Young Women’s Reading Event

The Young Women’s Reading Event in the Norfolk And Norwich Millennium Library on the 8^th March was very successful despite a few microphone-height hiccups.  The quality of the readings was very strong and Matilda Pine played and sang with verve and originality. Charlotte Creed, the library’s Community Development Worker for young people aged 13-19 wrote in her evaluation of the ‘astounding’ quality of the entries.  The event attracted an audience of around 50.  The young women performed with confidence and what they said was thought-provoking, emotive and brave.

It was a very difficult task to select just one of the pieces for the book token donated by Jarrolds.  In the end, we awarded the prize to Mary Donegan from the Hewett School for observation, wit and great use of dialogue. 

All the writing had its strengths and there was a particular energy, style and excitement about it all.

We, the organisers, applaud all the girls who took part.

Thanks to Charlotte Creed and Gwen Parker at the Norfolk and Norwich Millennium Library, Hayley Ross and Danny the librarian at The Hewett School, Matilda Pine and all the girls.  And thank you too to Jarrolds for the book token and to Hodder & Stoughton for donating hardback copies of Jenn Ashworth’s The Friday Gospels  which we were able to give to all of the girls who took part.

Words And Women in the EDP!

The Words And Women event at Thetford Library  was featured in the Eastern Daily Press on Saturday. The article can be found here and also a good pic of Clare Jarrett, one of our readers. 

Images from Fusion

People are continuing to send through images of our event at the Fusion Digital Gallery on International Women’s Day - for which many thanks! Here are a couple showing our logos up on the screens.

Cultureworks is editing a video of the event and we hope to be able to put this on the blog sometime next week.

In the meantime don’t miss Words And Women reading at Thetford Library as part of The Breckland Festival this Saturday, 12 – 1pm.

The Breckland Literary Festival - Watton

Today a slice of Words And Women read at Watton Library as part of The Breckland Literary Festival. Here are photos of two of our readers – Beth Settle and Deborah Arnander, and also of Anna Mudeka who provided the music.

Paul Young of the Breckland View has written a piece about the reading which can been found here. He also interviews Karen Kidman of Creative Arts East, Anna Mudeka, and Words And Women organisers Bel Greenwood and Lynne Bryan.

Words And Women will be also be reading at Thetford Library on 23rd March as part of the Breckland Literary Festival. 

 

Feedback

 Next week we should be able to post some photos and hopefully a video of our reading events. In the meantime here are a few more images from our drawing exhibition and also a few of the lovely comments we received about the work in our comments book:

‘Wonderful – really amazing and inspiring work ‘ – Laura

‘Really enjoyed seeing Clare Jarrett’s shapes/hollows/fruits. And Fliss Cary is an exciting new discovery’ – Anon

 

 ‘Some very lovely delicate pieces that are stunning. Shall be telling my tutor at NUA to tell the others in my class to come and have a look. The Mother & Daughter piece by Malca Schotten works very well.’ – Rebecca, Fine Art student at Norwich University of the Arts






‘Really strong show – quite intimate. 
Thank you.’ – Anon

‘Classy exhibition. Interesting range. Looks v professional. (Good to see two St Eth’s members represented.)’ – Linda C

Don’t miss

The Drawing Exhibition in the Forum Atrium, Norwich, until Monday 11^th March. Here are some images of the show.

Also, Words And Women will be touring as part of The Breckland Festival and  will be appearing at Watton Library this coming Saturday, 16^th March, 12 – 1pm, and Thetford Library, Saturday 23rd March, 12 – 1pm. Come along! Tell all your friends to come along too!

More photos/Matilda Pine

Here’s a photo from our event in the Fusion Digital Gallery. This is Lynne Bryan and Belona Greenwood, the organizers of Words And Women, welcoming everybody. The images to the left and right of them are images from the Drawing Exhibition which is still on in the Forum Atrium until Monday 11^th March.

And here's a photo of Matilda Pine who sang for us at the Young Girls Reading, 8^th March in the express section of the Norfolk And Norwich Millennium Library.

Matilda is 17 years old and is studying photography, performance studies and film studies at the Hewett Sixth Form in Norwich. She’s a young singer songwriter and has been writing and performing her own songs for about 3 and a half years at festivals and many other events. She says she really enjoys performing and wants to pursue it as a career, and then open a coffee shop.

youtube- http://www.youtube.com/user/matildapine

Thank you everybody!

Thank you to everybody who came to our young girls’ reading and our mash of readings, cabaret, film and theatre in the Fusion Digital Gallery last night, and thank you to every one who gave up their time and contributed their talents too! We hope everybody had a great time.

We will be posting photos and possibly even a film of highlights from the events in the near future.

Meanwhile, here is a little information about one of our film-makers who provided some of the images last night.

Jean Hogg

Jean grew up in Norwich but moved away for university where she studied fine art for her first degree. She then started work in the film industry as a runner and camera assistant, and worked her way up to Assistant Director (3^rd/2^nd /1^st AD) and Production Management roles. She then worked on numerous low budget films and in TV drama. After studying a MA in Fiction Direction at Goldsmith’s College, Jean returned  to Norfolk where she currently runs Campbell Cloud Films, a film and media production company.

Jean is Writer/Director of INTO THE SILENT LAND (16MM/ 15 MIN Short) which was sold at the Short Film Corner, Cannes in 2011. This short film is now being developed into a feature film.

For Words and Women Jean revisited three of her short films to create a multi screened projection for the Fusion space. 

 The image is a still from Into the Silent Land. 

Happy International Women's Day!

Tonight – don’t forget! – it’s the Young Girls’ Reading in the Express Section of the Norfolk And Norwich Millennium Library from 5pm – 6pm.

Then our main event kicks off at 7pm in the Fusion Digital Gallery, the Forum. Prose and poetry readings, satire, short films and music. We hope to see you there!

Below are a couple of photos of Malca Schotten and Clare Jarrett who helped to hang our drawing exhibition in the Forum Atrium this morning. Many thanks to all who helped, particularly Malca, Clare, Tracy Leech-Williams and Barbara Howey. 

Belona Greenwood and Lynne Bryan

Bel is the founder of Words And Women and for the past couple of years has organized it with the help of Lynne. They are both currently shattered but looking forward to Friday very much!

Bel was born in London, but lived and worked abroad for many years, After doing the MA in Creative Writing at the University of East Anglia she found it difficult to leave Norwich. She won an Escalator award from The Writers Centre, Norwich, to write a book of creative non-fiction called Shadow Madonnas, a history of unmarried mothers, and she is a winner of the Decibel Penguin prize for life-writing.  Belona writes plays for adults and children.  She is associate playwright with Chalk Circle Theatre Company and her play The Shadow of Names is part of this year's European Contemporary Drama Review at the UEA.  Another play, Cafe de Sonhos, commissioned by the The Seachange Trust has a summer release at the community launch of St. George’s Theatre in Great Yarmouth. Her play, Alice's Adventure was produced as part of Tribunal 12, Europe in the Dock at last year's Norfolk and Norwich Festival.  She has formed a children's theatre company called The Greenword Tree and is part of Norfolk County Council's award-winning Artists for Climate Change.

 

Lynne is the author of a short story collection, ‘Envy At The Cheese Handout’ (published by Faber & Faber), and the novels ‘Gorgeous’ and ‘Like Rabbits’ (Sceptre). Her work has appeared in anthologies, has been broadcast on the radio and adapted for film. She teaches creative writing at UEA and for The Arvon Foundation.

Arts Project Fund

We have just received the great news that Words And Women have been awarded a grant by Norfolk County Council from its Arts Project Fund, in support of this year’s event. Huge thanks to the County Council.

Count Down! & Sarah Beare

Yesterday the organisers of Words And Women – Bel Greenwood and Lynne Bryan – visited The Forum, Norwich, to have a look at some of the images and films which will be shown during our evening at the Fusion Digital Gallery. Jean Hogg, Creative Director of Campbell Cloud Films, and artist Sarah Beare - see below - have supplied us with brilliant films at very short notice and we just want to say thank you to them for their support and generosity. On our Forum visit we noticed our posters on display in the Forum Atrium and had to take a photo.

Sarah Beare

Sarah studied Fine Art Printmaking at Norwich School of Art and Design, graduating in 1995, and has maintained a diverse practice since then that includes  model making, illustration, photography and animation. Sarah has illustrated projects for sub Saharan Africa relating to food security and nutrition; and has travelled extensively in Europe, Malawi, and Japan, mostly on some creative venture or other. She’s currently in the process of setting up her own business which will involve the design and production of creative items, and is developing a series of small, private workshops and art tuition to deliver from home. See www.sarahbeare.com for more information.

Drawing Exhibition/Antje Ernestus

Here is the wonderful poster for our drawing exhibition which has been designed by one of our exhibiting artists Malca Schotten and also Ben Cracknell of  Ben Cracknell Studios (http://www.benstudios.co.uk). Please come along to the exhibition. It’s free. Works are for sale and 10% of sold price will go to Words & Women to further our work.

Antje Ernestus is another of our exhibiting artists. She is showing drawings which relate to a work called  Mary’s Graters, which was included in ‘Aisle and Air’ , Cley 2012, Cley Next The Sea, North Norfolk. Mary’s Graters consisted of a series of ceramic graters, the biggest 4-5ft tall, placed throughout Cley Church.

“… A familiar tool of the kitchen, ‘Mary’s graters’ are re-made here as a presence to celebrate the people and activities of everyday life, scratchy side and all.” (from catalogue text).

St Margaret of Antioch is patron saint of Cley Church, a beautiful and very interesting medieval building.

The background image on Antje’s drawings is from a photograph taken in the church.

Antje was born near Cologne in Germany and moved to Britain in 1986.

She studied ceramics at Camberwell School of Art, London and lives and works in North Norfolk.

Her work is shown in galleries and exhibitions throughout the UK.