CRASS CO-FOUNDER PENNY Rimbaud has a busy schedule of appearances this autumn, including the following events:
Tales of the life and times of Small Wonder Records
Tales of the life and times of Small Wonder
Friday 23 September 2016, 18:30ish
Hoe Street Central, 3 Central Parade, Hoe Street, Walthamstow, London E17 4RT
As an event during the Small Wonder exhibition, Penny Rimbaud will be part of a question-and-answer session: ‘Tales of the life and times of Small Wonder Records’, the label that in 1978 unleashed Crass onto the unsuspecting public.
Patriotism & the ‘great game’: the impact of Wilfred Owen’s poetic testimony
Patriotism and the ‘great game’
12 October 2016, 18:00
River Room (2nd Floor) – King’s Building, Strand Campus King’s College London, London, WC2R 2LS.
Free entry – but advance booking required
Rimbaud joins an academic panel to discuss Wilfred Owen’s devastating accounts of the conditions of war during World War One and his denouncement of the patriotism that persuaded an entire generation of young men to ‘step in line’ and play the ‘great game’ of war. This patriotic call to arms was a global affair, as can be seen in the first verse of A Lockhead’s poem, published in both the Times and The Poverty Bay Herald, New Zealand on 26th January 1915.
This discussion serves as an introduction and accompaniment to the performance of ‘The Pity of War’, which will take place on Thursday 13 October in King’s Chapel. Penny Rimbaud will perform the war poems of Owen accompanied by Liam Noble and Kate Shortt on piano and cello with visuals by Gee Vaucher. Both panel discussion and performance seek not to glorify victory, but to remember the terrible darkness brought by war.
The Pity of War
The Pity of War
13 October 2016, 18:30-20:30
Chapel – Strand, London WC2R 2LS
Tickets available online shortly
Penny Rimbaud will recite the war poems of Wilfred Owen accompanied by Liam Noble and Kate Shortt on piano and cello with visuals by Gee Vaucher.
‘I was a war baby who, like many, didn’t meet their father until they were three or four, which too often was too late. My father brought the war home with him. He never much spoke of it, rather he was imbued with it; it seeped from his every pore. He was distant, absent and cold, and he made me feel fearful. Then how was I to know what horrors had so muted him, horrors which in his imaginings and his dreams would forever be present? He would speak of “the real world” and how he’d fought for my freedom, but as I grew older I became increasingly cautious of the conditional nature of that freedom. I’d seen pictures of the death camps, knew about atom bombs and was aware of the carnage, but, beyond a sense of uninformed sorrow, I grew to feel loathing and contempt for what seemed be the utter senselessness of it all. My father’s war and his real world had to me become synonymous.
In my late teens I was introduced to the poetry of Wilfred Owen and from one line in his “Strange Meeting” I was awoken to an entirely new way of being – “I am the enemy you killed, my friend” – no malice, no terrible vengeance, only love; a true expression of human possibility beyond the bitter brutality of jingoistic cant. In Owen’s selfless tenderness I had at last found something that made sense within the madness of the warring material world; we are no more, no less than the other, divided only by the fall from grace. It was from this illumination that I became an active pacifist committed to the promotion of peace and love.
It is, then, only natural that I chose to commit myself to present Owen’s poems throughout the centenary years of the euphemistic ‘Great War’. In doing so I am able to honour the great gift that he gave through his life, his works and his untimely death.’
Penny Rimbaud, TMDG conference, Argentina
Penny Rimbaud
TMDG conference [international design conference]
Sunday 16 October 2016 (TBC)
Av. Juan B. Justo 3525, Peralta Ramos Oeste,
B7602EHJ. Mar del Plata, Buenos Aires, Argentina
Tickets available online
Penny Rimbaud pledges to take “art, politics and common-sense nonsense” during a trip to Argentina part-sponsored by the British Council. Details of other events during the trip are still to be announced
An evening of poetry and jazz, Canterbury
An evening of poetry and jazz
Thursday 20 October 2016
Free Range
Water Lane Coffeehouse, Water Lane, Canterbury Kent CT1 2NQ
Described as ‘one of the country’s great trombonists’ (BBC), Annie Whitehead is joined by Penny Rimbaud and the immensely experienced singer, bassist and producer Jennifer Maidman for an evening of poetry and jazz.
‘Open Door, Open Heart’, Louder than Words festival
‘Open Door, Open Heart’
Louder than Words festival
Sunday 13 November 2016, 14:00
The Palace Hotel. Oxford Street, Manchester, M60 7HA
Tickets available online
We’re delighted to welcome back Penny Rimbaud to Louder Than Words 2016.
In ‘Open Door, Open Heart’ Penny Rimbaud and John Robb discuss the meaning of peace and love in a world which might so easily appear to practice the opposite – ‘There is love if we make it’.
Crass founding member Penny Rimbaud has been writing poetry, song lyrics, philosophy and memoirs for over 50 years. A drummer, performance artist, environmental activist and philosopher, he claims “breadmaker” as his most prevailing occupation. Rimbaud and Crass’s lasting influence on youth culture are a testament to the original importance of their words and deeds. Having formed a collective in 1967 to live outside of the status quo, Penny Rimbaud continues to inspire new generations of artistic rebels.
Highly regarded as one of England’s great rebel poets, Penny Rimbaud is a prolific author and fearless explorer of possibilities in life and art. Over the three decades since Crass disbanded he has been involved in a myriad of arts projects, published over 14 books, and released vast ranging music including free form jazz, spoken word and symphonic punk.
An undoubted festival highlight, join us for this very special event!
Steve Ignorant is also appearing at the 2016 Louder Than Words event on the same day.
Penny Rimbaud and Hugh Metcalfe
Penny Rimbaud and Hugh Metcalfe
Tuesday 15 November 2016, 20.00
The Klinker
Apiary Studios, 460 Hackney Road, London E2 9EG
Dada poet Hugh Metcalfe is joined by Penny Rimbaud on percussion to excrete tales of shite, crap and general unwholesomeness.
Like this:
Like Loading...
Read Full Post »
