Every city has its artistic areas, and Cardiff is no different. Roath is one of its most creative suburbs, partly due to ‘Made in Roath’ (the annual community arts festival) which often includes a number of literary events. This year there’ll be more literature and spoken word events than ever before, from storytelling and performance to exhibitions, competitions, comedy and workshops, all in just one magnificent week (15th-22nd October). So here’s a taste of what’s to come…
Poetry in a Bottle (Sun 15th – Sun 22nd Oct 12-5pm)
I love this idea – poetry doesn’t just have to be read, or studied, or listened to… it can be treasured too, and exhibited like other forms of art. Lucy Corbett explains…
“My installation imagines a world where adverts are replaced by art. Where poetry is everywhere and part of our normal everyday existence. Viewers are given the choice of taking a piece of the installation with them – once they pick up a bottle of poetry its future is very literally in their hands, as they can decide whether to leave it behind, keep it, give it to a friend or anything else they can imagine. Just as adverts have integrated their way into our lives and psyches, Poetry in a Bottle tries to do this in a very small way with poems, and will I hope encourage people to think about the many small and magical ways that they could find or bring more art into the world.”
Written Portraits (Sat 21st Oct 11am-4pm)
Everyone loves a good selfie, but what about the old tradition of portraiture? And why should it always be visual? Words are good too! Bryan Marshall explains what this event is all about:
“Anyone can receive a portrait of themselves, not just as a picture, but also in words thought up by writers recording their first impressions – how you look, how you move, what you say and how you say it. You might end up described in prose, as a tight little list of snappy bullet points, or even be captured for posterity in a verse or two of poetry.”
The old favourite ‘Poetry Takeaway’ will also be running again this year. Come along and order up a free poem from one of the poets (Sun 22nd Oct 11am-4pm)
Creative Writing Opportunities
I’ll be running my usual monthly writing workshop ‘From Paint to Page’ (Tues 17th Oct) and I’m also organising a unique poetry competition – the Ekphrastic Challenge. Find out more here…
There’ll be a Creative Writing Masterclass too, with a chance to have your writing critiqued professionally (deadline for submissions is 6th Oct).
Boyd Clack performing at Octopoet last year
Stories, Prose and Poetry in Performance
There’ll be a Squnday poetry performance and open mic (Sun 15th Oct 7pm) featuring Gemma June Howell, Nick Fisk, Sue Hamblen, J Brookes and music from Handsome Stranger.
Storytellers will entertain us all at The Last Campfire (Mon 16th Oct 7.30pm)
There’s even a Literary Houseparty (Tue 17th Oct 7.30pm) to launch Suzie Wild’s new poetry collection.
An evening of Prose and Poems will feature Zillah Bowes and Lloyd Markham (Wed 18th Oct 7.30pm) followed by an open mic.
I thoroughly enjoyed last year’s Octopoet, which will be taking place in the Roath Lake café this year (Thu 19th Oct 7pm) – packed full of poets and spoken word artists from Cardiff and further afield.
Events for Children
There’s a Bedtime Stories event (Thu 19th Oct) and a Folktales Storytelling event run by Cath Little (Sat 21st Oct).
And finally, there’s Roathian comedy in ‘Just a Minute’ (Sun 22nd Oct) and a rather unusual meet-the-author event with Rosemary Chaloner about her book ‘THE BALLOON GIRL – The first and fatal flight of Madamoiselle Albertina’ (Tue 17th Oct).
So much to see and do, and that doesn’t even include the art exhibitions, films, installations and other events that make Made in Roath the cultural occasion not to miss…
Click here to visit the Made in Roath website and download the brochure.
