News From Yemisi Blake 30.06.09

NEWS FROM YEMISI BLAKE 30.06.09

Hello,

Long time since my last update. Over the last few months, I've taken some time off work, made some plans and although it's almost July, I feel like the year is just beginning.

So here are a few updates on what's been going on and what's to come.

1. Southbank Centre. Still here.

My time as an Emerging Artist in Residence came to an end in February. Myself and the fifteen over artists closed that chapter with a week long series of collaborative workshops and a performance in the auditorium of the Royal Festival Hall (Thank you to everyone to came!). Early in March I was offered another year at the Southbank Centre. The role is as an Artist in Residence, working closely with the Learning & Participation department. We're in early stages, so more info to come. Until then, check out the blog posts from some young people I've been mentoring for the London Literature Festival.

2. A little book about chairs.

A little while ago I blogged about a residency I had at The Barking Learning Centre. The project doing called Barking Metamorphosis and was run by Sarah Butler of Urban Words . It was one of those projects with lots of components and people, workshops, conversations and random encounters. During the residency I worked with MA design students from the RCA , who each designed a chair for writer's chair for me. Thinking it would be an interesting idea, I decided that I'd write a narrative joining the nine chairs. It turned out to be very interesting, and hard, but I feel like I learnt a lot. And the difficulty forced me to write out of my comfort zone. So if you're into exhibition booklets, send me your address and I'll send you one wrote :)

3. Two Poems on Radio 4

About a year ago, I recorded two poems for a show called Bespoken Word on Radio 4. The show, hosted by poet Mr Gee, puts and spoken word artists before a live audience for performance and a few questions about their work. However geeky this might sound, having my poetry on Radio 4 had been a dream of mine for a while. So I'm nervous about listening to it, but excited. Tune in if you can, Wed 1st July 11:02 - 11:15PM (It'll be on BBC iplayer for seven days too).

4. Check the blog.

I recently bought a Nikon D40. Post pictures here.

Karen McCarthy's Open Notebooks project is now live. I'll be one of the poetry featured on the blog.

On Sept 29th, I'll be speaking on blogging at The Havant Literary Festival.

Earlier this month, some young bloggers and curators I'm working with spoke to Benjamin Zephaniah on Skype. Listen here.

4. Send me your news. What have you been up to?

All the best,

Yemisi

Where To? July 10th - The London Literature Festival - Music, Poetry, Live Illustration & Installation

Here are details of the event I'm working on with the young curators for The London Lit Fest 09.

Where to?

July 10th

Front Room, Queen Elizabeth Hall

Southbank Centre

Admission: Free

Curated by four young Londoners, ‘Where to?’ brings together an eclectic line-up of spoken word poets, artists, musicians and storytellers, for an exciting pre-show to Benjamin Zephaniah’s headline tour date at the Southbank Centre. Expect the unexpected as these emerging and established talents contemplate what ‘escape’ means to them.

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Artists:

Poet and storyteller Jasmine Cooray. http://www.myspace.com/jasmineanncooray

Winner of both the Farrago Summer Slam and the Farrago Award for Best Feature Debut Performance in addition to runner up at the Roundhouse Slam in 2007

Collaboration and live tracks from Woe, a band based in South-East London who have previously jammed with storyteller Guy Jackson. http://www.myspace.com/woespace

Live illustration from Rachel Sale and Sophie Gate. Students at Central Saint Martins, best friends and flatmates who will be responding to people, poetry and objects during the show. Their canvas is a big white wall next to the stage.

Young poets Malik http://www.myspace.com/manik94, Aisling Fahey and Kaiz La Kazie. http://www.myspace.com/kaizlakazie

Poet and musician K-tron. http://www.myspace.com/ktronkiller

One of the East End's premier creatives and a jack of all trades: music, poetry, writing and promoting her utopian futurism ideal.

Exhibited art from:

Adele Morse

Selected by Channel 4 & Saatchi's New Sensations as one of the 16 most exciting graduates of last year and recently accepted to the Royal Academy of Art. Adele has been lauded as one of the art world's rising stars.

Polly Urquhart

A young artist who produces literature-inspired works with a fusion of metal work, sculpture and taxidermy. An understudy of Polly Morgan and undertaking tutorship at Edinburgh's Royal Museum.

Lyricist / Grime artist No.Lay http://www.myspace.com/mcnolay

‘Out of the girls No.Lay’s raw’ – Wiley. She a prominent female lyricist in the British underground scene. However, not limiting herself to any genre, No.Lay has worked with a range of musicians including High Contrast.

Reggae Soul singer/songwriter Aruba Red performing an exclusive acoustic set.

http://www.myspace.com/arubared

Aftertouring with Natty, and releasing her debut album, Aruba Red is tipped for big things. A former Emerging Artist in Residence at Southbank Centre, we're excited about having her back to perform.

Benjamin Zephaniah speaks to Young Curators via Skype

During their time at the Southbank Centre, our young curators get to meet different artists and professionals who advise and guide them towards putting on their show. The team have regular meetings with marketing, production, including sessions with Rachel Holmes. And a few weeks ago, they had an extra special encounter, a skype call with Benjamin Zephaniah! It was quite a big thing for them, as Benjamin is one of the poets they would have studied for GCSE English. The event that the young curators are working is a pre-show for Benjamin Zephaniah's event in the Queen Elizabeth Hall on July 10th. It's an interesting listen with Benjamin responding to questions such as:

Who, dead or alive, would you have in your dream audience?

What makes a good show?

Did you always have the confidence to write in the voice that you do?

What can we expect in your show on July 10th?

What's all the fuss about?

Newspapers, really do feed the hype sometimes! Today The Illustrator and I went to the latest Hayward Exhibition. Walking In My Mind, shows the work of 10 contemporary artists, asked to investigate 'the nature of perception, ways of thinking and primal emotions'. Over the last week I've been listening to radio broadcasts and reading newspapers that have been asking 'Are you going to the porn show?'. So what I expected was something shocking and surprising. Ok, there were a few private parts on show, but nothing that deserved the intense hype. However, with hype comes mass interest. I hope it encourages a lot more people to go and see the work on show, which is brilliant.

Can't really name a favourite but I loved Yoshimoto Nara's house of imagination and Keith Tyson's paintings which use text brilliantly. Some of Yayoi Kusama's sculptures, a translation of hallucinations and obsessional images that plague her, are displayed on one of the roof terraces. It was great seeing the reactions of young children as they saw the red and white polka dot shapes that look a little like strange animals. Almost of the kids, ran up to them, climbed them, and every single one gave the sculpture a hard slap. Although the gallery staff weren't to happy about it, The Illustrator and I thought it was great.

hanging/floating

taken by alex rowse

Addiction

Really enjoying Queen Coop's new addiction. Inspired me to take this.

Havant Literary Festival

Hello world,

On 29th Sept 2009 I'll be speaking at Blogging and The Art of Success, as part of the Havant Literary Festival. I'll post more details nearer to the time. Alison Baverstock will also be presenting. The official press info is a little incorrect. It says I was an 'Artist in Residence at the Southbank Centre's Poetry International Festival'. I was actually an Emerging Artist in Residence and contributed / advised on the festival blog.

Best to correct these things, especially when they inflate your achievements.

What difference can an artist make?

So it's summertime again (well, English summer time). Today I went to the Free Range art & design show to see my friend Mandosa's end of year project. I've been to a few of these recently. Haven't been to many performancy shows this year, but I think it's really important to support your mates, especially when the event is celebrating the end of something. I've got some great friends who always for up at gigs, and the least I can do is show my face at theirs. I couldn't stay very long but my eye was caught by two very cool artists, Isabel Albert's photography and Fenia Moskou's graphic design (which kept getting stolen!)

It's been a year since I finished university and it still feels like yesterday. If I'm totally honest, I'm still getting comfortable with the whole full-time freelance thing. Over the last few months I've been involved in more project were I have leading responsibility or creative direction. People are asking 'what do you think, Yemisi?', and then actions are being made of my words. It's exciting but scary at the same time. What if it goes wrong? What if I'm wrong? But better to be wrong than miss out on a chance of being right, right?

The London Literature Festival is coming up again,

Click to read more ...

Barking in Ikea

You might remember the Barking Metamorphosis project I did last year. The end product is here! It's a small fictional exhibition booklet bringing together all of my experiences being a writer in Residence at Barking Learning Centre, running workshops with primary school children, and having 9 MA students from the RCA each design a writing chair for me.

I've planted a few in Ikea Edmonton.

Look

Blog, Photo, Salsa Mojo

Made this a couple weeks back, forgot to post.