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Events and Opportunities from Commonword February 2020 For updates: website www.cultureword.org.uk twitter @cultureword facebook (facebook.com/culturewordcommonword) Dear Commonword Writer, Welcome to the February newsletter! This month we bring you details of our upcoming archives exhibition, a 'Women of Commonword' photo shoot, the return of Black Girls Get Together, upcoming workshops, news from our writers and a Writer of the Month interview with Joy France. Happy reading! Ink, Sweat and Typos: The Making of a Manchester Writer a commonword archive exhibition  Manchester Central Library Exhibition Space February 1st - March 31st 2020 Join us at Central Library over the next two months to wander through some of the gems in our archives. Writing may be a solitary act, but people most often need development and support from a literary community if they are to become writers. Commonword Cultureword has a solid record in making this happen for people who get marginalised or ignored in mainstream literature and it has resulted in the telling of some remarkable and original stories. Images from the archive show what it takes to make a writer in Manchester. Check our facebook event page for further info and updates by clicking here. If you have any questions about the exhibition or our archives, please email heena@cultureword.org.uk Save the Date! Black Girls Get Together returns on Wednesday 25th March 2020 Chuck Gallery, 166 Plymouth Grove, Manchester M13 0AF Join us at Chuck Gallery for an evening of celebration of black girl magic. This is an opportunity to mingle, strike up conversations with new and familiar faces, dance and live your best life. During the evening, we will be hosting conversation corners for attendees to discuss benefits of arts participation and practice for black women's wellbeing. Food and drink will be provided.  TRUE STORY PODCAST WORKSHOPS Six weekly sessions every Monday from February 24th – March 30th, 3.30pm – 6pm at Commonword Delivered by Whispered Tales and Mahboobeh Rajabi A great opportunity to do creative writing and explore how to make a podcast. You will learn how to take an emotive recorded true story / interview and turn it into an engaging 5 minute audio track. This will combine new writing and an atmospheric soundscape. The results can either be used in performance or released as a podcast. You will learn how to: Capture high quality recordings and interviews Edit sound files and recordings Collate, use and gain the rights to found sounds and recordings such as news footage or sound effects. Whispered Tales works with festivals, theatres, museums and heritage sites to deliver projects that shine a light on forgotten sites and people. From large scale installations, audio trails, and bespoke performances Whispered Tales generates truly emotive audience responses. In 2020 Whispered Tales is creating a new performance RELEASE which will share stories of migration where music has offered a moment of release. Involving live performance, projections and a binaural soundtrack, Release will be an immersive experience that takes audiences on a thought-provoking journey. RELEASE will tour to Light Night, Liverpool and Journeys Festival in Leicester and Manchester. If you would like to take part, please email Mahboobeh by February 20th 2020 on rajabi.mahboobeh@gmail.com. Please note spaces are limited so please email as soon as possible if you are interested in coming along. *travel expenses will be covered* POC Digital Lit Coding Club Last Wednesday of Every Month This is an open session for POC/BAME/Black writers held on the last Wednesday of the month. We pool ideas and show each other what we are working on, share ideas on how to make literature work in digital formats – from Twitter and other social media right through to game design.  We have special guests from the world of coding and writing who have done interesting things with digital literature.  We text stuff, share stuff, dream stuff and have a good time! The next session at Commonword will be on Wednesday 26th February 6.30pm. Any queries, email pete@cultureword.org.uk Notes on a Mic Drop The Commonword Community Archive Project is excited to be organising a series of 5 writing workshops for people identifying as QTIPOC i.e. Black / Asian / POC and also LGBT+. It’s a chance for people learn about Manchester’s Black literary history and then to be part of it. The sessions will be facilitated by writer and director Cheryl Martin and will end with a Black Gold Arts performance at Contact Theatre on 20th and 21st March 2020. They will be taking place every Monday evening from 6.30 to 8.30pm starting 17th February 2020. Ideally, participants should be able to attend all sessions. They are free to attend. No previous writing or experience necessary, but people who have written and/or performed before are also welcome. Please email cheryl@cultureword.org.uk if you would like to attend. Turn the Big Light On update Thank you to everybody who sent in submissions to Turn The Big Light On.  Cheryl is really enjoying reading them. The book is going to be a great celebration of Manchester, so watch this space for publication news and keep an eye on your emails if you submitted… Our February Writer of the Month: Joy France This month, Charlotte Maxwell interviewed Joy France about poetry slams, creative spaces and her rap battling granny status. Can you tell me a bit about what you chose to write about and why? All my life I’ve been aware of the power of creativity to inspire individuals and bring about positive change in wider society, but believed I had no artistic ability myself. I was extremely shy with no self-confidence. In my mid 50's that changed. I discovered performance poetry and found my voice. Since then I’ve become an extreme example of how creativity can change a person. I’ve found my voice and won’t ever stop using it! Whilst most of my “art” involves words in all its many forms, I have also created other art, for example, installations for exhibitions. I believe that my ability to build and develop creative communities is an art in itself. It’s certainly personally satisfying enabling people to discover their artistic ability. I love to see the magic that can happen when very different people, who would never meet in normal life, come together and break down barriers through creativity. Back in 2013, you won Cultureword’s Superheroes of Slam. How do you feel both you and the slam scene has grown during these seven years? It took me a long time before I could say “I am a poet” - instead I’d casually say “I mess about with words” or “I dabble with poetry.” I guess after a lifetime of having no confidence, I was experiencing imposter syndrome. Winning the Warrington heat gave me a huge confidence boost but it was taking the title that proved to be a pivotal moment for me - especially as I was the first woman and first older person to win it. Having the spotlight on me was both uncomfortable and exhilarating at the same time but I met many inspiring people linked to Cultureworld/Commonword and eagerly took every opportunity that followed. Read the rest of our interview with her here. Archives Out and About To bring in the new decade, Heena has been doing some reading. Here are her thoughts on Mike Duff's Low Life.  A horrible tale that’s absolutely perfect for winter for those of you who don’t like a cosy read. Our narrator is Mancunian Ronnie ‘Rooftop’ Rafferty, petty criminal and sometime council employee. He takes on a journey through north Manchester and its surrounding urban areas, through tales of his family, friends, work that’s above board and work that is —how can we put this — not so above board. Rooftop is a complete shit and he doesn’t care about you or anyone. Solidarity isn’t a term he’s familiar with. If anyone’s stupid or unlucky enough to be tricked or swindled by him, tough. That’s his life: screw and be screwed. That’s life. Even with all the scheming and thieving there are brief glimpses into his life when you feel for him, but never once do you never pity him. And what use would that be anyway? It doesn’t pay the bills or get the drinks in. Rooftop’s world is one that people who claim to care about society turn away from, perhaps even fear. He doesn’t have a formal education, but he holds more astute views on low-level crime, rehabilitation and equal opportunities than most academics and professionals I’ve ever met. If you move to Manchester and settle in the south of the city, you’re more likely to visit London, Barcelona or Edinburgh than go up the Rochdale Road and why would you? There’s nothing for you there, except perhaps booze. The ‘left-behind’ aren’t just in small towns and isolated rural areas. They’re right here in England’s major cities, alive and unwell. They don’t care about the elite screwing them over when there are greater things to worry about. At first reading might make you distrustful of anyone working class and Mancunian. But then again, there are a lot of people out to con you, it’s just some of them have a much more respectable veneer than others. Crocus Books published this novel after it won Commonword’s North West Novel competition in 1999. It is the Mike Duff’s debut. Commonword went on to publish his second, The Hat Check Boy, almost a decade later. This novel in the vein of early writing in the Commonword archive, particularly some of the autobiographical pieces in Write On. Low Life echoes the themes and unsentimental unnostalgic tone, but this time, the writing gets developed into a full-length story with characters. It’s uniquely Mancunian, it’s uniquely north Manchester. More than one city exists here. The one in Low Life is one you almost never hear about. Black Queer Book Club A new reading group for people who are both BAME and LGBT. February's book: The Stars and the Blackness Between Them by Junauda Petrus Meeting: 6.30 - 8.30pm, Thursday 27th February 2020 If you would like to attend, please email cheryl@cultureword.org.uk.  Join our Facebook group by clicking here. Visit our Virtual Bookshop! We have now launched our shiny, new online bookshop. Take a look around our virtual bookshop and maybe even treat yourself over at  culturewordbooks.org.uk Audience Finder Survey As always, we ask that you complete our Audience Finder survey if you have attended events/workshops at, or run by, Commonword. We are very grateful for the time that is spent completing this survey and we love to hear from you. This feedback is important to us and helps us to ensure that we are doing a good job. The link directs you to Audience Finder, a tool which enables us to understand, compare, apply audience insights across the UK, and benchmark ourselves against other organisations. https://research.audiencesurveys.org/s.asp?k=155428576832 The results, of course, are all anonymous. Please forward this link to any of your friends and family who may have attended workshops or events with you. Many thanks, in advance Black Queer Book Club The last Thursday of each month, 6.30-8.30pm at Commonword offices You must be both BAME and LGBT to attend. Open to all levels of ability. The book of the month will be listed in our Newsletter. Please ring buzzer 6 on arrival. Email charlotte@cultureword.org.uk for more details Identity Writers Group Every Wednesday 6.30-8.30pm at Commonword offices BAME/POC only Open to all levels of writers; just turn up. From experienced to beginners. Please ring buzzer 6. Email martin@cultureword.org.uk for more details EXTERNAL WORKSHOPS Monday Night Group Every Monday 7-9pm in the Snug at the Lass O'Gowrie Open to all levels of writers, for everyone; just turn up. From experienced to beginners www.mondaynightgroup.org.uk www.facebook.com/mngmanchester Young Enigma A group for young LGBT+ writers. Contact Adam Lowe for further information info@youngenigma.com . Young Identity A group for under 25s who write poetry and spoken word. Contact Shirley May or Reece Williams on youngidentitymcr@gmail.com. Do you ❤ Commonword? tweet/facebook/IG us with your favourite/first memory of Commonword. Send us a picture of yourself holding a I ❤ Commonword sign  #iLoveCommonword  You can catch us on Social Media twitter @cultureword #iLoveCommonword facebook.com/commonwordcultureword instagram @cultureword   Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Twitter Website YouTube Commonword | Cultureword | Crocus Books Commonword No. 3 Planetree House 21-31 Oldham Street Manchester M1 1JG There is a buzzer for entry. The office number is 3, the workshop space number is 6. 0161 832 3777  enquiries@cultureword.org.uk

Commonword · No 3 Planetree House · 21-31 Oldham Street · Manchester, M1 1JG · United Kingdom Events and Opportunities from Commonword View this email in your browser December 2019 For updates: website www.cultureword.org.uk twitter @cultureword facebook (facebook.com/culturewordcommonword) Dear Commonword Writer, Welcome to the December newsletter! This month we bring you details of our annual Christmas shindig, our POC Digital Lit Coding Club, a call for submissions to our upcoming anthology 'Turn the Big Light On' and TLC's Free Read Scheme, a round-up of Festival of Firsts and a Writer of the Month interview with Paula Ethans. Happy reading! Annual Christmas Shindig Thursday 12th December, 6pm  West Indian Centre, Westwood Street, Manchester M14 4SW Join us for our annual Christmas shindig at Westwood Street on December 12th! Expect mingling, festive cheer and buckets of celebration, as we celebrate another wonderful year at Commonword and Pete, our co-artistic director being awarded his PhD. This year, we're having a dancehall ball so come dressed to impress. Food and drink will be provided as always. There will also be a short reading from Deanne Heron and friends, and we'll be fundraising for reggae musician, Golty Farabeau. RSVP by clicking 'going' on our facebook event. We look forward to seeing you there! Any queries, please email charlotte@cultureword.org.uk The office will be closed for Christmas from Friday 20th December 2019 until Tuesday 7th January 2020. The last Identity workshop of 2019 will be on Wednesday 18th December and will restart on Wednesday 15th January. Black Queer Book Club will not meet in December, the next session will be on Thursday 30th January 2020.  POC Digital Lit Coding Club Starts January 29th at Commonword This is an open session for POC/BAME/Black writers held on the last Wednesday of the month. We pool ideas and show each other what we are working on, share ideas on how to make literature work in digital formats – from Twitter and other social media right through to game design.  We have special guests from the world of coding and writing who have done interesting things with digital literature.  We text stuff, share stuff, dream stuff and have a good time!  The first session at Commonword will be on Wednesday January 29th 6.30pm. Any queries, email pete@cultureword.org.uk NOTES ON A MIC DROP A series of weekly writing workshops for stage and page. Open to everyone who is QTIPOC or LGBT+ and Black / Asian / BAME. All writing levels welcome. Run by writer, director and poet Cheryl Martin of Black Gold Arts. The workshops are free to attend. Ideally you should be able to come to all of the workshops. Every Monday for 6 weeks, starting 10th February 2020, 6.30 – 8.30pm. Participants will have the chance take part in Black Gold Arts performance showcase in March 2020.   For more info or to reserve a space, email cheryl@cultureword.org.uk or call 0161 832 3777.  Call for Submissions - Turn the Big Light On Deadline: Friday 20th December 2019 Are you a writer, or do you want to be?  Live and work in Manchester, or used to?  We want to hear from you! Commonword is excited to announce that submissions are now open for Turn the Big Light On, an online anthology of poems, monologues and short stories set in Manchester. Your choice of theme, your choice of genre. For submission guidelines, please visit https://www.cultureword.org.uk/call-for-submissions-turn-the-big-light-on/ Deadline:   5pm on Friday 20th December 2019. Festival of Firsts Round-up Our first 'Festival of Firsts' has now come to a close. Seven first-class live literature events ranging from 90 second poetry slams to a potluck supper. Events were well received and we would like to thank our wonderful audiences for attending in all weathers. We would like to congratulate Paula Ethans for winning the first Trans Europe Expression as well as all of the competitors from Manchester, Paris and Berlin. Photos of all of our events can be found on our Instagram and Facebook pages. Keep an eye out for the return of the TEESlam next year and Festival of Firsts will return in 2021.     FREE READ SCHEME 2019-20 Deadline: Wednesday 18th December 2019 Commonword will be accepting submissions for The Literary Consultancy’s (TLC) Free Read Scheme (funded by the Arts Council of England) from October 15th – December 18th 2019. We will accept submissions from writers based in the North West of England. What is a Free Read? TLC processes novels, short stories, non-fiction, poetry, scripts and screenplays, offering professional critical feedback. This service is open to all on a commercial basis, but Free Reads are on submission to TLC’s regional partners, and subject to eligibility criteria. Your work will be hand-matched to one of TLC’s 80+ professional readers, and writers can expect to receive feedback in the form of a written critique, sent within 4-6 weeks of the application being processed. The notes you receive are intended to help you develop your writing further. To read more about whether a manuscript assessment would be helpful, click here: https://literaryconsultancy.co.uk/editorial/manuscript-assessment/ For submission guidelines, click here.  Our December Writer of the Month: Paula Ethans This month, Charlotte Maxwell interviewed Paula Ethans, the winner of our first Trans Europe Expression poetry slam. Tell me about you, as an artist. How do you define art? What art do you make? I am a writer, poet, and spoken word artist. My medium is language. My art is an assembly and positioning of words, punctuation, and intonation used to create experiences. When I craft a piece, be it an article critiquing the patriarchy or a spoken word piece bemoaning heartbreak, my goal is to take you on a linguistic journey so you can experience something, feel something. I use writing to speak truth to power and to foster empathy. I want my audience to see an issue from a new perspective, or learn a new way to articulate a problem with which they are intimate. I want people to lean in to comfortable topics, and find solace in the common threads of personhood. I want people to engage with uncomfortable topics, and interrogate themselves when they squirm. I make art that rocks the boat, because the waters aren’t steady for everyone. I define art as any experience that activates your senses. The drop of a roller-coaster, the swipe of a paintbrush, the bend of a dancer, the beat of a march. Art makes you feel. Congratulations on winning Trans Europe Expression 2019. Why did you choose to enter the competition? I chose to enter the TEE Slam (way back in August) because I had just moved to Berlin and I was eager to insert myself into the poetry community. No matter where in the world I go, I find the poetry community is always warm and welcoming and helps me ground myself in new surroundings. Read the rest of our interview with her here. Archives Out and About I          AM BLACK    EVERYTHING          ELSE       IS A DISTRACTION. Untitled poem by Linford Sweeney, Published in Write On No 7, c. 1978. Heena talked to Linford Sweeney is a cultural and heritage consultant, a commentator, Black history educator, Caribbean genealogist and author.  He also had some of his earlier poems published in Write On, Commonword’s first quarterly magazine and was one of the first black writers published by Commonword.  Archive volunteer Efea listened to the interview he did about the archive project to find out him. Linford first got involved with Commonword Writers Workshop in the late Seventies. “We used to come in each week, and we’d read what we’d written and people would comment and we’d have very positive and constructive comments about what we did and it was great! I’d never done that before, I’d been writing since I was 17, since school actually, so I had books filled with poems and all kinds of things. So I used to come along, and I learnt a lot form other people about writing styles etc.” He went through different phases as a love poet, a revolutionary poet, as environmental writer and as a science-fiction writer.  His motivation for writing in the early Eighties includes hate-crimes, sus laws (where black people were disproportionately stopped and searched) and the Moss Side riots in the early Eighties.  “It was all about what I was going through at the time….on several occasions I felt like just getting out of myself and the society all together, and that got me writing poems about fantasy.” Linford Sweeney is currently running a series of writing workshops in Moss Side aimed at African and Caribbean communities. There will readings of work produced at these workshops at the Commonword Christmas party on Thursday 12th December 2019.  Black Queer Book Club A new reading group for people who are both BAME and LGBT. THERE WILL BE NO BOOK CLUB IN DECEMBER. January's book: The Sorcerer of the Wildeeps by Kai Ashante Wilson Meeting: 6.30 - 8.30pm, Thursday 30th January 2019 If you would like to attend, please email cheryl@cultureword.org.uk.  Join our Facebook group by clicking here. Visit our Virtual Bookshop! We'll be holding an online sale throughout January with up to 50% off all books! Keep an eye out for updates on our social media. Take a look around our virtual bookshop and make a list of literary treats you might want over at culturewordbooks.org.uk Audience Finder Survey As always, we ask that you complete our Audience Finder survey if you have attended events/workshops at, or run by, Commonword. We are very grateful for the time that is spent completing this survey and we love to hear from you. This feedback is important to us and helps us to ensure that we are doing a good job. The link directs you to Audience Finder, a tool which enables us to understand, compare, apply audience insights across the UK, and benchmark ourselves against other organisations. https://research.audiencesurveys.org/s.asp?k=155428576832 The results, of course, are all anonymous. Please forward this link to any of your friends and family who may have attended workshops or events with you. Many thanks, in advance Black Queer Book Club The last Thursday of each month, 6.30-8.30pm at Commonword offices You must be both BAME and LGBT to attend. Open to all levels of ability. The book of the month will be listed in our Newsletter. Please ring buzzer 6 on arrival. Email charlotte@cultureword.org.uk for more details Identity Writers Group Every Wednesday 6.30-8.30pm at Commonword offices BAME/POC only Open to all levels of writers; just turn up. From experienced to beginners. Please ring buzzer 6. Email martin@cultureword.org.uk for more details EXTERNAL WORKSHOPS Monday Night Group Every Monday 7-9pm in the Snug at the Lass O'Gowrie Open to all levels of writers, for everyone; just turn up. From experienced to beginners www.mondaynightgroup.org.uk www.facebook.com/mngmanchester Young Enigma A group for young LGBT+ writers. Contact Adam Lowe for further information info@youngenigma.com . Young Identity A group for under 25s who write poetry and spoken word. Contact Shirley May or Reece Williams on youngidentitymcr@gmail.com. Do you ❤ Commonword? tweet/facebook/IG us with your favourite/first memory of Commonword. Send us a picture of yourself holding a I ❤ Commonword sign  #iLoveCommonword  You can catch us on Social Media twitter @cultureword #iLoveCommonword facebook.com/commonwordcultureword instagram @cultureword   Facebook Instagram LinkedIn Twitter Website YouTube Commonword | Cultureword | Crocus Books Commonword No. 3 Planetree House 21-31 Oldham Street Manchester M1 1JG There is a buzzer for entry. The office number is 3, the workshop space number is 6. 0161 832 3777  enquiries@cultureword.org.uk   Commonword · No 3 Planetree House · 21-31 Oldham Street · Manchester, M1 1JG · United Kingdom