inspiration quest

ARTS & DARTS!

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 Community Projects creative writing and community publishing enterprise 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, Sean O'Brien, Edward Bond, Edwin Morgan, Uwe Kolbe, Attila the Stockbroker, Jon Silkin, Ivor Cutler, Adrian Mitchell, Julia Darling, Jackie Kay, Frank Messina, Ron Whitehead, Benjamin Zephaniah, Liz Lochhead, The Poets from Epibreren, Tsead Bruinja, The Poetry Virgins, and The Poetry Vandals. 

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, the former mining communities of County Durham, the market town of Hexham amd the heritage of North Tyneside.

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 withTyneside 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 of 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.  

His book on Jack Common 'Common Words and the Wandering Star' was published by the University of Sunderland Press in 2009.

TUEBINGEN 1989

(to Alfonsas Nyka-Niliunas) 

Oh Jenny

you walked with me in your dreamy way

along Hauffstrasse,

my lady out of a fairy tale,

blonde hair shimmered

golden

in the Neckar breeze.

And what exactly were we doing

together

sharing those crazy moments?

Wild flower

plucked from Friedrich’s grave,

you wanted something more tangible

I fear

in your oh so sensual way.

You intoxicated me 

with the strange fragrance 

of your long sexy fingers,

the depth of your lips.

But you couldn’t understand

why I called you ‘Caroline von Schlegel’,

why I wanted to make love to you

in smutty Amsterdam

on a creaking canal boat

on soaking Prinsengracht,

when I could

have had you

simply,

basically,

all to myself

on your bed

at home.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

Alfonsas Nyka-Niliunas was born in 1919 in the highland region of Lithuania. He studied Romance languages and literatures and philosophy at the University of Kaunas and the University of Vilnius. In 1944, as the Soviets encroached upon Lithuania, he escaped to Germany, where he lived in Displaced Persons camps until 1949, furthering his studies at Tübingen and Freiburg universities. In 1950, Nyka-Niliunas emigrated to the United States, He is considered to be one of the main émigré poets. He has published a number of books of poetry, has translated Dante, Virgil, Shakespeare, T.S. Eliot, Baudelaire and other important European poets into Lithuanian, and has been awarded many prizes, amongst them the Lithuanian National Prize for Literature.

thought from mark

I believe, to progress human beings have to think critically. Neo-liberal governments have removed critical thought from education in the last twenty years. It is not considered necessary for a consumer society. Now we're in a mess. We can only move forward once we reintroduce critical thought in education. Critical thought can make people discontented and unhappy but it also gives them a tool with which to change the world.

MARK RAVENHILL

GEORGE ORWELL FESTIVAL

Dr Keith Armstrong will give a talk and reading on Newcastle writer Jack Common (1903-68) at this year's George Orwell Festival, David's Bookshop, Eastcheap, Letchworth. 7.30pm, Saturday 22nd September. Admission free. Armstrong's doctorate at the University of Durham was based on the life and work of Common. Common was a friend of Orwell and at one time looked after his cottage in nearby Wallington when Orwell was away on travels.

NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS

NORTHERN VOICES COMMUNITY PROJECTS  

93 WOODBURN SQUARE,WHITLEY LODGE,WHITLEY BAY,TYNE& WEAR NE26 3JD                        

TEL 0191 2529531 

The objectives of Northern Voices Community Projects are to:

1) Offer a platform for the views and experiences of those people living in the North East of England who are normally denied a voice. Through this, question and subvert established views of culture and the distortions which often surround them and give support to local autonomy and integrity as opposed to centralism and the anti-democractic hierarchies of government and big business, the aristocracy, mass media and ever increasing quangos.

2) Contribute to the culture of the region through a projects and events programme which celebrates its diverse communities, in particular the currently neglected working class, and the area's history and politics and dissenting tradition. Recent projects have involved a touring show in Northumbrian churches, performing poetry on the beaches, working in the community of Spittal, profiling Whitley Bay's Spanish City and the Marsden Rock in South Shields, celebrating the Newcastle writer Jack Common and the Durham links of poet Christopher Smart, performing and recording with folk, pop, classical and jazz musicans and exhibiting with visual artists and photographers. Important events have recently been staged with Amnesty International, the Tyneside Irish Cultural Society and the North East Labour History Society. 

Northern Voices Community Projects attempts to be original and innovative in its programme and to seriously engage with local people and issues rather than indulge in the predictable and unchallenging nature of many cultural events and projects which are often more to do with careerism and the overbearing machinations of cultural bodies which see the arts as a vehicle for commerce and business. 

3) Develop links with likeminded people and institutions, locally, nationally and internationally by a commitment to collective action and to engaging in political activity in an historical context. Recently, reciprocal links have been established with Limerick and Cork, Bradford, Liverpool, Lincoln, Sheffield, Penrith, Aberdeen and Edinburgh and there are significant international links with, for example, Groningen in The Netherlands and Tuebingen in Germany, stretching back some twenty years. Further similar links are actively sought in order to avoid literary and publishing activity being presented in overtly institutionalised, centralised and isolated cultural ghettos which merely replicate prevailing establishment and ruling class orthodoxies.

Such links also question overly cosy notions of  'The North' and celebrate North East England's place in the world and particularly in Europe.

4) Offer help and advice to local people seeking to develop a voice. This can be through creative writing, songs, community research or on tape and through the media and new technology.

Membership is open to anyone who shares the objectives of Northern Voices Community Projects and who wishes to engage in community arts activity in the North East of England.

Northern Voices Community Projects acknowledges project support from the Community Foundation, Awards for All and North Tyneside Council.

SAVING GRACE

The Grace Darling League

must be one of those 20,000 Leagues Under The Sea.

In your Museum,

the Flotsam & Jetsam

drifts on a becalmed Bamburgh day.

A sharp sunlight cuts through the church window:

‘Out of the Deep have I called unto Thee’;

‘Charity, Faith & Hope’.

These tangled words that make up our lives,

the tattered wrecks, flaked skins.

I stare in awe at a piece of the Oar you used,

constructing a jigsaw of your life:

here is a scrap of your dress,

a throb of your ‘English Heart’;

here, locked up, a lock of your hair,

a handbag containing your thoughts;

and ‘There’s The Girl That I Love Dearly’,

a storm in a teacup,

a National Heroine of Japan

who coughed herself to death

like a seagull choking in oil,

like the bloodshot wreck of a dying Empire:

‘Saving Grace’,

save our souls:

Sister,

Save Our Souls.

KEITH ARMSTRONG 

Keith Armstrong at The Black Light Engine Room - Poetry Bookshop Online

Keith Armstrong at The Black Light Engine Room - Poetry Bookshop Online

TIDELINE

We are breathers of water

take sea air

We waltz in breezes

dream of waves

We break voices on shores

sink in the deep

We swim with sea horses

drink the ocean

We are poets of surf

skim on tides

We are dancers in sand 

dip toes in sun

We soak poems in North Sea

rock with the roll of it

We are fishes flying

scream with seagulls

We walk on coral streets

awash with words

We are sharks at the seaside

laugh with dolphins

We hear echoes of foghorns

lonely in dunes

We are singers of shanties

roar with ships                                

KEITH ARMSTRONG

ROOKS AT BUNRATTY CASTLE

We’re Macnamara’s crows,

rooting for sticks and twigs in Limerick days.

We peck the flesh from Lord Gort’s arse,

from the hangers-on to his rich pickings.

We sweep our turbulent wings across the Shannon,

swimming in the Atlantic winds,

flailing over the airport.

We’re building our own

branches of castles,

screaming rebel rants at you below.

Us rooks

have seen the Vikings and the Stoddarts

rave and die.

We are a black brood

swarming though history,

watching you feckless humans

scrap over misery.

See how our wings beat

with the moment’s surf.

How dark our hearts grow 

with suffering.

Keith Armstrong

SONGBIRD

If I had been a really professional poet,

I would be still rewriting this,

poring over the umpteenth draft,

burning the midnight quill.

As it is, all I want to say again is this:

that a songbird does not need an Arts Council grant

to sing.

Keith Armstrong

I WANT MY POEMS IN A BIG PRESS

So you’re in print with a small press

a little press for a short arse

Well I want my poems in a big press

a large press with big breasts

with poems that talk to the world

with spirit in every word

KEITH ARMSTRONG 

MEN OF THE NORTH

Doctor Keith Armstrong presents:

‘Men of the North’ (part of Local History Month)

From poet John Cunningham to wood engraver Thomas Bewick, political agitator and poet Tom Spence, painter John Martin to writer Jack Common - their stories told by Dr Keith Armstrong aka The Jingling Geordie who also performs his own poems dedicated to this splendid array of local talent.

Thursday 17th May 2011  6.30-7.30pm 

Bewick Hall, Newcastle City Library

Admission free

Further information: tel 0191 2774149

lange gasse 18

The leaves blow through the glass

as dreams float in the room

and people I have travelled with

climb up these timbered stairs.

Memories coat the walls,

days wander down the lane;

there is no telling where the tales

of drunken nights have gone.

Church bells punctuate the moon,

screams open up the dawn,

and I see Jennifer lying there,

poems oozing from her smiles.

At morning, Ingrid, with her little hands,

brings coffee to my brain

and Karin calls at evening’s door

with wine to ease the pain.

All these dancing moments,

the dripping down of hours;

this house’s chest is heaving

with the loss of human touch.

I drink those sunken days

and know the gulps are fleeting

but the moonlight-stains on the empty bed

will show we bled

for love.

KEITH ARMSTRONG

OUT TO SEA

SOUVENIR CD


North Tyneside based poet Keith Armstrong and conceptual artist Rolf Wojciechowski recently completed the tour up the Northumberland coast of their text sculpture and poetry performance project, ‘Out to Sea’.

Keith performed his poetry on the local beaches with a loudhailer.

The project was launched at the Dove Marine Laboratory in Cullercoats and a display based on the journey was staged at various venues, including the Maltings Arts Centre in Berwick, Amble Library, The Ship at Low Newton by the Sea, South Shields Central Library and St. Mary’s Lighthouse, Whitley Bay.

Performances by Keith and folk musicians were also staged at the above venues.

This amounted to a literary and musical trail along the coast.

A selection of Keith’s poems from ‘Out to Sea’ are featured on this new CD. Further poems are also included from his recent Northumbrian projects, with sequences on Northumbrian Piper Jamie Allan (1733-1810), the fishing village of Spittal, Whitley Bay’s Spanish City and North Shields’ pubs.

Grants from Commissions North, Arts Council England North East, Northumberland Coast Area of Outstanding Natural Beauty and North Tyneside Council facilitated the ‘Out to Sea’ project and enabled this souvenir CD to be recorded.

Artists: Keith Armstrong - poetry, Ann Sessoms - Northumbrian Pipes, The Ancient Mariners - sea shanties, Jim Mageean - sea shanties.

Recorded at Time Studio, the Buddle Arts Centre, Wallsend, North Tyneside.

Mastered at Shoebox Studios, Newcastle upon Tyne.

ORDER YOUR COPY NOW BY SENDING A CHEQUE FOR £5 (INCLUDES POSTAGE) TO:

Northern VoIces, 93 Woodburn Square, Whitley Lodge, Whitley Bay, Tyne & Wear NE26 3JD, England.

Tel. 0044 (0)191 2529531.

THE FIRST TIME! AN IRISH TRAVELOGUE

1.                                                           

The 7^th February 2012  saw me heading North along

the A1 towards Newcastle Airport. it was early, it was

dark, but it didn’t matter, this trip had been a long time

coming and I couldn’t wait to get on with it.

On the concourse of the airport, I saw who I was looking

for exchanging his sterling for euros with maximum effect

but then that’s what you would expect from "the Jingling

Geordie".

Ryan’s wings ferried us across the sea and we landed with a

scary bump in Dublin’s Fair City. 

A bus ride through streets wide and narrow, where Molly Malone

once pushed her wheelbarrow, quickly brought us to Dublin's Heuston 

Railway Station and the Galway Hooker Bar. Keith, being a doctor, expertly

explained that the place was nothing to do with ill repute or ladies of

the night.

This kind of hooker was in fact a type of sailing vessel. I must

admit, I did feel a little disappointed. Anyway, we spent a glorious

afternoon watching travellers of all types travel through their

life’s written pages, while I readily sank the black stuff and

Keith sank the Magners.

It was brilliant in the Galway Hooker Bar but time and trains wait for no

men, not even spellbinding poets who were filling themselves to

the brim with the Irish charm.

2.

We ambled, unsteadily, along Platform Six and climbed aboard

a brand new train to Limerick, where Keith said we would

get even more kicks. The three hour journey seemed to vanish

as speedily as the dainty tins of Magners that were on sale.

We staggered out of Limerick Station straight into “Charlie St

George's" bar and raised a glass or four to the actor Richard

Harris who used to whet his whistle there. I was quite happy, 

in my Guinness induced haze, so I said "Fuck the gigs!" but

Keith, being the true professional that he is, said unconvincingly:

"No, we’ll make this our last and then we’ll have to grab a taxi

- fast !", which we reluctantly did.

The Jury’s Hotel welcomed us with open arms, it was Magners for

Keith and a tuna and sweet corn sandwich for me - sorry! but I

was ravenous. We had just enough time to get to our room put

our bags down and then it was order a taxi and straight to the gig.

I can’t remember how we got to "Foleys Bar" but when we did

the place was packed, from floor to ceiling, with poets, writers,

artists…all of whom, came, at various times through

the evening, to say hello to Keith, who is well respected and

extremely popular there, which is very good news, even better

news was that we never paid for another drink all night.

Modesty forbids me to blow my own trumpet too loudly, but I

have to admit we absolutely rocked Foley's Bar and went down a

blinding sensational storm - the audience would not let us off

the stage until we repeatedly promised to make a return visit

in 2013.

We even overshadowed the presence of Miss Limerick who was

involved in a photo shoot. You may have heard the old rhyme,

"In Dublin’s Fair City where the girls are so pretty" and it is

perfectly true, Dublin girls are so pretty - but not as pretty

as Miss Limerick! She looked absolutely stunning. Her beauty

cut straight through the Guinness-induced haze and set our

thoughts on a hopeful wandering. We were silently hoping our

fame as poets would hastily spread to her table and she would

inexorably rushed to ours - no such luck! 

3.

Nobody wanted to leave Foleys bar, because the evening had

been so incredibly enjoyable. The licensee had to plead with

everyone to leave before he lost his liquor license. A truly

memorable night!

I don’t know what time it was when we got back to the hotel

I was totally pissed but felt very pleased with myself. My head hit

the pillow and I just crashed out for what seemed like seconds,

when suddenly I was woken by Keith saying:

"How does it feel to be a success, Lonsdale? "

I was really thrilled by his comment and will remember the

moment all my life.

Keith had set the alarm for 6.00am just to make sure we

didn’t miss breakfast and after being suitably fortified by a

full Irish we prepared ourselves to do the whole trip again,

only this time in reverse.

4.

This roller coaster of a trip came to a fabulous climax inside

the "Palace Bar", Dublin, surrounded by Ireland's finest

literary giants together with two of Keith’s friends, Noel Duffy

and Shauna Gilligan, who are both superb writers. It was a

wonderful craic-filled afternoon and a very fitting end to

our trip. When we left "the Palace", my head was literally

spinning, the time spent there had been an absolute delight.

Standing unsteadily outside, we found all the cash we

had left was twenty euros between us, which was unsettling

to say the least because the taxi fare to Dublin Airport was

thirty seven euros. Desperate times call for desperate measures:

I waved a passing taxi down and slurred our predicament to the

driver. He was a good man and full of the craic, he said he

would do us a favour and take us to the airport for twenty euros.

He also threw in his very intimidating and frightening life

story along the way, for free. I somehow remember feeling glad

to be alive when we reached Dublin Airport. The chap was

a cross between Fred West and the Kray Twins, enough said.

I was sad to leave Ireland, it had been my first time there and

something I had always wanted to do and will certainly do

again. Everywhere we went, we were made to feel very

welcome and every gig we did was a complete and total

success, I can honestly say that Doctor Keith Armstrong and I

absolutely shook Dublin and Limerick to their core, Keith

even volunteered to help save the waters of the River Shannon

from being drained off and sold. 

The craic and the laughter never stopped from

take off to touch down and I loved every minute of it. I really

did not want this adventure to end. "Roll on next year!" that’s

what I say and many thanks for the invite Keith, I wouldn’t

have missed it for the world.

ROBERT LONSDALE