Mapping Memories, Over the Fields, on the Isle of Wight

Over the Fields poetry map

I am currently preparing for a talk I will be giving this Thursday, 22nd June at Quay Arts, the Isle of Wight’s leading art gallery and venue for live events.  I was thrilled to be invited to speak about my poetry map, Over the Fields, as part of the events and activities taking place around Richard Long’s show, The Isle of Wight as Six Walks, 8th April – 1st July.

Photograph by Bill Mudge

I will be talking about how and why I came to make the map. Regular readers of my (somewhat irregular) blog will know that this was a process of going for walks with my Dad and my son, over 18 months, beginning in January 2014, and ending in August 2015. The map was self-published after being beautifully designed by my best mate, and printed and folded into a pocket-sized A6 fold out full colour working map, with poems on one side and photos and map on the other.

Since then the map and I have been on quite a journey, and I have been able to achieve some of the aims I had for it, and other things have happened which were unexpected but equally wonderful.

Running Through Six Acre Meadow

I will talk about this tiny piece of greenbelt, and the impact it continues to have on my family. I hope you can join me for a walk through the poems and a chance to think about memory, family and place. And walking itself, and why it continues to inspire creativity.

Information and booking here.

Facebook event here.

Thursday 22nd June, 7.30pm – 9.00pm £7

Quay Arts, 15 Sea Street, Newport Harbour, Isle of Wight PO30 5BD

 

 

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Blossom to Fruit Writing Workshop at Kingston Environment Centre, 4th March 2017

As part of Apple Day at Kingston Environment Centre, on Saturday 4th March, I will be doing this!

Blossom to Fruit: A writing workshop to explore our relationship with fruit and trees, their histories and our memories…

Write about your favourite pear tree, your grandma’s apple pie, be inspired by our local history of orchards and fruit-growing; is there a particular variety of apple you would like to pay homage to? We will explore all these possibilities and more at the start of Kingston Environment Centre’s Apple Day.

£10 per place-  this will be a donation towards raising funds for a leaflet about the Borough’s Apple Story. More about Alison’s fundraising here. This is an important part of our local heritage and I am hoping we can help Alison achieve her aim by having fun writing about our relationships with fruit and trees!

12 places available- please book in advance to secure your place!

Lucy 07859997617 or Alison 07867507086

Time: 10.30-12 midday

this is a picture of my Dad telling me stories about crab apples…

 

Please come! This will be the start of a wonderful day of apple and orchard related talks and activities.

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Visual Poetry Show at the Museum of Futures, Spring 2017

This Thursday, 23rd February I am thrilled to be reading a new collaborative poem with Susie Campbell at the Futures Camarade, which is part of the launch of the Visual Poetry show at the Museum of Futures in Surbiton. It has been an absolute delight to work with Susie, and we are looking forward to performing the work together for the first time on Thursday evening.

The Facebook event for the Futures Camarade reading and exhibition launch is here (I think it’s going to be a busy night!)

The show is being curated by the inimitable S J Fowler , with assistance from creative writing students Kingston University, and will exhibit work from a diverse range of artists and poets working across the boundaries of visual / textual art. I am very excited to be part of this and can’t wait to see what promises to be a distinctive and unique mix of work in the lovely space of the Museum of Futures.

I am chuffed to have a piece of visual work in the show, and to go with that, a new chapbook, Villiers Path: Scalloped Time, the second publication on the Seethingography imprint from Sampson Low publishers.

More about Villiers Path coming soon….

On Tuesday 28th February I will be hosting a Seething Writers workshop at the Museum of Futures: Seething Writers Go Totally Ekphrastic, where we will be writing in response to the work on show in the exhibition. More information here.

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Ghosts POMs and Panopticons: Writing Workshop at the Morpeth Arms

It’s a fair cop Guv’

This Thursday evening, 16th June, I am delighted to be running a writing workshop as part of SouthWestFest, at the Morpeth Arms pub in Pimlico.

The Morpeth Arms

The Haunted Holding Cells

Ghost Cam in the Snug

This haunted London pub has a row of holding cells in its cellar, which were used as holding cells for the prisoners of the infamous Millbank Penitentiary which, in the 19th century, stood on the land now occupied by Tate Britain. The prison was built as a panopticon, or ‘all-seeing’ prison, and was designed by Jeremy Bentham, who saw it as “a mill for grinding rogues honest” .

Un-rehabilitated prisoners were taken through the dark maze of tunnels beneath the streets of Pimlico to the lock up under the pub, where they were kept before being put on boats at Millbank pier, and eventually transported ‘Down Under’…

Panopticon Prison Plan

Millbank Pier (with MI5 in the background)

Millbank Prisoners

There are records of prisoners and prison officers dying in these cells, and in the tunnels connected to the prison, and as Gary, the landlord at the pub, was telling me when I went to do some research, a team of paranormal enthusiasts have carried out readings in the cells late at night….Brrrrrr

Gary very kindly took me and Sinead Keegan, a trustee of the festival, for a tour of the spooky cells, and answered questions about the pub and its history. As MI5 is situated directly across the river, the Morpeth Arms has some fascinating pictures and snippets of information about famous spies on its walls- which could be great stimulus for a flash fiction thriller!

Do join me in the snug, for what I hope will be an enjoyable couple of hours writing stories inspired by this fascinating place!

The workshop is FREE but numbers are limited so please email me to book your place: words@lucyfurlong.com and see the Facebook event here.

Ghosts, POMS and Panopticons at The Morpeth Arms, Thursday 16th June from 7.30-9.30pm, 58 Millbank, Westminster, London, SW1P 4RW

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Geography Workshop Presents: Her Outdoors

 

This Thursday, 14th April, on the mighty Resonance FM, from 8-9pm:

Clear Spot

Geography Workshop Presents….Her Outdoors. Geography Workshop Presents questions assumptions about the ways in which our world is imagined. In this first programme, artists and writers Karen Lloyd, Alison Lloyd, Lucy Furlong and Morag Rose reflect on walking as practise, informed by the pejorative phrase ‘Er Indoors’. How does their work and the embodied practise of walking inform the way they narrate, enrich and question the narratives that dominate nature-writing, landscape and psycho-geography? Presented by Dr Jo Norcup. [Repeated Friday 9am.]

Thanks to Jo Norcup for inviting me to be involved. I had a great time meeting and talking with everyone, and felt inspired and fired-up afterwards.

I hope you enjoy listening in!

 

Over the Fields in The Countryman magazine

 

The Countryman magazine

extract from Hogsmill Tiddlers

Over the Fields poetry map

The original Hogsmill Tiddlers

I am delighted to report that Over the Fields, my new poetry map, was featured in the February edition of The Countryman magazine, as part of the Editor’s Diary: “…a fascinating ‘poetry map’, Over the Fields, containing evocative poems and prose fragments, which can also be read in situ, allowing people to read and respond to the poems…”

Alongside the feature they have published a poem from the map, Hogsmill Tiddlers.

If you would like a map click here.

 

20 in 15 – The Lives of Artists by Bill Mudge

photograph by Bill Mudge

A lovely and unexpected thing that happened as part of making my Over the Fields poetry map, was that I was asked to be part of photographer Bill Mudge‘s project 20 in 15: The Lives of Artists. He spent last year photographing artists at work, documenting their creative processes and working environments.

Of the project Bill says: “20 in 15 encapsulates the significance of the creative arts in our communities, giving a unique insight into the lives of creative people and what it takes to make a living from the creative process; from finding studio space to exhibiting, educating and selling work…” Please visit the website for more information and to see who else took part – all types of artists from ceramicists to composers to puppeteers!

At the point where the new map was coming together, I met Bill one hot September day, at St John the Baptist church in Old Malden, an important location on the map. He took photos of me walking through the fields, as I checked all the locations and details on the map were correct, a kind of ‘proofing-in-situ’.

photograph by Bill Mudge

Then he came with me to meet Mel, who is the genius behind the artwork and production of Over the Fields, and took photos of us working together on the final edits and proofing of the map before it went to print. It was a pleasure meeting and working with Bill; it added another perspective to my own project, allowing me to reflect on my creative processes and the environment(s) I work in, as a poet/writer/walking artist.

photograph by Bill Mudge

I am very grateful to him for being so generous with his work and allowing me to use the beautiful photographs he took, a couple of which are here, and on my web site.

You can see Bill’s 20 in 15 : The Lives of Artists at the Mine Gallery in Carshalton Village from March 5th – March 27th. Bill has also run a successful Kickstarter campaign to publish a beautiful book of the project. If you would like be at the private view of the show the last few Private View Rewards are available for snapping up. It will be a great evening and I can’t wait to see the book!