1215.today Poet-in-Residence Remi Graves: Residency Round-Up. Week One

Our new Poetry School 1215.today digital poet-in-residence Remi Graves has had an amazingly productive first week, posting six (!) articles, including playlists and poems.  Here’s a taster of what she’s been up to:

14/05: Asking Our New Poet-in-Residence the Questions That Really Matter:

“What was the first poem you had a real connection with?

“Elizabeth Bishop’s ‘To A Tree’ struck a chord with me when I first read it at 17 – no wonder I connected with it then, she wrote it at 16! It is a simple plea for transcendence and community expressed through the speaker’s wish to connect to the peaceful tree outside her window. Only now in answering this question have I realised that her poem influenced the first poem I wrote, which uses snowfall as a metaphor for life and death….”

15/05: Music & Protest: A Playlist of Songs About Self-Determination & Freedom:

“‘Hold Up Magna Carta’ is a collation of 15 songs that made me stop and think about constructs of power and the struggle for self determination and freedom at a time where governments are trying to strip us of so many essential freedoms…”

16/05: The Witching Hour: On Radiohead’s Powerful Lyrics:

“Radiohead. Where to start? I have been listening to this band since early teenage-hood and have yet to tire of their magic. Beyond their musical prowess and ability to craft complicated yet catchy riffs and choruses – it is their lyricism that keeps me hooked. Thom Yorke’s lyrics are like weird fishes, slipping in and out of meaning, changing hue depending on the light you shine on them…”

17/05: Hallelujah Money; A Psychedelic Journey Through Our Obsession with Money: 

“Virtual superband Gorillaz have released a new album, Humanz. The first track off the album is ‘Hallelujah Money’ featuring Benjamin Clementine, it is an eery parody of our materialistic society…”

18/05: Reading as Resistance, Dancing As Therapeutic Rebellion:

“Last week, I had the privilege of attending a reading by Ocean Vuong and Kayo Chingonyi – two beautifully tender and adept poets. Before reading from his debut collection Night Sky With Exit Wounds, Ocean spoke a little about reading poetry as an act of resistance, particularly in today’s social and political climate….”

19/05: ‘We float through the smog’; new poetry from our Poet-in-Residence:

“Each week I’ll share writings that have come out of reading and thinking about my chosen topics. See three snippets this week’s of writing below…”