thomas spence

The Bristol Radical History Group
Election Special 2010

Thomas Spence
The Forgotten Revolutionary

Date: Wednesday 14th April 2010
Venue: The Scout Hut (Benjamin Perry Boat House), Redcliffe Wharf
Time: 7:30pm
Price: Donation

Speakers: Steve Poole, Keith Armstrong.

Thomas Spence was one of the leading English revolutionaries of the late 18th Century. His tracts, such as The Rights of Man (Spence was, perhaps, the first to use the phrase) and The Rights of Infants, along with his utopian visions of 'Crusonia' and 'Spensonia', were the most far-reaching radical statements of the period. Although sometimes hailed as England's 'first modern socialist', Spence is not easily corralled by later ideologies. He was a mortal enemy of tyranny and what he called 'giantism' of all kinds. Keith Armstrong, Chair of the Thomas Spence Trust, will consider Spence's ideas and their relevance to the present day.

Steve Poole traces the fate, after Spence's death, of this alternative current in English radicalism. The best known histories of English radicalism and democracy explore the struggle for universal suffrage and the reform of parliament. According to these accounts, from the time of the French revolution to the passing of the collapse of Chartism in 1848, the popular radical movement argued, petitioned and campaigned for a more equal share of parliamentary power as a basis on which to build a just society. In so doing, it emphasised radical respectability, moral seriousness and readiness for conventional 'citizenship'. But some were not so sure. Spenceans argued on the contrary that without the common ownership of land as a pre-requisite, the electoral franchise would remain open to manipulation by the economically powerful. Was anybody listening?

Steve Poole is a lecturer in History at the University of West of England. He teaches the history of popular movements in Britain from the mid 18th to the mid 19th centuries and "feels an irrational attachment to the Romantic enthusiasm of the English Jacobins". His book The Politics of Regicide in England,1760-1850 has just been published.

see u soon!

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=4eRvOEBUszY

he's here, he's there.....!

'When you've lost your inns, drown your empty selves, for you will have lost the last of England.' (Hilaire Belloc)

Born in Heaton, Newcastle upon Tyne, where he has
worked as a community development worker, poet,
librarian and publisher, Keith Armstrong, now residing
in the seaside town of Whitley Bay, is coordinator of
the Northern Voices creative writing and community
publishing project which specialises in recording the
experiences of people in the North East of England. He
has organised several community arts festivals in the
region and many literary events featuring the likes of
Yevgeny Yevtushenko, Douglas Dunn, Barry Hines, Linton
Kwesi Johnson, Katrina Porteous, Ian McMillan, Peter
Mortimer, Sean O'Brien, Edward Bond, Edwin Morgan,

Uwe Kolbe, Attila the Stockbroker, Jon Silkin, Brendan
Cleary, Paul Summers, Ivor Cutler, Adrian Mitchell,
Julia Darling, Jackie Kay, Linda France, Frank
Messina, Ron Whitehead, Benjamin Zephaniah, Liz
Lochhead, The Poets from Epibreren, Tsead Bruinja, the
Poetry Virgins.

He was founder of Ostrich poetry magazine, Poetry North East,

Tyneside Writers' Workshop, Tyneside Poets, East
Durham Writers' Workshop, Tyneside Trade Unionists for
Socialist Arts, Tyneside Street Press and the Strong
Words and Durham Voices community publishing series.
He has recently compiled and edited books on the
Durham Miners’ Gala, on the former mining
communities of County Durham and on the market town of
Hexham. The University of Sunderland Press published his
biography of Jack Common in 2009.

He has served on the Executive Committee of the
Federation of Worker Writers & Community Publishers
and he is a committee member of the North East of
England Labour History Society.
He qualified as a Chartered Librarian at Newcastle
Polytechnic and was employed in this field at
Newcastle University Library, Blyth Public Library,
International Research and Development Company
(I.R.D.,Newcastle), Merz & McLellan Consulting
Engineers (Killingworth), Gateshead College and
Sunderland Libraries, before becoming a community
worker with Newcastle Neighbourhood Projects (part of
Community Projects Foundation), research worker with
Tyneside Housing Aid Centre, and then Community Arts
Development Worker (1980-6) with Peterlee Community
Arts (later East Durham Community Arts).

As an industrial librarian at I.R.D., he was
christened 'Arts & Darts' , organising an events
programme in the firm incuding poetry readings,
theatrical productions, and art exhibitions by his
fellow workers, as well as launching Ostrich poetry
magazine using the firm's copying facilities and
arranging darts matches between departments!
He has been a self-employed writer since 1986 and he
was awarded a doctorate in 2007 for his work on
Newcastle writer Jack Common at the University of
Durham where he received a BA Honours Degree in
Sociology in 1995 and Masters Degree in 1998 for his
studies on regional culture in the North East of
England. He was Year of the Artist 2000
poet-in-residence at Hexham Races, working with
painter Kathleen Sisterson. He has also held
residencies in Durham, Easington, Sedgefield,
Derwentside, Teesdale, Wear Valley, Chester-le-Street
and Sunderland.

His poetry has been extensively published in magazines
such as New Statesman, Poetry Review, Dream Catcher,
Other Poetry, Aesthetica, Iron, Salzburg Poetry
Review, Sand, X Magazine, The Poetry Business, and
Poetry Scotland, as well as in the collections The
Jingling Geordie, Dreaming North (with Graeme Rigby),
Pains of Class and Imagined Corners, on cassette, LP &
CD, and on radio & TV. He has also written for
music-theatre productions, including ‘O’er the Hills’
(with Dreaming North - Graeme Rigby, Rick Taylor,
Paul Flush, Joan McKay and Keith Morris, with guest
Kathryn Tickell,) and ‘Wor Jackie’ (with Mike Kirkup)
(1988) for Northumberland Theatre Company; ‘Pig’s
Meat’ (1997 & 2000) for Bruvvers Theatre Company; and
‘The Roker Roar’ (1998) for Monkwearmouth Youth
Theatre Company. Other commissioned work includes
‘Fire & Brimstone’ (with Linda France, Paul Flush and
others) (1989) and ‘The Hexham Celebration’ (with Paul
Flush and others) (1992), both for the Hexham Abbey
Festival; ‘Suite for the River Wear’ (with Dreaming
North) (1989) for BBC Radio; and ‘The Little Count’
(with Andy Jackson and Benny Graham) (1993) for Durham
County Council. He won the Kate Collingwood Bursary
Award in 1986. He was the Judge for the Sid Chaplin
Short Story Awards in 2000. In 2010 he appeared on BBC
Radio 4 as part of a documentary on the Tyne Bridge.

He has performed his poetry on several occasions at
the Edinburgh Fringe Festival and at Festivals in
Aberdeen, Bradford, Cardiff, Cheltenham (twice at the
Festival of Literature - with Liz Lochhead and with
'Sounds North'), Durham, Newcastle upon Tyne,
Greenwich, Lancaster, and throughout the land.
He has read in Newcastle at the Morden Tower,
Swarley's Club, The Blue Room & The Baltic, at
Durham's Colpitts Poetry, Tees Valley's Write Around &
Writers' Cafe, Leed's Wicked Words, York's Riverlines,
Lincoln's Spoken Word, Liverpool's Stamps, Sheffield's
Antics, Bradford's Grey Sheep Cabaret, Aberdeen's
Springtides, London's Apples & Snakes, at the Universities
of Bath, Durham, Newcastle and Warwick, in Edinburgh
at the Scottish Poetry Library and the Royal Oak
and Diggers venues and in Limerick at The White House.
He has received an Arts Council of Northern Ireland
grant to visit Belfast and Northern Cultural Skills
Partnership grants to attend conferences in Bath,
Leeds and London.

In his youth, he travelled to Paris to seek out the
grave of poet Charles Baudelaire and he has been
making cultural pilgrimages abroad ever since. He has
toured to Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Poland, Iceland
(including readings with Peter Mortimer during the Cod
War), Denmark, France, Germany (including readings at
the Universities of Hamburg, Kiel, Oldenburg, Trier
and Tuebingen), Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Isle of Man, Spain,
Sweden, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, the United
States, Cuba, Jamaica and Kenya.
His poetry has been translated into Dutch, German,
Russian, Italian, Icelandic and Czech.

He has long pioneered cultural exchanges with Durham’s
twinning partners, particularly Tuebingen and
Nordenham in Germany and Ivry-sur-Seine and Amiens in
France, as well as with Newcastle’s Dutch twin-city of
Groningen. In fact, he has visited Tuebingen over 30
times since he first spent a month there in November
1987 as poet-in-residence supported by Durham County
Council and the Kulturamt, and he has performed his
poetry in the city’s Hoelderlin Tower and, on three
occasions, as part of the annual Book Festival. He has
arranged for writers such as Katrina Porteous, Julia
Darling, Michael Standen, Alan C. Brown and Linda
France to join him in Tuebingen.
He has also won Northern Arts Awards to visit Berlin, Holland

and Prague (with poet Paul Summers). His travels to Denmark,

Germany, Holland and Sweden have also been supported by the
British Council.
By way of cultural exchange, he has arranged for
visits to North East England by poets from Scotland, Ireland,
Germany, The Netherlands, the Czech Republic, America
and Russia.

He often works and travels with folk-musicians from
North East England, including Jez Lowe, Marie Little,
Gary Miller and George Welch, and he has written the
lyrics for an album, 'Bleeding Sketches', by folk-rock
band ‘The Whisky Priests’, with whom he has toured
extensively in The Netherlands. He has also visited
the European Parliament in Strasbourg to perform his
poetry with musicians Pete Challoner and Ian Carr. He
has recently inspired songs by Jez Lowe and by Joseph
Porter of Blyth Power.

With the support of Arts Council England,
North Tyneside Council and Northumberland Coast Area
of Outstanding Natural Beauty, he recently worked with Berlin
artist Rolf Wojciechowski on a text sculpture which
involved readings on the beaches along the
Northumbrian coast from Marsden to Cullercoats and
from Druridge Bay to Berwick.

Though a regionalist inspired by the landscape of his
birth and its folk and musical traditions, he is very
much a European and his work is much influenced by
writers such as Hoelderlin, Hesse, Brecht, Baudelaire,
Prevert, Esenin, and Mayakovsky.

poem of the month

'Carry on with the good work.'
(Johnny Handle)





















MY FATHER WORKED ON SHIPS


My father worked on ships.
They spelked his hands,
dusted his eyes, his face, his lungs.

Those eyes that watered by the Tyne
stared out to sea
to see the world
in a tear of water, at the drop
of an old cloth cap.

For thirty weary winters
he grafted
through the snow and the wild winds
of loose change.

He was proud of those ships he built,
he was proud of the men he built with,
his dreams sailed with them:
the hull was his skull,
the cargo his brains.

His hopes rose and sunk
in the shipwrecked streets
of Wallsend
and I look at him now
this father of mine who worked on ships
and I feel proud
of his skeletal frame, this coastline
that moulded me
and my own sweet dreams.

He sits in his retiring chair,
dozing into the night.
There are storms in his head
and I wish him more love yet.

Sail with me,
breathe in me,
breathe that rough sea air old man,
and cough it up.

Rage, rage
against the dying
of this broken-backed town,
the spirit
of its broken-backed
ships.






Keith Armstrong

kemmy's limerick miscellany

Kemmy's Limerick Miscellany is a 423 page anthology of writing published by The Limerick Writers' Centre and edited by Denis O'Shaughnessy.


Kemmyʼs Limerick Miscellany is a continuation of the late Jim Kemmyʼs highly successful Limerick Anthology (1996) and Limerick Compendium (1997).
Editor of the Miscellany is Denis OʼShaughnessy, who has written several successful and acclaimed books on Limerick. Denis and Jim were classmates in the years of deprivation of the early 1950s, and both left secondary school shortly after starting to pursue respective trades, stone masonry and printing compositing.

Miscellany is a fitting title for this new publication, as the book, likened to Kemmyʼs Anthology and Compendium, will encompass excerpts from the writing of many diverse writers, poets and historians, novelists and journalists, local and otherwise.

Their impressions down the years of Limerick and its people, its history and lore, culture and sport, is the essence of a publication that will open pages that have long remained dormant, alongside those published in the last decade or so. An attractive miscellany as the title suggests, with something for everyone.

Kemmy’s Limerick Miscellany is also a tribute to Jim Kemmy’s huge literary contribution to the city and recognition of his achievement in awakening interest in local history, the spark of which he and other local enthusiasts helped to ignite so many years ago.



Kemmy's Limerick Miscellany is available online at www.kemmyslimerickmiscellany.com



also available from usual outlets priced €20.00 - paperback. ISBN: 978-09562810-0-5

For further details contact: Dominic Taylor; Tel: 087 2996409; E: limerickwriterscentre@gmail.com
For trade orders or to request a copy for review, please email: limerickwriterscentre@gmail.com

Enquiries to: The Limerick Writers' Centre, 12 Barringtons Street, Limerick, Ireland.
Email: limerickwriterscentre@gmail.com


FEATURED IN KEMMY'S LIMERICK MISCELLANY:

CHE GUEVARA IN HANRATTY’S HOTEL

All the beer mats turned red in Limerick
the night that rebel Doctor Che Lynch took a wander
along Glentworth Street,
pouring
the jingling city
down his throat
on this island of his ancestors.
With a beard
as dark as the comforting Guinness,
he slaked his ruggerman’s thirst,
his well-shaken mix of Irish and Galician roots,
by the night-soaked Shannon.

Thirty months later, he was dead in Bolivia;
smashed bones,
splintered beads
of a revolutionary’s sweat
rolling down the guttter.

Now, I am sending this green poem
to your own heaven, old Che;
for your spirited lapel,
a singing sprig of shamrock
to light up the culture shock
of your long wild hair.

You chanced it in Hanratty’s ‘Gluepot’ bar,
you plunged from the leaden sky
to chat up all this local talent
in the eloquent lilt of a roaring evening.

Mighty ‘Red Bird’,
icon at the bar,
no better or worse
than the barman
who served you
a pint or two of Irish love,
to make your heart
grow even bigger;
to set you up
for your flight
from Limerick,
‘three sheets to the wind’,
rocking across the mighty expanse
of the rolling drunk Atlantic to Havana,
to a certain
martyr’s death.

And, amid the glorious beauty
of trees,
in the murderous jungle
of brutal dreams,
we soaks
will remember you
and celebrate the night
you fell in with us.


KEITH ARMSTRONG


POEM FOR A LOCAL HISTORIAN

(in memory of Jim Kemmy 1936 -1997)

‘Old people mumbling
low in the night of change and of ageing
when they think you asleep and not listening -
and we wide awake in the dark,
as when we were children.’

(Desmond O’Grady)


'It was poignant,
when walking away from the graveyard
that very warm midday,
that the only sound which could be heard
after he was buried
was that of a member of his trade, a stonemason,
simply chipping away
at a monument.'

(Mary Jackman)



In this city, in every town, in every village,
there is this man
dusty with archives
and old snapshots;
this deep fellow
who digs out truths from scraps,
who drinks from a bowl of swirling voices
and makes sense of things,
makes sense
when all else
lies in chaos.

In his dreams,
wars are not dead.
They scream
from his books.
He will not let
the suffering go -
he owes the children that.
There is something noble
in his calling,
in his bearing.
His work is beautiful.

In this particular place,
you can call him 'Jim'.
You can see his face forever
in the autumn leaves,
the leaves of books,
and the dance of history,
a local historian
and carver of tales
so memorable
that every street must value his love:
the love of our people though the ages,
the love of learning,
the search for dignity
that underpins these lanes.

In Limerick,
Jim's imagination still blossoms
and keeps us rooted
in the drift of memory.
He teaches us lessons.
Listen to his spirit breathe
deep as the Shannon.
His voice forever flies
with the power of knowledge.


'Beautiful dreamer wake unto me,
Starlight and dewdrops are waiting for Thee.'




KEITH ARMSTRONG

from a swahili phrasebook

Hi Keith,
Robert Lonsdale sent me a link of your U tube video - I thought it was sublime!!! Keep up the good work - it's really good to see someone producing work about the human condition rather than the usual pantomime that passes for poetry/art these days!!!

Kind regards,

Dominic

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=cvIK2W9Z5_Q

armstrong texts at marsden

sweet heart

KEITH ARMSTRONG

SWEET HEART: EROTIC VERSE



In this new limited edition of his verse, Newcastle upon Tyne poet Keith Armstrong, famed for his community-based work in North East England and for his literary exchange work throught Europe and beyond, shows us a new side of himself.

This set of erotic poetry reflects the passionate, more personal, side of his nature, finding the erotic in the back lanes of North Shields, on the streets of Paris and in the beds of Newcastle.

'A subtle observer of beauty whether he chooses to do so from the position of global citizen, mourner, lover, friend or son.' (Paul Summers, Dream Catcher).

‘There are those who tell the terrible truth in all its loveliness. Keith Armstrong is one of them, a fine poet who refuses to turn his back on the wretched ofthe Earth. He is one of the best and I hope his voice will be heard more and more widely.’ (Adrian Mitchell,
Poet).

'A joyous, subversive, delightful, unpretentious, funny, anarchistic free spirit underpins Armstrong's work. It will cheer you up. His poems are technically achieved, funny, witty, touching, and sufficiently various for there to be something to light up every brain which responds to poetry. One way to make the world better would be to give poets as good as Armstrong their due.' (Alan Dent, Editor, The Penniless Press).






PRICE £6.50 ISBN 1 871536 14 6


*ORDERS (ADD £1.50 POSTAGE PER COPY) TO: NORTHERN VOICES,
93 WOODBURN SQUARE, WHITLEY LODGE, WHITLEY BAY, TYNE & WEAR NE26 3JD, ENGLAND. TEL 0191 2529531.

back in groningen - newcastle's twin city

from city poet rense sinkgraven:



http://rensesinkgraven.web-log.nl/

eagleton on durrell

'Like many poets, his verbal sensitivity is in inverse proportion to real human sympathy, a sublimated selfishness evident in his life as much as his work.' (Terry Eagleton on Lawrence Durrell).

armstrong archive @ university of durham

http://library.dur.ac.uk/search/c?SEARCH=Armstrong&SUBMIT=Search

A NEW BOOK FROM NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS

FROM SEGEDUNUM TO THE SPANISH CITY

North Tyneside's heritage in words and pictures

Keith Armstrong & Peter Dixon

ISBN 1 871536 28 6




Northern Voices Community Projects, based in Whitley Bay and North Shields, has received significant financial backing from Awards for All and North Tyneside Council to publish this new book on the heritage of North Tyneside. The book looks at a broad range of local historic buildings in words and pictures.



It features poems, artwork and photographs by local people about these unique sites and the material submitted has been imaginatively selected by editor Keith Armstrong and designer Peter Dixon for the book, which also features a sequence of poems by Armstrong and many images by Dixon himself.



From Segedunum to the Spanish City, from St. Mary's Island to Tynemouth Priory, from Willington Mill to Burradon Tower, this is an atmospheric trawl through the vivid history of this fascinatingly diverse area of Tyneside.


Order from:
Northern Voices Community Projects, 93 Woodburn Square, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE26 3JD. Tel. 0191 2529531.




Price £7 including postage from the above address or at North Tyneside Libraries, Keel Row Books, Harry Smith's (North Shields), Segedunum, St Mary's Lighthouse, Grand Hotel.

jingle is back in prague in june

"There's no money in poetry but then there's no poetry in money either." (Robert Graves)

common words and the wandering star

Common Words and the Wandering Star by Keith Armstrong

Offer Price £5.95

In this unique book, Keith Armstrong assesses the life and work of Newcastle born writer Jack Common, in the light of the massive social, economic and cultural changes which have affected the North East of England and wider society, through the period of Common’s life and afterwards. He seeks to point out the relevance of Common to the present day in terms of his ideas about class, community and the individual and in the light of Common’s sense of rebelliousness influenced by a process of grassroots education and self improvement. 

“Keith Armstrong has used the available archives and published materials, including Common’s own works as well as those of commentators, to write this biography. He also conducted interviews with a variety of respondents, including some of Common’s family and close friends, and draws on this original material throughout. He has thus assembled an important body of original material which will be of considerable interest to readers.” Professor Mike Fleming

“Keith Armstrong's study of Jack Common is a major contribution to contemporary studies in English literature. Using sociological perspectives in his approach to biography, Armstrong not only reveals much about Jack Common the writer but shows, too, how Common’s work helped him reshape both his and our understanding of the circumstances of his life and of his generation. Through biography, Armstrong has provided a vivid picture of social and cultural change in British society. This is a well-informed book with many innovative characteristics, including the author's use of poetry as a way of exploring Common's creativity.” Professor Bill Williamson  

Common Words and the Wandering Star by Keith Armstrong

Offer Price £5.95

In this unique book, Keith Armstrong assesses the life and work of Newcastle born writer Jack Common, in the light of the massive social, economic and cultural changes which have affected the North East of England and wider society, through the period of Common’s life and afterwards. He seeks to point out the relevance of Common to the present day in terms of his ideas about class, community and the individual and in the light of Common’s sense of rebelliousness influenced by a process of grassroots education and self improvement. 

“Keith Armstrong has used the available archives and published materials, including Common’s own works as well as those of commentators, to write this biography. He also conducted interviews with a variety of respondents, including some of Common’s family and close friends, and draws on this original material throughout. He has thus assembled an important body of original material which will be of considerable interest to readers.” Professor Mike Fleming

“Keith Armstrong's study of Jack Common is a major contribution to contemporary studies in English literature. Using sociological perspectives in his approach to biography, Armstrong not only reveals much about Jack Common the writer but shows, too, how Common’s work helped him reshape both his and our understanding of the circumstances of his life and of his generation. Through biography, Armstrong has provided a vivid picture of social and cultural change in British society. This is a well-informed book with many innovative characteristics, including the author's use of poetry as a way of exploring Common's creativity.” Professor Bill Williamson  

To place an order contact Northern Voices Community Projects, 93 Woodburn Square, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE26 3JD. Tel 0191 2529531 email: k.armstrong643@btinternet.com 

Common Words and the Wandering Star: A biographical study of culture and social change in the life and work of writer Jack Common (1903-1968) 978-1-906832-025 RRP £7.95 Offer price £5.95 Plus postage and packing on single copies - UK £1.50. 

Common Words and the Wandering Star: A biographical study of culture and social change in the life and work of writer Jack Common (1903-1968) 978-1-906832-025 RRP £7.95 Offer price £5.95 Plus postage and packing on single copies - UK £1.50. 

back on may 1st!

order now

FROM NORTHERN VOICES:
KEITH ARMSTRONG
HERMANN HESSE IN THE GUTTER
Tübingen Poems (1987-2007)

In this new poetry selection, poet Keith Armstrong from the North East of England reflects on twenty years of visiting Durham’s twin city of Tübingen in Baden-Würtemburg.
Armstrong worked for six years as a Community Arts Development Worker in East Durham and studied at the University of Durham for fifteen years, culminating with his doctoral award in 2007.
In his youth, he travelled to Paris to seek out the grave of poet Charles Baudelaire and he has been making cultural pilgrimages abroad ever since. He has toured to Russia, Georgia, Bulgaria, Poland, Iceland (including readings during the Cod War), Denmark, France, Germany, Hungary, Italy, Ireland, Spain, Sweden, Czech Republic, The Netherlands, Cuba, Jamaica and Kenya.

His poetry has been translated into Dutch, German, Russian, Italian, Icelandic and Czech.

These poems reflect his love of Tübingen and the friends he has made there.

‘Now we are all able to read these poems. We are happy that Keith Armstrong has realised a long nourished idea with this unique publication. It shows the attraction and radiance which Tübingen has with a sensitive visitor from far away and it shows the liveliness of our connection with our English twin County Durham in the domains of words and music.’ Margit Aldinger
(Kulturamt Tübingen)

‘This poet is someone who in his biography and work inseparably unites wit and long gained knowledge, enthusiasm and great talent, pluck and social commitment....This is a man who conquers, with his poems and charms, pubs as well as universities. He has always been an instigator and an actor in social and literary projects, an activist without whom the exchanges between the twin towns of Durham and Tübingen would be a much quieter affair.’ Uwe Kolbe

‘Different poets have different triggers to set off poetic imagination and a main one for him is finding himself in a city street and invoking great spirits who once lived, loved and drank there. This unique publication brings together poems written over twenty years in this 'special town'. I almost think he has earned consideration for a Keith-Armstrong-Strasse - and he is the ideal subject for a civic statue!’ Michael Standen

PRiCE £5 ISBN 1 871536 23 5

ORDERS (ADD £1.50 POSTAGE PER COPY) TO: NORTHERN VOICES,
93 WOODBURN SQUARE, WHITLEY LODGE, WHITLEY BAY, TYNE & WEAR NE26 3JD, ENGLAND. TEL 0191 2529531.

KEITH ARMSTRONG - LIST OF PUBLICATIONS
Books:
Shakespeare and Company. Erdesdun Publications, Whitley Bay 1975.
Giving Blood. People's Publications, Newcastle 1977.
Pains of Class. Artery Publications, London 1982.
Love Poems. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 1984.
Dreaming North (book & LP). With Graeme Rigby. Portcullis Press, Gateshead Libraries 1986.
The Jingling Geordie: Selected Poems 1970-1990. The Common Trust & Rookbook Publications, Edinburgh 1990.
Poets' Voices. With Cynthia Fuller, Michael Standen & others. Durham County Council & Tuebingen Cultural Office,
Tuebingen 1991.
The Big Meeting: A People's View of the Durham Miners' Gala. TUPS, Newcastle 1994.
The Darkness Seeping: The Chantry Chapel of Prior Rowland Leschman in Hexham Abbey. With introduction by historian
Colin Dallison & illustrations by Kathleen Sisterson. Northern Voices & Crowquill Press, Belfast 1997.
The Hexham Riot. With historian Tom Corfe. Northern Voices & Crowquill Press, Belfast 1997.
Old Dog on the Isle of Woman. Cold Maverick Press Legend Series Number 1, Sunderland 1999.
Our Village. Memories of the Durham Mining Communities. The People's History, Durham 2000.
Bless'd Millennium: The Life & Work of Thomas Spence. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2000.
The Town of Old Hexham. The People's History, Durham 2002.
Imagined Corners. Smokestack Books, Middlesbrough 2004.
Out to Sea. With artist Rolf Wojciechowski. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2004.
Sweet Heart: Erotic Verse. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2006.
Angels Playing Football: Newcastle Poems. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2006.
The Hive of Liberty:The Life & Work of Thomas Spence. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2007.
Hermann Hesse in the Gutter: Poems on Tuebingen. With translations by Carolyn Murphey Melchers. Northern Voices,
Whitley Bay 2007.
A Blush in Staindrop Church. Christopher Smart (1722-1771) in Durham. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2008.
Common Words & the Wandering Star: Jack Common (1903-1968). University of Sunderland Press 2009.
From Segedunum to the Spanish City. North Tyneside's heritage in words and music. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2010.
Magazines:
Including: Revival,True Faith, Red Pepper, Poetry Review, Iron, Aesthetica, The Poetry Business, The Ranfurly Review, The Penniless Press, Citizen 32, Morning Star, The Recusant, Kenaz, The New Statesman, Other Poetry, Poetry Scotland, True Faith, Dream Catcher, Episteme, Northern Echo, Newcastle Evening Chronicle, Sand, North East History, Northern Review, X magazine, Poetry Salzburg Review, Ash (Oxford University Poetry Society).
Recent anthologies:
Golden Girl. Poems on Newcastle upon Tyne. Credo, Newcastle 2001.
The Seven Deadly Sins. University of Groningen 2002.
Mein Heimliches Auge Erotic Yearbook. Konkursbuch, Tuebingen 2002.
Red Sky At Night: Socialist Poetry. Five Leaves Publications, Nottingham 2003.
War On War. Sub, Breda, 2003.
Paging Doctor Jazz. Shoestring Press, Nottingham 2004.
Microphone On. Poetry from the White House Pub. White House Press, Limerick 2005.
Paint the Sky with Stars. Re-Invention UK, Rayne 2005.
Miracle and Clockwork. Other Poetry, Durham 2005.
North by North East. Iron Press, Cullercoats 2006.
Revival. White House Poetry, Limerick 2006, 2007 & 2009.
Both Sides of Hadrian’s Wall. Selkirk Lapwing Press, Selkirk 2006.
The Wilds. Ek Zuban, Middlesbrough 2007.
Two Rivers Meet. Poetry from the Shannon and the Tyne. Revival Press, Limerick 2008.
Fishing and Folk. Life and Dialect on the North Sea Coast. Northumbria University Press, Newcastle upon Tyne 2008.
CDs:
Bleeding Sketches. With The Whisky Priests. Whippet Records, Durham 1995.
Out to Sea. With The Ancient Mariners, Jim Mageean, Ann Sessoms. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2007.
Sound City. With Rick Taylor, Bruce Arthur, Pete Challoner, Ian Carr & Bob Fox. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2007.
The Elvis Diaries. With Jim Nunn. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2007.
The Poetry of Percussion. With Bruce Arthur. Northern Voices, Whitley Bay 2008.
Cassette:
The Pitman Poet of Percy Main:The Life & Times of Joseph Skipsey (1832-1903). North Tyneside People’s Centres 1991.

DURHAM

Cobbled webs of my thoughts
hang around your lanes.
A brass band nestles in my head,
cosy as a bedbug.
I’m reading from a balcony
poems of Revolution.
It’s Gala Day and the words are lost
in the coal dust of your lungs.

Your dark satanic brooding Gaol
throws a blanket over blankness:
a grim era of second-hand visions
aches like a scab in a cell.
And rowing a punt up your Bishop’s arse
a shaft of sunlight on the river
strikes me only as true,
shining into the eyes of all the prisoners
swinging from Cathedral bells.

Old Durham Town, you imprison me
like a scream in a Salvation Army song,
release me soon:

someone
get ready to hug me.






KEITH ARMSTRONG

listen up north

http://listenupnorth.typepad.com/listenupnorth/2010/03/from-segedunum-to-the-spanish-city.html

Irish Theatre Magazine | Reviews | Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival 09 | The Pitmen Painters

Irish Theatre Magazine | Reviews | Ulster Bank Dublin Theatre Festival 09 | The Pitmen Painters

new!

FROM SEGEDUNUM TO THE SPANISH CITY

North Tyneside's heritage in words and pictures

Keith Armstrong & Peter Dixon


Northern Voices Community Projects, 93 Woodburn Square, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear
NE26 3JD

Supported by Awards for All and North Tyneside Council

ISBN 1 871536 28 6

Price £7

http://listenupnorth.typepad.com/listenupnorth/2010/03/from-segedunum-to-the-spanish-city.html

'Hi Keith,
The book arrived safely today - it's absolutely beautiful, I love it and I'm so proud to be included in it. Thank you.'

All good wishes
Catherine

football poet!

I’m a Geordie,
Heaton born,
on the banks of the Tyne;
a real one
who drinks Real Ale,
whose blood is flowing
with community history,
who resents
the cultural parachutists,
the rootless,
who nab our culture
and take it as their own.
I’m a Geordie,
a Newcastle United man,
a man who likes to play with flair,
a man who likes craft,
fire in his belly,
the taste of the shipyard
still in his mouth.
That’s why,
when they lose,
my heart breaks again
and this mucky city seems a sadder place,
until the optimism returns on Tuesday
and the sunlight
shines again
through the Bridge Hotel window
into my glass
and into my warm Geordie soul.



KEITH ARMSTRONG


Love the poem Keith!

Janis Blower, Shields Gazette



written for 'true faith', the newcastle united fanzine for which keith armstrong aka 'the jingling geordie' is poet-in-residence.


http://www.footballpoets.org/p.asp?Id=25785

armstrong back in dublin

Another lovely night was the Glór Sessions last night, as always warmly MC'd by the great Stephen James Smith where us Poetry Divas had a most enjoyable night sharing our stuff with another one of the most generous crowds in town. (Not that they gave us anything, just that they were extra nice, which is nice) of course the free lollipops went down a treat as always. There's always great talent on show there, but the highlight for me was Keith Armstrong, a hilarious and captivating performer -he was a delight.


Niamh B has left a new comment on your post "THE LONG MARCH BACK":

Keith - you were brilliant at the Glór session last night, really enjoyed your performance. All Hail Richard Harris!!
:-)

Stephen James Smith Poet commented:

"our pleasure you went down a storm!"

Domestic Oub said...
That Keith bloke was good, I must say. Liked Richard Harris a lot...

Emerging Writer said...
Twas lovely to meet you and get to hear your poems. Dedicated to the great actor Richard Harris. And any time you need to borrow a feather boa, you know which Divas to ask.

How's it going sir, i saw you recite some of your poetry at the Glor sessions, wonderful stuff, really really enjoyed it!

Cheers

Anto

from segedunum to the spanish city

YOU ARE CORDIALLY INVITED TO THE LAUNCH OF AN EXCITING NEW BOOK FROM NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS:


FROM SEGEDUNUM TO THE SPANISH CITY

North Tyneside's heritage in words and pictures

Compiled and edited by Keith Armstrong

Photography and design by Peter Dixon with additional photographs by Tony Whittle

Supported by North Tyneside Council and Awards for All


MONDAY 22ND FEBRUARY 2010, 2PM IN THE ORCHID ROOM, GRAND HOTEL, TYNEMOUTH

Featuring sea shanties from The Ancient Mariners and tunes from Ann Sessoms on Northumbrian Pipes with readings of poetry from the book by contributors

Guest speaker: Paul Kingsnorth, author of 'Real England'

Tel. 0191 2529531 for further information

from dave douglass

'Keith Armstrong is a notable northern poet, with a finger on the rhythms and pulses of modern Tyneside and its dark, industrial cultural roots.'

NORTHERN VOICES POETRY AWARD 2010

The winner of this year's Northern Voices Poetry Award, annonced at Newcastle's Bridge Hotel on Sunday 24th January, is Trevor Teasdel from Great Ayton on Teesside. Trevor has been a brilliant agitator for poetry for many years and it was felt that it was high time his painstaking work was recognised. A dynamic poet and performer himself, Trevor gave a lively reading before being presented with the award by last year's winner, Paul Summers, in front of an appreciative gathering, which included poets Bob Beagrie, Andy Willoughby, Robert Lonsdale, Gordon Phillips, Catherine Graham, Dave Alton, William Martin and Keith Armstrong.

Says Trevor:

'Thanks for the evening and for the award. As I said, it means more to me than something from the Arts Council etc. Like you, I'm not into glittering awards but this means a lot because you are on the same side - and great respect for the inspiration of Northern Voices and the great poetry.'

Other winners of the award have been William Martin, Alan C. Brown, Katrina Porteous, Catherine Graham and Gordon Hodgeon.


More information from Northern Voices tel 0191 2529531

jingling geordie

POETRY FOR PALESTINE

DURHAM PALESTINE EDUCATIONAL TRUST





POETRY AND MUSIC FOR PALESTINE



On December 2nd 2009, the Trust held a cultural evening at Ustinov College , Durham University , at which well-known poets and musicians from the North East of England read and performed their work to an extremely appreciative audience of students and Durham citizens. Ustinov College is the university’s postgraduate college and is home to students from all over the world. It is an ideal setting for cultural events that build inter-cultural understanding.



The poets who came were Dr. Keith Armstrong, Katrina Porteous, Cynthia Fuller and Paul Summers. They read their own work selecting poems and themes that might resonate with those who had an interest in the Middle East . None of them addressed the situation in Palestine directly, but by speaking each in their own way of the past, of the importance of place in human identity, of peace and of war, they suggested an affinity between the experiences of Palestinians and our own. For example, images of the Roman Wall across Northumberland and of coastal fortresses like Dunstanburgh Castle in the poetry of Katrina Porteous may for many in the room have called to mind Israel ’s separation barrier that scars the landscape of the West Bank . Katrina was not, however, making a political point. As she explained afterwards, fearful that she may have offended some listeners: ‘My intention, as I tried to indicate in my introduction, was only to refer to situations in our own history and spiritual relationship to place which might have resonance with the Palestinian situation -- a longing for home, peace, and the justice upon which peace depends.’ Poetry in this vein is not itself political but enables us to think about politics in a new light. In this sense it is, to use Seamus Heaney’s phrase, ‘redressive’: it extends the reach of our language, our thoughts and feelings to allow us to think about the ways in which the world we know now and the lives people live might be different. The poets who came to Ustinov College had considered reading some Palestinian poetry in translation. As Katrina Porteous explained, however, they chose, for good reasons, not to do so: ‘It’s difficult for us to read poetry in translation and in such a different idiom from our own; but the sentiments are universal. It’s surely this universality which provides the greatest hope of overcoming differences’.





Fine-tuned satirical poems about contemporary politics by Keith Armstrong and Paul Summers enabled their listeners to wonder whether the solutions to the conflicts of the Middle East can be safely left in the hands of present-day politicians. The humour of their work was itself instructive: it points to the need, and they do it admirably, to step back from everyday, taken-for-granted assumptions and arguments, not just to ridicule them but to think beyond them and to imagine different possibilities for the future. Both these poets were able to make fun of the communities from which they came, not to devalue them but to reach beyond them and to acknowledge that other communities have different values from which we can all learn and that in doing so we become free of the entrapments that breed fear, hate and conflict.



In the poems read by Cynthia Fuller, the present elided powerfully into the past with vivid personal recollections of the pain of young men at war felt by those they leave behind. Her focus was the First World War, but the sense of futility and loss evoked in her example is universal and especially poignant with the examples of Iraq and Afghanistan in mind. Her poems encouraged listeners to hear in the tender, clear yet uncertain voices of ordinary folk dealing with sadness and loss, the absurdity and violence of the great moments of politics and history.



Musicians Gary Miller and Marie Little sang of the North East of England, of its communities and their struggles and their hopes. Music builds and sustains solidarities across cultures and through time. These songs were not about Palestine . They were for Palestine , gifts of cultural solidarity and sharing.



The evening came to a close with a short reading from Mahmoud Darwish’s poem ‘A state of Siege’ about the siege of Ramallah by Israeli forces in 2002. From the suffocating and atrocious conditions of military siege and the Occupation, Darwish drew the future possibility of Palestinians and Israelis sharing common human lives on the basis of mutuality and respect. The redressive power of this poetry can surely not be bettered.



Those who experienced this evening of poetry and song in Ustinov College will surely look back on it as a moment when their world moved, even just a little, towards a better future where people across different cultures explore their differences creatively, dissolving away those that breed misunderstanding, bitterness and conflict. This, at least, is the hope that inspires the cultural work of Durham Palestine Educational Trust. For this reason Trust members are deeply grateful to the poets and musicians and the staff of Ustinov College for making this such a memorable event.


PROFESSOR BILL WILLIAMSON

common words

Celebrating the life

and

work of local author

Jack Common



Dr Keith Armstrong

will read extracts from his new book on this popular

figure

Thursday 28th January

at

Gosforth library

2.30pm



Booking at Gosforth Library

Contact: 0191 277 1811

back in town!

berlin

Anarchists in Berlin turn anger on new 'bourgeoisie'

Arsonists torch luxury cars as way of fighting the growing gentrification of many areas of the city



* by Kate Connolly, Berlin
* The Observer, Sunday 10 January 2010


They come out mostly after dusk, typically carrying a simple set of tools – a box of matches, and slow-burning barbecue firelighters which are lit and placed next to a car's tyre. By the time the flames have taken hold the culprit has vanished, and the car is ablaze and beyond recovery when the fire brigade arrives.

In Berlin, a growing band of leftwing car arsonists have become the face of an increasingly vociferous campaign against the gentrification of the German capital. In 2009, 216 mostly luxury cars were torched on the streets of the city, compared with 135 the previous year.

So common is the practice that spotting the attacks has become a popular pastime, spawning an obscure website, "Burning Cars", where contributors track the models that have been targeted. Brennende-autos.de lists the six most recent cars as two Mercedes – the most popular target – a Jeep, Range Rover, Mitsubishi and a rather more modest Ford, which was burned almost beyond recognition on New Year's Day on Hermannstrasse in the former West Berlin district of Kreuzberg. The traditional home of leftwing activism is where most have taken place.

The attacks have been spreading across the city, and are influencing protest groups in other cities, like Hamburg, where there has been a rise in car arson attacks, particularly on police cars. The choice of vehicle has also widened. Lorries belonging to DHL, the courier company, were recently attacked because they serve the German military in Afghanistan, as were German Railways' vehicles – in retaliation for its role transporting nuclear waste by train.

No single group is believed to be behind the attacks, although last year one calling itself Bewegung für Militanten Widerstand (Movement for Militant Resistance) – with the provocative acronym BMW – admitted responsibility for torching eight cars.

In a letter to a leftwing publication, the group said it carried out the attacks in protest at the post-Berlin Wall "transformation of poorer districts", such as Neukölln , Kreuzberg and Mitte where it said "established residents", were being squeezed out by "acute gentrification".

Old flats and warehouses turned into luxury loft apartments have driven up rents and house prices beyond most residents' means. Since the fall of the wall more than 20 years ago, the process has changed the demographic profile of many neighbourhoods. Prenzlauer Berg, in the former communist East Berlin has undergone the most dramatic change, turning from a workers' district into an affluent quarter, which has lost around 60% of its original residents since 1990.

Anger felt by those affected by the influx of the "new bourgeoisie" extends to the disappearance of open spaces and a growing indignation among communities that they are not being consulted. The protest has recently spread to the disused runways of Tempelhof airport, which was closed two years ago. Authorities want to use to land for luxury apartments. Opponents would like it to be developed as a park.

"We have no voice in the way the city is changing," says Jan, 26, a graphic designer and a member of an underground anti-fascist movement in Kreuzberg. He sat in a cafe close to a patch of land where East German police used to patrol the border between East and West Berlin. "Until recently it was where I used to walk my dog and meet friends," he said. "Now look – they're building glassy apartment blocks there for rich yuppies to move into."

Gentrification, he said, is leading to the closure of the very places that have made Kreuzberg a fashionable and desirable place to live, such as Bierhimmel (beer heaven), a popular bar on Oranienstrasse, which has just been forced to close by rising rents. Farther down the road, SO36, a legendary nightclub, may go the same way because of complaints from new residents – scathingly called schicki mickis – about the noise.

A recent meeting at SO36 discussed non-violent ways to keep out "unwanted" residents. Erwin Riedmann, a sociologist, proposed an "uglification strategy" – to "go around wearing a ripped vest and hang food in Lidl bags from the balcony so that it looks like you don't have a fridge". The suggestion drew laughs, but is a strategy being adopted.

An "anti-schicki micki" website, esregnetkaviar.de (it's raining caviar), offers the following tips to make a neighbourhood unattractive for newcomers: "Don't repair broken windows; put foreign names on the doorbell, and install satellite dishes."

Police say they are at a loss as to how to deal with the problem, adding that they cannot patrol Berlin's 5,800km of roads or control an estimated 1,100 leftwing extremists. "It's extremely easy to set light to a car and by the time the first flames are visible the culprit is at least two streets away," said Dieter Glietsch, Berlin police chief.

Peter-Michael Haeberer, head of Berlin's LKA investigation bureau, said there was a lack of willingness to examine the issue. "You have to ask why does such a large part of society so obviously feel excluded," he said.

Anger as pub calls time on old poets

SCOTLAND ON SUNDAY 29 November 2009
By Tim Cornwell
FOR decades, their faces looked down from the nicotine-stained walls of the pub where they once argued and bantered over politics and poetry. Now a planned sale of poets' portraits from one of Scotland most famous writers' watering holes has sparked anger that a vital piece of the city's literary heritage is disappearing for good.
In the 1950s and 1960s Milne's Bar in Edinburgh's New Town became famous as the "Poets' pub", where legendary writers like Hugh MacDiarmid and Norman MacCaig and their friends gathered in noisy, impromptu literary salons. The downstairs "snug" was
known as "The Little Kremlin" for its lively political and poetical debate and its atmosphere was celebrated in novels.

But a refurbishment of the pub has meant that 15 hallowed vintage photographs and drawings of its former denizens – portraits framed with their poems – were unscrewed from the walls to be auctioned off in a planned charity sale.

Academics and literary experts yesterday warned yesterday that the last vestiges of its historic ambiance are being lost – and questioned why the capital, the world's first Unesco City of Literature, is not doing more to save it.

Robert Alan Jamieson, a poet and joint head of creative writing at Edinburgh University, said: "As Edinburgh is the World City of Literature it is disappointing that such an important place, given the quality of the writers, should be let slip. It is the end of another Scottish institution.You can look at it askance these days and say it was a boys club, but you cannot deny the quality of the work."

Murdo MacDonald, a professor of history of Scottish art at Dundee University, first spotted the pictures had gone. "They are not particularly great works of art, but they are part of the atmosphere of the pub," he said. "It's no longer a particular poet's watering hole, but it is certainly somewhere on a literary tourist trail," he said.

Half a century ago, Milne's Bar, at the corner of Hanover Street and Rose Street, was one of three writers' haunts, along with the nearby Abbotsford Bar, also on Rose Street, and the Cafe Royal. MacDiarmid and MacCaig, among the greatest of Scotland's post-war poets, were at the heart of a circle that included literary luminaries like Sorley MacLean and George Mackay Brown.

In 1980, the leading Scottish artist Sandy Moffat produced a group portrait remembering their heyday. His work, Poets Pub, is an imaginary vision of post-war Scottish poets and writers set in an amalgamation of all three bars, and also includes MacDiarmid, Iain Crichton Smith, Sydney Goodsir Smith, Edwin Morgan, Robert Garioch, Alan Bold and the art critic John A Tonge.

Morgan, the Scots makar or poet laureate, is the only one left alive, at 89 living in a Glasgow nursing home.

Milne's, which still calls itself the poets' pub, was known as MacDiarmid's "favourite howff" and was redecorated in honour of the poet's memory in 1985, with photographs and a painted sign.

MacDiarmid's legendary days in the bar were featured in Alasdair Gray's novel 1982, Janine. The narrator, Jock McLeish, goes for "a pie and a pint" in a basement in Hanover Street. The passage reads: "The bar was crowded except where three men stood in a small open space created by the attention of the other customers. One had a sombre pouchy face and upstanding hair which seemed to, like thistledown, be natural, one looked like a tall sarcastic lizard, one like a small shy bear. 'Our three best since Burns,' a bystander informed me, 'barring Sorley of course'." It was a portrayal of MacDiarmid, MacCaig, and Goodsir Smith.

A spokeswoman for Punch Taverns, the chain that now owns Milne's, said the portraits were removed in one of its corporate "sparkle" refurbishments, to refresh the pub for Christmas.

Manager Wayne Carruthers said the plan is for the pictures to be auctioned in a Christmas charity sale for Cancer Research. "We have had quite a bit of interest for the pictures, a lot of feedback, people asking where have all the pictures gone. I want them to go somewhere where they will be more appreciated."

Jamieson believes the pictures should be kept as a collection, or donated to the Scottish Poetry Library, and not just randomly sold off. Jenny Brown, a literary agent and former Edinburgh International Book Festival director, said the city now boasts new literary watering-holes. She said: "We would obviously much rather see the tradition continued but it's a commercial decision, and there's so much other activity happening now in terms of where writers are meeting."

BRIDGING THE GAP

Bridging The Gap
Wednesday 27 January
11.00-11.30am BBC RADIO 4

Bridging The Gap is a vivid sound portrait of the Tyne Bridge. The programme draws on the voices and sounds of the bridge, the river, local people and wildlife, while exploring the history, construction and role of the bridge.

The bridge is hugely symbolic in the North East. As a giant arch, it reflects the changes that have taken place in the North East, including developments on the Tyne and overall changes in lifestyle. Today, wildlife has moved in; where the industrial giants of the past have moved out, salmon and otters can be found in the river.

The bridge is also a nesting site for kittiwakes, a species of ocean-travelling gull. More than 150 pairs have been recorded here, making it the furthest inland breeding site of kittiwakes in the world.

Contributors to the programme include sound recordist Chris Watson; poet Keith Armstrong; Ian Ayris from Newcastle City Council; Steve Lowe of Northumberland Wildlife Trust; Steve Mays, architectural and landscape photographer; and Tommy Proctor, River Tyne guide.

Producer/Sarah Blunt

BBC Radio 4 Publicity

ranfurly review

latest ranfurly review: http://ranfurly-review.co.uk/latestissue.html

let's drink to 2010!

from website of groningen city council

Newcastle upon Tyne

In the far north of England lies Newcastle, which is an old industrial town. It was founded by the Romans and once the outermost northern border with Scotland. Newcastle expanded enormously during the industrial revolution. But in the mid 20th century it went to ruin and in the eighties the mining companies closed down and shipyards were dismantled. Traces of the ship-building industry are still visible when entering the town by boat.

Since the 1980’s the redevelopment of the city has been undertaken vigorously with large budgets made available by the central government in London. A lot of effort was put into demolishing, building and rebuilding on a large scale. The old industrial city has been refurbished into a city focused on retail business. The old city centre with Georgian and Victorian architecture has been fully restored.

The urban area Newcastle-Gateshead is a metropolis with 500,000 inhabitants and is the most important city of northeast England. With two universities (Newcastle University and Northumbria University) Newcastle is a university town. But recently it has been trying to display itself as a shopping and cultural town as well. A few years back Newcastle started working together with Gateshead, the town across the river, to establish itself as a cultural area.

Partnership
The partnership between Groningen and Newcastle was established just after WWII. In 1988 the ties were reconfirmed. In the 1990’s representatives paid several mutual visits and there was lively interchange of artists. Both towns also cooperated with Odense and Bremen in the project Public Policies on Hard Drugs. More recently they have started the PURE cooperation which is focused on regional development and planning. Cause was the 60th anniversary of the partnership Groningen-Newcastle. In September 2008 the alderman for culture and economy traveled to Newcastle, heading a delegation of poets, writers and journalists.

Cultural interchange
In the mid 1990’s lively movements between the literary circuits in Newcastle and Groningen emerged. The driving force behind all this was Keith Armstrong, the unofficial Newcastle poet laureate. Keith Armstrong used to perform once a year in Groningen, giving workshops mostly at the Werkman College and the Rijksuniversiteit Groningen. From 2000 the Groningen poets laureate (Bart Droog, Ronald Ohlsen and Rense Sinkgraven) paid visits to Newcastle. Ronald Ohlsen and Rense Sinkgraven were received by the Lord Mayor.

In October 2007 the 15th anniversary of the literary partnership was celebrated in Newcastle with a literary evening organized by Keith Armstrong at which poets from Newcastle and the poets laureate from Groningen and Tilburg made appearances.

In September 2008 the Alderman of culture and economy visited Newcastle. He had invited the prime of the Groningen poets to accompany him. The poets performed in Newcastle together with poets and musicians from the British sister city.

see you there, culture vultures!

NORTHERN VOICES & AMNESTY INTERNATIONAL PRESENT:


NORTHERN VOICES ANNUAL POETRY AWARD EVENT



featuring:

Special guests from Teesside: Trevor Teasdel, Bob Beagrie,

Andy Willoughby & Robert Lonsdale

from Ireland: Stephen Murray & Brendan Murphy

from the North West: Geraldine Green & Alan Dent

from Lincoln: Guy Hudson

from Tyne & Wear: Catherine Graham, William Martin, Paul Summers,

Keith Armstrong, Dave Alton and Gordon Phillips

plus presentation of Northern Voices Poetry Award 2010







Sunday 24th January 2010 7.30pm


Bridge Hotel, Castle Garth, Newcastle upon Tyne


Admission £5


Further info: tel 0191 2529531

YOU’VE GOT TO BE JOKING

if you think this is democracy,
this quango land
of the pampered middle classes,
this apology for socialism,
this New Labour
egocentric insult to our history,
this emptiness
of false celebrity,
this Blairite shallowness,
this shattered ignorance
of all that shines from our fought- for heritage,
this media connivance
and bone idleness,
this following of the fast buck,
this grovelling to the greed of capital,
this sickening homage to materialism,
this lack of human spirit
in our city centres,
this brutal selfishness
encouraged by a government
that denies our European roots,
that scans the wonder of the vast Atlantic
for feeble ideas to run with,
this rat race of a society
that puts self above solidarity,
these feeble careerist substitutes for activism
who have lost any real will for change,
who have become corrupted by a power- lust,
who lack any passion
other than to climb grimly up their greasy poles,
clinging on to their self- delusion,
ignoring, in their centrist way,
the true beauty of community,
handing out their gongs to the servile
and rubbishing the selfless folk
who work their little miracles every breathing day.








KEITH ARMSTRONG

happy new year!

on tour again 2010

tapestry

poor avenues
life rich
tapestry

warm glow
community
hope springs

pit broken
grass grows
blink bonny

clocks alarm
wake joy in us
buses sweep past

at morn
buried dreams
night sings

town in winter
frosty coats
hearts melt

come the day
me hinny
love speaks

the streets glow
in my memory
golden times

this is
my home
your honour

badges in dust
in my chest
pride

our children
sing
heal wounds

my love
black and white
cups

wansbeck
flows
red

once
my eyes
glowed

my heart
ashington
ash town

yer bugs
i’m drowning
in kisses

deliver
babies
gifts

seed
with my eyes
visions

wor jackie
bobbing
river

doon that hole
gold
nuggets

this is my place
no place
for rats

turn pages
seek liberty
in ancient books

photographs
wor lass
beautiful

bring me sunshine
light
the back-lanes

kicking a ball
the walls
echo






KEITH ARMSTRONG

some comments

Some comments on poetry/music evening at Ustinov College, Durham on December 2nd in support of Palestinian Educational Trust:

From songstress Marie Little:

Hi Keith,

It was a lovely night and a successful one. Everyone enjoyed themselves, singers, poets and audience.

Go well
Marie

From poet Cynthia Fuller:

Dear Keith
It was a good event. I liked the mix of poetry and music and it's a good cause to be supporting. Thanks for organising it.


Best wishes
Cynthia

peter common on bridge hotel jack common book launch

Hi Keith,

It was an absolute pleasure. I really enjoyed the evening, the old Bridge
Hotel didn't let us down and the atmosphere was magic, particularly in the
bar afterwards. (The beer was great as well).

I got back to the Travelodge safely afterwards with the help of those two
crazy sisters that you left me in the hands of. They drove me home in their
car. I believe they are called Angela and Siobhan. Good people to be sure!

It was good hearing the "Kiddar's Luck" folk group in a more sympathetic
atmosphere. I have since downloaded the words of two of their songs, Sally
Wheatley and Sally Gee, both very interesting but for different reasons. I
would like to know more about the background to the Sally Gee song. Do you
know anything about the story?

I also enjoyed seeing and hearing Catherine Graham again, she gave me a card
with her poem, "When the Ship Sails up Dean Street", printed on it.

And of course your own contribution was up to your usual high standard. All
in all, a memorable evening!

The journey home was uneventful and straightforward. It's always good to
visit Newcastle but it is also good to get back home again.

Good luck with the continued sales of your excellent book.

All the best

Pete

Vertrek uit Dublin

voor Keith Armstrong

Die nacht vertel je over
je vader, splinters in zijn
handen, ploeterend op de werf.
Je moeder, een meisje
dat de vogels voert.

De Brit die drank bestelt
in Duitsland.
'Ein Bier bitte und
ein Martini for the wife.'
'Sweet or dry?'
'Ein bitte.'
We lachen.

Twee Ieren gaan naar Rome.
Ze komen in een bar
en vragen wat de paus drinkt.
'Crème de menthe.'
'Two pints of crème de menthe.'
Na vijf pints zegt de ene Ier
tegen de andere:
'No wonder they're carrying
him around in a chair.'

Zo wordt het ochtend.
Het regent.

Jij belt een taxi. Wacht.
Een onhandig kind per
ongeluk oud geworden.
Een laatste handdruk,
een innig woord.

Later bel ik: 'alles goed?'

Je stem klinkt nachtelijk
en vertrouwd.

Rense Sinkgraven

happy new year to a twin town!

I am glad to have twinned with this shapely town,
the bureaucrat who chose it was inspired,
picking through the rail lines and autobahns to seek it out,
linking it with my fleeting life.
I have travelled here a score of times and watched
my features change
with the seasons
in a twin-town’s mirror.
I have made and carelessly lost friends,
renewed the flagging feel of tenderness,
groped in the darkness for a kiss gone missing,
licked over nooks and crannies.

With local wine glinting in my starry eyes,
I have lost all tracks of time
in the cool of bowing trees;
rejoiced in the pounding of church-bells,
singing in my head.
I have dived in the shadows seeking famous sons,
slid in gutters with the down-and-outs.

This town has a brain of a University
and the guts of a stray-dog.
I have flogged it to death.

It was in this bar, at this table, in this corner,
that I looked into a girl called Karin’s eyes;
and it was at that moment, for that rich moment,
that our eyes twinned and I couldn’t wait to jet home,
write a glowing report on her glowing face
for our International Exchange Officer to file safely
under ‘Twinning Affairs’
or ‘Affairs, Twinning, New Year’.

Yes, I am glad
to have twinned with this shapely town,
inspired
by Karin’s eyes.





KEITH ARMSTRONG

assistance required!

TRY TO UNDERSTAND ME

Try to understand me,
where I come from, where I’m going;
I’m drifting and I need you
to save my hopes from ruin.

You’ll need to know what splits me,
my need for roots and dreams;
it’s not the earth that hurts me,
it’s the tyrants and their schemes.

My father sailed the world before me,
to Rio and to Spain;
his father taught him shells and ships
and how to smile in pain.

Mother stayed at home and nursed,
came from a quiet place;
she ran the river and the green,
grew strong, with a gentle face.

I split my tongue in the early days,
shook off asthma as I grew,
fell into school and struggled out,
just clutching what I knew.

I was bred for something ‘better’,
for an office on fifth floor,
away from sea-spray and stray sheep,
with my name upon the door.

My mother and my father
scraped and saved for me,
bruised each other in the process,
gave up smoking and the sea.

Try to understand me,
why I’ve come back to earth;
it’s because I need to know myself
and the landscape of my birth.






KEITH ARMSTRONG