Yesterday, November 12th, was Remembrance Day for Lost Species. Three species are lost to eternity every hour. Feral Theatre's Funeral for Lost Species considers the social significance of extinction and commemorates it as a social tragedy. We were invited to hold an event that remembered and celebrated lost species.
Over the past few months members of Pontardawe Script Cafe have been working on the theme, 'Conscious oil,' writing short plays in response to a set of dramatic prints created by Emily Johns on the theme of our historical relationship to oil. Yesterday we held an event,'Make a Play in a Day' where we responded to one of the prints, an endangered albatross with its wings spread, hovering over a city of abandoned plastic bottles. There used to be 21 species of albatross and now there are only three species left. We devised a communal piece that explores the issue. It's very difficult not to be preachy and we had some interesting discussions about how best to put our message across, what motivates people to change their behaviour and how can we adapt to survive climate change? Our inter-connectness with all species was again highlighted and reinforced. What kind of species will humans become? Will we become as extinct as a Dodo or what kind of mutation might we evolve into?
We'll be performing our piece on Tuesday 15th of November at 7pm at the Arts Centre. Professional actors, directed by Derek Cobley will be performing the individual short plays, and in addition, Mess up the Mess, a local youth theatre group will be performing, and the Murton Choir from Swansea will be singing. So now all I've got to do is learn my lines. Eeek!
On return from Pontardawe, we had a quick fish and chip supper and drove down to the Royal Welsh Theatre of Music and Drama. The building was only finished in June and is already a architectural icon overlooking Bute Park. 'Blazin' Fiddles,' a group of five fiddlers, an electric organ player and a guitarist from the Highlands and Islands of Scotland entertained us wholeheartedly for the evening. In the first half of the programme of jigs, reels, laments and marches, the Cardiff audience sat rather primly and politely. After the interval the mood changed and everyone was clapping, nodding and whooping for more. But sadly only a few of us responded to the call to get up and dance, led by a black woman groupie from London. We jumped, stamped and clapped to the wild, heart-stomping playing of the sweating Celtic musicians. Our spirits soar!
I got back to find an email from a person I'd mentored several years ago and with whom I lost touch when I went to Shetland for a year. He had been in care for most of his life and the future wasn't looking too bright for him. He'd re-found me through Google. I was delighted to read how he'd turned his life around, was working, had finally got his GCSE's, was in a relationship, and was off alone on a back-packing adventure to Australia. Inspiring!
What a Day!
Sunday, 13 November 2011
Tuesday, 1 November 2011
PONTARDAWE STRIKES OIL
There's Oil in Pontardawe!
As the price of oil rises, and as the temperature drops and we gear up for what is predicted to be another harsh winter, residents have struck oil in the Centre of Pontardawe - the Arts Centre. And they are singing about it, telling stories and generally creating a drama!
Just weeks after the ban on free plastic bags, Pontardawe Arts Centre is hosting a lively evening to launch the popular exhibition 'Conscious Oil' by Emily Johns. With stories from local miners, singing from the Murton choir, drama from Mess up the Mess and Pontardawe's own script cafe, this evening is set to get you thinking about where your next bag for life is coming from.
'We're oil in this together,' says Brian Cainen, a Swansea scriptwriter whose sketch sees two polar bears fighting over the last piece of ice in the arctic. 'Drama explores big issues,' he says, 'by bringing them down to a human story - or in my case a polar bear story.'
Energy charity Awel Aman Tawe, and Peacock Vein Scriptshop have joined forces to organise the event with funding from Countryside Council for Wales, Environment Wales and Literature Wales. As Jan Daniel (Chair of Script Cafe) says,
'We are oil addicts. But we all have to adapt to survive'.
Conscious Oil - an evening of music, theatre, art and stories.
Pontardawe Arts Centre - Tuesday 15th November 7.00 - 9.30
SORRY-THE FINAL OUTCOME
Hi!
Scores of people came through the doors of the Dahl Art Gallery, in the Norwegian Church last week to see the art and poetry exhibition-'Sorry, i don't eat fish'- Janet and Ieuan Rhys Daniel's creative response to climate change and a celebration of the natural world.
Comments in the Visitors Book included:
'Wonderful drawings, thought provoking poetry'
'Funny and moving'
'I laughed out loud'
'Inspiring and stimulating'
'So glad I came'
£1359.88 was raised for two environmental charities-Awel Aman Tawe, a community energy organisation, and The Taffs Well Community Garden, encouraging local families to grow their own food.
A massive THANK YOU to everyone who supported, visited and contributed.
If you weren't able to get to the exhibition, you can still see and order the pictures and prints on-line. Pictures cost £150-200 and digital prints £25.
See http://ieuanrhysdaniel.tumblr.com
A few of the poems can also be viewed on http://janetdaniel-writer.blogspot.com
The exhibition will be on show again at the Pontardawe Arts Centre from March 28-April 20 2012. There will be a launch on the 28th of March with an open mike poetry session with readings on the theme of nature and climate change.
Please do get in touch if you would like further information
Saturday, 29 October 2011
Friday, 21 October 2011
LAPWINGS
A Shetland pony stoops
at the brackish end of Strand Loch,
her tresses tossing gnats away.
She sniffs sorrow in the wind,
her world is changing.
She lifts her eyes to the stone sky
as a fluttering
of black and white waders
wave by.
She stares solemnly into the shallows,
catching a glimpse of plumage popping.
She counts crests bobbing in damp grass.
‘Not so many this year,’ she neighs,
dipping her head back to the water’s edge
as a bleak mist rolls in.
Janet Daniel
LAST ONE TO LEAVE THE ROOM
LAST ONE TO LEAVE THE ROOM
Gaze into this bowl of light.
See wasp spiders crawl over purple whales
sheep eyes, sleep eyes
swallow, suck
wallow round
deep down, until
like a python
night fingers my throat
squeezing my breath
crushing the light out of me, until
I squeak.
Light becomes night;
night without reason
treacherous night
unforgiving night
don’t go gently night
ferocious night
starry infinite night
In my last nanosecond
I awake
vaporizing night, until
a glow worm appears
re-igniting light;
light pulsating
throbbing light
light of reason
loyal light
forgiving light
child whispering light
laughing light
starburst light
light flooding into consciousness
light giving light to life again.
Janet Daniel
BEELINE
BEELINE
No bees?
No grapes
No sun
No wine.
No wine?
No way!
One way
Save lives
Build hives
More bees
More grapes
More wine
Sunshine!
Janet Daniel
NEW YEAR'S EVE 2009
NEW YEAR’S EVE 2009
You rise
sparkling like glow worms massing,
chandelier
peeping through Leylandia.
You move slowly until break out
into rainbow-scaley sky.
You rise
bouncing ball of icy blue
hang solemnly
ready to drop
onto an unsuspecting world.
You rise
hide behind cross-hatched pear,
play peak and seek
where in autumn
hardened fruit failed their perry promise.
You rise high
to top of leaded apple light
where earlier today
Jays picked budding berries.
You rise higher
pure demure
reminding us of friends
and places faraway.
You rise
above sheep mountain
silhouette
and below
spin fish, turn tides,
moods ebb and flow,
wolf women whistle and wail.
You rise ever higher
and retreat. Janet Daniel
DANCERS' HAIKU
DANCERS’ HAIKU
Roots wrap round lichen
Dancing to sacred rhythm
Freeing green spirit
Janet Daniel
SORRY I DON'T EAT FISH-THE POEM
SORRY, I DON'T EAT FISH
Sorry, I don't eat fish
I wish I could say
when asked
to a dinner party a few days away.
My conscience tells me I should be good
and eat only plants ,
but I can't.
It's the fish that are nearly extinct
that I particularly like
although feel terrible shame
when eating cod, haddock or hake
or any white fish that tastes really divine
when deep-fried with chips and a glass of white wine.
Then there are the oily fish
mackerel, salmon and herring
that once filled the oceans near to our shores
but not anymore,
because people with taste buds like me
just couldn't believe
we are over-fishing our seas.
I am told there are fish to be eaten
without beating you up
you don't have to deny a fine source of grub.
People talk of a sustainable way
but is it at a price I'm willing to pay?
If I don't
it will soon be the end of my favourites
all fished away.
So perhaps I should look
for snapper, crimson and red,
trout, brown, sea and rainbow
organically bred
black and sea bream from the North Wales quarter
cook flounder and more from Cornwall's water.
I do have a choice
I can choose to say
Yes, I eat fish the sustainable way.
Janet Daniel
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