Jane Trowell's blog

9.40am at the Stephen Lawrence Centre and all is quiet, waiting for participants to arrive and the final day's work to begin.  Read more

Monday 16th sees 14 participants aged between 16 and 25 meet with artists DJ Eric Soul, poets Zena Edwards and Simon Murray from African Writers Abroad, and Ana Tovey from Chocolate Films at the Stephen Lawrence Centre in Deptford, for SHAKE! Ben Amunwa, Jane Trowell and Ed Lewis from PLATFORM are coordinating...
http://remembersarowiwa.com/events-2/

This week-long course is a central part of our year-long residency with SLC called "Shaping the Future". http://remembersarowiwa.com/shaping-the-future-global-art-project-launch...  Read more

I'm posting a few pieces which have emerged from C Words starting with this piece by curator Sophie Hope on C Words, activism, and the art world, continuing with "what the stewards saw", and ending with a wallop "It was doomed from the start" from Gary Anderson of the Institute for the Art & Practice of Dissent at Home. www.twoaddthree.org  Read more

Nearly three months have passed since C Words closed and I've been re-reading the blog entries, my and others' copious notes and records, the heaps of rich and mostly positive feedback we've collected on paper, in emails, interviews on video, audio, and anecdotally.  Read more

We had a barnstorming weekend. Really very good, and although a bit by the seat of our pants, we more than got away with it. Very good spirit among everyone. 'C Words: where are we going?' worked pretty well. Difficult to really reflect and evaluate when it's all still so recent, but the discussions were meaningful and gave us lots of useful points to use when we do our critique in earnest... The Auction of late-Capitalist artefacts was absolutely hilarious and somehow completely dodgy while being brilliant (ie, a fantastically complex event).  Read more

To capture the essence of C Words, African Writers Abroad have released a constant stream of poetry online and offline, on physical and virtual walls. A leaflet will also soon be made available in the Arnolfini for visitors to take away which features this poetry together with newly commissioned work, contributions from participants on the creative writing workshops, and from local Bristol writers and poets.

The first poem to be released in the season is below.  Read more

We're into the second half of the run now, and on a day to day basis everything is running pretty well.

There have been some really great moments recently:
* the Institute's barge moored outside Arnolfini, completely wrapped in their 30m red banner, emblazoned "The concept of culture is deeply reactionary" and "With our £2000 artists fee we are going to Copenhagen" etc etc. Not to mention a week of daily family interventions and
performances.

* Trapese's 2nd Dayschool completely packed out and fascinating. Popular Education and Cultural Activism all day long.  Read more

TOTALLY EPIC DAY yesterday with African Writers Abroad, Virtual Migrants, and Remember Saro-Wiwa events. I was completely inspired by the energy flowing around all day - from the workshops in the Meeting Room to performances in Galleries 3 and 4. The place was buzzing. I had been having conniptions earlier in the week about getting audiences for the workshops and performances, BUT we had really good turnout, great vibe, and fantastic discussion. Good laugh til late on boat afterwards. Never has the Heloise Bay had so many poets on it at once.  Read more

It's my first morning in Bristol, living on a canal barge near Bristol Bridge. I go out into the sun on my bike to find some bits and pieces, and within 5 minutes see my first pirate of the day, in Castle Park, in full regalia, with cutlass. Every time I've been here i see pirates - last time a horde of them on a walking tour. Bristol is happily obsessed with its piratical and disobedient past, yet not so convinced about a piratical and disobedient present.  Read more