Friday 1–Monday 18 April 2022
a Town explores a book explore
Rumer Godden’s
The Diddakoi all over the town of
St Leonards on Sea
atownexploresabook.com #atownexploresabook22 #TheDiddakoi50
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3 events for the Festival Launch 4–5pm: Gensing Gardens Join us for the art installations generated by an extensive schools’ festival workshop programme and the unveiling of Jake Bower’s new work – a sculpture of Rumer Godden’s protagonist Kizzy. This is the first public sculpture of a mixed race child of Romany heritage in England. 5–7pm: Private View of
disPLACED Southwater Area Community Centre 1 and 2 Stainsby Street St Leonards-on-Sea TN37 6LA 01424 461414 07984 732716 Entrance on the railway side of the building. Curator Nick Hill has steered a focus on the experience of displacement in this community art exhibition marking the Southwater Area Community Centre’s twentieth anniversary. Community artists have submitted artworks which respond to Rumer Godden’s central character, Kizzy, who is placed in foster care. 2
Friday 1 April
a Town explores a book Bavard Bar Festival Launch Event
Jess Bayley
Dan Allum
Jake Bowers
Three speakers from Gypsy Romany Traveller communities plus music woven through the evening by Jude Cowan Montague & Matt Armstrong and special festival MC – Tim Bavard!
Friday 1 April 2022
7.30pm
Kino-Teatr
Tickets: £12
43-49 Norman Road St Leonards on Sea TN38 0EG
atownexploresabook.com Tickets from: www.kino-teatr.co.uk 3
Art in eateries
Emma from Sea Kale at 29 London Road TN37 6AJ paints the walls. Sea Kale reveal a new menu of Sussex-based food – see themed menu section. www.seakalerestaurant.co.uk
Artist LOU LOU COUSIN creates an e installation in th s ng Ki of window Road Fish Bar
zoomartscommunity.co.uk
The art in the window of Mama Putt’s modern west African and Caribbean Restaurant is a letter by John Rety about a Romani dancer – illustrated by his daughter, artist Emily Johns. www.mamaputts.co.uk 4
Art in windows
Friday 1–Monday 18 April
In shop windows and homes across St Leonards on Sea
Themed menus, art in eateries and shop window displays Through the festival’s 18 days, St Leonards on Sea’s cafes and creative businesses are offering themed menus, art in eateries and the window displays that have become one of the best loved aspects of the festival. The Zoom Arts Community are exhibiting in Oscar’s on the Square. Teddy Tinker’s window display celebrates a specific nomadic community that travel along the canals in England. The team are designing their shop window display around bargeware to recognise those who have lived and travelled on barges and live in houseboats today.
Neighbourhood art trail Hastings Bexhill and Mencap’s Active Arts team is leading the neighbourhood art trail that Seaview and Arts On Prescription communities – and individuals working with Mark Daniels and Erica Smith at Hattons Yard are creating. This project is called Model Makers, inspired by Godden’s character, Admiral Twiss – a war veteran with a passion for making models. Conjuring the 1970s cereal packet and glue creativity that pervaded ’70s children’s TV programmes, the models will be exhibited in homes throughout St Leonards on Sea. atownexploresabook.com/arttrail22
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Saturday 2 April Kings Road Market 10am–4pm: Kings Road Pick up a copy of the festival programme at our stall in Kings Road Market – and try your hand at making a porcelain horse at one of Liz Emtage’s subsidised workshops in Pelham’s, 22 Kings Road. The workshops cost £5 and run for an hour, starting at: 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm & 3pm
Let’s talk about the book
5–7pm: Southwater Area Community Centre – Free Event Rumer Godden’s The Diddakoi is 50 years old. This event gives us a chance to talk about the book’s themes of marginalised and mixed race experience, relationships with nature, friendship, Romany and nomadic heritage, model making traditions and being true to self. Festival director, Gail Borrow chairs the Let’s talk about the book at Southwater Area Community Centre. The panel includes writer, Dan Allum and writer, journalist and Romany blacksmith, Jake Bowers. Dan Allum, from Cambridgeshire, has abridged The Diddakoi for Radio 4 Extra. He will be reading excerpts from the book at Teddy Tinker’s at 3pm on Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 April – see page 9. 6
Saturday 2–Monday 18 April
Searching for Kushti: 50 years of The Diddakoi Jules Earl & Béla Váradi
2–18 April 2022
Traveller Cart in Darenth 2022 © Béla Váradi
Open Thursday–Sunday 12–5pm Also open on Bank Holiday Monday (18 April)
Electro Studios Project Space 5 Seaside Road St Leonards-on-Sea East Sussex TN38 0AL
www.atownexploresabook.com
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Family workshops and events Thursday 7 April FREE 9–10am: Breakfast reading – see Monday 4 listing 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Clay workshop with Emma Harding*
Saturday 2 April 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm: £5 Pelhams, 22 Kings Road Make a Porcelain Horse Reserve your place by email info@pelhamsonline.com Sunday 3 April FREE 10.30–11.30am Gensing Gardens Recycled instruments workshop with Hannah Collisson* Monday 4 April FREE 9–10am Southwater Area Community Centre The Diddakoi chapter reading with breakfast for families 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Clay workshop with Emma Harding* Tuesday 5 April FREE 9–10am Breakfast reading – see Monday 4 listing 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Clay workshop with Emma Harding* Wednesday 6 April FREE 9–10am: Breakfast reading – see Monday 4 listing 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Recycled instruments workshop with Hannah Collisson* 8
Friday 8 April FREE 9–10am: Breakfast reading – see Monday 4 listing 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Clay workshop with Emma Harding* Saturday 9 April 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm: Pelhams, 22 Kings Road Glaze your Porcelain Horse Reserve your place by email info@pelhamsonline.com
£5
Sunday 10 April FREE 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens recycled instruments workshop with Hannah Collisson* Monday 11 April FREE 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Sound workshop with Ruby Colley* Tuesday 12 April FREE 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Sound workshop with Ruby Colley*
Saturday 2–Monday 18 April Wednesday 13 April FREE 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens recycled instruments workshop with Hannah Collisson* Thursday 14 April FREE 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Sound workshop with Ruby Colley* 2–4.30pm: £5 Little Mashers, 25 Kings Road Print workshop Screenprinting, stencilling and stamping techniques. Reserve your place by email info@littlemashers.com Friday 15 April – Good Friday FREE 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Sound workshop with Ruby Colley* 2–4.30pm: £5 Little Mashers, 25 Kings Road Cardboard sculpture workshop Use recycled cardboard and Makedo kits to make sculpture. Reserve your place by email info@littlemashers.com Saturday 16 April FREE 10am–4pm: Kings Road Pedlars’ Party with craft activities, hobby horses, skipping games & fun for families.
Saturday 2 and Sunday 3 April 3pm: Teddy Tinker’s 134 London Rd TN37 6LT
Free weekend readings from The Diddakoi Dan Allum has abridged The Diddakoi for Radio 4 Extra. He is a Romany Gypsy who grew up in a travelling family. After he attended university, he became an award-winning writer working with the BBC, ITV, the National Theatre, the Royal Court Theatre and the Royal Opera House. His work spans theatre, TV and radio. Since 2003, Dan has run the Romany Theatre Company where he writes, directs and produces original plays, often with a Romany Gypsy theme.
Sunday 17 April – Easter Sunday 11am: Announcement of winners of the creative writing competition via the festival website: atownexploresabook.com
* To guarantee a place on the free Gensing Gardens workshops, book via the festival website: atownexploresabook.com
Kate from Teddy Tinker’s looks forward to seeing you at the book readings on 2 & 3 April.
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Friday 8 April–Sunday 8 May
“What can we do – fly?”
An installation by ARRAN responding to the Police, Crime, Sentencing and Courts Bill which is set to become law in England in April 2022
Currently a Hastings area based artist who identifies as a new traveller, Arran’s family and community have become increasingly concerned over the last year that the new bill passing into law will leave them liable to arrest and to the confiscation of their homes.
Stella Dore Gallery 64 Norman Road St Leonards on Sea TN38 0EJ 01424 718460 Fri–Sun 11–5pm or by private appointment: stella@stelladorestore.com
© Jules Earl
Private View: Thursday 7 April 6–8.30pm
www.atownexploresabook.com 10
Friday 8 April
A free gallery event at Electro Studios Project Space in solidarity with International Romani Day
5–6pm: Gary Brazil and singer, Pashey Smith travel from The South East Romany Museum in Marden, Kent with the museum’s London cart to join the ATownExploresABook festival and mark International Romani Day outside Electro Studios Project Space
Electro Studios Project Space 5 Seaside Road St Leonards on Sea TN38 0AL
6–7pm: Panel discussion with the photography team behind the festival exhibition, Searching for Kushti. Alexander Brattell in discussion with Jules Earl, Béla Váradi and John Cole
www.atownexploresabook.com
7–9pm: Private View 11
Thursday 14–18 April
Thu 14–Mon 18 April Three performances a day Limited capacity Booking advised
Venue:
Archer Lodge, Charles Road St Leonards on Sea TN38 0QX Outdoor performance – dress appropriately
Tickets:
© Béla Váradi
£15 – under-19s: free Book online:
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explorethearch.com Explore the Arch ExploreTheArch @ExploreArch
earthed
A promenade theatre performance exploring two women’s magical childhood hideouts
a Town explores a book
Earthed experiential theatre performance Running over the final Easter weekend, Thursday 14–Monday 18 April, performers Yasmin Aishah and Hannah Collisson explore their multiple identities via the introspection that pervaded their childhoods. The artists create personal spaces in the garden in which to reflect quietly on the known and unknown of relatives, residences and ritual from their mixed race heritage.
Iraq, Ghana, Belize, New Zealand, the UK. Distance and boundaries merged, Poetic world emerged. Inspired by Godden’s protagonist Kizzy who loves to live in the garden. Tickets £15, under 19s free, must book: explorethearch.com/earthed
#Southwater20
Southwater Area Community Centre offers a community art exhibition, events and workshops during the festival to mark its 20th year. Find details of these free #Southwater20 events on pages 2, 6, 8 & 9. Events are not ticketed, places on a first come, first served basis. southwatercommunitycentre.org
#GensingGardens150 Celebrate the 150th anniversary of Gensing Gardens in St Leonards on Sea with a variety of activities alongside the festival outdoor art exhibited in this public green space through the spring holiday. Hastings Borough Council’s Gensing Gardens was laid out in 1872. Heritage Lottery funding supports events and workshops through the year which began with the planting of a baby apple orchard. Workshop details are on pages 8 and 9 and there is more about the outdoor art on page 18. ATownExploresABook22 is supported by: Arts Council England, the festival Crowd funder and Building Stronger Communities match, Chalk Cliff Trust, East Sussex Community Foundation, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery The Arts Society Rother Valley and Southwater Area Community Centre
a Town explores a book 13
Saturday 16 April Kings Road Traders and ATownExploresABook invite you to celebrate The Diddakoi with a STREET PARTY! Fantabulous, fantastical, FREE family fun
10am -4pm
Lovely Shops!
c i G mA & ! c i S U m sit outside the cafes & restaurants
street games HOBBY HORSES MUSIC & MAKING WORKSHOPS
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* www.atownexploresabook.com/pedlarsparty
art-fulL pedlars
selling theiR Wares*
a Town explores a book
Sunday 17 April Exciting news from ATownExploresABook Festival... Inspired by
Friendship
– the central theme in RUMER GODDEN’s
The Diddakoi Creative Writing Competition Young adult author Patrice Lawrence cites The Diddakoi as the book that, as a child of colour growing up in rural Sussex, articulated her experience of feeling different. The festival creative writing competition for 7–14 year olds is themed around kindness. Patrice and fellow young adult writer, Catherine Johnson are judging the entries, alongside writing competition coordinator Hannah Collisson, festival mentee Lily Bowers, Hastings Museum and Art Gallery’s learning officer Foteini Athanasiadou and this year’s festival ambassador, Jean Lancaster. Entries are accepted up to 31 March. Short list and prize winners will be announced on Easter Sunday, 17 April, on the website. For more information visit atownexploresabook.com.
! S E Z I R P
years) One prize for Key Stage 2 (7–11 4 years) One prize for Key Stage 3 (11–1 For more information visit:
competition atownexploresabook.com/
a Town explores a book
www.atownexploresabook.com
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Electro Studios Project Space – 1 mile West 32 Pelhams 34 Hastings & Bexhill Mencap 35 Little Mashers
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THEMED MENUS 4 Hoxleys 6 Sugar Pie Honey Buns 10 Parlour @Kino-Teatr 11 Galleria 12 Tommy’s Pizzeria
ART IN EATERIES 13 Sea Kale 16 Oscar’s on the Square 29 Kings Road Fish Bar 33 Mama Putt’s
Shops, eateries and venues: Kings Road 18 Full details of all the festival partners’ businesses are on our website: atownexploresabook.com/creative-business-team atownexploresabook.com/themed-menus-team
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ART EXHIBITIONS 7 Gensing Gardens 9 Stella Dore 17 Station Path 18 Seaview 19 Southwater Area Community Centre 20 St Leonards Warrior Square Station 36 Warrior Square Gardens 37 Electro Studios Project Space 36 17
1–18 April
“Thank you so much for the workshops you delivered to our Year 3s. They had a wonderful time and our music teacher said how valuable it was for her as well as for the children.” Robsack School
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Outdoor art across town
Outdoor artists Jake Bowers, Martin Brockman, Ruby Colley, Colden Drystone, Caf Fean, Emma Harding, Khadija Khan and Susan Miller have explored with students from Christ Church Primary Academy, Dudley Infant Academy, Hastings Academy, Robsack Wood Primary Academy and St Paul’s Primary Academy through March 2022 while the Choose2bKind project team of Yasmin Aishah, Gail Borrow, Lily Bowers, Maya Coombs, Hannah Collisson, Lou Lou Cousin, Tatenda Michael Manyarara, David Rowan and Erica Smith have worked with these schools and Ashmole Primary, Herbert Morrison Primary, Icklesham CE Primary and West St Leonards Primary Academy. 2,000 children have engaged in projects focusing on relationships with nature, friendship and bullying, Romany and nomadic heritage, the value of a single toy and being true to self. The artwork they have produced is across the town for the full 18 days of the festival – in Gensing Gardens, Warrior Square Gardens and along the station path.
© Béla Váradi
We hope you enjoy the festival The ATownExploresABook festival started in 2017 when ExploreTheArch Theatre Company partnered with creative businesses and community organisations in St Leonards on Sea to develop a reader-led festival platforming voices not usually heard in literary platforms. Six years on, the festival stays true to its community roots by offering multiple creative responses to a heritage book. Visit the festival website or pick up a festival programme from local shops or the station ticket office to explore 18 days of creativity and events responding to the many themes within The Diddakoi.
We are also proud to mark International Romani Day for the first time in the town – Friday 8 April at Electro Studios Project Space. W: atownexploresabook.com T: 07561 305706 E: explore@atownexploresabook.com #ATownExploresABook22 #StLeonardsOnSea Exploring: #RumerGodden #TheDiddakoi #TheDiddakoi50
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Event & exhibition summary
Check atownexploresabook.com for full programme details and visit our social media. Friday 1 April 4–5pm: Gensing Gardens FREE Launch event for outdoor art across Gensing Gardens and the town 5–7pm: Southwater Area FREE Community Centre Private view of disPLACED 7.30pm: Bavard Bar festival special Kino-Teatr.co.uk Tickets £12 1–18 April Art in eateries, themed menus, shop window displays, outdoor art in Gensing Gardens, station path and Warrior Square, plus neighbourhood art trail Saturday 2 April 10am–4pm: Kings Road Market 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm: Pelhams, 22 Kings Road Make a Porcelain Horse £5 Reserve your place by email info@pelhamsonline.com 3pm: Teddy Tinker’s FREE Dan Allum reads from The Diddakoi 5–7pm: Southwater Area FREE Community Centre Let’s talk about the book 2–18 April FREE Thursdays–Sundays 12–5pm: Electro Studios Project Space Searching for Kushti Sunday 3 April FREE 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Recycled instruments workshop 3pm: Teddy Tinker’s FREE Dan Allum reads from The Diddakoi Monday 4 April FREE 9–10am: Southwater Area Community Centre The Diddakoi chapter reading over breakfast for families 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Clay workshop
Tuesday 5 April FREE 9–10am Breakfast reading – see Monday 4 listing 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Clay workshop Wednesday 6 April FREE 9–10am: Breakfast reading – see Monday 4 listing 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Recycled instruments workshop Thursday 7 April FREE 9–10am: Breakfast reading – see Monday 4 listing 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Clay workshop 6–8.30pm: Stella Dore Gallery Private view of “What can we do – fly?” installation by Arran 7 April–8 May FREE Fridays–Sundays 12–5pm Stella Dore Gallery “What can we do – fly?” installation by Arran Friday 8 April FREE 9–10am: Breakfast reading – see Monday 4 listing 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens Clay workshop Electro Studios Project Space – International Romani Day Gary Brazil brings the London Cart from the SE Romany Museum 5–6pm: Singer Pashey Smith 6–7pm: Photographers’ panel Saturday 9 April 11am, 12pm, 1pm, 2pm, 3pm: Pelhams, 22 Kings Road Glaze your Porcelain Horse £5 Reserve your place by email info@pelhamsonline.com Sunday 10 April FREE 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens recycled instruments workshop
Monday 11 April 10.30–11.30am: FREE Gensing Gardens Sound workshop Tuesday 12 April 10.30–11.30am: FREE Gensing Gardens Sound workshop Wednesday 13 April FREE 10.30–11.30am: Gensing Gardens recycled instruments workshop Thursday 14 April 10.30–11.30am: FREE Gensing Gardens Sound workshop 2–4.30pm: Little Mashers, £5 25 Kings Road – Print workshop Reserve your place by email info@littlemashers.com 14–18 April Adult tickets: £15 ExploreTheArch, Charles Road 2pm, 4pm & 6pm – Earthed promenade theatre performance Friday 15 April: Good Friday 10.30–11.30am: FREE Gensing Gardens Sound workshop 2–4.30pm: Little Mashers, £5 25 Kings Road – Cardboard sculpture workshop Reserve your place by email info@littlemashers.com Saturday 16 April FREE 10am–4pm: Kings Road Pedlars’ Party with music, craft activities, street games, hobby horses & family fun. Sunday 17 April: Easter Sunday 11am: Announcement of winners of the creative writing competition via festival website Monday 18 April: Bank Holiday Online Festival closing event A Town Explores A Book @TownExploreBook
@ATownExploresABook