EVENT REVIEW THE NOT PART OF FESTIVAL MANCHESTER 2009 >

EVENT REPORT – THE NOT PART OF FESTIVAL – MANCHESTER 2cd –18^th JULY 2009

Note - 4th July 2009 - As the Not Part Of Festival is ongoing up to July 18th, this report is going to grow on a near daily basis between now and then. AC

Following my modest involvement in the Queer Up North festival play YOU WHO WILL EMERGE FROM THE FLOOD earlier in the year, I was keen to get more active in supporting local and regional arts. The Not Part Of Festival was a golden opportunity to do just that.

I first heard of the festival through The Green Room, on Whitworth Street, where I had taken part in many cabarets and Freed Up Poetry events. Indeed, the July Freed Up, was itself incorporated into the festival, so even without knowing it, I was already destined for playing a part in the events.

BEING PART OF NOT PART OF WHAT?

Not Part Have is Manchester’s equivalent to the Edinburgh Fringe. Organizers, Beth & Gareth McCann were unhappy with how expensive it is for many artists, poets, singers, cabaret performers, etc, to register and appear in a major arts festival. Registration fees an, insurances costs and overheads can leave many highly talented artistes and producers unable to present a show, so much talent goes to waste. Only artistes likely to make high profits are ever going to benefit from a system like that, as they can hope to make enough money from events to cover losses and gain a profit.

Not Part Of was set up as a non-profit making venture, to waive as many costs and overheads as possible for artistes and entertainers who have little investment to stake in their shows, so if gaining a chance to perform at a Not Part Of event, artists have only to sort out their props, costumes, and performance skills, etc. The Festival was to run in parallel to the Main Manchester International Arts Festival, as it had done in the previous two years, on a smaller scale. The name, Not Part Of showed the events unofficial and competing stance in relation to the bigger more costly festival.

My role as a volunteer would be to help run the Not Part Of Kiosk, at the ANC cinema, for a few hours on days of my choosing (with about 30 volunteers NPO were very flexible on hours). The kiosk would serve as an information centre, providing programmes of events and selling tee shirts, badges, and bags promoting the festival.

I was also to attend many of the shows to hand out programmes, and feedback questionnaires to the audience, and collect them in after the shows. In some cases, I was also invited to help write 200 word reviews of events, and send them to the event co-ordinator and to the City Life Magazine .

SATURDAY JUNE 27^th MEETING THE TEAM

A meeting was arranged for half of the volunteers (the second group attending a similar gathering on the following Tuesday). We met at the kiosk office, at the ANC cinema, which was in the process of being set up and with various art-works being brought in. To enable the installation and set up to go smoothly and as it was a lovely warm day, we all went down to the open air amphitheatre right in front of the cinema and we were given a brief informal and very friendly introduction to one another and our team co-ordinators, Beth & Gareth.

MONDAY JUNE 29th MY FIRST SHIFT

I’d taken part in a weekly writing workshop at Commonword, a small press association office operating from the Friends’ meeting House a few minutes walk from the ANC and with the workshop due to finish about the same time as my shift commenced. It was very convenient. The two volunteers from the preceding shift were still present and in good spirits. The day had not been too busy, and my own shift, with Beth & Gareth McCann, and some of the artists involved in the art installation projects keeping company. We gained relatively little public attention, though with the festival itself not starting for several days, we were not expecting to see too much business so far.

The office and kiosk were very warm, and the desk, doubling as a leaflet table, concealed several large cables and pipes that were sticking out through the concrete. Another conservatory like room next to ours carried more artwork that the public could admire – much of which would be on sale. I helped move ladders and get rid of some of the packaging, flower stems, and such that the art presentation organizers set up -

Gareth arrived with the current copy of the Big Issue, which carried a glossy two-page feature on the festival – a great publicity boost for everyone. My four-hour shift went quickly, and how pleasant it had all been.

THURSDAY JULY 2cd 2009

TWO ANISHAABE POETS

The opening day for the festival itself and my first assignment of the fortnight was to assist at a Manchester library poetry event for two native American Amicable poets, Kimberley Blaeser & Gordon Henry. Though some static art displays were already open to the public, this was the festival’s first live performance event. I popped over to the kiosk to pick up festival feedback forms and posters, and met my ‘buddy’ for the event, Jo Oldfield, and we headed to the library early, though the audience were already starting to arrive at the meeting room used for the event.

Both writers had been raised in the Chippewa (Ojibwe) tribe, and both are now professors at US universities as well as published writers. They were raised in the White Earth Band Of Ojibwe reservation.

Jo & I distributed festival feedback forms to the audience, and about half of the attendees filled them in for us.

Gordon Henry read first, interspersing poetry with traditional songs and some impressive drum playing. His poetry evokes the oral tradition story-telling of his ancestors. A boy watches a man perform an elaborate mourning ritual, in which he kills an animal and tears out its heart, setting the heart on an altar, surrounded by artefacts such as the tobacco belonging to a diseased friend. The witness sees the man depart, and spends some time protecting the heart’s meat from the carrion crows who want to feed on it because the boy believes the monument’s maintenance will please the man who created it.

In a more amusing piece, Gordon recited names that his tribe are not to give to their children, including, “Many Shoes, Do Not Shop, & Running Mascara’.

Kimberley’s readings, mainly from her book, Apprenticed To Justice, had a strong feminist perspective on her past, with heartfelt reflections on her family; her mother was a ‘mere twig of a woman’ who nevertheless gave birth to many children, an Aunt lost some of her fingers in a laundry press accident. These reflections did not come across as trivial anecdotes, but snapshot glances at a very real and remarkable past, capturing a ghost-like fleeting sense or real moments surviving only in memory and the author’s writing. Kimberley describes the struggle for humanity’s survival to that of snow falling in a desert, fleeting, short, and ongoing. She described meeting a man who was moved by her resemblance to her own mother. He was so moved by the memory of the mother that he touched the daughter’s arm, not so much touching her as her mother. Kimberley noted, (and set the poem’s title) on how she is a work of ‘living history’.

One of her most haunting comments was the line “A nation is never defeated until the hearts of its women are trampled in the Earth.”

Both poets performed with great humour and energy – an unforgettable event, and a tremendous start to Not Part Of.

BBC RADIO FOUR SLAM

My second assignment was to provide the feedback forms to the audience at a much bigger poetry event, a poetry slam competition final, with the winners destined to appear in a prestigious Radio Four competition. This took place on the main stage at The Green Room, a familiar venue to my from my own poetry and cabaret performance activities. The slam, organized by Write Out Loud, was for winners of slams that have taken place in the last calendar year, and as my last slam victory (and participation) was back in 203, I wasn’t in apposition to participate directly. Several poets I know were involved, and this was a great opportunity to meet lots of exciting new performers. and given that all of the performers had won preceding competitions and heats the standard was incredibly high.

Assisted by festival volunteer Sangeeta Chana, I went to the Green Room to distribute our literature and put up our posters, as we had done at the library (with the blessings of the staff, naturally). The audience at the library had been relatively small, but here, there were many more people, coming in from two separate entrances, some of who were just using the bar rather than attending the event.

At the library we had been able to put leaflets on the chairs ready for the audience to find, but at the Green Room, the chairs flip upright when not n use, making such an approach challenging. It was difficult to see who had a feedback form and who didn’t but we coped well, and the event compeer, Paul Blackburn was kind enough to remind the audience to fill them in for us during the show.

The competition itself was fierce, and a few warm up poets who were not to be judged, set the pace, enabling the randomly selected (by lots) slammers not to be the first on.

The rules were strict, with each poet limited to a mere two minutes and fifteen seconds after which a claxon would sound. If they continued after that they would be disqualified. A few ran into the claxon, but all stopped the instant the hooters signalled that time was up.

Most of the poets were humorous, a few used more serious material, and all were dammed well. I suspected that I would not have won had I been involved and it was obvious that the panel of five judges had a touch job choosing between them. Early harsh judging decisions were met with booing from some of the audience, which may in itself have influenced some judges being more generous with votes for later artists.

From fourteen performers, a shortlist of four were picked for the final, with two of them, Mike Wilson & Ben Mellor winning the coveted places in the radio competition to follow in the autumn.

Quite a few people gave me the completed forms back. Others left theirs behind the bar or on tables around the Green Room, so it was a bit of a paper chase rounding them up. I left the event at about 11.15 pm, knowing another busy day was to follow.

FRIDAY JULY 3^RD 2009

THE FROG AND BUCKET COMEDY CLUB – BARREL OF LAUGHS

My first reviewing assignment, with a mission to write up the event for a festival review for City Life, the Manchester Evening News entertainment supplement. Te Frog & Bucket is a lovely club with a very welcoming attitude, and the comedy was first rate. The funniest moment was not part of the show. Not having too much money I wasn’t going to eat until I got home, so a lost waiter binging me plates of curry and pizza and asking if I’d ordered them was driving me crazy. I thought the table numbering was in order to guide him to the right customers easily but he just trudged round the club asking everyone until he found the right diner, hopefully before the food went cold.

Compeer, John Warburton, and performers Roger Monkhouse, Steve Shanyaski & Duncan Oakley were all on top form, and the club atmosphere was terrific.

My main review went through several drafts and I accidentally posted earlier versions before sending the one even I was happy with – not a great start to my journalism role in the festival.

SATURDAY JULY 4th 2009

An unusual day in that of the four events I saw, I was only a volunteer at one.

THE GREAT NORTHERN AMPITHEATRE - FLASHMOB SHAKESPEARE

Here I was not a volunteer, but a participant performer. As a poet myself, a chance to do some of Shakespeare's work in such a clever, innovative and amusing way was a great opportunity.

A Flashmob is an internet and cellphone phenomena in which an event is organized in some secresc with final arrangements often going out only at the last minute, in which as many people as possible are called on to turn up at some public place to do something, and then quickly go away again. Flashmobbing is well known in the US but less frequent in the UK.

The event we were doing, organized by Artificial Light, involved getting as many people to turn up and perform Shakespeare's 18th sonnet, Shall I Compare Thee To A Summer's day, as possible. About twenty people took part, and a few just missed the event due to its brevity and how it started exactly on time, at 1 pm. I made my own presentation slightly more theatrical and Hammed it up to a Hamlet Yorrick Skull. Though trying, we did not keep the recital in synch with oe another, but it was an event of great humour and energy. I think the Bard would have been proud of us. There are 133 more sonnets to chose from for future events if required.

THE GREAT NORTHERN AMPITHEATRE -HAPPILY EVER AFTER?

I had several hours to kill before I was on duty myself, so I stayed in the Ampitheatre to watch some oft he other afternoon entertainments. The first was a relatively silent art display, in which artists decorated a garden (the lawns and stone floor of the ampitheatre) to look as if a fairy tale party had left it in something of a mess' a table was cluttered with detritus, balloons, many of them burst, party poppers that had been set off, etc. A garden was lovingly constructed with sweets, and there were little wash-able chalk graffiti marks relating to various fairy tale characters who had failed to tidy up alterenselves. The artistes certainly did clear away their work once they had completed their display though.

THE GREAT NORTHERN AMPITHEATRE - ONCE UPON A TIME?

Helen Stewart followed this with more fairy tale activity, telling stories for children (with many adults without kids happily listening too). Helen runs story telling groups encouraging a revival of the oral tradition of story telling, and here she related tales of story tellers having to satisfy cantankerous kings, people executed but able to put their own heads back on, and mysterious dolls - even the drinkers over the other side of the ampitheatre seemed to pay attention and appreciate Helen's spellbinding skills.

TAURUS BAR - M

Now it was getting close to the time when i would have some work to do myself. I picked up some of the festival feedback forms from our kiosk and headed off to get a bite to eat, and made my way to the Taurus Bar in Canal Street, at the heart of Manchester's Village.

Upstairs, Taurus is a lively and busy bar, serving some great pub grub. Downstairs there is a very good little theatre, with seating for about forty to fifty people, and a very good stage set up. It was very warm there, and Taurus provided man in the arriving audience with flans to help keep everyone cool. I was joined by a lovely co-volunteer, and we gave out feedback forms to the audience as they arrived, and answered any questions t hey had about the festival. As the theatre was small and the event sold out, the producer was worried that we might not actually be able to get in to watch the show, but a few spare seats were found and we were invited to enjoy the performance too.

The play itself, staged by Vertigo Productions, was M, a reworking of Alfred Hitchcock's classic murder 'howdunnit' film, Dial M For Murder, with more twists than a corkscrew. The play had attracted rave reviews from its opening night, and watching, it was easy to see why. The central performances were astonishing, and clearly worthy of awards. Craig Hepworth, as the intended victim of a greed driven perfect murder, was excellent, only outclassed by the lead actress, Adele Stanthorpe as the ice cold greed driven sister, M.

As the applause died down and the audience filed out, we gathered back our feedback forms and pens, and headed out - another great day reached its conclusion for me.

SUNDAY JULY 5th 2009

THE GREAT NORTHERN AMPITHEATRE - ART IN ACTION!

A review event for me, watching charity group, Artfully Aware run a painting day in he Ampitheatre, allowing grown ups and children to paint and draw, while the musicians, The Fancy Toys played soothing jazzy sounds to entertain us all. The rain briefly halted proceedings, but the event recovered well, benifitting from the crowds coming back from a nearby parade, attracted by the music.

In the evening I helped run the Not Part Of Kiosk, as I would do the next day too.

MONDAY JULY 6th 2009

THE NOT PART OF FESTIVAL KIOSK

A very quiet afternoon (I swapped shifts and took on the earlier 12-4 run, rather than the 4-7 one. We saw very little traffic until near the end, and I managed to sell some festival merchandise just as my shift was finishing. Whoo!

TUESDAY JULY 7th 2009 5-7 pm

NEXUS ART CAFE - MAKE IT UP AS YOU GO ALONG

This was a delightful relaxed way to explore the arts, with an event set in a very relaxing and over-comfortable vegetarian cafe in Manchester's Northern Quarter. The chairs at Nexus are too comfy and you don't want to get out of them.

Scattered around the room were a series of fortune cookie like strips of paper bearing aesthetic questions like 'What Is Art?' and 'What is creativity?'. A large sheet of paper lay in the middle of the floor and we were invited to add our answers to the questions in the colourful pens and felt-tips provided. many people were happy to do so.

As well as his, we got to constructed some temporary art of our own, with cardboard and duct tape, and a large block of sprawling boxes slowly started to resemble a unicorn's head in the corner of the room. .

Mostly though, we all just chatted and socialized, in a very friendly atmosphere. When the event ended at the teetotal cafe staff and event participants alike retired to a local bar to continue the conversations for a few more hours.

WEDNESDAY JULY 8th 2009 - 8-11 pm - THE SPREAD EAGLE, CHORLTON - SCRATCH POETS

A relatively new open mike and guest poets event, at a pub in Chorlton, the furthest event from home for me, distance wise, and well worth the expedition.

Scratch, now in its 5th month, is a rapidly growing event involving a first half of open mic verse, followed by a guest poet slot, with a few more open mic poets giving the guest poet a break before s/he is subjected to a light hearted Q & A session by compere, Dominic Berry. Open mic'ers included Gerry Potter, Mr. Rough, & Sally Paradise who read a haiku in Klingon. Another
highlight was Amando Halpern, from Portugal performing right before flying home with a sense of needing to be there, giving the night a
very special feel. Akile Chinero was the guest performer, author of Doing Moon & The Coconut Tree. He described discovering that his new girlfriend is a Tracy Beaker fan. It is not clear if the relationship survived this revelation. His realistic depiction of prison life was a huge contrast, describing convicts depressed by the sight of pigeons fluttering by the windows of the cells, - staring in, free to fly off at will, unlike the men they watch.

Akile coped well with Dominic Berry's concluding Q & A interrogation feature in an event that will grow and grow, providing South Manchester's poetry community with a tremendous platform of performance opportunity.

THURSDAY JULY 9th 2009 - TAURUS BAR - REHEARSAL

A two man play with strong Pinteresque overtones. The plot was relatively straight-forward - two actors who don't like each other work together on a rehearsal for a wartime drama, but their personal conflict and egotistical pride makes it difficult for them to get much done, especially in the absence of their director.

Alan Keogh, the author, plays an older, more experienced old school thespian, disciplined, and terribly earnest, conservative and puritanical, disliking bad language and eulogizing even on the contents of his sandwiches.

The younger performer, played by Clive Bonelle, who also provides the play's occasional songs, is les punctual and keen on socializing, a drinker, constantly phoning his drug dealer, has a more laid back approach to the script, which he clearly has little respect for anyway, throwing in improvisations that shock his senior partner. Despite his youth, and irreverence, he has had more success as an actor, a fact resented by his co-star. Steadily the men start to play cruel psychological games to expose one another's inner hang-ups. Occasionally, they get some work done on the play itself too. A thoughtful, tense drama, funny and sad in equal measure, with great performances by both actors.

FRIDAY JULY 10th 2009 - THE APE & APPLE - WRITE OUT LOUD - RIDERS

This Write Out Loud event was quite late getting off the ground, and left time for just two open mic performers. Many hoping to perform were turned down due to the late running. The bar’s eagerness to close at last orders on the dot also helped compress the tightly packed event into a restrictive space, with no drinks or toilet breaks.

It was the quality of the acts that gains the event so much kudos. There was juggling and poetry combined, by Winston Powers, Puppetual Motion had a French Existentialist sock puppet eulogizing on Dr. Seuss going to the toilet, Melanie Reece romanced compeer, Dermot Glennon, Mia Darlone confessed to a fetish for cheese, while Mr. Cheese himself - Gordon Zola sang a German opera in English, performing as Tenor, Soprano & chorus, all by himself, and several other great, often surreal performances were included too. The real surrealism came however from the bar staff who were really friendly right up to closing time when they couldn’t have got us out more quickly by setting the fire alarms off.

SUNDAY JULY 12th / MONDAY 13th - THE NOT PART OF KIOSK

The final week of the festival was quieter for me. I wasn't covering any events on the Saturday at all, (leaving me free to take up an informal invite to a beer festival in Chorlton). The Sunday & Monday shifts were spent at the Not Part Of kiosk, where we gave out the last of the complimentary marmalades provided for our visitors, and had a very quiet shift. I was getting to know the cinema's ads and trailers by heart now as they were played out on screens above their own nearby ticket booths a few feet from the kiosk.

My final scheduled kiosk shift on Monday was equally lovely, and I managed to sell a tee-shirt, bag and badge to a customer which made me very happy.

TUESDAY 14TH JULY 2009 CENTRAL LIBRARY - POETRY WITHOUT NETS

The last Library event for me to cover, primarily as a reviewer, though I stepped to assist in handing out and collecting back feedback forms at the close of the event too. Two poets performed, Adrian Spendlow, & Helen Burke. What worked well was how the poets worked together, and interacted. Often at events with multiple poets, the performers act as if in isolation from the rest of the cast. Here, the cameraderie between the poets worked very well. Helen coped well with interruptions from the BBC film crew covering the event, who interrupted her performance to adjust microphones and made a loud announcement of the fact that they were leaving when they had filmed enough. A member of the audience did likewise when she had to slip away. (The disadvantage of lunchtime events is that people often have to go early to return to work). Another member of the audience cheerfully walked in late in mid-performance and loudly helped himself to the complimentary tea & coffee laid on for refreshments for before and after the performances, while the show was still going on. Helen's poems were about not feeding wild poets, but it was the audience that clearly needed domesticating.

THURSDAY 15th JULY 2009 THE GREEN ROOM - FREED UP

I hadn't planned on being a festival volunteer here as i was actually performing in the open mic poetry event, as i do most months. As NPO volunteers were now thin on the ground and there were many events to cover at the same time, no one had arrived, so as well as performing, I decided to cover the distribution & collection of what few feedback forms i had available.

The event had a higher audience than usual, with a pop concert audience waiting for their gig to start at a nearby nightclub, and the festival coverage increasing publicity too. The audience was well behaved and the poetry excellent throughout the show - I won't say how mine went down.

FRIDAY 16th JULY 2009 THE ROYAL EXCHANGE THEATRE - LITMUS STRINGS

After an uneventful afternoon session in the NPO kiosk, I got my last assignment. Though the festival had one more day to go, my own last assignment was to review this unusual and lovely teatime concert by Litmus Strings, who performed the Madchester music sounds of New Order, Oasis, James, etc. The orchestrations and acoustics were lovely and the staff at the Exchange Theatre were terrific. Festival volunteers were on hand to distribute feedback forms, leaving me free to enjoy and make notes on the concert. It was no wonder Litmus Strings were back on popular demand, as they will undoubtedly be called back again.

MONDAY 20th JULY 2009 KRO 2 - CLOSING PARTY & AWARDS CEREMONY

The festival was over, though one event was still to take place - the closing ceremony. This was a very relaxed party, with a few volunteers on hand to make sure everyone present was invited and to sell some of the remaining festival merchandize. I finally bought a festival badge myself. Free drinks were offered for festival supporters and volunteers as we arrived and each volunteer received a nice bar of chocolate decorated with the words 'NOT PART OF'. Sandwiches and other food was available too.

The awards and thank you ceremony was very good, with many performers and event organizers receiving prizes. Some awards were given on the basis of the ratings awarded in reviews such as those I had written for the City Life magazine, so Litmus Strings & Nexus Cafe were given prizes very much on my influence, though I hadn't known how this was being worked before submitting my reports. I am really glad for the winners though.

This was very much a chance to celebrate and there was a very relaxed happy party atmosphere, - a celebration of the work Beth & Gareth McCann had done for us all, and an excuse to get drunk. It was the natural end of the festival and it felt like the end of an era. I left feeling very happy to have been a part of Not Part Of.

IN GRATITUDE

A huge thank you to everyone connected to the festival, event performers, kiosk customers, venue staff, audience members, fellow volunteers for Not Part Of and especially the amazing and very hard working Beth & Gareth McCann.

LINKS

(Pages for groups, venues and individual performers relating to the festival)

NOT PART OF – www.notpartof.org

Kimberley Blaeser http://www.nativewiki.org/Kimberly_Blaeser

Gordon Henry http://gordonhenry.com.sapo.pt/Main_Page.html

The White Earth Band Of Ojibwe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/White_Earth_Band_of_Ojibwe

The Chippewa (Ojibwe) Tribe http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ojibwa

Write Out Loud - http://www.writeoutloud.net/public/index.php

The Frog & Bucket - http://www.frogandbucket.com/website2006/

Artificial Light www.freewebs.com/artificiallightmanchester

Flashmobbing http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Flash_mob

Shakespeare's 18th Sonnet. http://www.shakespeare-online.com/sonnets/18detail.html