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BYT: Hello There

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April 2010


This BYT is writing her first entry in a rush. A dirty rush at that, as today I have mostly been cleaning out an old brothel in the name of art. No, not that kind of art… I am staging a 24 Hour Poetry Marathon a week today as a fundraiser for the Hay Poetry Jamboree in June. Local artist, curator and general good guy Jon Powell has offered me the new Elysium Gallery space in Swansea for the purpose. It hasn’t even opened to the public yet, and with good reason – the building has been empty for 10 years, and before that all kinds of sordid ‘fun’ occurred. Today was testament to that, as we found a cobwebbed high heel, a tube of KY Jelly, an empty wallet and a handwritten itemised takings sheet for a night – the best girl, Elisa, made £195. Insightful. Shame I’ve already written The Art of Contraception, really.
So after much sweeping up of filth and moving of furniture, I am back home for a ‘whore’s wash’ and then off out to see my mate Niall Griffiths read at the Glynn Vivian Art Gallery, mainly so I can have a Friday Beer afterwards with him and the literary crowd. I saw Niall last week too, at the Laugharne Weekend. I’ve written a couple of blogs for Mslexia about it and the National Theatre of Wales’ fab new production Shelf Life.
Poetry seems to be featuring heavily in my life this month, last night I saw Childe Roland perform his two ace short plays Ham & Jam at Swansea ’s Dylan Thomas Centre with Nigel Jenkins. Brilliantly quirky and experimental, I can’t wait to see what he comes up with for his turn at Hay Poetry Jamboree. Afterwards I ran up to Mozart’s for their live poetry night The Crunch and read a couple of poems, one penned that very day. Catch me performing next at Poetry on Tap in Cardiff on Sunday and then Blast House in Carmarthen on Wednesday April 21st.
I shall climb back into a fictional world soon, but right now I have That Friday Feeling, it must be Beer O’Clock… and the sun is shining, happiness :)

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