Stack Mag Brief / Content

We are FINN magazine - a niche magazine targeting young creative professional males, which aims to seek pleasure and enjoyment through written and creative writing. through relevant and topical content, short fiction and non fiction pieces, showcasing new talent we hope to target creatively engaged young males which are seeking an outlet outside of technology but don’t have the time to read a novel.

An asethetic similar to this...http://www.thisisrude.com/. see what you think?

Stack magazines can ship it too all of it’s consumers if it likes it, and we’ve got shop in notts willing to stock it.

The name has developed now so it’s arvin&finn. Arvin meaning beginning and Finn relating to the French for end, so rather like a story and that resonates with our aim to fall in love with reading again. So issue one would be arvin and issue two would be Finn - so they would realeased bi annually, arvin first and then Finn 6 months later. So collectively they would have to sit well together as arvin&finn but each one could have a different color scheme or two colours per issue maybe?

Articles

AND YOU THOUGHT LOOSING YOUR VIRGINITY WAS TRAUMATISING… Over the years, the film industry has seen a proliferation of re makes of classic fairy tales. From Snow White and the huntsman released in early 2012 (where Kirsten Stewart famously cheated on Rob Pattison for the films director), to the recent adaptation of Cinderella released earlier this spring all have something in common: they’ve been modernised. Reinvented to have a darker, more sinister twist these films portray something we wouldn’t quite get as an innocent child reading these harmless fairy tales before bed. Directed by Sir Kenneth Branagh, Cinderella is a modern remake of Disney’s 1950’s animation that has already taken a huge $70m (£43.1m) on its opening release in America. The film stays faithful to the traditional, with memorable characters such as the wicked Stepmother, Prince Charming, glass slipper, Fairy God Mother and of course Cinderella herself. Played

by British actress Lilly James – best known for her role in popular TV series Downton Abbey whilst Cate Blanchett plays the Stepmother and Helena Bonham Carter the fairy god mother. Director Branagh states in a recent interview with the BBC that he wanted to just let the fairy tale speak for itself “because it affects us more in a complicated way than we think”… “ Audiences have already come up to me saying the film is about patchwork families and child bereavement and even about politics between women in today’s society”. It has been widely speculated that Cinderella the story itself is about a maiden’s virginity; represented with the glass slipper. In the traditional fairy tale the passing of her father results in Cinderella being locked away in her room and ordered to serve her wicked Step Mother and Sisters. When the glass slipper doesn’t fit the Stepsisters, the wicked Mother breaks the shoe in fit of rage. All seems fairly tame for an innocent fairy tale, right? Nope. It is actually suggested that Cinderella is the fairest maiden in the land, and a virgin. So when the shoe breaks, Cinderella’s hymen supposedly breaks and she loses her virginity. Who would of thought? Our childhood is beginning to look a little sinister, isn’t it?

The earliest recorded tale of Cinderella originates from China, where small feet are considered sexually and socially appealing, hence the emphasis of the shoe in the film. Alongside the significant meaning of the shoe, the classic fairy tale signifies the difference between good and bad, and the importance of inner beauty. Cinderella’s Step Mother and Sisters are not physically beautiful and choose to not accept Cinderella because of her beauty. This jealousy results in the step sisters deforming their feet to match Cinderella’s - originally chopping off their toes and later having their eyes gouged out by pecking doves in the original tale. This film is all about the difficult but simple choice to be good and kind. Bragnah states “whether you’re dealing with Shakespeare or the great fairy stories, they are all great big metaphors for human nature” As we grow older the darker side of human nature becomes more fascinating as reality becomes more mundane and these modern twist on fairy tales allow us to do just that! Catch Cinderella in UK cinemas March 27th. Not to be missed.

ONCE UPON A TIME….

As a child we would get into bed and read fairy tales as a gentle bed time story… perhaps we’d choose snow white if we wanted to name the seven dwarfs or maybe we would innocently choose Cinderella because we liked Jaq and Gus’ banter. However, these Disney recreations are a far cry from the original tales told by Grimm Brothers published 200 years ago and EVEN further from the oldest versions, which are filled with sex, violence and child abuse. Disney adaptations of fairy tales filled our imaginations with hope, romance and talking animals. Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm originally from Germany published the first version of Grimms’ fairy tale in 1812 and gained a huge audience, even including kids. However, Jacob and Wilhelm Grimm’s collection of fairy tales never intended to entertain little kids, they set out to relay some of the darkest, twisted tales with the most gruesome scenes. Therefore, a second volume of revised tales followed in 1815, which were more child friendly and cut out sinister tales such as ‘how some children played at slaughtering’, where one boy cuts the throat of his little brother while playing the butcher and his pig – only to be stabbed in the heart by his mother. Later in 1857 came the release of the seventh edition of the Grimm tales (which is best known today), which includes Christian references and removed reference to fairies. Now to the important stuff…let us delve deep into the hidden meanings behind some of these twisted tales, which would keep our former self up all night scared of what’s in the wardrobe or under the bed!

First we have cannibalism (I would put any food you are currently eating down).

The Robber Bridegroom A young woman is promised to a man by her father. She has a funny feeling about the man and acts on instinct. A bird tells her that he is a murderer and when she visits her groom to be and his house for the first time, she later finds out that in fact her groom has no intention of ever marrying her and that he hatched a plan to kill her. He and his fellow robbers capture young girls, kill them and eat their flesh raw. She later see’s them murder a young woman whilst hiding and manages to escape. Lucky thing.

The Juniper Tree After brutally murdering her Stepson after resenting him for not being her only child, the woman in this fairy tale chops up his body, cooks him and feeds him to his own father in the form of a stew. Unfortunately, he wasn’t so lucky. Bet your Stepmum doesn’t seem too bad now.

The Girl Without Hands A father is contacted by the devil and told to chop off his Daughters’ hands. And so he does. A hint of religion is seen in this one; evil seems to win.

Secondly we shall tell you a bit about the child abuse apparent in all these childhood classics…

Snow white A huntsman is ordered to bring back Snow Whites liver and lungs takes her to the forest, at only seven years old. Poor, old, innocent Snow.

Hansel and Gretel In Hansel and Gretel, the children are deserted in the forest after their Stepmother convinces their Father that they would be better off without an extra two mouths to feed. Welcomed by a witch into her home, whose only desire; is to entice and kill the children. This shows the true innocence of children who happily walk into the trap.

The Juniper Tree Before the Stepmother murders her Stepson, she abuses him. A quote from an early version of the tale says ‘And the Evil One filled her mind with this until she grew very angry with the little boy, and she pushed him from one corner to the other and slapped him here and cuffed him there, until the poor child was always afraid, for when he came home from school there was nowhere he could find any peace.” The Stepmother abused her Stepson as she was worried he would implicate her chance of her and her daughters inheritance.

We all love to hear a good story about revenge, but these are so dark and twisted they put any soap to shame…

Cinderella Unlike in the Disney series when the Stepsisters see redemption, in the old tales they have their eyes pecked out by birds and are forced to live their lives as bling beggar women.

The Wolf and the Seven Little Kids In this tale, the wolf eats seven kids whole. The Mother attempts to cut open the wolfs stomach to save her kids, but she then seeks revenge by filling his stomach with stones. The wolf later drowns when he goes to the river to take a drink. Good fucking riddance.

Little Red Cap (Little Red Riding Hood) Similarly to the Wolf and the Seven Little Kids some versions of the Little Red Cap story also end with a wolf ’s stomach being cut open. The huntsman who finds the wolf cuts his stomach open to rescue the girl and her Grandmother (who were also swallowed whole). And again, they fill the stomach of the wolf with rocks he then drowns in a river.

Snow White In the original tale of Snow White, the evil queen is forced to wear a pair of iron shoes heated on burning coals, in which she must dance until she dies as revenge.

We are all probably far too familiar with suicide, but here we see it in a world we normally view with happy endings…

Rumpelstiltskin The end of Rumpelstiltskin can be read differently. Some say his actions constitute suicide by rage or suicide by accident. At the end of the tale Rumpelstiltskin doesn’t get his way and he gets so angry he tears his body in half. What a bloody psycho.

Bearskin There are three Sisters and one man who made a deal with the devil (we have all heard that before). To see a lifetime of wealth and happiness he has to wear a bear skin as a cloak and never wash. He shows kindness to a stranger who promises one of his three Daughters hand in marriage. He meets the Sisters and the elder two are disgusted and repulsed by him and refuse his hand in marriage. However, the youngest agrees to marry him when he returns in three years (once his seven years is over). The two elder Sisters mad that their younger sister has a handsome and wealthy man for the rest of her life and they have nothing that they both kill themselves. One drowns herself, whilst another hangs herself from a tree. The moral of the story – never judge a book by its cover and be happy for your Sisters.

BOOK REVIEW Every issue we bring you our must read book. Get this on your Kindle, order on Amazon or get down to your local bookstore - this book is a must have...

ONCE UPON A TIME – A Short History of Fairy Tale Marina warner Marina Warner has explored fairy tales over a long span of her writing life. She explores Victorian and Edwardian literature - from the brothers Grimm fairy tales to more contemporary children’s tales brought to us in recent years. Warner dissects an array of tales from classics such as Cinderella, Red Riding Hood, Hansel and Gretel and The Sleeping Beauty to the newer modern day tales such as Walt Disney’s Snow White.

Marina states “Imagine the history of fairy tale as a map, like the Carte du Tendre… drawn by Parisian romantics to chart the peaks and sloughs of the heart’s affections,” In ten chapters Marina Warner divulges into the world of these tales, considering them as both a genre and evaluating them in literary form. Her book gives an in depth overview of past and current thinking and helps understand the crucial correlation between fairy tale and everyday human nature.

What can we expect from this book?

• Exploration of past and current examples of fairy tales • Social, cultural and political influence of fairy tales and how they can be applied to modern day • Explores how fairy tales use fantasy and the imagination as a key genre • The meaning behind fairy tales It is hard not to want to rush out and grab a copy immediately once you see what everyone else is saying…

“We just can’t get away from fairy tales, and for good reason—these stories speak to us in particular ways that we don’t seem to outgrow.

Whether you prefer the classics or TV’s Grimm, in Once Upon a Time: A Short History of Fairy Tale, Marina Warner has written the definitive overview of fairy tales for the non-specialist.

Warner organizes the book thematically; we get the low-down on the story’s tellers, adaptations (both over time, across cultures, and for stage and screen), and even the interpreters (Bruno Bettleheim’s the big one, but there are others) who have altered the way we read fairy tales. Warner reminds us that fairy tales offer us a window into past generations, a nostalgic look at our own childhoods, insight into our psychology, and plenty of intellectual stimulation” (Kel Munger) “For such a small book it carries a heavy load, but Ms Warner's insights are both surprising and rewarding.” (The Economist) “An expert and intriguing guide to the roots and triffid-like growth of a significant genre.” (The Tablet) “Marina Warner is our doyenne of fairy stories ... her scholarly knowledge is not just worn lightly but presented with a flourish.”

(Amanda Craig, Observer) “Her light touch effortlessly imparts knowledge in your mind. A beautifully produced book, this will be a joy to anyone who loves stories.” (Patrick Neale, The Bookseller)

EDITORS NOTE In this issue we relive, reread and rediscover childhood classics in their darker, more adult form. Reigniting our imagination; getting lost in a fantasy world that isn’t always as far from reality as we once believed.

Fairy tales have cast a spell over readers and audiences, both adults and children, for centuries. These enchanting stories have travelled across countries and cultural borders. Passed on from generation to generation, they are ever changing, transformed with each re-telling. There are few forms of literature that have stood the test of time and continued to have this great power to enchant us and rekindle our imaginations. Wicked Queens and Stepmothers, beautiful Princesses, monsters, dwarfs and elves, to goblins and giants, glass slippers, poisoned apples, magic keys and magic beans, the characters and images of fairy tales are one we all recognise, no matter what culture or age.

But, in this issue we explore what is a fairy tale? Where do they come from and what do they mean? What are they trying to communicate to us about morality, sexuality, and society? Are they relevant hundreds of years on, and if so, how? Fairy tales stretch across great distances and time; their history is entangled with folklore and myth, and their inspiration draws on ideas about nature and the supernatural, imagination and fantasy – all things we can still relate to, regardless of age or time.

INTERVIEW WITH ELI P – Poppy J – Jess E - Eli We sat down with Eli Ankutse, founder of Joshua’s magazine, Ape of Gentlemen and his newest venture Samson magazine (which he has invented the new term triannually for) in Hockley, Nottinghams answer to Shoreditch, at the beginning of our April heatwave. As he walked in with his iPad, iPhone and Blackberry you would expect this guy wouldn’t be able to live a life without tech, but it later became apparent it was a necessity for his ever growing business ventures; not a lifestyle choice. Eli first inspired us after a short meeting with him previously in the year in which he exclaimed his love for rereading fairytales and finding new meaning in them in his adult years. Why would a guy with so many different businesses, who is constantly on the go, decide that his choice of escapism would be fairytales and not reality TV?! As we sat down with him he started telling us about how he was not sure he was going to be able to meet this week as he was meant to be wine tasting in Sicily. Suddenly it dawned on us, our interview and Hockley couldn’t beat the Sicilian sun and wine, but we would sure damn try. We went onto try and reassure him that it wouldn’t have been worth it - but come on, who were we kidding, who wouldn’t want to go wine tasting in the Sicilian sunshine? Eli then went onto explain his latest venture to us, Samson magazine and the launch event happening that Friday in London with Nike, which sounded pretty fucking fantastic; beers, football and a DJ. He had managed to get the Kings (who have worn the last two Nike tournaments held in London) down to play a game of five-a-side football against the mega crazy team he had created, pulling in only the best players to ensure he thrashes them to add another achievement to the list. It was hard not to be transfixed by his passionate conversation as he spoke about all these businesses with such ease. We asked him how he coped with the stress, when in comparison the stress we were currently consumed by was miniscule and he told us that if he had gone his whole life without stress and then suddenly got piled high with this, well he simply wouldn’t be alive. You build up to it and then you eventually glide through, phew, the hope we suddenly felt. And on this note we began to dig deep into Eli’s world of fairytales…

J: Describe yourself in three words…

E: Erm… Honest, I’d say brave and err, faithful I’d say.

J: What is your dream sandwich?

E: Oh my dream sandwich, I am really, really boring when it comes to food! But my dream sandwich is probably a club sandwich.

P: That’d be mine too.

E: Yeah but with the crusts cut off!

J: Really? Are you fussy?

E: No, no, no but you said dream sandwich here!

J: What are you currently listening to, what is your song for this year?

E: Well, I don’t listen to the radio at all I can’t stand it! I feel like this whole thing, again, of unplugging, I like to control how I’m feeling mood wise, and the radio controls you, music is very powerful like that. So, I listen to a variety of strange things. I listen to Onra, you know Mad Lib, he is like the Vietnamese version of that. He’s amazing, he does these albums called Chinoiseries, he went back to Vietnam, and he went to this old shop and found this old Chinese vinyl. So, he sampled this vinyl and made albums out of them. My favourite tracks are Valley of Love on Chinoiseries One and Got to Go on Chinoiseries Two. Chinoiseries are little Chinese things, so that’s what I listen to know and a lot of Mad Lib, and at the same time it varies quite a bit. I listen to Antonin Dvorak, New World Symphonies and stuff like that occasionally if I am in that mood. But, then, occasionally I will listen to Kanye, All Day; it’s just a mix. But, generally Onra and Mad Lib is what I listen to.

J: What is the one thing you couldn’t live without?

E: Erm, I don’t think, it’s weird, I am not overly attached to anything, they’re all a function, for me it’s going what function couldn’t I live without, what one do I care about more than the others.

P: Ok, if you had to go to an island and you could only take one thing with you, water and food is all taken care of, what would it be?

E: It probably, would have to be a book. It is the only thing that has value and can outlast me, and every time you read it you can have a new interpretation, be a new character.

J: If you were given a million pounds tomorrow, what would you buy?

E: I’d give it all away, and I mean that. I’ve got this plan, my whole plan is to start and get rid off this culture of half sitting on money and just give it away. If you can make that much money, you can make it in a day.

So I would give it away, and actually what I eventually want to do, this is my master plan, so you’re getting something here, I want to set up a fund, completely unrelated to Government, where people with a lot of money, because these people make a lot of money for a reason, they’re good at doing things. And, every year we say we are going to put ‘x’ amount of millions in the account and we go to the country and address a need purely for the people, nothing to do with the Government. So, people can’t say anything, control it, so if we have to bribe a couple of people to do it, it doesn’t matter, it’s part of the budget, I know, standard things like a house, but I would just give away, I don’t need that much money, it takes the fun out of getting it, why would you get up in the morning?

P: I was having a conversation the other day actually, why if you have that much money do you need it?

What are you going to do with it? There’s no point, at the end of your life it isn’t giving you anything more.

E: Exactly! People say, my family, but the world is your family! I can’t sit here on all this money when I know people are starving and stuff like that, how can I sit there? As long as I have enough, and everyone around me has enough, I don’t need to sit on it for any reason, just give it away. I don’t need that kind of money!

J: What is your biggest achievement to date?

E: Erm, my biggest achievement is probably freeing myself from the, the mundane, normal life. That is by far my biggest achievement. Being able to be in full control of my own destiny that is the biggest thing by far. If I had to plug myself back in now, I wouldn’t know what I’d do to be honest!

J: Where do you see yourself in ten years?

E: The way I see myself, is actually, I know everyone wants to travel, but I don’t see myself being located anywhere. The whole reason I started doing what I’m doing, Joshua’s, is because I didn’t want to be based anywhere. I have this thing, this fixation with Japan and my business partner has a fixation with New York, and we could both do it from wherever we are in the world, and if we wanted to move, we could still do it.

So, ideally, I see myself everywhere. Erm, in terms of location, I don’t know, ill be honest, I don’t 100% see myself in the UK, I didn’t grow up here, until year 10 I was in Saudi Arabia.

P: Oh, really?

E: So here’s like coming on holiday, so I never feel like I’m here, here.

J: What is on your bookshelf at the moment?

E: Ha! My bookshelf… a kindle! I’ll tell you what I bought recently actually, Hans Christian Anderson full works, my most recent book, which is quite on theme actually. It is amazing; it has literally everything in it! And Thomas Hobbes, Leviathan, which is not a fairytale, it is the complete opposite, like a Bible but a negative one, and a Bible is on there too, and Monocle guide to Business and basically lots of magazine and I mean lots, all kinds. I don’t read them, just browse because I don’t want to get affected by the content and lead us to a direction. I want the magazine to be from what I believe it needs to be, so I don’t want it to move

me, but at the same time I want to see how things work spatially and see if I can get some special designs and concepts that I maybe hadn’t considered, and, also see who’s advertising and who is active in the market.

J: What inspires you to read fairytales?

E: I find fairytales actual escapism, a lot of people watch reality TV, which is just a translation of what, is happening anyway. Whereas fairytales are so far fetched they allow you to truly escape, as you know it is not possibly true. At the same time it stimulates your mind and gets you thinking about things, and I find it is actually a creative process even though I am relaxing at the same time.

J: What is your favourite fairytale?

E: My favourite fairytale? This is a toughy actually…I don’t think, I’ll be honest; I don’t think I have one, I take from all of them something else. Because I have the full Hans Christian Anderson works there are obviously some in there that weren’t as popular, really weird ones, like about a broken champagne bottle. And the stories are actually quite dark and a lot of them end in bad ways, ya know, and in a way I find that… I quite like that. As a child when I read fairytales I didn’t read them in the same way, you know, as a child reads, very innocent, very top level. From all of them, now when I read them, I don’t necessarily find it hard, I just find it different, from every single one I read I get a sense of this angst that he’s feeling when he’s writing them. I think all these fairytales are a reflection of where he was at that moment in time. When I was a child I didn’t know the backstory behind them, you know, and he got molested as a child at the boys school and all this stuff like that, and you can read these signs of angst and the way he views love, and things, through his fairytales. But, as I said, I don’t really have one, but the most popular ones, that people read now are overplayed. It’s like any good song; you can hear it too much can’t you? It could be your favourite song if you had only ever heard it twice, but by the time you get hammered with it you don’t like it anymore.

I think that is the same with most famous fairytales. I wouldn’t say it was one; it’s a mix of them all really.

J: What fairytale do you think Kim and Kanye would be in?

E: Kanye! Kim! HA! What fairytale do I think he thinks he should be in or…*laughs*. Erm, Kim and Kanye, I think they would be in Rapunzel, Kim would think she was in this tower, she’s trapped and all these men and Kanye would come save her in his Yeezys!

P: So if you had three parties, Liberal Democrats, Labour and Conservatives, and if you had to put each one in a fairytale, or as a character in a fairytale, which party would go where or be who?

E: Ok, so, Lib Dem I’d put as Humpty Dumpty, if they ever got in power, that would be what would happen, they wouldn’t be able to put things back together ever again. *laughs* E: Labour, I think are honestly, Tweedle Dee and Tweedle Dum, they mean well, but they aren’t all there, I can’t see them… I can’t take them seriously, let’s put it that way. Conservatives, I don’t love them, this is tough, I am trying to think of someone in a fairytale who is kind in an evil one, evil but to be kind, so like erm… I don’t know, that’s quite a tough one, because I don’t think they’re overly nice, but I don’t think they’re overly evil either.

J: I don’t think there is anyone like that in fairytales!

E: Yeah, they’re more polar in fairytales, you either get evil or nice, you don’t get those intermediate characters.

They’re necessary evils, let’s put it that way. That’s how I feel anyway.

J: If you were Prime Minister for the day what would be the first thing you’d change?

E: We were having a massive debate about this the other day actually! *Laughs* But, the main thing for me, is that, it’s not something I’d change, but it’s the angle I would try and take. I don’t like how people in charge can’t do what they think is best for the people, because the people won’t let them. There’s a reason they’re at the top, they got all this information that we know nothing about and they can’t tell us! I feel like they’re handicapped by having to

answer to the public, you know, we don’t know what to have for breakfast most of the time, and we want to control this guy, who knows everything, been educated his whole life, who we have elected in power, and he can’t do what he feels is best for us, because we won’t let him. And, so, I don’t know how that would work, but I would like to free the reins a little bit, sort of like a hybrid between how Kings used to be, so, we maintain a democracy, but we have someone at the top who could actually lead. I don’t know if that’s actually a thing or not…

J: If you could live in any fairytale, and what would your character be?

E: I think I would be, and this is a bit general, it is not an exact one, but I would be the guy that always starts of as nothing and ends up being King. Because, I think, without knowing what one side is you can’t understand what the other side is, so I think it would always be some sort of transition where you start of at the base and you end up near the top.

And, with that we dragged Eli off to take some photographs, pushing him into a photobooth, after he exclaimed how much he hates having his photograph taken, but better be prepared for what Friday beholds.

After bidding farewell to Eli we couldn’t help but feel inspired, a man with so many words, so many projects but with always enough time for more, driven by the desire to succeed and help others.

TOP 5 FAIRYTALES Top Five Modern Fairy Tales You Must Watch...

It is hard to ignore that cinema and film are remaking almost every fairy tale we once adored as a child, especially with the recent announcement of Beauty and the Beast, starring Emma Watson, which blew the Internet up in January.

Many of these remakes look at the darker, more sinister side of these fairy tales, creating a more adult approach, and one you can’t help but fall in love with. So, here are the ones you cannot miss, get the popcorn ready and be prepared to watch fairy tales in a way you’ve never seen before…

1. HANSEL AND GRETEL: WITCH HUNTERS Whos in it? : Gemma Artherton and Jeremy Ranner Whats it about? Fifteen years after Hansel (Jeremy Renner) and Gretel (Gemma Arterton) defeated the wicked witch who planned to have them for her dinner, the siblings have come of age and become skilled bounty hunters.

Wanting revenge, the two siblings have dedicated their whole lives to destroying every witch who lurks in the dark forest. But all is not what it seems as they face greater evil which could hold secret to their terrifying childhood.

2. JACK THE GIANT SLAYER Who’s in it? Nicholas Hoult, Stanley Tucci, Ewan McGregor, Bill Nighy Whats it about? The oringial story line has been completely wiped out and replaced with dark battle between the human race and ancient giants. When young farmer Jack (Nicholas Hoult) opens a portal between his realm and a race of giants, it ignites an ancient war. The giants seek to reclaim the land they lost so long ago creating havoc amongst Earth. Jack fights to save the kingdom and for what he loves, and of course he may win the love of a beautiful princess perhaps becoming the ultimate legend himself.

3. SNOW WHITE AND THE HUNTSMAN Who’s in it? : Charlize Theron, Kristen Stewart, Chris Hemsworth, Sam Claflin Whats it about? Queen Ravenna (Charlize Theron), seized control of her

kingdom by marrying and killing its rightful ruler but now needs the life of a young maiden to maintain her beauty. However, to become truly immortal, Ravenna must devour the heart of her stepdaughter Snow White (Kristen Stewart). Snow White escapes, and Ravenna dispatches a huntsman (Chris Hemsworth) to capture her. But Snow, the Huntsman and a rebel army join forces to destroy Ravenna and restore the Kingdom she once knew.

4.

RED RIDING HOOD

Whos in it? Amanda Seyfried, Gary Oldman Whats it about? Set in a medieval village that is haunted by a werewolf, a young girl (Amanda Seyfried) falls for an orphaned woodcutter, much to her family's dismay.

5.MALIFICENT Whos in it? : Angelina Jolie, Whats it about? As a beautiful young woman of pure heart, Maleficent (Angelina Jolie) has an idyllic life in a forest kingdom. When an army invades her land Maleficent becomes it’s protector. However, a betrayal so harsh deeply saddens her and twists her into a fierce creature bent on revenge. She battles with the kings successor and curses his newborn daughter Aurora. Only to later realise she is the key to peace and harmony in the kingdom.

INTERVIEW WITH JON SANDS

*What superpower would you like and why?*

Jon Sands is a poet from Brooklyn, who has recently returned from a tour in the UK. We caught up with him to find out more about what inspires him, his dream sandwich ad what the written word means to him.

Oh man, *obviously* the power to instantly heal. Both myself and others.

Can you even *imagine?*¬¬

*What are you reading at the moment?* I'm reading Seamus Heaney's Nobel Lecture from 1995, Still Life With Woodpecker by Tom Robbins, and two Cathy Park Hong poems from the latest edition of Poetry Magazine.

*What’s currently playing on your Spotify?* *Astro* by MelloHype & Frank Ocean, *Only One* by Kanye West & Paul McCartney, *The Door* by D'Angelo, & (like everyone else) *Take Me To Churc*h

by Hozier.

*What’s currently filling your book shelves?*

*What’s playing when you think no one’s listening?*

My bookshelves are definitely on the come up. Though, I've also utilized my library card a lot lately. It's unbelievable to walk out of an establishment with a handful of books you didn't *pay *for. However, I feel as though I still operate under the this-is-my-book-now mentality, so with all the fines, I'm not sure I've really helped myself. There is a lot of poetry on my bookshelves. Anytime I leave for tour, I generally (at the last second) throw one of about seven books into my bag: *Smoking Lovely*

by Willie Perdomo, *Kingdom Animalia* by Aracelis Girmay, *Shoulda Been Jimi Savannah* by Patricia Smith, *If There Was Something to Desire*… by Vera Pavlova, *Against Which* by Ross Gay, *Boneshepherds *by Patrick Rosal, or *Here* by Wislawa Szymborska.

*Party in the U.S.A.* by Miley Cyrus, for about five years now.

*Send us what you see..... (What does your view look like INSERT PIC – or describe it poetically!)* Just the everyday sweetness of Gowanus, Brooklyn from a window that needs washing. *Where do you seek inspiration for your work?* I read a lot. There's no doubt that that provides a spark. It introduces me to forms that unlock my stories or my imagination. It also models a vulnerability that serves as permission. I think I seek form and permission more than I seek inspiration. Inspiration requires only one's breath (and maybe not even that, though I'll have to get back to you.) *What’s your dream sandwich?* One with extremely liberal amounts of avocado and some sort of craft hot sauce. *Whose words would you secretly like to claim as your own?* Not really my bag. But there are lots of folks I quote almost daily: James Baldwin, Audre Lorde, Keith Haring, Ellen Bass, Patricia Smith, Annie Dillard, Geoff Kagan-Trenchard.

*Can you sum yourself up in one simple poetic verse?* Probably not. But I've been trying for a few years. I might have to go to the sweet pool of Uncle Walt Whitman, "Do I contradict myself? Very well, then I contradict myself, I am large, I contain multitudes." *I would also love to know more about your work with Bailey House and the Positive Health Project?! How did that come about? How do you think creative writing has a positive effect, and as a youth mentor how do you think this creative skill enhances their lives?* *Really interested in the wider context surrounding what the written word means not only for you but for the people you help and the beneficial effects of the fantastic work you do!* I'm a subscriber to the William Carlos Williams quote, "It is difficult/ to get the news from poems/ yet men die miserably every day/ for lack/ of what is found there." My life as an educator is often the attempt to get poetic thought into spaces where it is not generally prioritized. Poetry, and really the mixture of history and imagination have a ubiquitous power over all our lives, and it behooves each of us to be intentional participants in that process. Patricia Smith has spoken about a poem existing when a narrative has been stunned and can't move forward without further commentary. I love that, and I've been an ambassador for poetry in a lot of spaces, and have the privilege of watching that process firsthand.

The way in which we tell our stories, and our ownership of them can shift the direction of our lives. In spaces, specifically, where the value of one's life has been marginalized by the structures of society, this is as much about the discovery of one's own story as it is the necessity to correct an inaccurate portrayal of it in a larger societal context. That is powerful on a global level, but equally powerful to engage in that telling for one's self. It allows people to understand themselves as full, complicated, and ultimately worthy of life. Obviously, that process doesn't stop with writing alone, but I believe people who write with as few defense

mechanisms as possible find, in their own poetry, doors that beckon to be walked through in their own lives. Upon departure from the page, they continue to beg a type of bravery from the writer. That has been my experience, and has heavily influenced my goals as an educator. Mahogany L. Browne identified poetry as, not therapy, but therapeutic. I love that.

POEM BY M MR PEACOCKE English poet M R Peacocke, whose latest published writing includes ‘Caliban Dancing’ writes her thoughts on fairy tales in ‘Second Midnight Scribbles’…

Murder, disappearance, abduction, starvation, false imprisonment, beheading: what’s new? We read the stories, along with a few lucky and surprising ones, in any daily paper.

Paradoxically, not many children in the western world risk starving to death. Not many people have actually seen a dead body except on film. Few families lose a child to illness; there are not many forests and wildernesses large enough to be lost in forever; not many madmen or dangerous animals roam the country. There are plenty of step-parents about but not many murdered or enslaved step-children; forced marriages aren’t considered acceptable. And so, if news of horrors reaches us via television or the press, we may be shocked for a while, but soon each event becomes a scrap of yesterday’s news, and people don’t gather to say, “Tell us the one about...”

In all the long centuries before widespread literacy and what we call the media existed, things were different. Oral story-telling was essential. By firelight or candle light, people would get together to hear news that had travelled by word of mouth, to be entertained and taught, to reinforce their beliefs. Every story-teller’s memory was an archive and more: they would modify and personalise their version of each tale, some elements developed, some omitted or half forgotten. It’s important to remember that the tales were not simply intended to divert the children: the gulf between child life and adult life is a very modern phenomenon. Before schooling was usual or compulsory, most children lived, played and above all, worked alongside adults – as they still do in ‘undeveloped’ countries; they were not treated as a separate kind of creature. Stories – the comic, the frightening, the gross, the romantic, heroic or marvellous – were their education.

Oral story-telling began to die out as social and economic life changed radically in

Europe from the end of the eighteenth century. It was only then that a few educated people began to recognise folk stories as a mine of information about the past, or as good in their own right, and to note them down. The two brothers Grimm, librarians by profession and the first great collectors, were born in the 1790’s. The new disciplines of anthropology and philology began to recognise the tales as worthy of study. However, the practice of oral story telling continued only among the uneducated - hired nursemaids, for example – so that the tales came to be thought fit only for the nursery; and because children were increasingly considered to be in need of protection but also of civilising, the stories were sanitised, bowdlerised and prettified as they found their way into print. ‘Fairy story’ became a euphemism for ‘lie’. Buy a costume and carve a pumpkin for Hallowe’en: who’s afraid of witches now? Mad old toothless women still exist, but they are almost always hidden from common sight.

Fairies now are tinselly and feeble, Disneyfied, as are story-book animals.

The fairies of real belief, though – and they were of many kinds belonging to different habitats – were an embodiment of natural forces, sometimes helpful but not to be relied upon; or they represented luck, which should not be pushed. Magic was a way of explaining phenomena before the development of modern science. History underpinned many stories. Britain, as well as central Europe, has known its wolves, its tyrants, jealous queens, poisoners, plagues and famines – its heroes too, and its faithful animals. The law made sure that younger brothers could not inherit, but had to make their own way in the world. Poor girls had only their beauty to help them escape from the hardships of peasant life. Children had often to live by their wits if they were to live at all. There has always been good luck and bad. Real folk and fairy tales are no mere bed-time stories: they tell the truth about life.

By M R Peacocke

POEM BY EMILY AXFORD Tinderella by Emily Axford & Brian Murphy There once was a beautiful girl, Who was known to swipe left all day, Until she found a charming prince, who was only a mile away.

The prince was none too picky but this one was out of his league, He’d never seen a maiden so fair, plus he hadn’t had sex in a week.

So their courtship did blossom, they planned to meet up that night, She donned her prettiest dress and a pair of control top tights.

The ball was full of creepers; they scoped her low and high, She couldn’t find her handsome prince because her battery just died.

The prince was so distraught, alas and alack, Of all the girls he’d messaged, she was the hottest who wrote back.

So he took out her selfie and he searched far and wide, From the girls doing shots at the bar to the ones smoking outside.

The prince felt defeated and also pretty drunk, Bu then out of nowhere, he saw his one true love. *** She snuck out in the morning at half past four am, And they lived happily ever after.... because they never spoke again.

POEM Midnight Blues

The colours of midnight blues, candle flames, ancient wine, guitar strings, dim light and quiet hues, a silence as sincere as the most bitter truths, It’s when all streets seem so welcoming and melodies get so lovely yet so cruel, a cruelty of art.

When inspiration is a massacre to emotions, and devotions are blood baths.

In the skies… when paintings come back to life, sculptures invite to paradise, and souls fly to different places, invading galaxies and new spaces.

Bracelets, rings and pens, telling stories…

As angels played the harps while demons waltz into the midnight blues…

When sadness and broken hearts are the moon’s favourite muse… amused with it’s beautiful white light curing windows and healing hearts, awakening werewolves in other parts, but we don’t care because it’s all possible in the midnight blues…

When all the forbidden things are only fruits, the only weapon is when stars shoot…

Telling the young ones that wishes do come true… but we make wishes out of desperation and escaping our truths…

And so we drift… into the midnight blues…

When I fail to close my eyes and be in that place like everybody else,

I get up and think of nothings…

Flash backs and memories oh how I loved loving, but I know I’m not alone, because other blue hearts like mine are awake too, joined all together into the deepest blue...

Some would be singing others would be just laying in bed alone, some would cry on their pillows and others will cry on the phone, maybe a few would be cuddling under the moon Few will be smoking and some will be praying to the God they know…

Some will draw their blood streams, sensualities and sins into... the most beautiful walls of imagination into… a dream about every heaven they’d pass by because of too much hell they’ve been through.

Some will be writing poems rhyming with their favourite songs and everyone is somehow peaceful but better yet left alone… in the midnight blues…

Cravings, lusts, sorrows and gloom, we somehow enjoy some pain that’s why we love tattoos… and by wounds and words we were tattooed… but none of us care about the cure…

We just enjoy the midnight blues…

By Rawan Jamal