The Invisible City: Urban Space and Contemporary Women's Poetry
Lead Research Organisation:
Bangor University
Department Name: Sch of English
Abstract
There is a long tradition of poets writing about the city, but most of them are men. I intend to redress that balance by writing a sequence of poems that explores the idea of the city. Do men and women experience or write about city space in the same way? Critic Peter Barry has suggested that male poets are not only more likely to write about cities but also more likely to name specific places as if they are confident in their ownership of city space, whereas women poets tend to have a vaguer and less specific way of writing that indicates a lack of ownership and confidence. It is, of course, dangerous to generalise about 'men' and 'women', and my research will look at what these categories mean in relation to ideas about city space.
I will, however, investigate a claim by the geographer Gillian Rose that our thinking about space is influenced by a male-dominated tradition that sees the world as a clearly-mapped subject of knowledge. In order to make it clear, paradoxes and difficulties are ignored. These paradoxical spaces, she argues, are vital for describing women's experiences. It may be, then, that women are writing poetry that is refusing to take ownership of the city but by doing so are responding more fully to an increasingly complex view of city space. I will explore this issue in my own creative work and also in the work of contemporary women poets who are dealing with similar ideas, particularly Lisa Robertson, Alice Notley and Denise Riley.
It may seem unusual to be carrying out research on the city in Bangor, which is a very small city surrounded by countryside. However, it is an ideal place to explore some paradoxes and changes in the concept of the city. I would argue that the idea of the city is changing, particularly in Wales. Bangor is no longer a province of the UK but, since devolution, a focal point for north Wales and its relationships with the rest of the world. As an English-born writer in Wales I know that in some senses I am living in a foreign city, and that this is increasingly the case across Europe, where cities often provide a focus for movement between countries and languages. In an age of global capitalism it is difficult to say where the city itself begins and ends. The city used to be a centre of trade and commerce but transport, the internet and out-of-town shopping centres have changed our view of urban space. In some ways, all of us in the West are part of the city. Poetry needs to find a new way of responding to this situation and it cannot fall back on nostalgia for the certainty that places, whether urban or rural, used to offer us.
When I use the English language I am part of global relationships, so how can poetry in English respond to the city as a specific location? I will be developing this idea in my own poems and I will collaborate with poets elsewhere to explore the different ways in which poetry can relate to urban space.
As a way of understanding the relationship between language, the body and space, I will be making some investigations through my writing and performance. One of these will be to make audio and video recordings of places that I can use in conjunction with my poems in performance. They will not illustrate the poems but will be a way of questioning how I experience urban spaces as a woman through the body and in language.
This research will lead to a clearer view of what the city is coming to mean, particularly for women, and it will help to create ways of writing poetry and discussing it that are relevant to an increasingly urbanized experience of life.
I will, however, investigate a claim by the geographer Gillian Rose that our thinking about space is influenced by a male-dominated tradition that sees the world as a clearly-mapped subject of knowledge. In order to make it clear, paradoxes and difficulties are ignored. These paradoxical spaces, she argues, are vital for describing women's experiences. It may be, then, that women are writing poetry that is refusing to take ownership of the city but by doing so are responding more fully to an increasingly complex view of city space. I will explore this issue in my own creative work and also in the work of contemporary women poets who are dealing with similar ideas, particularly Lisa Robertson, Alice Notley and Denise Riley.
It may seem unusual to be carrying out research on the city in Bangor, which is a very small city surrounded by countryside. However, it is an ideal place to explore some paradoxes and changes in the concept of the city. I would argue that the idea of the city is changing, particularly in Wales. Bangor is no longer a province of the UK but, since devolution, a focal point for north Wales and its relationships with the rest of the world. As an English-born writer in Wales I know that in some senses I am living in a foreign city, and that this is increasingly the case across Europe, where cities often provide a focus for movement between countries and languages. In an age of global capitalism it is difficult to say where the city itself begins and ends. The city used to be a centre of trade and commerce but transport, the internet and out-of-town shopping centres have changed our view of urban space. In some ways, all of us in the West are part of the city. Poetry needs to find a new way of responding to this situation and it cannot fall back on nostalgia for the certainty that places, whether urban or rural, used to offer us.
When I use the English language I am part of global relationships, so how can poetry in English respond to the city as a specific location? I will be developing this idea in my own poems and I will collaborate with poets elsewhere to explore the different ways in which poetry can relate to urban space.
As a way of understanding the relationship between language, the body and space, I will be making some investigations through my writing and performance. One of these will be to make audio and video recordings of places that I can use in conjunction with my poems in performance. They will not illustrate the poems but will be a way of questioning how I experience urban spaces as a woman through the body and in language.
This research will lead to a clearer view of what the city is coming to mean, particularly for women, and it will help to create ways of writing poetry and discussing it that are relevant to an increasingly urbanized experience of life.
Publications
Davidson, Ian, Skoulding, Zoe
(2013)
Placing Poetry
Entwistle, Alice
(2014)
In Her Own Words: Women Talking Poetry and Wales
Grabner, Cornelia, Casas, Arturo
(2011)
Performing Poetry: Body, Place and Rhythm in the Poetry Performance.
Portante, Jean, Skoulding, Zoe
(2013)
In Reality: Selected Poems
Skoulding Z
(2010)
Alice Notley's Disobedient Cities
in Feminist Review
Skoulding Z
(2011)
Translation, rewriting and the marginal city in Geraldine Monk's Escafeld Hangings
in Translation Studies
Skoulding Z
(2016)
Audionarratology - Interfaces of Sound and Narrative
Skoulding Zoe
(2013)
Metropoetica
Skoulding Zoe
(2016)
Teint: For the Bievre / Pour la Bievre
Skoulding Zoe
(2013)
The Museum of Disappearing Sounds
| Title | A Rose for Rosa |
| Description | Poem commissioned for the centenary of the death of Rosa Luxembourg, published in Dale Holmes & Sharon Kivland (eds) THE GRAVESIDE ORATIONS OF CARL EINSTEIN. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | It was performed at the Schiphorst Avant-Garde Festival in June 2019, in German translation, and translated into French for a reading in Paris in September 2019 (see Engagement). |
| URL | https://mabibliotheque.cargo.site/Dale-Holmes-Sharon-Kivland-eds-THE-GRAVESIDE-ORATIONS-OF-CARL |
| Title | Footnotes to Water (Bridgend: Seren Books, 2019) |
| Description | A collection of poems exploring interactions between human and non-human lives in rural and urban spaces, with an emphasis on experimental translation. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | The book was a Poetry Book Society Recommendation and featured in their bulletin. I was invited to StAnza, the Scottish poetry festival, to present it, and also launched it in Cardiff at the Seren Poetry Festival. Winner of Wales Book of the Year Poetry Award. |
| URL | https://www.serenbooks.com/productdisplay/footnotes-water |
| Title | Performance of Footnotes to Water at Seren Cardiff Poetry Festival |
| Description | A reading from Footnotes to Water accompanied by sound artist Alan Holmes. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2019 |
| Impact | There were some positive reactions on Twitter, but bad weather limited audience attendance at this event. |
| URL | https://cardiffpoetryfestival.com/event-18/ |
| Title | Remains of a Future City |
| Description | 'These are mesmerising and unsettling poems. In an unstable world, objects speak a language of constant change. There's a split-second balance; for now the slates hold. The language is, as it needs to be, spare, tough, elegant. Zoë Skoulding brings cool and penetrating insights to disrupt quotidian vision.' Wendy Mulford These vibrant, multi-layered poems create a textual city of monuments, castles, bridges and labyrinths through which the reader is invited to wander. Such visions carry within them both hints of utopia and the seeds of disaster, as the future city is haunted by its ruins. New relationships emerge from the fractures of a shared past and the global communications of the twenty-first century. The historic traumas of European cityscapes emerge in dream and nightmare, but also in the process of rebuilding 'as the vein runs / under fragile reconstructions / of what was holding us together'. As well as testing the notion of the city as a collective identity, these poems present the urban landscape as open to what lies beyond it. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2008 |
| Impact | Poems from this collection have been translated into 18 languages and performed at poetry festivals all over the world. |
| Title | Session for Montez Radio |
| Description | An hour-long sound and poetry collage, including expanded translation techniques, made for a New York Radio station, commissioned by the Mostyn Gallery in Llandudno, Wales. 3.00pm: Zoë Skoulding with Alan Holmes: Footnotes to Water: Sounding Hidden Rivers Zoë Skoulding's poetry collection Footnotes to Water, winner of the Wales Book of the Year Poetry Award 2020, imagines a river as a transverse section, cutting through urban and rural spaces, connecting places that are themselves in flux. It traces the mysterious path of the buried Afon Adda in Bangor, North Wales, entering conversations with the city and its past as well as with the sound of the river itself, half-heard under the metal plates of the observation chambers along its route. In an unlikely twinning of two very different cities, this journey leads to Paris and to the Bièvre, a lost Parisian stream that once ran through streets of tanneries and past the Gobelins tapestry factory, where the quality of a famous red dye was attributed to the river's polluted water. This performance, in collaboration with sound artist Alan Holmes, combines poetry with field recordings, looped vocals and interview fragments, and includes a poem in Welsh from special guest Siân Melangell Dafydd. |
| Type Of Art | Performance (Music, Dance, Drama, etc) |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | Part of an initiative to connect artists in Wales and the USA. |
| URL | https://www.mostyn.org/montez_30august |
| Title | Teint, for the Bièvre |
| Description | Collection of poems from residency undertaken in 2014 Zoë Skoulding, Teint, for the Bièvre, trans. Jean Portante (Swansea: Hafan Books, 2016). |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2016 |
| Impact | Performances in Paris 18/02/16 and forthcoming 01/04/16 at the Maison de la Poésie. |
| Title | The Celestial Set-Up |
| Description | Collection of poems exploring travel and mapping. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2020 |
| Impact | Presented in an outdoor reading at the Surrealist Safari in Menai Bridge, August 2020. |
| URL | http://www.oystercatcherpress.com/product/the-celestial-set-up-by-zoe-skoulding/ |
| Title | The Museum of Disappearing Sounds |
| Description | The disappearing sounds of Zoë Skoulding's new collection may be either in the rich sonic environments that the poems observe, or in the resonance of words themselves, which exist in traces of speech and breath. 'The Man in the Moone' takes its title from a 17th century work of science fiction in which lunar inhabitants can communicate their thoughts via music alone. But rather than aspiring to reach beyond language, these poems focus on the spaces that words occupy, looking at how 'a sentence reverses itself between two pairs of eyes' or noting 'the distance drifted by a word shaken loose from border controls'. Skoulding's characteristically inventive approach to form emerges in a fractured sonnet sequence based on the coincidences of room numbers. Repeated actions build haunting interior spaces which the reader is invited to enter, each poem becoming a room in which sound 'bounces off four walls', as memory accumulates in the subtle rhythms of everyday life. These poems can provoke states of eerie unease, or of passion evoked with shimmering densities of verbal texture. We can feel the ice in 'Gwydyr Forest' "Freezing under feathered/ water landscapes". Provisional landscapes in which the ground itself is 'aslant' call for an active state of perception in which 'I can do more dangerous things /just with my eyes'. Exploratory and alive to the senses, The Museum of Disappearing Sounds creates new perspectives on language and the world in which it exists. |
| Type Of Art | Creative Writing |
| Year Produced | 2013 |
| Impact | Poems from this collection have been translated into several languages and performed at numerous international festivals, inlcuding Ars Cameralis, Katowice, Poland in 2012. They will be featured in a major anthology of new writing, Out of Everywhere 2, Reality Street Editions, edited by Emily Critchley. |
| Title | You Will Live in Your Own Cathedral |
| Description | Selection of poems including Czech and German translations, with audio composition on CD. |
| Type Of Art | Artefact (including digital) |
| Year Produced | 2009 |
| Impact | Presented at Berlin Poesiefestival in 2009 and Prague Bookworld 2013. |
| Description | My critical research has developed from my creative practice as a poet and is closely related to it. I see writing and performance as a means of discovering and rethinking the ways in which place and identity are constructed and experienced, rather than simply as an outcome or recording of such knowledge. Much of my work has centred on how place shapes and is shaped by language. Although I write in English, the nature of Bangor as a bilingual city has been an important influence, as have the layered histories of other European cities. As a development of the ideas in my 2008 collection of poems Remains of a Future City, I have become interested in how language and subjectivity in contemporary poetry and poetics, particularly that written by women, relate to urban spaces. Research carried out during my AHRC Fellowship was focused on connections between feminist poetics and geography. It involved the following questions: why have women poets tended to write about the city less often, or less directly, than men? What is the role of gender in the construction of city space? How far does the globalized city give rise to paradoxical relationships with language, culture and political structures, and how might these be relevant to women writers? My critical monograph examining these issues was published by Palgrave Macmillan in 2013. Working alone and with others, I perform poetry with field recordings and electronic music as an exploration of relationships between language and the physical environment. These performances have taken place all over the world, but they are concerned with how language, sound and noise interact in particular localities. My research has shown that poetry provides new ways to consider relationships between the city and the subject, and that language may be considered not just as a means of representation but as part of the sensed environment of social space. Thinking of language in this way enables new responses to place and new forms of artistic collaboration. |
| Exploitation Route | My work contributes to debates about gender and poetry that have become particularly important in the last two years. My focus on sound also contributes to the current interest in interfaces between literature and sound studies. Literature organizations such as Literature Across Frontiers have already noted the value of my practice-based research in terms of their own programming of international performances and workshops. |
| Sectors | Creative Economy,Environment,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| URL | http://www.bangor.ac.uk/english/staff/skoulding.php |
| Description | Dr Zoë Skoulding's poetry from Remains of a Future City and The Museum of Disappearing Sounds has been translated into eighteen languages, contributing to the cultural life across the world via her participation in numerous international literary festivals. Such readings in other countries often have far greater cultural impact than they do in the UK because they happen on a larger scale. In Nicaragua (2010) and Venezuela (2011), for example, Dr Skoulding read at events with audiences of thousands as well as extensive coverage in the national press. Because of her wide international experience she was a leading contributor to a programme for Radio 4, Guns, Roses and Poetry Readings, aired in 2011, explaining to UK listeners why poetry is seen as so important in other cultures. While the first workshops of Metropoetica in Krakow and Ljubljana were planned with Literature Across Frontiers as part of Dr Skoulding's AHRC project, subsequent events were commissioned by literary festivals in Riga, Wroclaw and Athens, where the group was invited to create performances to reflect an understanding of a particular city through poetry, film and photography and present it to a local non-specialist audience. These invitations show that the project's impact in generating a new approach to artistic practice and literary interaction between minority languages. Dr Alexandra Büchler, LAF's director, writes that Metropoetica 'had a profound impact on our practice with respect to the translation of poetry in the context of gender-related inquiries on the one hand and community cultural development on the other. The project engaged both the participants and local communities in the cities where the project took place in thinking about their environment and about life in urban environments in general. 'She adds that Dr Skoulding's 'approach to connecting writing and translating poetry about cities from a gendered perspective has provided useful insights for other projects.' The Wroclaw event received extensive coverage in the Polish media. Work from the project is publicized via a website at and an international co-publication in book form, Metropoetica listed under Publications. Dr Skoulding worked with UK, Indian, Swiss and French poets in December 2010 on a co-translation and performance project in Chennai, Pune and Trivandrum, India, organized jointly by Literature Across Frontiers and the British Council. Follow-up multilingual performances took place in Bangor and at the high-profile Ledbury Poetry Festival in June 2011, showing how the combination of translation and multimedia performance in Dr Skoulding's previous work has informed further cross-cultural engagements. The projects outlined above have generated ways of understanding the role of English as a 'bridge' language in poetry translation and performance; English is decentralized and placed in relation to other languages, while the process in itself is made a creative focus rather than a neutral transaction. This approach addresses the literary cultural heritage of Wales, which is split between two languages, and has provided new models for cultural interaction. The first North Wales International Poetry Festival, directed by Dr Skoulding, took place in October 2012. Nine visiting international poets gave readings alongside Welsh writers in both languages with a focus on the role of translation and performance in the local bilingual context. Performances took place in empty shops and small businesses in Bangor High Street, including a recital in Welsh by local schoolchildren, contributing to current initiatives to regenerate the town through artistic and community engagement. Encompassing experimental work by highly regarded international practitioners in several languages as well as Wales's historic strict-metre traditions, the festival transcended the binary linguistic oppositions that often limit cultural exchange. The curation of the festival as a multilingual event with site-specific and cross-media elements was drawn from Dr Skoulding's research in Metropoetica. The event was the first of its kind in Wales and over 300 people attended, mainly in Bangor but also in Aberystwyth and Mold. Dr Skoulding's application for Arts Council of Wales funding for a second festival in 2013 was successful, indicating support for the project at a national level. |
| First Year Of Impact | 2012 |
| Sector | Creative Economy,Culture, Heritage, Museums and Collections |
| Impact Types | Cultural,Societal |
| Description | AHRC Research Networking Grant |
| Amount | £35,172 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Arts & Humanities Research Council (AHRC) |
| Sector | Public |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 01/2017 |
| End | 06/2018 |
| Description | Bangor University Impact Acceleration Award |
| Amount | £11,506 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Bangor University |
| Sector | Academic/University |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2016 |
| End | 02/2017 |
| Description | International Opportunities |
| Amount | £900 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Wales Arts International |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 02/2010 |
| End | 02/2010 |
| Description | International Opportunities Fund |
| Amount | £1,606 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 20180029 |
| Organisation | Wales Arts International |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2018 |
| End | 06/2018 |
| Description | International Opportunities Fund |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 91308 |
| Organisation | Wales Arts International |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 06/2019 |
| End | 07/2019 |
| Description | International Opportunities Fund |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 20171068 |
| Organisation | Wales Arts International |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 08/2017 |
| End | 08/2017 |
| Description | International Opportunities Fund |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 901345 |
| Organisation | Wales Arts International |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 09/2019 |
| End | 10/2019 |
| Description | International Opportunities Fund |
| Amount | £1,050 (GBP) |
| Funding ID | 6767 |
| Organisation | Wales Arts International |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 10/2018 |
| End | 11/2018 |
| Description | International Opportunities Scheme |
| Amount | £1,000 (GBP) |
| Organisation | Wales Arts International |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Start | 05/2016 |
| End | 05/2016 |
| Title | Innovations in translation as creative practice |
| Description | Metropoetica was a project in which creative practice, performance and translation were linked to create site-specific performances. |
| Type Of Material | Model of mechanisms or symptoms - human |
| Provided To Others? | No |
| Impact | While the first workshops of Metropoetica in Krakow and Ljubljana were planned with Literature Across Frontiers as part of Dr Skoulding's AHRC project, subsequent events were commissioned by literary festivals in Riga, Wroclaw and Athens, where the group was invited to create performances to reflect an understanding of a particular city through poetry, film and photography and present it to a local non-specialist audience. These invitations show that the project's impact in generating a new approach to artistic practice and literary interaction between minority languages. Dr Alexandra Büchler, LAF's director, writes that Metropoetica 'had a profound impact on our practice with respect to the translation of poetry in the context of gender-related inquiries on the one hand and community cultural development on the other. The project engaged both the participants and local communities in the cities where the project took place in thinking about their environment and about life in urban environments in general. She adds that Dr Skoulding's 'approach to connecting writing and translating poetry about cities from a gendered perspective has provided useful insights for other projects.' The Wroclaw event received extensive coverage in the Polish media. Work from the project is publicized via a website and an international co-publication in book form. Dr Skoulding worked with UK, Indian, Swiss and French poets in December 2010 on a co-translation and performance project in Chennai, Pune and Trivandrum, India, organized jointly by Literature Across Frontiers and the British Council. Follow-up multilingual performances took place in Bangor and at the high-profile Ledbury Poetry Festival in June 2011, showing how the combination of translation and multimedia performance in Dr Skoulding's previous work has informed further cross-cultural engagements. The projects outlined above have generated ways of understanding the role of English as a 'bridge' language in poetry translation and performance; English is decentralized and placed in relation to other languages, while the process in itself is made a creative focus rather than a neutral transaction. This approach addresses the literary cultural heritage of Wales, which is split between two languages, and has provided new models for cultural interaction. The first North Wales International Poetry Festival, directed by Dr Skoulding, took place in October 2012. Nine visiting international poets gave readings alongside Welsh writers in both languages with a focus on the role of translation and performance in the local bilingual context. Performances took place in empty shops and small businesses in Bangor High Street, including a recital in Welsh by local schoolchildren, contributing to current initiatives to regenerate the town through artistic and community engagement. Encompassing experimental work by highly regarded international practitioners in several languages as well as Wales's historic strict-metre traditions, the festival transcended the binary linguistic oppositions that often limit cultural exchange. The curation of the festival as a multilingual event with site-specific and cross-media elements was drawn from Dr Skoulding's research in Metropoetica. The event was the first of its kind in Wales and over 300 people attended, mainly in Bangor but also in Aberystwyth and Mold. Dr Skoulding's application for Arts Council of Wales funding for a second festival in 2013 was successful, indicating support for the project at a national level. |
| URL | http://www.metropoetica.org/ |
| Description | Literature Across Frontiers |
| Organisation | Literature Across Frontiers |
| Country | United Kingdom |
| Sector | Charity/Non Profit |
| PI Contribution | Leading and participating in workshops for Metropoetica |
| Collaborator Contribution | Covering additional costs for international partners to collaborate in the project, and funding publication of the resulting book. |
| Impact | Workshops and performances in Krakow, Ljubljana, Riga, Wroclaw and Athens. A book documenting outcomes from the project. |
| Start Year | 2009 |
| Description | Adda Workshops and Walkshops |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Patients, carers and/or patient groups |
| Results and Impact | A series of workshops was held for the Abbey Road Day Centre (mental health daycare), the North Wales Society for the Blind and Glanadda Primary School. In each case, participants were invited to engage imaginatively with the city of Bangor and made contributions that reflected a more positive attitude to the urban environment. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Contribution on Radio 3 The Verb |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A broadcast e.g. TV/radio/film/podcast (other than news/press) |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to take part in a special edition of the progamme on place. I talked about my continuing practice-based research, which explores poetry in urban space, with a focus on hidden rivers - the Adda in Bangor and the Bièvre in Paris. There were positive comments via social media from members of the public. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/b08chbph |
| Description | International Poetry Festival of Buenos Aires |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Attending the FIP International Poetry Festival of Buenos Aires 6th to 10th June 2018 This was a well-organised, high profile event that brought together excellent poets from around the world in Buenos Aires' largest and most central arts venue, the Kirchner Cultural Centre as well as public spaces around the city. The readings were intense, well attended and listened to with great concentration by over 1,000 people in total. As a consequence of my interest in French-English translation, Gaston Bellemare, director of the Trois Rivières festival, who was present, discussed the possibility of inviting me to Québec. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.accioncultural.es/en/fip-2018-buenos-aires-international-poetry-festival |
| Description | International Poetry Festival of Medellín, Colombia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | International Poetry Festival of Medellín, 28th June - July 8th, 2019. Attending this festival was unquestionably a landmark event in my career, if only because of the scale of the opening and closing readings, which were held in Medelliín's wonderfully named Parque de los Deseos (Park of Desires, which sounds like the title of one of my poems) and attracted audiences of over 2,000. They listened with rapt attention to poetry in many languages, with Spanish translation. This was only one aspect of the festival, however, as it also comprised hundreds of smaller readings in parks, libraries, educational and cultural institutions all over the region. At each one, I was accompanied by Berta Nelly Arboleda Ruíz, an actress who read the Spanish versions - there was no use of screens for translations and everything depended on the oral experience. Berta Nelly had prepared my poems for months, with the other readers, and even suggested small changes to the translations to make them read better. This level of attention to the work was truly impressive, and helped the poems to communicate in a culture that maintains a strong oral tradition. The excellent readings of the other poets' work also meant that I was generally able to understand poetry in other languages through the Spanish translation, which opened up whole new worlds of writing. There were outstanding performances from the German poet Anja Utler, whose work I already knew, and the Swiss sound poet Heike Fiedler, who also shared some of her looping techniques with me and recommended some useful gadgets for sound performance (I wasn't doing sound performance here but it's something I want to return to). The main encounter of the festival was with Colombia, its poetry, its people and the hopes for peace and this pivotal moment in its history. What I gained was a deeper understanding of the role of poetry in healing and sustaining a culture, whether through listening to Colombian poets, or talking to them, or learning about the structure of the festival itself. There were many young poets, and I especially enjoyed reading with William Jiménez, whose work responds to explosive geographical and political landscapes, using volcanoes and earthquakes as metaphors, and Yubely Vahos, whose work, like my own, is particularly involved with sound, an area we continue to discuss. The festival itself is an exercise in making connections - the vast crowds at the opening and closing are there because of the many smaller events and contacts built up over many years. The festival is widely respected, and so able to make these connections where other organisations cannot. It receives money from the Government but also works with numerous left-wing social and cultural organisations and its main aim is to strengthen the cultural tissue of the country so that peace can be achieved. In Comuna 13, an area of the city with a famously violent history, I read alongside young rappers who are being encouraged towards futures that will give them an alternative to drugs, and a group of African-descended dancers from the Choco region. I went to Caucasia, to the north, and Sonsón, in the mountains, both towns struggling to recover from harrowing pasts. It is difficult to organise a festival that encompasses such places, but it was accomplished with great care and efficiency. I have returned with a new confidence in what poetry can do within difficult social relationships and a new understanding of what is needed to develop a cultural project of this type. I also received a copy of Nuestra Tierra de Nadie, an anthology of Welsh poetry in both languages, including my own, which has been translated into Spanish by Víctor Rodríguez Núñez and Katherine Hedeen and previously published in Mexico. The Colombian edition is out now from Ladrones del Tiempo and was given to me by the editor Stéphane Chaumet, who was participating the festival. I was able to distribute copies of my Selected Poems in Spanish, published in Costa Rica last year, both through the festival book stalls and with other poets. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.festivaldepoesiademedellin.org/en/Festival/29/29FIPM/ |
| Description | International Poetry Festival of Santiago, Chile |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I gave two readings in the centre of Santiago de Chile, one on a balcony overlooking an outdoor space, and another in an art gallery. I also read at the Centro Lecto Lo Barnechea, and the cultural centre in El Bosque. These readings were all well attended and there were opportunities for discussion with a wide range of people, from the poets in the festival to young people from the city and its environs. I heard a great deal of poetry from Chile and was able to discuss current ideas and concerns. The festival is ambitiously programmed, with many large events happening simultaneously. This gave it an impressive reach into different communities. There was good social media coverage as well as radio and TV. The publicity materials were beautifully designed, giving the event a presence and visual coherence across the city. The Goethe Institute was extremely supportive, sending representatives to the festival as well as supporting two German writers. I had a discussion with them about what they felt to be the key impact of the project, and their view was that the quality of engagement between invited writers and the public - rather than the numbers involved - was of central importance. They felt that as a high quality international event it was valuable for Chile. As is evident from the recent political unrest in Chile, this is a difficult environment in which to create and sustain large-scale arts activity such as a poetry festival. Although the festival received state funding, the government is not particularly supportive of the arts or education, so this event was happening against the grain, testing out the possibilities for cultural expression in public spaces and developing audiences for poetry. The organiser is from Lima, and Peru has a much more developed cultural infrastructure as well as an established poetry festival, which he used to work for. In Santiago he had a very loyal band of volunteer helpers, and had worked hard to develop links with a range of cultural and educational organisations. As well as participating in the festival, I was pleased to make contact with the Pontifical University, who hosted a seminar on connections between UK and Chilean experimental poetry, in which I contributed a talk. I was pleased to renew contact with colleagues in the international poetry world, such as Aurélia Lassaque from France and Jean Portante from Luxembourg. It was evident that the organiser had built up support from a range of institutions, all of them contributing in some way to this visible and significant event. From friends and family who offered practical help to venues and educational institutions across the city, there was a sense that good communication had created support for the festival and its aims across many communities. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://fipsantiago.com/ |
| Description | Metropoetica performances |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Performances in open air city locations, bars, arts venues and bookshops, using film and sound art, presented new translations and co-writing made in situ in the same city the previous week by a group of women poets from different countries. There was considerable discussion and participation. Performances took place in Riga, Ljubljana, Wroclaw, Krakow and Athens. Literature Across Frontiers, who were partners in this activity, used the same model for other collaborations to present poetry in translation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2009,2010,2011 |
| URL | http://www.metropoetica.org/about |
| Description | Performance at Generations Festival, Aberystwyth |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Sound-based performance of my poem on Parisian urban space, Teint: For the Bièvre, to an audience of about 40. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.aberystwythartscentre.co.uk/festivals/generations-innovations |
| Description | Performance at the Maison de la Poésie, Paris |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | This was a collaborative poetry and music performance in which my poem sequence Teint was performed in its entirety with French translation, with Welsh and French musicians, along with a specially written Welsh-French text. It was held in the Maison de la Poésie, which is the main venue for poetry in Paris. Although the venue was small (max. 40), it was full, and a video of the performance has since been viewed on YouTube. Feedback from the audience was very positive and people said it made them think differently about the city. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.maisondelapoesieparis.com/events/zoe-skoulding-teint-for-the-bievre-pour-la-bievre/ |
| Description | Performance of rAdda at Storiel |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | An audience of approximately 75 came to a public performance of poetry, music and photography relating to urban space and Bangor's hidden river. Comments left on postcards reflected a changed attitude to the city. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| Description | Poetry Reading at Double Change, Paris |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I read new work on cities, translated by Jean Portante, in the long-running Double Change reading series in Paris that draws together radical poetry in French and English. The event was attended by approximately 60 people. As a consequence I was invited to participate in two further events. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=tmrfVT0meVg |
| Description | Poetry Readings and Translation Workshop in Inizjamed Literature Festival, Malta |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I took part in a four-day translation workshop with a group of international writers, and then participated in a three-day literature festival, giving readings of and interviews about my poems (with Maltese translation) as well as reading my own translations of other poets' work. The public readings were open-air in St Elmo's Fort, with an audience of several hundred. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://inizjamedmalta.wordpress.com/ |
| Description | Poetry performance at Medellín Festival de Poesía, Colombia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Reading of my poems with Spanish translation as part of major international poetry festival (online). |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2021 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nS3LNU56glI&ab_channel=FestivalInternacionaldePoes%C3%ADadeMedell%C3... |
| Description | Poetry performance at Quetzaltenango Festival de Poesía |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Invited performer at an online poetry festival in Guatemala, along with other international poets. My poems were read in translation and broadcast on Facebook. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoNRLCIjYvo&ab_channel=FIPQMet%C3%A1foraQuetzaltenango |
| Description | Poetry performance for Vive Television, Venezuela |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I was invited to give a virtual poetry reading with Spanish translation of my poems, along with other international guests, streamed live to Venezuelan television. There was a positive response from the studio audience and on Facebook. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2020 |
| URL | https://www.facebook.com/ViveTvOficial/photos/a.1505699319736204/2482239712082155/ |
| Description | Poetry readings at Luna de Locos Festival Pereira, Colombia |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Schools |
| Results and Impact | This was a very well organised and purposeful festival at which I participated in a total of ten events with other international poets, including readings and discussions. The venues ranged from schools, where the students had previously been given my poems to study, to arts centres, libraries, parks and public spaces across the region, culminating in an outdoor event in Pereira attended by several hundred people. Engaged discussion reflected a keen interest on the part of audiences. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://lunadelocoselfestival.org/2015/ |
| Description | Public Walk |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Local |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | 43 members of the general public took part in a walk along the Afon Adda in Bangor, and subsequently contributed to a collaborative map of shared memories of the city. Their comments revealed a heightened responsiveness to their environment. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2016 |
| URL | http://www.bangoradda.org/ |
| Description | Radio 4 programme on poetry and maps, Here be Dragons, 13th April 2019. |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A press release, press conference or response to a media enquiry/interview |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | For a Radio 4 programme on poetry and maps, I recreated the psychogeographical method of my collection Remains of a Future City in a walking interview. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | https://www.bbc.co.uk/programmes/m00040hh |
| Description | Reading and Discussion at Schamrock Women's Poetry Festival |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Schamrock Festival of Women Poets in Munich 26th-28th October 2018 The festival in Munich had an interesting focus on women writers. As well as giving a reading of my own work translated into German, I participated in a panel debate with Anne Waldman and others. One of the declared purposes of the festival was to bring together organisers of festivals, who present poetry in translation. I was able to give an account of my efforts to present international poetry via expanded translation in a Welsh context. The consensus of the discussion was that the poetry festival is often an extension of one's own poetic practice -the festival may be viewed as an extended collaborative poem that also feeds one's own work. I gathered a number of useful contacts for future projects. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | http://www.schamrock.org/Festival_2018/e/Poets/Skoulding_e.html |
| Description | Reading at StAnza Poetry Festival 2020 |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | National |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Reading of my own poems (with a city and translation focus) at Scotland's international poetry festival to an audience of 50-100 at my event and with significant reach on Twitter. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| Description | Reading at launch for Atlantic Drift, Edge Hill University |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I read from Teint: for the Bièvre, a work exploring urban space and translation, for an audience of over a hundred. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://www.edgehill.ac.uk/events/2017/11/23/atlantic-drift/ |
| Description | Reading at the Bluecoat, Liverpool |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | Regional |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | I gave a reading from my new book Footnotes to Water and took part in a Q and A on cities and translation. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2019 |
| URL | http://www.thebluecoat.org.uk/events/view/events/4077 |
| Description | Readings and discussion at International Poetry Festival of Costa Rica |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | International Poetry Festival of Costa Rica November 4th-12th 2018 This festival is truly inspiring in terms of what it has achieved with young writers, who were present in and involved with all the events. Norberto Salinas, the Director, has spent years building up writing groups across the country, travelling relentlessly. This may have taken its toll, however, as he had a heart attack during the festival. The festival as a whole was a major feat of organisation, spanning the whole country. There were well attended readings in a number of cultural centres in San José, including the Melico Salazar Theatre (audience 300), the Jade Museum (audience 200) and the Mexican Cultural Institute (audience 200), as well as a reading in the University of San José. We were then sent to different parts of the country for a programme of readings in each region. I was lucky enough to be taken to Monteverde, where I was escorted by local poets to a number of schools and cultural events. There were particularly responsive groups in the Quaker School (see below) and the Instituto Creativo, and I also did an evening reading with some outstanding Argentinian musicians who were part of the music festival that was running concurrently. For the final two days we went with a group of young poets to the Torguero nature reserve for more readings and discussions about poetry. In the School visits I presented 'Expanded Translation' techniques to the students. I would estimate that the total of all the audiences was about 1,000. The festival published a book for each of the visiting writers, which is an extraordinarily generous thing to do. I now have a Collected Poems with facing-page translations in Spanish. It was priced cheaply with the express aim of reaching as many young people as possible, and makes my work available in an entirely new context. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |
| URL | https://www.nodalcultura.am/2018/11/poesia-en-costa-rica/ |
| Description | Readings and discussion in Guayaquil International Poetry Festival Ecuador |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Over the course of five days I gave seven poetry readings (with translation into Spanish) in schools, colleges, parks and theatres around the city of Guayaquil, Ecuador, with an average audience of 50-100 for each event. As a result, I was invited to further events in 2018. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://pt-br.fievent.com/e/inauguracion-del-x-festival-internacional-de-poesia-de-guayaquil/9645036 |
| Description | Readings in Dijon TèmPoésie |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | A talk or presentation |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Two well-attended readings took place with members of the general public. There was also a special event at the Lycée Antoine Antoine, in which 20 French learner students from refugee backgrounds had created special performances of my poems in English and French. The poems they chose were those written during my AHRC award, focused on city space. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | http://lavoixdesmots.org/ |
| Description | Readings in Saint Quentin en Yvelines and Bièvres |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Following publication of Dr Skoulding's book Teint: For the Bièvre in French translation, two performances took place in Saint Quentin en Yvelines and Bièvres, close to the sources of the river. Enthusiastic audiences listened and took part in discussion afterwards about climate and environmental issues. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2017 |
| URL | https://nouveaurestobievres.wordpress.com/2017/01/ |
| Description | Safi Poetry Forum |
| Form Of Engagement Activity | Participation in an activity, workshop or similar |
| Part Of Official Scheme? | No |
| Geographic Reach | International |
| Primary Audience | Public/other audiences |
| Results and Impact | Safi Poetry Forum 28th March-2nd April 2018 This was a valuable opportunity to meet poets from several different countries, as well as poets in both French and Arabic in Morocco. My work was translated into Arabic for the event, but as many of the population also speak French, I was able to share work in French translation as well. My French translator Jean Portante was also present in the festival and we were able to give bilingual readings together in schools in the city. The Safi Poetry Forum included a discussion in the town library about the role of poetry in a troubled world. There was a fascinating range of perspectives, each speaker touching on the question of how to bring about change through moments of encounter through language. The location we were in became, in this festival, a site of confluence between Europe and Latin America. Islamic traditions of hospitality brought us together and allowed us to think and listen in new contexts. The overwhelming enthusiasm of the children in the schools we visited shows that poetry is a living and significant art form in Morocco. |
| Year(s) Of Engagement Activity | 2018 |