual Word About Town Festival, bringing some of the country's best live literature, poetry, comedy, music and film to Hastings, St Leonards and Rother.

With shadow "poet laureate" Adrian Mitchell, legendary folk troubadour Rory McLeod and the unique theatrical genius of Ken Campbell, plus a whole spectrum of community events, workshops and open-mikes led by our poets and rappers in residence, we believe this is our most exciting and innovative programme yet.

Without an Arts Council grant this year, it hasn't been easy, but we are thankful to numerous local business who have stepped in to support us, a testament both to their generosity and to the way that Word About Town is becoming a vital part of the towns' annual arts calendar.

Above all none of this is possible without the participation of the people of Hastings and Rother. Come and celebrate the spoken word.

John Knowles and Justin Rhyme (Word About Town)

See below for details...

Date

Nov 15

Nov 16

Nov 17

Nov 18

Nov 19

Nov 20

Don't Feed the Poets Open Mike Night, a live recording of our popular poetry night at The White Rock Hotel, White Rock, Hastings.

What ever happened to Jack Kerouac.Beat Poets on Film - The Electric Palace Cinema - High St, Hastings

Egg Box Publications, three young poets, making thier mark on the poetry scene. Eat@ Hastings.

Heads Up at The Ostrich. In conjunction with Rother District Council we bring Word About Town to Robertsbridge with a special poetry party and open-mike night with host Justin Rhyme and honoured guest Zena Edwards. Upstairs At The Ostrich

Ken Campbell's 'The Meaning of Life' St Mary-in-the-Castle.

Storming the Castle, Adrian Mitchell, Zena Edwards and The Irrepresibles

The Book of Job - The Musical. Brighton Fringe smash hit and sell out at The Cheltenhalm Literature Festival. St.Mary-in-the-Castle.

Rory Mcleod, folk singing legend, St Mary-in-the-Castle

Free

�5/�4

Free

�8/�6

�5/�4

�8/�6

Special guest Rachel Pantechnicon

November 15 - Don't Feed the Poets Open Mike.

PASS THE MIKE

The White Rock Hotel, Hastings.
8.00pm.
Free! (Voluntary donations welcome in the hat at the end of the night)

Put on your glad rags and come and strut your wordy stuff - poems, songs, natty narratives, eclectic snippets of verbal dexterity, its up to you.....

There's warm encouragement from cuddly comperes Justin Rhyme and Just John, who also welcome two special guest poets from the UK's performance poetry circuit, the deftly witty John Seagrave and the sublimely surreal Rachel Pantechnicon. Tonight's set will be recorded for posterity and all performers will receive a CD of tonight's show. Plus competitions and giveaways (Performers sign up from 7.45pm)

This event has been sponsored by Hastings Arts Forum

Rachel Pantechnicon has been on the UK poetry scene since 1999. Before that, her activities were confined to the London Borough of Merton, which doesn't really count. Rachel writes mainly for her cat Harold, but some of her work also appeals to humans. She enjoys the poems of T S Eliot and the songs of Susan Fassbender.

November 16 - The Jack Kerouac Story

WEDNESDAY NOVEMBER 16
"What Ever Happened to Jack Kerouac?"
Electric Palace Cinema, High Street, Hastings Old Town.
Tickets �5.00 / �4.00 (on the door on the night)

A celebration of poetic imagery - words as pictures. With a showing of film shorts, live performances and "Whatever Happened to Kerouac? - The Story of Jack Kerouac", which delves into the life and career of the seminal beat novelist and poet. Featuring rare interview footage with his contemporaries and fellow Beat members, Allen Ginsberg and William Burroughs.

With thanks to The Electric Palace Cinema who are kindly supporting this event.

The Jack Kerouac Story

November 17 - Walking on Egg Shells
(Egg Box Publications)

THURSDAY NOVEMBER 17
Eat@ Claremont, Hastings.
8pm
Free! (Voluntary donations accepted!)

Talented St.Leonards' based poet Richard Evans introduces himself and three other of the country's emerging poetic talents with special guest musician Tim Hoyte, with songs from his recent album "The Nothing Machine".

Kirsten Irving
is currently working on her eagerly awaited first collection, "Covering Tracks". Her poetry, with its rare potency and wit, has inspired much enthusiasm both here and in the USA. She is currently UK Authors writer of the month. 020020

Joel Stickley
is a member of Aisle16, the group of performance poets who are "redefining the genre"' TIME OUT. Their 2005 Edinburgh Fringe show 'Poetry Boyband' received top reviews from The Scotsman, Fest, The List, Three Weeks and The Stage.
020"His use of language, his ability to twist the narrative and to turn the obscure into the profound is outstanding." THE STAGE

Richard Evans'
poetry is as it should be, 'red in tooth and nail'. CONCRETE. 020His first collection, 'The Zoo Keeper', published by Egg Box, was Highly Commended by The Forward Prize
"Surprising, funny/sad and energetic."' Andrew Motion

This event has been sponsored by Hastings Arts.

Kirsten Irving

Joel Stickley

Richard Evans

FRIDAY NOVEMBER 18

Ken Campbell Presents "The Meaning Of Life"
St.Mary-in-the-Castle, Pelham Crescent, Hastings (Licensed bar).

8pm (Doors 7.30pm)
Tickets �8/�6

Ever wondered what it's all about? Pondered on whether this is all some divine joke, that we may just be the play-things of demi-Gods? Perhaps the butt of some cosmic prank of such colossal proportions that the only way to appreciate it all is via some very personal orifical journey? Or do you just blame it all on dogs?

Ken Campbell's productions and exploits in British Theatre, over the last quarter century, as playwright, actor, director and comedian are legendary. He was founder of the wildly antic "Ken Campbell Roadshow" and then "The Science Fiction Theatre of Liverpool", directing monumental epics such as the record-breaking 22-hour cult play cycle "The Warp". He has toured his many popular solo shows all over the world and appears regularly on stage, screen, radio and TV."In his own alternative way, Ken is as much a national treasure as The Queen, Judi Dench and Basil Brush" The Guardian

"Campbell can create that blissful rising hysteria in which virtually
anything can seem side-splittingly funny" Time Out

"The rude, cock-snooking, inimitable, rib-tickling, piss-taking, depth-searching genius of theatre is alive and well in the quizzical genie called Ken Campbell. If they ever award a Nobel Prize for Literature to a theatre person again, it should be to Ken"
Michael Kustow's in "Theatre @ Risk"

This event is sponsored by Fuga Limited

Saturday November 19

Iain Sinclair
The Electric Palace Cinema, High Street, Hastings Old Town
3pm
Tickets �5.00 / �4.00, (available on the door on the day.)

Iain Sinclair will read from, and discuss, his new book, 'Edge of the Orison' - in which he retraces the poet John Clare's walk, from Epping Forest to his home village, north of Peterborough. 'Edge of the Orison' - following on from 'Lights out for the Territory' & 'London Orbital'- is the concluding part in Sinclair's edge-lands trilogy. In it he plunges for the first time into the English countryside, a landscape of huge skies, dancing bears and 13th-century stones that rise from the mud of a drained inland sea. He is accompanied, at different times, by the graphic novelist Alan Moore, the film-maker Chris Petit and the performance artist Brian Catling. And, above all, by his wife Anna - whose family history emerges from territory shared with Clare.

Saturday November 19

STORM-IN-THE-CASTLE

ST.MARY-IN-THE-CASTLE, 8PM

An extraordinary evening of soulful and sensual music and spoken word featuring the "godfather of British performance poetry" Adrian Mitchell, one of Britain's most brilliant songwriting/poetry talents Zena Edwards and the profoundly beautiful sound of The Irrepressibles...

Adrian Mitchell is one of Europe's bestselling poets. His poetry's simplicity, clarity, passion and humour show his allegiance to a vital, popular tradition embracing William Blake as well as the ballads and the blues. The most nakedly political poems - about Iraq, Vietnam, prisons and racism - have become part of the folklore of the Left, sung and recited at demonstrations and mass rallies. A driving force behind the democratisation of poetry in the sixties, Mitchell's lively and passionate performances have the power to move audiences of all ages, continually inspiring new generations of poets, dramatists and activists. His recent poetry collections include All Shook Up (2000) and The Shadow Knows (2004) and, for children, Daft as a Doughnut (2004).

'Adrian Mitchell is no more naive than Stevie Smith, but like her he has the innocence of his own experience.... real inner freedom and the courage of his own music. Among all the voices of the Court, a voice as welcome as Lear's fool. Humour that can stick deep and stay funny' - Ted Hughes

Zena Edwards Famous for her work with the award winning South African musician Pops Mohamed, Zena Edwards has toured to packed houses across the globe, captivating crowds with her humorous and heart wrenching poetry and song. Her writing is inspired by her urban British background and by travel, especially in Africa and it's traditional music. A talented musician as well as wordsmith, she often combines her hip-hop, jazz groove peppered poetry with mbira, kalimba and marimba (thumb pianos) casting a lasting spell on hushed audiences everywhere.

"Humourous, Peppery, Potent" MUZIK

The Irrepressibles Already endearing themselves to music fans across the country and earning superlatives from the national press, The Irrepressibles are an extraordinary band of gargantuan promise. Dramatic and moving, soft acoustic guitar and beautifully bearable violin and cello blend with incrediable falsetto vocals from singer James McDermott..... this is a band guaranteed to turn your head and touch your heart.

"WOW! They are a baroque contemporary orchestral outfit drifting out your stereo with something between profoundly beautiful and thoroughly unsettling........... Organs swirl, accordions swoon, whilst James McDermott's vocals swoop theatrically in and out of earshot. However do not be fooled for there is nothing gimmicky about their music. It is in fact moving and disturbing in equal measure and I suggest we all sit up and take notice" playlouder.com

Tonights event has been sponsored by The Roost Group Ltd

Adrian Mitchell

Zena Edwards

The Irrepressibles

Sunday November 20

The Book of Job - The Musical

St.Mary-in-the-Castle 4pm (doors 3.30pm)

�5/�4, including loaves and fishes.

Rock'n'Roll! Death! Theology! Use the special fx of your imagination to witness an ambitious performance of the story of Job. Presented by Stop All The Clocks and Holy!Holy!Holy!Holy! productions in a style that bridges the high melodrama of Andrew Lloyd-Webber with the satirical iconoclasm of Monty Python. Only premiered at the Brighton Fringe Festival this May, Job comes to Hastings on the back of it's runaway sell out success at The Cheltenham Literature Festival. Loaves and fishes on the house.

"The third best musical based on a biblical character who's name begins with J" (Simon Clayton, Creator.) "Inspired, hilarious and strangely moving...!" F-Festival Guide.

Sunday November 20

The legendary troubadour Rory McLeod at St.Mary-in-the-Castle, 8.30pm (doors 8pm)

�8/�6 from Hastings TIC 01424 781111

The legendary folksinger songwriter, traveller and one man band, comes to Hastings. Some people have begged us to bring Rory to Hastings, so we did. If you haven't discovered Rory you have missed a rare honest, personal and politicla fgure who weaves complex stories woven from his many travels across the globe. Funny, heartrending and original. Miss this and you'll kick yourself.

Tonights Event has been sponsored by Stone Wilder Solicitors

Rory Mcleod - ex-circus clown and fire eater. A one man soulband, poet and storyteller, singing his own unique upbeat dance stories.

A modern travelling troubadour using tap shoes, acappella, harmonica, guitar, trombone, spoons, finger cymbals, bandorea, djembe and various percussion instruments!

Rory has travelled the globe for different reasons at different times, from Asia to the middle East from Gambia to Cuba, Central America, Australia, North America, Canada, Europe and other nooks and crannies of the earth.

"You don't listen to McLeod you travel with him" City Hub, Sydney (Australia)

"McLeod is one of the most energetic, most generous performers I've seen." ABC Radio, (Australia)