TUEBINGEN/DURHAM LITERARY/ARTS TWINNING
The
partnership with County Durham and the City of Tuebingen in South
Germany was established in 1969.
Poet
Doctor Keith Armstrong, who gained his doctorate at the University on
Durham in 2007, following on from Bachelor's and Master's degrees
there, first visited Tuebingen in November 1987, with the
support of the County Council and the Kulturamt in Tuebingen, to give
readings and talks there for a period of a month. Since then he
has travelled to the city over 30 times and helped arrange for Durham
poets, musicians and artists and their counterparts in Tuebingen
to visit their respective cultural twins.
Doctor
Armstrong was back in Tuebingen from Wednesday 2nd to Saturday 5th
April 2014 with artist/photographer Peter Dixon for readings with
Tuebingen writers Eva Christina Zeller, Sara Hauser, Tibor Schneider
and Florian Neuner at Weinhaus Beck, a school visit and other
networking initiatives. This followed on from his visit from Monday
4th November to Thursday 7th 2013 when he took part in a
major symposium on the theme of writer Hermann Hesse who lived and
worked in Tuebingen from 1895-1899. As well as joining in with the
discussions and giving a reading from his poems on Hesse and
Tuebingen, Keith met with poets, academics, teachers, musicians,
cultural and media workers.
Sara
Hauser visited Durham from Monday 12th to Thursday 15th May 2014
for sessions at the University's English and German Departments and
meetings with local writers, artists and musicians.
So
the twinning continues to go from strength to strength. Looking back
on things, Armstrong and folk rock musician Gary Miller, lead singer
of Durham band the Whisky Priests, travelled to Tuebingen at the
end of March 2012 for performances in pubs, cabaret venues and
schools where they performed with Tuebingen poet Tibor Schneider
who visited Durham in October of that year as part of the ongoing
exchange. Tibor joined his Durham counterparts for readings at
Durham University and at the Half Moon Inn. He was also interviewed
on BBC Radio Tees concerning his Durham visit.
Keith
Armstrong and Gary Miller returned the compliment with a trip to
Tuebingen in March 2013 where they performed again in bars, cafes and
schools with poets Tibor Schneider, Sara Hauser and Tuebingen
musicians.
In
2011, Tuebingen rock musician Juergen Sturm jetted in with his music
partner Mary Jane at the end of October for pub gigs, including a
twinning event in Durham on Monday 31st October featuring
Juergen and Mary Jane with Durham folk musicians and poets. That
followed on from a visit to Tuebingen in South Germany in early
April 2011 by Keith Armstrong and photographer/artist Peter Dixon.
The intrepid pair worked together on a touring display featuring
Armstrong's poems and Dixon's photographs documenting the unique link
between Tuebingen and Durham which was staged initially in the Durham
Room at County Hall, Durham in November. Armstrong performed his
poetry in cafes, bars and schools and met up with Tuebingen friends,
old and new, with the multi-talented Dixon capturing all of it
on film.
This
trip reciprocated a visit to Durham in November 2010 by Tuebingen
poets Henning Ziebritzki and Carolyn Murphey Melchers, when Juergen
Stuerm also took part in a series of pub performances. There was
a special event at Clayport Library, Durham City on Monday November
1st with the Tuebingen poets and special guests from Durham,
followed by a rousing session in the Dun Cow when Juergen, with Mary
Jane, and his Durham counterparts, Gary Miller and Marie Little
belted out their lively songs.
In
addition to his most recent visit, Armstrong was in Tuebingen in May
2010 with Gary Miller for performances in his favourite Tuebingen bar
‘The Boulanger’ and at a local school. This followed a
special guest appearance in 2009 at the biannual Book Festival, a
reading with Tuebingen counterpart Eva Christina Zeller and a
visit to local schools. Eva visited Durham for readings in schools
and at a special event on May 13th 2009 at Clayport Library which
also featured poets Katrina Porteous, Jackie Litherland, Cynthia
Fuller, and William Martin, as well as Doctor Armstrong and music
from the Durham Scratch Choir and Andy Jackson.
A
highly successful series of events were held in 2007 to celebrate the
20th anniversary of the literary/arts twinning established by Keith
Armstrong when he first visited Tuebingen in 1987 for a month’s
residency, supported by Durham County Council and Tuebingen’s
Kulturamt. Since then, there have been readings and performances
in pubs, universities and castles, schools, libraries, book
festivals, jazz and cabaret clubs, even in Hermann Hesse’s
old apartment, involving poets, writers, teachers and musicians
from the twin partnerships of Durham and Tuebingen.
Tuebingen’s
music duo Acoustic Storm, poet/translator Carolyn Murphey Melchers
and Cultural Officer visited Durham and the North East
in October/November 2007. The musicians performed in Durham
schools and pubs and there was a special evening in Durham’s
Clayport Library to celebrate the twinning, with Keith Armstrong
launching his new Tuebingen poetry booklet and performances by poets
Carolyn Murphey Melchers, Katrina Porteous, William Martin,
Michael Standen, Ian Horn, Cynthia Fuller, Hugh Doyle and musicians
Acoustic Storm, Marie Little and Gary Miller. Margit Aldinger of
the Kulturamt in Tuebingen and Brian Stobie of the International
Department, Durham County Council, also addressed the audience.
For
the record, here's a list of those who have made it happen so far:
Tuebingen
visitors to Durham since 1987:
Carolyn
Murphey Melchers, Karin Miedler, Gerhard Oberlin, Uwe Kolbe, Johannes
Bauer, Eva Christina Zeller, Simone Mittmann, Florian Werner, Juergen
Sturm, Mary Jane, Wolf Abromeit, Christopher Harvie, Eberhard Bort,
Marcus Hammerschmitt, Henning Ziebritzki, Andy and Alessandra
Fazion Marx, Otto Buchegger, Tibor Schneider, Sara Hauser.
Durham
visitors to Tuebingen since 1987:
Keith
Armstrong, Michael Standen, Julia Darling, Andy Jackson, Fiona
MacPherson, Katrina Porteous, Marie Little, Ian Horn, Alan C. Brown,
Linda France, Jackie Litherland, Cynthia Fuller, Margaret
Wilkinson, Jez Lowe, Jack Routledge, Gary Miller, Matthew Burge,
David Stead, Hugh Doyle, Peter Dixon.
These
events were supported by Tuebingen’s Kulturamt and Durham County
Council.
FURTHER
INFORMATION: NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS TEL. 0191 2529531.
