Arthur Chappell
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EVENT REPORT – DESPERATELY
SEEKING ALEX
I am currently helping to organize a benefit evening and booklet launch on behalf of ‘Desperately Seeking Alex’ , a support group for the family and friends of Alex Humphrey, a 29 year old man who vanished without trace during a visit to Boquete in Panama, South America. He has not been seen anywhere since August 14th 2009. You can see the story here http://www.alex-humphrey.co.uk/ We have a Facebook group for those interested in the show http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=190456900878&v=wall&ref=mf
Alex was (is) a terrific performance poet, and with other fellow performers who have been lucky enough to share the stage with him in the past, I’m helping to organize events to raise awareness and help Alex’s family, who have pushed themselves into debt having to travel to Panama to assist in the investigations there. The show is most likely going to take place in the early New Year, (2010) though the exact date and venue are to be confirmed. Keep an eye on the main DSA Facebook page for updates, and if you wish to help in any way, do get in touch with me here. Thank you.
What follows is my personal diary of the creation and development of DSA from my earliest involvement in it, to the end of the events involved, which may not be until Alex is found and / or the mystery behind his disappearance is solved. I started writing this diary two weeks after the first meeting of the DSA action group, an informal un-elected steering committee of friends who drew together one night to discuss what could be done.
I have several online reviews and reports on shows I’ve seen, or in which I’ve played a modest role as performer or a behind the scenes volunteer. Desperately Seeking Alex is different in that I have been involved in events from so early on. I was / am by no means the main creator or organizer of DSA – that credit goes to Manchester poet, and singer, Andy Nicholson, a close friend to Alex. The idea of a book launch and a benefit gig for Alex, was Andy’s. All writers and performers who have offered to become involved in the events are giving their time and energy for free.
KNOWING
ALEX
I can’t claim to know Alex as well as many others who will undoubtedly have dozens of great memories and anecdotes to share about him. I did meet Alex at a number of performance events, most notably the third Thursday of the month ‘Freed Up’ open-mice poetry shows at Manchester’s Green Room theatre, where we were both regular attendees and performers. Alec often arrived with no prepared material and simply made up improvised work on the spot, with a great sense of mischief and fun, always eager and happy to be a part of the show. His instant performances were every bit as good and entertaining as work the other poets had laboured over and thoroughly rehearsed, and Alec did write material too – Dammed good material.
Alex was the first to joke with me that I often wiggled in an amusing manner when performing. I first learned of this when he told me off for not wiggling one night. He found my wiggle as entertaining, if not more entertaining than my poetry. I found myself contriving a wiggle for a while after that and pointing it out to the audience that I was doing so. Alex undoubtedly got the joke more than most.
I last met Alex by chance at a free classical concert at the Royal Exchange Theatre by the quartet, Litmus Strings. I was there as a volunteer with Not Part Of, who had organized the show for their 2009 arts festival. Alex was in the audience. He looked relaxed and happy. We chatted briefly before and after the short concert, and both agreed that it was a great show, after which we went our separate ways. I had no idea then that I might never see him again.
Just over a month later, in late August, e-mails and Facebook messages were in circulation indicating that something was wrong. Alex had gone missing in Panama during a vacation We were asked to let on if we got messages from him, as Alex had / has our e-mail addresses. No contact was made, or at least hasn’t as yet.
As I suspect with many, I half expected a later message saying he’d turned up safe and well and that rumours that he’d gone missing had just been a minor misunderstanding – that never happened. Alex remained missing. Immediate family and friends were plunged into a growing and terrible sense of despair and panic. International phone calls, dealings with police, embassies, expensive flights to and from South America – unanswered questions, costs, and worries just kept building up. Alex was simply gone. The trail had gone cold.
Keeping matters in perspective, Alex’s disappearance is sadly just one of 1,000’s, and by that I mean adults. Some eventually come home. Others are never seen or heard from again. We all hope Alex does come home, and that DSA can host one last event, celebrating his return, with Alex as guest of honour. I’m sure he’ll be amazed if he learns how much fuss we have all been making about him.
Te media currently remains full of headline stories about another missing person – a girl who vanished on holiday abroad (Portugal in her case) but Madeleine McCann is five years old, and she went missing over a year ago. She was almost undoubtedly the victim of a sinister abduction. Alex is nearly 30 years old. It cannot logically or legally be ruled out that his vanishing is a matter of choice. No one knows where he is or what his current state of health and well being might be. It is terribly easy to fear the worst. To his parents, he is as much a missing child as Madeleine is to the McCanns. Though there has been and continues some media attention for Alex’s situation, his story is mostly low key or unknown to many. DSA hoped from its creation to improve on that.
THE FIRST
MEETING
In October, two full months into Alex’s absence, Andy Nicholson sent a Facebook request out for volunteers willing to help with an anthology book of poetry to be produced to raise monies to assist Alex’s family cover the costs of the ongoing search for him. With the Panamanian police realistically now having to scale down the amount of time and man-power given to the search (after what seems to have been an honourable and honest commitment to the cause, including the use of helicopters) the family may now have to hire private detectives, which will cost them a lot of money. Andy also envisaged poets, singers and other performers presenting a show together, to further promote awareness of Alex’s family’s needs.
Andy called a planning meeting to be held at Odd Bar, in the Manchester Northern Quarter in the evening of Wednesday 28th October. Five of us were able to attend, Andy Nicholson, Catherine Parsons, Allan Gray (formerly known as Gordon Zola), Andrea Wren and myself. I had no real idea what to expect or how much I might find myself involved – wanting to help in some way was motive enough to attend.
Andy summarized his hopes for a book and concert event. Initial hopes to do everything within three weeks struck us all as being too ambitious given other commitments for many of us. – The scale of what we were getting into was becoming more apparent as we spoke – publicity, flyers, media liaison, website updates, raffles, auctions, editing, publication, illustrations, venue finding, tickets, sponsorship, etc. I felt as if I was involved in Live Aid.
Our first task was to name the project. I thought of calling it after a popular film or book title, and my first suggestion was Finding Alex – a pun on Finding Nemo. We ran through a few other titles and when Andrea hit on the Madonna film, Desperately Seeking Susan and turned it into Desperately Seeking Alex, our challenge had a set identity. We all agreed right away that the title was right for us.
Our primary aims are the development & launch of the book, and organizing the concert. The book is safely in Andy’s hands, with a call for submissions already attracting entries from across the poetry community. The submissions will be read by Andy and Jack (Andrea’s partner), after November 13th. If reading this before that date and wishing to be included in the book, submit poems to Andy at aen1mpo@yahoo.co.uk Poems must be 40 lines or less and please send in no more than three poems for consideration. There is no set theme for submissions.
An introductory forward should carry a brief summary of the story of Alex’s disappearance and it will close with an acknowledgment of the people who offered us sponsorship, raffle prizes, etc. The sad part is that not every author or piece submitted can be accepted.
Similarly, with the show, many people we know to be fantastic poets will not get to go on stage – Though a few performers particularly close to Alex may gain some priority, and a few musicians, most open-mic names are to be drawn from a hat to ensure fair opportunity for all. If demand is very high, future gigs for and by DSA may be organized. We have a shortlist of potential mc’s for the big night to choose from too.
The availability of a good venue and the date we can use it are major concerns and a few places are under serious consideration. Much of our publicity drive will need the time and date, and venue address including in our approach to various people we need to contact.
Publicity flyers will be needed, and contact will be made to TV, radio and the regional press before the main event.
My primary role will be approaching sponsors for potential raffle and auction prizes, and developing Internet awareness of DSA activity – this page is very much a part of that promotion.
Within days of the meeting I’d drafted up my notes on the event for the committee members, and many are included in Cat’s more official and tightly written minutes. I also approached various folk for raffle prizes, quickly gaining us a meal for two at the Sweet Mandarin Chinese Restaurant and four tickets to a Slippery Belle burlesque show.
Raffle prizes may be wrapped in blank envelopes, and boxes, so that winning ticket holders then have pot luck as to which prize they get. This was an approach used successfully at an Ugly Tree magazine poetry event in 2009. This option is not yet fully decided on though.
Admission to the show will be free, with requests for donations to the cause being made at the door and during the event, so volunteers able to go round with collecting buckets, and the raffle tickets will also be needed on the night. We hope to provide some sweets and cakes for the intervals too – Venues being considered nearly all have a licensed bar. As the show is likely to run from 7.30pm to 11 pm, an interval or two will be essential.
Good sound and PA equipment is also necessary to the event.
Andrea is the group’s main PR & publicity officer, so anyone wishing to contact the media about the event should please check with Andrea first.
IN
GRATITUDE
The DSA Committee - Alan Gray, Andy Nicholson, Catherine Parsons, and Andrea Wren.
Advice, support & good wishes received from Not Part Of, www.notpartof.org Opportunities to publicize our events received from Not Part Of New Year’s Eve.
Write Out Loud http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/index.php who have drawn author’s attention to the book and invited submissions.
CHARITY
AUCTION PRIZE SPONSORS
http://www.thelowryhotel.com/
RAFFLE PRIZE DONATION SPONSORS
Bella Besame, of Slippery Belle Burlesque, 4 free tickets to one of her monthly shows. http://www.myspace.com/theslipperybelleburlesque For my reviews of Slippery Belle events see http://arthurchappell.me.uk/burlesque.contents.htm
Steve Garside – framed, signed artwork - examples on view at his online gallery - http://www.stevegarside.co.uk/gallery2-7.html
Sweet Mandarin Chinese Restaurant, Copparas St, Manchester http://www.sweetmandarin.com/ My review of a visit to Sweet Mandarin - http://arthurchappell.me.uk/manchester.food-sweet.mandarin.htm My review of the Sweet Mandarin book http://arthurchappell.me.uk/book.review-helen.tse-sweet.mandarin.htm
LINKS
Blog
page giving updates on the search for Alex http://www.alex-humphrey.co.uk/
Desperately
Seeking Alex Facebook page http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=190456900878&v=wall&ref=mf
Panama Guide drawing attention to the search for Alex http://www.panama-guide.com/article.php/find-alex-humprey-facebook-group
Andrea Wren article about Alex’s disappearance http://www.andreawren.co.uk/2009/10/alex-humphrey-is-missing-guardian-article.html
The Guardian article Andrea refers to http://www.facebook.com/l/66f87;www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/2009/oct/03/alex-humphrey-missing-panama
RESOURCES FOR SEARCHING FOR MISSING
PEOPLE
http://www.npia.police.uk/en/10200.htm
http://www.missingpeople.org.uk/
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Missing_person Defining missing persons, though with a North American bias
WHERE ALEX WAS LAST SEEN
Panama - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Panama#Tourism
Boquete - http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Boquete,_Chiriquí
The Waterfall at Boquete which Alex is believed to have been planning to go to and possibly heading out to visit at the time of his disappearance http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x412p8_boquete-panama-lovepanamarealestate_travel
Copyright. Arthur
Chappell
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