Readings
Highlights
Dickens 2012
Various venues, Northern Ireland Until Dec dickens2012ni.com
It’s appropriate that this festival celebrating the great man’s bicentary all over Northern Ireland should be partnered with the charity Barnardo’s, given both Charles Dickens (photographed in 1860) and Dr Thomas Barnardo were 19th-century philantropists dedicated to exposing and fighting the poverty and exploitation of children.
Dickens also had a special relationship with Belfast and Northern Ireland, visiting often and reading from the stage in the Ulster Hall, one of the venues which will be hosting events during the festival. It will continue through the year and will draw on established local talent as well as entertainers and performers from Ireland, the UK and beyond.
The organisers say they plan to emphasise the “spirit of fun that was uniquely dear to Dickens’s heart”. It should get the punters. Dickens is still hugely popular: the books are still read and the screen adaptations are as frequent as ever.
More than 70 events, 35 venues and upwards of 20,000 people are involved, and the fun includes a David Copperfield read-a-thon, a library reading tour across the North, three exhibitions on Dickens and Ireland, five touring theatre productions, musical evenings, films, education workshops and much more.
- Cork
Ó Bhéal
This week's guest is Cork poet James Cummins. Plus Poetry Challenge and open mic session. Hayloft, upstairs at The Long Valley, Winthrop St Mon 9pm Adm free obheal.ie/ blog 085-7126299 - Cork Spring Poetry Festival
Renamed this year to reflect its focus on poetry (it used to be called the Cork Spring Literary Festival), this event, organised by the Munster Literature Centre, features an international line-up, with poets from the US Gregory Orr, Nathalie Handal and (via Cork) Greg Delanty; from the UK Fiona Sampson and Neil Astley (with a presentation from his latest Being Human anthology); as well as from Ireland (Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, among others), Canada, Croatia, Italy, New Zealand and Slovenia. There are workshops, including one given by Delanty. And the awarding of the Gregory O'Donoghue prize for a single poem. Metropole Hotel, Muster Literature Centre, Cork Feb15-18 corkpoetryfest.net
- Dublin
Paul Murray
The author of Skippy Dies is the first reader in a new lunchtime series that will alternate between poetry and prose. Irish Writers' Centre, 19 Parnell Sq W Fri 1pm Adm free 01-8721302 writerscentre.ie - Evening of Estonian and Irish Contemporary Music and Poetry
Poetry by Nuala Ní Dhomhnaill, Doris Kareva, FS and Triin Soomets. Music by Helena Tulve, Tatjana Kozlova, Tõnu Kõrvits Andrus Kallastu and others. Ensemble Resonabilis (Estonia). Irish Writers' Centre, 19 Parnell Sq W Thurs 7pm Adm free 01-8721302 writerscentre.ie - Muse Open Mic
Poets, musicians, singers and prose writers are welcome to perform on the theme of love in fire, ember or ash (three minutes per performer). The Loft Bookshop, Twisted Pepper, 54 Mid Abbey St Tues 7-9pm Adm free find.a.muse@gmail.com - Readings from James Joyce
The folks at Sweny's (the pharmacy in Ulysses, now a literary landmark) read from Joyce's work. Audience members can participate, reading aloud, like in school (but voluntarily!). Livens up lunch. Sweny's, 1 Lincoln Pl Mon-Fri 1-2pm Adm free sweny.ie - Readings from Ulysses
John Singleton reads from Joyce's classic. Sweny's, 1 Lincoln Pl Sat 11am, Thurs 7pm Adm free sweny.ie
- Galway
2012 Over the Edge Poetry Book Showcase
Annual retrospective for poets who published collections in 2011, featuring Moya Cannon, Stephen Murray, Ndrek Gjini, Lorna Shaughnessy, Jack McCann, and more. Also short readings from the anthologies Bicycles with Umbrellas and Mosaic. The Kitchen@The Museum, Spanish Arch, Galway Fri 8pm Adm free overtheedge literaryevents.blogspot.com 087-6431748 - WORKING.DRAWING The Dock, St George's Terrace, Carrick-on-Shannon, Co Leitrim Tues-Sat 10am- 6pm until Apr 7 071-9650828
In the era of iPads, smart phones and CAD, has drawing had its day? Not a bit of it, though it may be true that many people who should use drawing as a way of thinking and working just don't bother anymore. WORKING.DRAWING at the Dock sets out not to simply showcase fine-art drawings, but to explore the many and intricate ways drawing is integral to everyday life. Tinka Bechert will make a site-specific wall drawing with a diverse range of materials; Magnhild Opdol's beautiful, exhaustively detailed drawings lower our guard against horror and the grotesque; Úna Burke draws fashion with her leather creations; Eamon O'Kane's 30m (98ft) panorama drawing nods to Joseph Beuys with its intriguing title: I like shopping centres and shopping centres like me. They and every participant, including artist-in-residence Fergus Byrne, challenge our preconceptions about drawing. [BYLINE9]AIDAN DUNNE - drawnOVERdrawn
Wandesford Quay Gallery, Cork
