Brave New Words Celebrates with a Blueprint Takeover, Millions Dead by Chauncey Milquetoast
The night of the 27th was one of debauchery, excess and – at the hands of the host – violence. There was also some rather lovely poetry and music and…misc. The night marked a change from what was usually expected, thanks to a bunch of youths running the show this time instead of that guy what usually does it.
Hosted by the absurdly abrasive Brandan Braslin and his Phantom House Band (one dude), the night began innocuously enough before descending into surreal, Lynchian chaos.There was more variety than ever with acts performing a cacophony of poetry, prose, musical numbers and stand up comedy. It’s impossible to pick a highlight, as each act was as wonderful as the one that preceded it, except for one profoundly unpleasant man in a hideous floral shirt.
The only downside was that, for the fourth time, my request for Dead Kennedys fell on deaf ears. Perhaps I should ask a musical act next time instead of literally every poet. Live and learn.This was also a particularly inclusive night where everyone was made to feel welcome – with only one heckler this time, which I believe is a new record, plus it was a member of staff so it doesn’t even really count.
The finale consisted of our host providing a final monologue before disassembling himself into minute, complex geometrical shapes and dissolving into the ether, while the house band grew to a gargantuan size before rampaging through the town centre.Overall it was a good night. I’d say…twelve out of a possible thirteen stars.
From Dr Gerard Lee McKeever I was delighted to have the opportunity to run an event at The Stove in Dumfries in February. They are a really exciting arts network who have been a driving force in revitalising Dumfries town centre in recent years, part of a much broader flowering of cultural activity in the region.
Gerry McKeever introducing ‘Beyond Burns’ at The Stove
Beyond Burns was an evening of poetry and talks about literary Dumfriesshire & Galloway, past and present – the first event funded by my British Academy Postdoctoral Fellowship. It was an opportunity to engage with the local public, aiming to inspire thinking about other literature connected to the region around the time of Robert Burns, as well as more contemporary writing.
After an opening talk in which I surveyed some of the early fruits of my research, I was delighted to give the stage over to three local poets: Hugh McMillan, author of many books and pamphlets including Not Actually Being in Dumfries (2015) and McMillan’s Galloway (2016); Liz Niven, widely published in Scots and English and recently the editor of I’m Coming With You (2017); and Stuart A. Paterson, the latest BBC Scotland Poet in Residence, who has a new collection titled Looking South (2017). All three poets gave performances featuring a mix of their own work, other local poetry and reflections on the literary history of the region, with particular stress on issues including place, gender and language.
‘Knowledge Exchange’ and ‘Impact’ in academia have acquired the off-putting quality of all buzzwords. But literary scholars are among those best placed to engage with wider audiences. I’ve been really heartened at the response my project has had from the local community over the past six months. It’s clear that there is a significant wellspring of local knowledge and enthusiasm for eighteenth and nineteenth-century subjects. Through my involvement with the Oxford University Press edition of Burns at Glasgow, I was introduced to some creative ways of tapping into the massive public interest in Burns. Certainly no other D&G writer has his profile, but there is a real appetite for the wider literary-historical landscape here.
Stuart A Paterson
Liz Niven
Hugh McMillan
Engaging with three contemporary writers has also been a refreshing way of developing my thinking. Liz, Stuart and Hugh are all poets with a keen interest in the historical, geographical and political issues around living and working in this part of Scotland, with its unique perspective on local, national and global contexts. Further collaborations have already been mentioned – it’s great to reach beyond the traditional confines of scholarly research and participate in what is an optimistic moment in the region’s arts scene.
Beyond Burns was well-attended and closed with a Q&A session, before an after-hours writing workshop for keen attendees. The response to the event has been brilliant – I hope that it has helped to stimulate some new conversations about this rich literary history – including but also beyond the legacy of Burns.
Credit to Galina Walls for the photos from the evening.
Blog post written by (and with thanks to) Jimmy Russell
Nithraid 2017’s Viking theme continues The Stove Network’s broader exploration of historic and current Nordic cultural influence in Dumfries & Galloway. In support of this Moovement Coollective (MooCoo) will be leading a procession of community groups with the Salty Coo through the town to meet the boat race and a Viking encampment at Mill Green. MooCoo is a newly formed performance trio comprised of Agnė Zdanavičiūtė, Jimmy Russell and Leo Marsh, three young artists living and working in Dumfries. The three members of MooCoo each bring something unique to the group.
Inspiration for the MooCoo team comes in the form of CIRCA, the Clandestine Rebel Clown Army
Leo is a costume maker and performer who has worked with Oceanallover and often contributes to Brave New Words. Their work is rooted in vulnerability and connection, exploring topics such as sense of self and belonging through the lenses of gender and sexuality.
Jimmy is a researcher, writer and performer who has worked on the Our Norwegian Story and Lost Chronicles of Gallovidia projects, while regularly reading at Brave New Words. His interests lie in history, community empowerment and costume design, all of which find some outlet with Nithraid.
Agnė is a recent graduate in environmental science at the Crichton who is fascinated by public art interventions and wants to learn how to organise and deliver a performance. She also wants to challenge peoples’ ways of thinking and give something to Dumfries.
For the procession MooCoo are fusing Viking lore with clowning sensibilities to create a spectacle at the river festival that combines heritage with silliness. In preparation we are coordinating different community groups that will process with us, including the Sandside Garden Apaches and Galloway Longfhada Vikings, as well as musicians and our fellow clowns. Our troupe of MooCoo clowns are benefiting from training by experienced rebel clown Lance Goodey from Glasgow who is delivering sessions at The Stove and Sandside Community Garden over two weekends.
During Nithraid 2017 we want to challenge the popular imagery of Vikings as bloodthirsty marauders with the reality that their presence in Galloway represented a surprisingly peaceful coexistence between different peoples. Rather than perpetuate the narrative that overseas invaders threaten our way of life, we wish to highlight the cultural exchange that did and still can exist in our homeland, not least with Norse folk. That is why our slogan for Nithraid 2017 is ‘We Come In Peace’.
Auõumbla: the primeval cow of Norse mythology who nourished herself by licking a salty glacier!
In a predictably ridiculous fashion we’ll invoke the Nordic creation myth of Auðumbla: a primeval cow who nourished herself by licking salty glacier, which slowly released Búri, the first Norse god and grandfather of Odin. In turn Auðumbla’s milk nourished Ytar, a being whose body was used by Odin and the other gods to fashion Midgard, the realm of men. This story depicts creation as an ongoing and participatory process, a fitting message for Nithraid, which highlights the centuries old relationship between the river and Dumfries.
Clowning is something that has interested all three of us for some time. It seemed an interesting method of animating this myth and challenging typical tales of Vikingly violence. By adopting the dynamics of clowning – curiosity, engagement, presence, wonder – we want to inject a sense of fun and friendliness into local Viking lore, and invite people to question what they think they know about Norse-Gallovidian relations. The Nithraid procession will harness vulnerability to create a performance which is responsive to interactions and which blossoms in joyful, surprising directions.
In an effort to provide young musicians the opportunity to write, record, and release their own tracks; Blueprint100, in association with D&G Council and DGU, created the Song Factory. Running over the course of two months, participants were taken through various aspects of the music industry from songwriting to graphic advertising. Workshops ran every Wednesday from the 14th of a June to the 5th of July, with time to record until the 2nd of August when the final workshop was held.
During these workshops those involved were able to work with poet Hugh McMillan; singer-songwriter Jamie McClennan; graphic designer Sam Sparrow; and producer and owner of Lovers Lane Studios Grant Christian Henderson. They worked in groups to create 3 songs overall, paying ample attention to both music and lyrics, and then – after a tour of the studios – were funded to record these songs.
The final workshop focused on publicising your music, so as well as being taken through some basic graphic design participants were talked through an interview in preparation for a slot on the Thursday Night Showcase on Alive radio the following night. Here they talked about how they found the course and either played their track or performed their song live. All recorded tracks will be regularly featured on the show from this point onward.
The response to Song Factory has been truly touching, with the involved Blueprint members receiving messages of thanks from many of those involved, and the songs created will be worthy additions to Dumfries and Galloway’s ever-growing music scene.
All photographs credited to Kirstin McEwan Photography.
Jimmy Russell has been working as part of the Our Norwegian Story (ONS) project since the beginning of this year, researching and compiling stories and histories of Dumfries’ Norwegian Connection. Following a recent call out, Jimmy is also closing the ONS Trail Launch this weekend, with his performance, My Dumfries Story at 6pm this Saturday, 15th April.
‘The research I have been doing for Our Norwegian Story has been surprisingly broad, bringing together stories of Norwegian soldiers’ military, sporting or romantic exploits and the legacy of each. Between scanning photographs from Dumfries Museum’s collection and scouring the Ewart Library archives, I have interviewed Doonhamers with memories or memorabilia from the 1940s. These folk have lent some personality to what could otherwise have been an interesting yet passionless exercise.
King Haakon reviews forces, troqueer Holm Field march past 1940
One of my favourite discoveries was tracing, through use of old photos and digital maps, the route that Norwegian arm recruits marched from their training ground at Troqueer Holm field to their base at the old mills in 1940 during King Haakon’s visit. At the intersection of Rosefield Road and Pleasance Avenue the king was photographed standing by a tree as his troops went by, and that spot hasn’t changed much in the past 77 years! Another special moment for me was finding images of a football match between Norwegian and Polish soldiers, probably during 1941-42 Inter-Allied tournament, which took place on the playing field of St Joseph’s College – my old secondary school!
While writing the website content for ONS I have been inspired by personal stories I have heard as much as learning about the broader situation of Norwegians fleeing to Britain. With My Dumfries Story I want to create an accessible and emotive link between those fading individual memories and the official history. By sharing the journal entries of an imaginary Norwegian living in wartime Dumfries I want to draw a composite sketch of the exile experience. Part of this process has been retracing the steps of Norwegians between various points on the trail and wider map, trying to walk in the boots of those welcome foreigners and capture what might have been felt in writing and drawing.
My background includes a degree in Scottish history and philosophy, museum and art gallery work, as well as creative writing and performance. I am also well travelled and interested in issues of migration. Hence the experience of working on Our Norwegian Story and My Dumfries Story in parallel has been both professionally and personally rewarding. I hope the results generate a greater interest in the rich, surprising history of Dumfries, but also in oor toon’s place within international contexts.’
As a young musician playing in a “neo-folk” duo, I was under the impression that it was vital that you had to play an instrument to be able to work within the industry. I have never be more disillusioned! Last weekend my band member and I attended Off The Record at The Stove in Dumfries, an event where anyone from 14 to 25 interested in working within the music industry could learn about all it’s key factors and how important they are.
The event was a series of seminars and talks from lots of different speakers who came from lots of different parts of the music industry. These talks ranged from learning about organising and getting gigs, producing and releasing music, working within the music industry, promoting your or your band’s music and getting the best images to promote your music and style.
There were many elements of the day that I found very informative including a presentation on realising music by Toni Malyn who works with EmuBands. He gave a step by step talk on how to get your music heard through companies such as Spotify, he also gave us useful information on how to release covers of other artists’ songs – this was something that we as a band duo found especially helpful. We learnt what the term “derivative work” meant from Toni, a phrase that has definitely stuck with me.
We also got the opportunity to listen to Nick Roberts, who is part of the team who run the very successful festival Electric Fields each year. He gave us a good insight of what his job was and how important it is to be a band or musician who is “good to work with”. He explained that you could be a rock star on stage but it is vital that you can work well with the organisers as it makes their jobs easier and everything runs smoothly. I thought that this piece of information was something that was very rudimentary but the most important.
He also gave some communication tips and how using emails effectively is also important. I was completely amazed as to how many bands copied and pasted emails to companies and promoters – I discovered that a “personal touch” can really go a long way within the industry.
We also got the chance listen to Jannica Honey, a well experienced photographer who has taken photos of bands such as The Killers. She gave us a presentation on the do’s and dont’s of music photography and provided helpful and nifty tips on creating the best photography so you or your band could get the best image for your sound and your style. She gave you simple questions to ask yourself like “who are you as a band or musician?” And “what and where does your music represent?” These simple questions made me really analyse our own band and where and what we symbolise.
Off The Record also highlighted a really fundamental part of the music industry – promoting your music. Derick Mackinnon of New Found Sound spoke about press packs and how using social media a lot can be a really great way to promote your music. This last talk was a really excellent way to wrap up the rest of day.
Attending Off The Record has really opened my eyes about the music industry and the amazing and unexpected destinations it can take you to, it isn’t just about playing music on a stage – there are numerous other jobs within the music business from sound engineering to promoting and even taking photos. It was less daunting to know how many career paths within music there really are. It was also really nice to hear humble advice such as “Be supportive to other bands” and “Flattery will get you everywhere” – modest guidance like that definitely reminded me of the excitement and enjoyment within the industry, and why I would really love to have a career in music whether it is playing in bands, promoting or even writing about it.
As a young musician, I would highly recommend going to Off The Record if you have the opportunity to. If you are a musician or interested in following a career within music then Off The Record is a phenomenal event where you can get a taste for it. It will open your eyes and fill your soul with first-hand knowledge from the best kind of people who have been there and done that.
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