Really a grand anthology to be part of, so many poets included are quite beyond me, I am in every way the runt. It's been brilliantly fashioned by Arc publishing and the good folk at Edge Hill Uni, and they've thrown up a page about me
https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/university-press/steven-fowler/
It includes this interview, shot specifically for the project in Liverpool while I was there for Camarade'ing.
So happy to be co-curating another Enemies tour in the UK, this time with Tom Jenks, visiting cities in the North and North West of England. It is no exaggeration to say that the presses and poets at the centre of the current modern / avant garde scene in this region have supported and inspired my work as much as anyone else.
So many of the poets, publishers and organisers who have been based there during my time in poetry - people like Tom, Scott Thurston, Alec Newman, James Davies, Sandeep Parmar, James Byrne, Richard Barrett, Tim Allen, Mark Cobley, Nathan Jones, Robert Sheppard, Patricia Farrell, Nikolai Duffy, Philip Davenport, Ben Morris, Chris McCabe, Daniele Pantano - have been key in my development, both as a poet and as someone trying to understand the best way to organise events. The Other Room series was an early and pivotal inspiration for the Enemies project, and it reflects what I'd happily generalise for poets and readings in the region, that its defined by strong, complex, challenging work underpinned by a very dry sense of humour, and surrounded by unpretentious, friendly people, who believe in a community of writers without talking too much about that.
So it's important to me to keep going back to cities like Liverpool, Sheffield, Manchester, where I've been treated so well so often, as well reading for the first time in cities like York and Leeds. We've got over 60 poets involved, and we'll create over 50 new collaborative works. It's such a pleasure to do, and with the arts council supporting us, it's grand we can do it properly. Visit http://www.theenemiesproject.com/northwest for the full lineups
The North by North West Poetry Tour features over sixty poets collaborating in pairs to produce brand new collaborative works for performance, commissioned for each event, over six nights in January and February 2017. Poets local to each of the six venues will perform on each night alongside a core group of touring poets, who will perform at every venue. These free events will aim to draw in the amazing, experimental, dynamic resurgence in literary and avant-garde poetry which has so marked the north and north west poetry scene over the last decade. For full details visit this link, or see below:http://www.theenemiesproject.com/northwest
The project is curated by Tom Jenks and SJ Fowler, with local curators Christopher Stephenson, JT Welsch, Linda Kemp and Robert Sheppard. The North West Poetry Tour is supported by Arts Council England.All events are free to attend with doors at 7.30pm for an 8pm start, unless stated otherwise. The poets, pairs and links continue to be updated.
January Friday 13th - York : City Screen
January Saturday 14th - Manchester : International Anthony Burgess Foundation
January Thursday 19th - Edge Hill Arts Centre
February Thursday 9th - Leeds : Wharf Chambers Co-operative Club
February Friday 10th - Sheffield : Bank St. Arts
February Saturday 11th - Liverpool : Everyman Playhouse
A highpoint to speak and curate at Wellcome Collection for these three events as part of their States of Mind: Tracing the edge of consciousness exhibition. I've had the chance to bring together some of the finest neuroscientists, psychologists, artists, speakers and thinkers working today, and curate these evenings as complimentary in their differences, letting new questions be asked through the presentations, rather than trying to tie together complex threads on a very complex issue - consciousness itself.
The first event focused on poetry and consciousness, language really, and the second on sound and consciousness. Both were a pleasure to put together and amazing to witness. Daniel Margulies, Noah Hutton, Jen Calleja, Maja Jantar, Nick Ryan, Vincent Moon and John Gruzelier have all spoken wonderfully, insightfully and the sold out audiences have seemed engaged and pleasantly surprised by the variance of expertise.
I also had the chance to speak at the first event, talking about poetry and consciousness, which has been a concern of mine for sometime, in the sense that I studied philosophy with an emphasis on phenomenology towards the end and am always trying to probe at the why underneath my practise and the genre in general, especially through recent teaching experiences. Unfortunately during this talk I had to wear a headset and look like a member of a 90s boyband, but you can't have it all. I looked how I felt.
Great to be speaking at and curating three events for Wellcome Collection's exhibition on consciousness, States of Mind. These events will bring together expertise from a wide array of fields, from neuroscience to performance art, from philosophy to filmmaking, in order to explore the notion of consciousness through the concepts of language, sound and narrative. www.stevenjfowler.com/statesofmind
Through informal academic talks alongside newly commissioned artworks, the variance of speakers, with their uniformly exciting and innovative approaches to the notion of consciousness, will ensure three remarkable events, free to attend, this July, in London.
https://wellcomecollection.org/exhibitions/states-mind-tracing-edges-consciousness Tickets available from late June.
Thursday 7 July, 19.00-20.30
FREE | TICKETED at Wellcome Collection
From the perspective of the neuroscientist, the poet, the translator - a discussion of the role of language in constituting our consciousness, presenting talks and newly commissioned works for performance on the night.
Featuring: Daniel Margulies, SJ Fowler, Noah Hutton & Jen Calleja.
Thursday 14 July, 19.00-20.30
FREE | TICKETED at Wellcome Collection
This event asks what role sound takes in shaping our experience and understanding of consciousness and offers artist’s reflections on the pivotal role sound has in the firmament of our daily lives, drawing from the worlds of neuroscience, anthropology, film, composition and sound poetry.
Featuring: John Gruzelier, Nick Ryan, Vincent Moon & Maja Jantar.
Thursday 21 July, 19.00-20.30
FREE | TICKETED at Wellcome Collection
Within and without language, how does the notion of narrative define our experience of the world through consciousness? An event featuring some of the most dynamic contemporary artists, neuroscientists and writers, exploring how narrative interacts with consciousness and what happens when this begins to break down, whether through trauma or conditions like aphasia.
Featuring: Lotje Sodderland, Srivas Chennu, Sam Winston and Barry Smith.
A wonderful, positive evening with new collaborations from student, and inherently young, poets, from six universities across the UK. I decided to curate this event for multiple reasons - to show that collaboration is immensely helpful for the development of young poets (into interesting directions anyway), to show that creative writing programs deserve more respect for the quality they can produce, to get past the supposed 'competition' between creative writing departments and to begin to inculcate communities between young writers, or at the very least, to make them feel there are communities out there for them, that people do want to hear and value their more innovative ideas.
The works on display were genuinely brilliant, across the board, the event had been taken so seriously by all 20 poets. Everyone felt it had a been a grand success and will likely happen again www.theenemiesproject.com/unicamarade
very happy to have one of my Gates of Paradise poems, part of a series of texts I've written over the years about the history of christianity, this time about the child crusade, published in the Black Market ReView, edited by Luke Thurogood and co, all student led at Edge Hill University.
A great edition, features Robert Hampson, Daniele Pantano and other fine poets http://blackmarketre-view.weebly.com/
I had a truly beautiful experience in Liverpool, giving a seminar at Edge Hill University, where I was hosted and treated to extraordinary hospitality by James Byrne, enjoying the open, interesting campus before meeting 50 or 60 deeply discerning undergraduates and staff, before a Camarade took place in Liverpool centre on the same night.
The event was wonderful, so much so because James had taken the curatorial weight and allowed me to be free to launch my collaborative book with Tom Jenks, 1000 Proverbs, and to discover so many who were new to me. Great to meet Michael Egan, Patricia Farrell, Luke Thurogood and co. It was an extraordinary evening of poetry, full of energy and warmth.
Steve Van Hagen & Michael Egan https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=XAZrHb573Mg
Andrew Oldham & Lindsey Holland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0pscQB_8JNY
Elio Lomas & Luke Thurogood https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=w9WEvvu0dE8
Scott Thurston & Steve Boyland https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=t5V6ImYwqqU
Robert Sheppard & the European Union of Imaginary Authors Liverpool Camarade - Robert Sheppard & the European Union of Imaginary Authors
James Byrne & Sandeep Parmar https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=lD6MnII1fAc
Joanne Ashcroft & Patricia Farrell https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4yIQx3zSHpE
Tom Jenks & I https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Y3eF4bV8Mrw
