Events booked | awritersfountain

Well here we are already in the 2nd day of August. What an inspiring start to the month I had. I love August anyway (because it is my birthday) but last night was a delight. I was lucky enough to get to the event in Birmingham organised by Shakti Women Ltd – A Night with Maya Angelou. It was a great night of sharing and a lovely way to meet new people and enjoy conversation. I hoped it would be inspiring and uplifting – and it was – like becoming a woman all over again, that special passage into something else….

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There were musicians, actors, poets and storytellers entertaining us and paying homage to the great lady herself. I had written a series of poems the evening before and performed my first 10 minute set to a very appreciative audience. I will post a proper blog post soon, trying to track down some pictures and I hope (although I haven’t asked yet) to get a guest blog or interview with one of the Shakti women, the work they do and who they are deserves publicity.

I came home adrenalin pumping and despite being home earlier than most gig nights I couldn’t consider sleeping, it was the early hours of the morning when I finally crashed out. I needed to stay on social media to find out the winners of the OXJAM slam – which is where the rest of Birmingham were Friday night. Congratulations go to Aysha Begum who was a 1st time SLAMMER and winner of this event.

Aysha has also been working on intergenerational projects and is piloting a performance evening event she hopes to manage. I have booked my ticket and am excited at the possibility of performing on a narrow boat. We will be spending 3 hours on the canal – having a workshop, performing poetry and eating sandwiches and cakes with tea, a tea party theme. It should be a great experience and one, of course I shall blog about.

Today has been a non-poetry event day, Mr G has taken this week off – this time our mission is to start to decorate and sort the house, today would have been the perfect day to start as we experienced monsoon rain! Where were we? Enjoying a LARGE all day breakfast and then walking around a garden centre picking out all the plants we loved and didn’t buy last time – as they had a 20% sale! Bargains, a whole trolley of plants for a tenner each. (£10.00) He has been busy planting them out tonight, whilst I sat in my comfy new sun-lounger and read a few chapters of my book. It’s a hard life!

There are only 12 days this month that I am not poeting – one of those is my birthday, the other is my brother’s birthday and I am away for 5 of them. So that’s really just 5 FREE days I have this month, WOW! Good job I am not working as well. I love being busy with writing and events though – I have several submission deadlines for the end of August and so when I am not out on the road performing, I will be busy writing (or sleeping – which is more likely)! As I have mentioned I have cut back a little on events this week as Mr G has the week off and we really do have to make some headway with the decorating.

Tuesday is my day off though, Jan Watts is having her official book launch for Benches in Birmingham – on the canal in a narrow boat and later in the Library of Birmingham. I have arranged to meet up with a poet friend who I only get brief chances to talk to at gigs, we are having lunch before the afternoon of fun! On Sunday the KAF festival will have started and Sarah Tamar is hosting a workshop on the Mouth & Music theme – War and Peace. I shall have to see how I feel after a week on the house – it is in the afternoon, so at least I stand a chance of being awake and it will get my muse working hard on poems I will need for performing on Tuesday the 12th August too.

The following week I am working on an exciting drama project (blog post to follow soon) – unfortunately I cannot be in the production because it is taking place on my birthday and I have arranged other things, but I will be there for the initial devising. It will be great to put that hat on again. There are some open mic/ gigs, a Stanza meeting, my brother’s birthday and oh, MY birthday to celebrate!

The next week I have performances, workshops, and a Book Launch for Restless Bones Poetry Anthology. Very excited about seeing this in print FINALLY!

In the final week of August I have at least 3 performance events – one of which I have been especially asked to perform at.

After that it is back to work – it doesn’t stop though – there are already about 10 events, some to watch some to contribute to already lined up in the diary for September as well as more writing deadlines – not that I am complaining – love what you do – then none of it seems like hard work! That saying is so true.