politics
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In September this year, I was part of a peace and reconcilation pilgrimage to Flodden, which was the Northumbria Community‘s contribution to the commemorations of the 500th anniversary of the battle of Flodden. We peace pilgrims took part in the service of solemn commemoration the day after the anniversary. My contribution to that included the
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It really is time I blogged about the Reel Festivals reading at the Scottish Poetry Library on Friday 20 May. But how to sum it up? As I said on Twitter, http://twitter.com/#!/ambulancebox/status/71809397503967232 and I can think of no more apposite description. Among all the anxiety about why poetry is marginalised in our culture, against all
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So, while everyone — well, everyone in the media more or less — goes on about how the Arab Spring has been brought about by Facebook and Twitter, Sinan Antoon corrects the perspective somewhat in this very short interview from the Kenyon Review. Here are a couple of exerpts. First, on the role of poetry
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I’ve just discovered that Michael Russell, the Scottish minister with responsibility for culture, held a meeting with artists yesterday at the Traverse Theatre. This is important stuff for anyone involved or interested in Scotland’s cultural life. There’s a short video about the event here; it includes reactions to the meeting from Ron Butlin and Margaret
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Technically, I’ve let the 250th anniversary of Robert Burns‘s birth pass without comment, but I could hardly let it pass without mention, even if a touch belated. I’m not going to regail you with an online immortal memory; I’ll simply point you in the direction of one of my favourite pieces of Burns. I love
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You’ll be humming it for weeks, especially around 20th January 2009.
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A truly remarkable day in the USA. A truly remarkable day for politics in the developed world full stop, surely. I found myself quite moved first thing this morning hearing President elect Obama’s victory speech. And I was moved again this evening watching the scenes of celebration. President elect Obama. Wow. Let’s say that again:
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The Sunday Herald reports that the SNP Scottish Government is abandoning its manifesto pledge to provide Irish-style tax breaks for artists, musicians and writers and, instead, conducting a substantial review of arts funding in Scotland. It’s hardly a surprise that it should ditch the tax plans: the Scottish Parliament doesn’t have the powers to implement
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We are delighted to announce that Alex Salmond MSP, Scotland’s First Minister and a son of Linlithgow, will open this year’s festival. A short opening ceremony will take place in the Masonic Halls at 6.15 pm on Friday 2nd November. The ceremony will be free and open to the public.
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I want to respond in more detail to a couple of the comments on my post about the first part of Yang-May Ooi‘s interview with Rob Mackenzie (the second part of which is now available). Ms Baroque (aka Katy Evans–Bush) commented: “the idea of nationalist poetry sounds disturbingly stalinist these days.” Three things bother me
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Interesting piece in today’s Sunday Herald about independent bookshops in Scotland. It seems Hugh Andrew of Birlinn is branching out into bookstores. This has to be a welcome development for writers and readers in Scotland, given the dominance of identikit chain book stores, but the big challenge is how independents will not just survive but
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So the notion of a “Scottish Six” is back on the agenda, though probably not very far up it. I don’t know how far this is an intitiative of Pete Wishart‘s or of the wider SNP but, if a Scottish Six O’clock News comes into being, I suspect it won’t happen in a great hurry.
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It seems something of a shame that my day job constrains me from blogging about this fascinating new era in Scottish politics. But there we go. Instead, I recommend to anyone interested in an analysis of developments the new blog by BBC Scotland correspondent Brian Taylor. His is a far more interesting, more entertaining analysis
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Salty ruminations on bad news from Bloodaxe. * Which come after Mark Ravenhill writes on arts funding vs sport funding in The Guardian. * Meanwhile, here’s a new poetry podcasting project. * And something else that could set poetry alight.
Amy Jo Philip 