Dylan Thomas Centre Events Feb - April 2009

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Dylan Thomas Centre Programme January – April 2009 Welcome to 2009 at the Dylan Thomas Centre.

We begin the New Year with the usual mix of regular slots, occasional events and one-offs, to tempt you away from your firesides!

In the teeth of global recession why not take the opportunity to be stimulated and entertained at our great value-for-money events?

If you wish to receive our email updates and reminders please email jo.furber@swansea.gov.uk Please note also that from time to time events take place that are not in our printed programme.

The best ways to be kept informed of these are by being on our email list, and visiting our website – www.dylanthomas.com Wednesday 28 January 7.30pm

Science Café Our monthly slot, organised by Swansea University, starts a new year of talks and discussion on a wide variety of scientific subjects. This month – Dr.Gareth Parry on ‘Otters’.

Tickets: FREE ENTRY Thursday 29 January 7.30pm

Poets in the Bookshop with Rona Campbell Our monthly poetry reading and open mic session this time features Rona Campbell. Born in England but of Welsh and Irish parentage, Rona’s ‘elemental and sensual poetry’ is heavily influenced by her Celtic roots. She won the Sothebys International Poetry Competition in 1982, has been widely published and broadcast, and has published one full collection, The Hedge, from Counter-Point Publications.

Tickets: Full Price £4; Concessions £2-80; Swansea PTL £1-60.

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Thursday 5 February 7.30pm

Poems of Sight and Flight – Chris Kinsey In association with Greyhound Rescue Wales and Gower Bird Hospital.

BBC Wildlife Poet of the Year 2008, Chris Kinsey, presents a collection of ‘hound and bird poems’from her collections Kung Fu Lullabies and Houndlove. All proceeds go to GRW & the Bird Hospital.

Tickets: £5/£4 Wednesday 11 February 7.30pm

Wednesday Play Offs Another season of our popular showcase events featuring extracts of plays by local writers, performed by local actors, with a panel of experts and the audience voting for two winners.

Tickets: Full Price £4 Concessions £3 Thursday 12 February 7.30pm

Cinnamon Press presents John Powell Ward and Jan Fortune-Wood Gower-based John is currently Honorary Research Fellow at Swansea University. This launches his tenth collection of poetry, The Last Green Year.

Cinnamon supremo Jan will join John to read from her superb novelised sequence of prose poems Stale Bread & Miracles.

Tickets: FREE ENTRY & WINE Wednesday 18 February 7.30pm

ON THE EDGE Presented by Michael Kelligan LOOK WHO’S TALKING NOW! Spring 2009 season. New and existing work from the playwrights of Wales SOLITUDE A new play by Dic Edwards, directed by Michael Kelligan Brilliant and often surreal, blocked writer Trecci wishes to be left alone on his barge, only stepping out for a riotous visit to the pub and an occasional sexual encounter with his neighbour’s one-legged wife.

Tickets: All Tickets £3

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Wednesday 25 February 7.30pm

Science Café This month – Dr. Ben Evans on ‘The Bloodhound Programme, the world land speed record programme. (see www.bloodhoundssc.com) Tickets: FREE ENTRY Thursday 26 February 7.30pm

Poets in the Bookshop with Steve Griffiths

Steve Griffiths

Guest is Welsh poet Steve Griffiths, whose latest publication, An Elusive State: entering al-Chwm (Cinnamon Press) is ‘the story of the life and death of an imaginary utopia’, extracts of which have been broadcast on Radio Three’s The Verb.

Tickets: Full Price £4; Concessions £2-80; Swansea PTL £1-60.

27 February to 1 March

Latin-American Festival – Marking 50 Years since the Cuban Revolution Swansea’s Latin American Association (ALAS) presents this year’s cultural festival in association with Cymru Cuba. The festival will be opened on 27th at 7.30pm with a free display of music and dance. The rest of the festival will feature film, talks, dance, poetry and workshops for young people, with a heavy emphasis on Cuban culture. There will also be an exhibition of photographs of Cuba by Heather Bennett. For full details see www.alas.org.uk or www.dylanthomas.com or contact alas_wales@hotmail.com Friday 6 March 7pm

WOMENCENTRESTAGE An evening of exhibitions and entertainment from local women. As well as the current Corridor Gallery exhibition of artwork and photography, this evening will feature displays of jewellery, fabrics, ceramics, glass, books and sculpture, around performances of poetry, drama, music, dance, and video.

Tickets: £3 – all proceeds to Oxfam Women’s Projects.

Wednesday 11 March 7.30pm

Wednesday Play Offs Tickets: Full Price £4 Concessions £3

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Tuesday 17 March 7.30pm

Brian Turner Here, Bullet

“The day of the first moonwalk, my father’s college literature professor told his class, ‘Someday they’ll send a poet, and we’ll find out what it’s really like.’ Turner has sent back a dispatch from a place arguably more incomprehensible than the moon—the war in Iraq—and deserves our thanks...”

Brian Turner is a soldier-poet whose debut book of poems, Here, Bullet, won the 2005 Beatrice Hawley Award, the New York Times “Editor’s Choice” selection, the 2006 Pen Center USA “Best in the West” award, and the 2007 Poets Prize, among others. Turner served seven years in the US Army, to include The New York Times Book Review one year as an infantry team leader in Iraq with the 3rd Stryker Brigade Combat Team, 2nd Infantry Division. Prior to that, he was deployed to Bosnia-Herzegovina in 1999-2000 with the 10th Mountain Division. Turner was featured in Operation Homecoming, an unique documentary that explores the firsthand accounts of American servicemen and women through their own words. Brian Turner’s Here, Bullet is a harrowing, beautiful first-person account of the Iraq war. The poems in this remarkable collection reflect Turner’s experiences as a soldier with penetrating lyric power, compassion, sensitivity, and eloquence, while deploring the violence and acknowledging the grief and terror of war.

Tickets: FREE ENTRY Tuesday 17 March, from 3pm – 5.30pm

Poetry Workshop led by Brian Turner at the Dylan Thomas Centre To book a place contact David Woolley: david.woolley@swansea.gov.uk or phone 01792 463980 Tickets: £10.00

Brian Turner

Wednesday 18 March 7.30pm

ON THE EDGE Presented by Michael Kelligan LOOK WHO’S TALKING NOW! Spring 2009 season. New and existing work from the playwrights of Wales CARIBBEAN ANGELS by Tony Etoria, directed by the Author Bringing some delicious Jamaican flavours to Wales Tickets: All Tickets £3 Friday 20 March 7.30pm / Saturday 21 March 2.30pm & 7.30pm

Darren Hembrow Productions presents Funkette by Binda Singh Jenny and Sharron are fed up with their jobs, their boss, and their lives. Their day just goes from bad to worse, and with a sparkling array of customers breaking up the monotony of their day, will they ever see the light at the end of the tunnel? Featuring Beth Jones, Catrin O’Brien, Darren Hembrow, Alana Cater-Sheehan, Carolina Rosati-Jones, Richard Pritchard, Gillian Jackson and Margaret Hembrow.

Tickets: Full Price £5 Concessions £3

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Saturday 21 March 7.30pm

Booklaunch - No Soy Tu Musa/I’m Not Your Muse An anthology of Irish Women’s Poetry in Spanish Carlota Caulfield and John Goodby Carlota Caulfield is a Cuban-born writer of Hispanic and Irish descent who is currently Professor of Spanish at Mills College in Oakland, California. She studied at Havana, San Francisco and Tulane universities, and is a leading contemporary female Hispanic-American poet. Her numerous books of her own poems include 34th Street (1987), A las puertos del papel con amoroso fuego / At the paper gates with a fiery love (1996), and Book of the XXXIX Steps (1999). She has won several awards for her poetry and academic work, including the Ultima Novocento international poetry prize in 1988. This anthology of Irish women’s poetry translated into Spanish, No Soy Tu Musa / I’m Not Your Muse (2008), is the first of its kind.

She will be introduced by Professor John Goodby of Swansea University, poet, critic, and translator, who acted as editor, introducer and translation consultant for this project.

Tickets: FREE ENTRY & WINE Wednesday 25 March 7.30pm

Science Café This month – Miles Barton, of the BBC Natural History Unit and Series Producer of BBC TV’s ‘Life in Cold Blood’ on ‘BBC Wildlife Documentaries’ Tickets: FREE ENTRY Thursday 26 March 7.30pm

Poets in the Bookshop with Pascale Petit This month’s guest poet is Pascale Petit. Pascale’s latest collection - her third – The Treekeeper’s Tale from Seren demonstrates ‘an intense feeling for the natural world, allied with a personal response to historical incidents’.

Pascale Petit

Tickets: Full Price £4; Concessions £2-80; Swansea PTL £1-60.

Friday 3 April 7pm

Terry Hetherington Evening Neath poet and writer Terry Hetherington died in August 2006. In February last year the Dylan Thomas Centre celebrated Terry’s life and work with a memorial evening for his family, friends and fellow writers. Money raised from the evening, and from subsequent sales of Terry’s books, is being offered to a young writer as a bursary to help them improve their writing skills and experience. The award of the first bursary will be made this evening, and once again friends and family will join to remember Terry and his work.

Tickets: FREE ENTRY

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Tuesday 14 April 7pm

Making an Impression Poet and art critic Professor Tony Curtis will launch our new exhibition of contemporary prints from Shani Rhys James, David Nash, Ceri Richards, Glenys Cour and others, and give an illustrated lecture on the tradition of print-making in Wales.

Tickets: FREE ENTRY & WINE Wednesday 15 April 7.30pm

ON THE EDGE Presented by Michael Kelligan LOOK WHO’S TALKING NOW! STAIRWAY TO HEAVEN (A newly updated version)

by Laurence Alan, Directed by David Britton A considerable figure on the drama scene in Wales, born in Pontypridd in 1954, Laurence says “I love it. It’s my home, and I hope that my plays are firmly rooted there, and at the same time absolutely universal.” He has written for almost all the theatre companies in Wales. His play Flowers From Tunisia won the best new play in the Theatre In Wales awards. He is currently working on a novel, The Last Buffalo.

Tickets: All Tickets £3 Thursday 16 April 7.30pm

Now All the Rage - Duncan Bush

Duncan Bush

Poet and novelist, Duncan Bush is one of Wales’ finest writers.

He reads from his latest novel, Now All the Rage (Colophon Press),which promises to be provocative and controversial, ‘a compelling tale of fame and pornography, anger and art, lust and obscurity (or any combination of these…)’ !

Tickets: Full Price £4 Concessions £2-80 Swansea PTL £1-60

Wednesday 22 April 7.30pm

Wednesday Play Offs Tickets: Full Price £4 Concessions £3 Saturday 25 April 1pm

Saturday Lunchtime Theatre The American Dream Our popular lunch-time drama slot returns, with Fluellen Theatre Company presenting a “script-in-hand” performance of Edward Albee`s absurdist and brilliantly vicious satire on American family life. Mommy and Daddy live with Mommy`s mother. One day they are visited by two guests who turn their world upside down. Albee wrote of his play that it “is a stand against the fiction that everything in this slipping land of ours is peachy-keen” Tickets: Full Price £5 Concessions £4

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Wednesday 29 April 7.30pm

Science Café/Booklaunch Jonathan Foster – The Death Ray – The Secret Life of Harry Grindell Matthews Few will know that inventor Harry Matthews spent the latter part of his life Harry in Swansea, building a laboratory at Craig-cefnMatthews parc! Matthews invented (among many other things) the mobile phone, automatic pilot, submarine detection, and a ‘Death Ray’! His biographer will talk about this remarkable inventor, there will be the usual opportunity for discussion, and also Jonathan’s book for sale.

Tickets: FREE ENTRY Thursday 30 April 7.30pm

Poets in the Bookshop with Phil Maillard This month’s guest poet is South Wales based Phil Maillard, whose latest collection Sweet Dust and Growling Lambs (Shearsman Books) is three collections in one. Phil’s work is ‘vivid and open-handed…a tersely energetic voice’.

Tickets: Full Price £4 Concessions £2-80 Swansea PTL £1-60

Other Events...

From Thursday January 15th at the Dylan Thomas Centre

Poetry Works – A Course with Stuart Jones A Practical Approach to Poetry - for beginners and more experienced writers - 8 week course £25/concessions available – contact Stuart on 01792 540820 or email: stuartjones@ntlworld.com Every 1st & 2nd Thursday of the month from February at the Dylan Thomas Centre 7.30pm – 9pm

Junkbox Poetry Group A lively forum for constructive criticism. For details contact junkboxpoetry@hotmail.com 21 and 22 February – 10am – 4pm at the Dylan Thomas Centre

Peter Read – Writing for Pleasure and Profit Poet, playwright and actor Peter Read has written seven books, including his latest poetry collection Read Only, published in May last year. He has also had four plays staged professionally, with three more due in 2009. This course will look at ways of keeping your writing fresh and at the same time seeking publication for it.

Tickets: £60. Please contact Peter on 07931 614180.

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January - April 2009

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Saturday 21 February 11am

Glasfryn Seminar – Ian Davidson – Language Poetries and Place The latest Glasfryn Seminar, supported by Academi and hosted by Lyndon Davies at Glasfryn, Llangattock, Powys, features two sessions and a discussion led by poet, lecturer and literary theorist Ian Davidson.

Tickets: The cost is only £10 and places are limited.

Contact Lyndon – goodbard@yahoo.co.uk or call 01873 810456 Followed at 6pm by: the Launch of Zoe Skoulding’s first issue as editor of Poetry Wales at the Hen and Chickens pub, Abergavenny, 6 – 8 pm (Free Entry) Wednesday 25 February 8pm

Welsh Gourmet Night at the Dylan Thomas Centre £30 for 4 delicious courses, and live music from a Welsh harpist. There will also be a range of Welsh wines and spirits available on the night.

For full details see www.dylanthomas.com To book call 01792 463980 3pm – 5.30pm on Tuesday 17th March

Poetry Workshop led by Brian Turner

Brian Turner

at the Dylan Thomas Centre To book a place contact David Woolley: david.woolley@swansea.gov.uk or phone 01792 463980 Tickets: £10.00

Wed 25th March 10 - 3pm

Pontardawe Arts Centre presents

A Chain of Voices with Hugh Lupton A beginner’s workshop for adults in the art of storytelling. Suitable for all those who would love to learn some key basic storytelling skills. Learn from a master craftsman of storytelling. At the Dylan Thomas Centre Tickets: £10.00. Booking necessary - contact 01792 863772

Exhibitions...

January – 1 February

Following the Flame In August 2011 a major new exhibition on the history of Wales in the Olympic and Paralympic Games will launch in Swansea. As a precursor, the Dylan Thomas Centre houses an inspiring display to encourage local involvement.

For more information contact phil.cope@talktalk.net

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Exhibitions...

Cuban Fruit Stall, Heather Bennett

Brian Gaylor’s current exhibition – An Alternative View also continues until 1 February.

4 February – 1 March

Green Lemons, Photographs from Cuba Heather Bennett 4 March – 29 March

Womencentrestage Exhibition Artwork & Photography by local women artists.

Mosaic: Womancentrestage

April 1 – 3 May

Making an Impression – Contemporary Art Society for Wales - Original Contemporary Prints from Wales Curated by Professor Tony Curtis who will give a talk to open the exhibition on 14 April.

STOP PRESS! STOP PRESS! The Worm’s Head Hotel, Rhossili is starting a series of inclusive Writing Weekends. The first will be with Iris Gower on 24/25 April. For full details contact Adrian Short: adrianshort233@hotmail.com 01792 390512 DY

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Dylan Thom as Theatre

Civic Cent re

Supported by: hybu llên literature promotion

CYNGOR LLYFRAU CYMRU WELSH BOOKS COUNCIL

Whilst all effort is made to ensure that the details of this programme are accurate, the City and County of Swansea reserve the right to alter any part of the programme without notice.

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January - April 2009

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Travel and Accommodation For accommodation contact Swansea Tourist Information Centre on 01792 361302, or visit www.visitswanseabay.com First Cymru operate a network of local bus services in South and West Wales.

For details call 0870 6082608. For information about rail services contact National Rail Enquiries on 08457 484950.

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All events at the Dylan Thomas Centre unless otherwise stated

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Somerset Place, Swansea SA1 1RR 01792 463980 www.dylanthomas.com www.dylan-thomas-books.com dylanthomas.lit@swansea.gov.uk

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The Dylan Thomas Centre

The Hand Mirror, Shani Rhys James MBE