'Prick Up Your Ears Penzance'
Don't you just love it when a plan comes together? Well, last night at the Studio Bar in Bread Street a plan nurtured by Jak Stringer and I did just that. Jak, of course, is well known locally for the staging of great music events but this event brought together some great local talent to produce an eclectic mix of original poetry and music which was, by turns, melancholy and haunting, celebratory and insightful, both intensely personal and unashamedly political, tongue in cheek and humorous yet, at times, reflective, even sad. The work was wide ranging in its concerns; it was quirky; it was provocative. The Studio Bar was full and, at the conclusion to the programme, none of us could believe that the evening had gone by so fast.
The headline act for this event was the amazing Sue Johns. Sue, who has five collections to her name, was born in Penzance but now lives in London where she is one of the strongest and most popular voices on the poetry scene. Sue, who was visiting family locally, gave most generously of her time to support this event which aims to raise the profile of poetry in Penzance. Of the many pieces she read for us last night, my personal favourite was 'Building the Bismarck' in which, many years after his death, she remembers her brother, Robert. I am drawn to this suppose because I have a lost sibling, in my case a foster-sister; although it must be said that my sister was not lost to death but rather to life. Janet joined our family at the age of eight and left it ten years later. Since that day I have not seen her at all, not even from a distance. As a parting gift, she bought a box of chocolates. I remember that I wrote a poem about it.
Other contributors to the evening's entertainment (in the order in which they appeared) were The Fool and the Liar (Abigail Wyatt and David Rowland), Alan Shepherd, Angela Stoner, Ax Gimp, and recent addition to the Penzance scene, the very talented Katrina Quinn. All the performers are to be congratulated. The standard of the work presented was exceptionally high. This was a free event but it was interesting to me that Sue Johns observed how, in London, for such an evening's entertainment, one would expect to pay an entry fee of at least six pounds. Penzance is not London, of course, and local wages won't match the capital. However, it may be that the problem is not simply one of economic recession. It may be that Penzance - like some other areas in Cornwall - has not been attaching enough importance or value to poets and spoken word artists. If so, then this is an omission that Jak and I would like to help to make good.
That's all for now but do check out the Facebook page for Sunday Speakeasy. The theme for the next event will be 'Borders'. Photographs from 'Prick Up Your Ears Penzance' will apear here in due course.
