Antrim no events posted in last week
Russia Has 17 Percent More Defense Jobs ... Tue Apr 30, 2024 11:56 | Marko Marjanović
That Time Blackwater and US Army Shot Ea... Sun Apr 28, 2024 12:54 | Marko Marjanović
Rheinmetall Plans to Make 700,000 Artill... Thu Apr 25, 2024 04:03 | Anti-Empire
America’s Shell Production Is Leaping,... Wed Apr 24, 2024 05:29 | Anti-Empire
Ukraine Keeps Snapping Up Chinese Drones Tue Apr 23, 2024 03:14 | Anti-Empire Anti-Empire >>
A Blog About Human Rights
UN human rights chief calls for priority action ahead of climate summit Sat Oct 30, 2021 17:18 | Human Rights
5 Year Anniversary Of Kem Ley?s Death Sun Jul 11, 2021 12:34 | Human Rights
Poor Living Conditions for Migrants in Southern Italy Mon Jan 18, 2021 10:14 | Human Rights
Right to Water Mon Aug 03, 2020 19:13 | Human Rights
Human Rights Fri Mar 20, 2020 16:33 | Human Rights Human Rights in Ireland >>
Government Caught Playing Hardball Over Vaccine Injury Payouts as Victims? Legal Bills Mount Wed May 01, 2024 17:00 | Will Jones The Government has been caught shamefully playing hardball with the victims of Covid vaccine injuries, refusing to settle payouts despite devastating harms, as legal bills mount.
The post Government Caught Playing Hardball Over Vaccine Injury Payouts as Victims’ Legal Bills Mount appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
How to Say ?NO!? to Clearly Crazy Policy Ideas Wed May 01, 2024 15:18 | Joanna Gray This is how we should respond to clearly crazy policy ideas, says Joanna Gray. Like a streetwise woman in a nightclub who spots a chancer coming and stops him in his tracks, we all just need to say "NO!"
The post How to Say “NO!” to Clearly Crazy Policy Ideas appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
EV Battery Timebomb Wed May 01, 2024 13:09 | Sallust Many EVs will lose up to 12% of their charge capacity by six years and some may lose even more, research has found, leading one expert to warn customers to be wary of buying a used electric car beyond eight years.
The post EV Battery Timebomb appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The Historical Significance of Humza Yousaf Wed May 01, 2024 11:00 | James Alexander The real significance of Humza Yousaf is that he was the first leader of a British country to be a practising Muslim, says politics professor Dr James Alexander.
The post The Historical Significance of Humza Yousaf appeared first on The Daily Sceptic.
The End of ?Progress? Wed May 01, 2024 09:00 | Dr David McGrogan Are we really all 'progressing' towards a happy future, where technology unites humanity in a world without borders? Dr. David McGrogan isn't convinced and sets out his own predictions for the future.
The post The End of ‘Progress’ appeared first on The Daily Sceptic. Lockdown Skeptics >>
Voltaire, international edition
Paris 2024 and Berlin 1936 in the service of an impossible imperial dream, by Th... Tue Apr 30, 2024 07:07 | en
Georgia and the financing of political organizations from abroad Sat Apr 27, 2024 05:37 | en
Voltaire, International Newsletter N°84 Sat Apr 27, 2024 05:35 | en
Israel's complex relations with Iran, by Thierry Meyssan Wed Apr 24, 2024 05:25 | en
Iran's hypersonic missiles generate deterrence through terror, says Scott Ritter... Mon Apr 22, 2024 10:37 | en Voltaire Network >>
|
Gerard McKeown wins Belfast Performance Poetry Cup
antrim |
arts and media |
news report
Wednesday April 11, 2007 19:17 by Anthony Wisener - Belfastpoets anthony_wisener at yahoo dot com
Ballymena born writer Gerard McKeown has won The New Belfast PerformancePoetry Cup, after competing in an intensive slam contest, which featured competitors from all over Ulster. The poetry slam, which took place on 2 April at Belfast's Black Box Theatre, was sponsored by New Belfast Community Arts Initiative. McKeown won the cup with two poems The Beautiful Goth and The Dreams of the Middle Class Poservs The Reality of Cool Punk.
Slam is a form of poetry contest, which originated in America in the 1980s, where a panel of judges rate the poets on their poetic and performative abilities. The poets are narrowed down and then play off against each other in a final.
McKeown is one of a number of Irish writers gaining prestige in the growing artform of Performance Poetry. Their is a strong, ancient oral tradition of poetry and story telling in Ireland," McKeown says, "which I feel the modern performance poetry scene continues."
Gerard started writing poetry as a teenager but admits it was mostly standard teenage fare. "The problem was that I was mostly copying poetry that I was reading, rather than what came naturally. Every so often I'd write something funny just to show my mates
for a laugh, that's really where the root of what I do now lies."
McKeown's first experiences of performance poetry came in 2004 at the Arcadia Cafe in Belfast. "I'd went intending to read the more traditional poetry I had, but when I heard the other poets read I knew where my funny stuff belonged." From this McKeown began his connection with the performance poetry collective the belfastpoets.
McKeown had studied literature at the Cumbria Institute of the Arts where he had studied the work of the American poet John Berryman. "His writing helped me form own voice. I realised that anything could be the basis for a poem, his imagery was so dark and his references obscure, but there was something very tangible and fresh about them as well." He later discovered the Glasgow poet Tom Leonard and realised that Leonard's use of a Glaswegian dialect was something that
could be applied to his own writing. "I think the Northern Irish slang is very rich, especially in Ballymena, there had been a great tradition in Ulster with the Weaver Poets using everyday language, which I felt was something worth applying to modern day poetry."
McKeown also studied drama at University and now found he could use this to his advantage. "I had a knack with comedy and I knew how to work a stage. It fitted in nicely with performance poetry and gave me confidence to develop an act where I would have banter with the audience and not just read poem after poem uninterrupted."
Some critics of performance poetry have accused it of dumbing down the art of poetry. McKeown disagrees with this: "Performance poetry is concerned with trying to communicate with people in an entertaining way. Poetry is concerned with the sound of words as well as their meaning, performance poetry does not try to intellectually best its audience with complicated language. It largely prefers patterns of everyday speech, while at the same time utilising the sonic qualities of tonality and volume. The nature of it means that it benefits from incorporating other stage based arts such as theatre or stand-up."
McKeown's win now means that he is part of the Ulster Performance
Poetry team that will compete in the All-Ireland slam in McHugh's, Belfast on the
11th May. Here's one of the poems that put him on the team:
The Beautiful Goth
I saw a beautiful goth in Botanic Gardens the other day
her hair was raven tresses
which framed a pale face of porcelain skin
but on it was etched pain,
a pout of raspberry refrained from talking
no words could sum up the pain
on her pretty painted face.
And while I understood this
I had to ask myself
If this girl is so pretty,
then why is she wearing so much make-up?
Perhaps she is hiding an ugly face?
Is it a human face?
Or is it the face of a lizardman's daughter?
Lizardmen come from outerspace
and have been trying to enslave the human race.
They are in government, in entertainment,
in all walks of life.
They could be at your job,
they could be your dog,
because lizardmen can take many forms!
They have been here for centuries!
They built the pyramids
and killed both the Kennedys
I know that they did!
they show up at your door
knock you to the floor
and try to eat your brains!
They ate my friend's brains!
And made it look like a burglary
BECAUSE LIZARDMEN ARE SMART!
BUT THEY WON'T GET ME!
BECAUSE I SLEEP WITH A GUN!
Copyrightof the poem The Beautiful Goth belongs to Gerard McKeown and is reproduced here with his permission.
|
View Comments Titles Only
save preference
Comments (4 of 4)
Jump To Comment: 1 2 3 4Congrats on winning the Belfast poetry slam. Below - at the link - is an article I wrote for Poetry Ireland News about the poetry scene here in Galway, where poetry slams are now an important, and very vibrant part of the scene.
Best wishes,
Kevin Higgins
Congratulations! Though I haven't seen Gerard perform in 18 months it's great to hear he's doing so well with his performances. I'll be at McHugh's on the 11th ... can't wait.
I've had a lot of feedback about this article so here are a few more links to Gerard's work
Caption: Video Id: 5nCrxPGrP88 Type: Youtube Video
Embedded video Youtube Video
Caption: Video Id: 9lNHl9FOGPc Type: Youtube Video
Embedded video Youtube Video
I just found this old article about me. I've a new website up if anyone who visits here would like to visit it.
http://www.gerardmckeown.co.uk.