applesandsnakesblog.org

Time and Space

Writer and Visual Artist Alice Frecknall tells us about her experience at Arvon in collaboration with Apples and Snakes and the importance of having time and space to create:

At the start of April I had the privilege of heading off into the depths of the Shropshire hills for a week-long poetry writing retreat with a group of 17 other writers. Run by Arvon and organised in partnership with Apples and Snakes, the week’s tagline was time and space to write. From the cramped desk in the back bedroom …

Inua Ellams: Art as Therapy

My earliest memory of creation happened when I was 4/5 years old in Nigeria. I stuck 4 A4 sheets of paper together, planned an entire city and showed my father. He was so impressed, he gasped. Breath left his body. I caused a genuine physical reaction and he looked at me anew. I started drawing and painting voraciously after that, attempting to pin down the world as I saw it, garnering a school boy fame and notoriety in drawing graphic novels about my teachers and seniors in school.

We moved …

SPINE residency blog: Cecilia Knapp

Its my fourth day as Artist in Residence at Pimlico library and each session has brought me a new and joyful experience. I’m working alongside mixed media artist Emma Ghafur who brings new, inventive and engaging activities to each day we spend here. Combining creative writing with visual art is making really exciting and vibrant work.

Libraries are wonderful places and this residency has really shown me that. They’re little microcosms where people from all different walks of life merge together to spend time in a safe space, to learn, …

Sally Pomme Clayton: Go I know not where, bring back I know not what

December’s Poet of the Month Sally Pomme Clayton on creative writing, fairytales and mental health.

‘Go I know not where, bring back I know not what’ is the title of a Russian fairytale. It describes the quest of the hero who has to go to ‘the thrice ninth kingdom in the thrice tenth land’ to fetch impossible things. I loved this fairytale as a child, and had the overpowering desire to go to this land. But where was it? How could I ever get there? The longing was so strong, …

Anthony Anaxagorou: If Dylan Can Win The Nobel Prize for Literature then so should Nas and Lauryn Hill

November’s Poet of the Month Anthony Anaxagorou on rap and the literary establishment.

It was announced on 13^th October that Bob Dylan, one of the most fecund and influential living musicians of our time had won the Nobel Prize for Literature – the 113^th winner and first musician to be awarded the prize by the Nobel committee. Many revelled in the news expressing their delight in what could be interpreted as a significantly progressive move by the Swedish academy. Others weren’t so keen, taking to social media to …

Archive Excavation – Man Booker Prize Winner Paul Beatty in the Apples and Snakes Archive

As the clocks turn back so do the pages in history of the Apples archive. As you know we’re digging around and discovering gems: gems that you will all be able to access, in the not so distant future.

But for now, we’ve decided to post little bite-size treats during your tea, coffee or gin break …! Well, we don’t know exactly what time you’ll be reading this – do we? Not that we’re advocating reckless drinking. We drink only Apple juice here, freshly pressed, of course.

So, let’s get …

Home Cooking: Octavia, poetry collective for women of colour, on Europe

Octavia is a poetry collective for women of colour, led by Rachel Long, housed at Southbank Centre, and supported by Apples and Snakes.

In this Home Cooking podcast, we talk about Europe – without using the B-word, we discuss the label ‘Black-British’, as well as ‘two-home syndrome’ and how our identities affect our poetry. Featuring readings by Octavia members, Tania Nwachukwu, Theresa Lola and Rachel Long.

…

Jasmine Gardosi – Bodies, taboos, and what poetry can do

September’s Poet of the Month, Jasmine Gardosi, talks to Apples and Snakes about writing, taboos, and dance classes…

I have an obsession with taboo. At least, poking holes in it to see what comes out. For those who aren’t 100% sure on what taboos are, these are the subjects, words or phrases that we avoid or find difficult to talk about due to social customs, codes or for silly reasons that have somehow stuck. Menstruation is one example. Mental health can be another.

When we’re asked why we find …

Forked at Sea Change Festival – A Review by Seren Kiremitcioglu

This year Totnes held their very first Sea Change Festival. Hosted by Drift Record Store, it was the first of its kind to bring a host of artists and musicians to the small town of Totnes, and of course we at Apples and Snakes just had to be a part of the small revolution. We headed over to the Birdwood House on Saturday 27th August to present Forked with Mama Tokus, Rose Cook, Rob Barratt, Jackie Juno and Londoner headliner, Kayo Chingonyi!

Making my way on the train to …

Archive Excavation – Pit Dragon: how an alternative picket-line stopped the coal lorries

Strange thing, synchronicity. Within a few weeks of starting the Archive Coordinator role, I received an out-of-the-blue email from Jeff Howarth of TUC Library Collections: could I throw any light on Pit Dragon, an organisation behind various days of picket-line entertainment during the Miners’ Strike of 1984-5? Apples and Snakes had apparently been involved in one of their sessions, supplying poets for the wonderfully named Melt Thatcher Down picket at Neasden Power Station in February ’85. This was news to me. I’d already made a start on cataloguing our early …