Dear worldthreaders,
I hope this post finds you enjoying the sun, a refreshing something and ideally, with a poem at near distance in case of need or want.
This July saw the return of Tranås At the Fringe, a wonderful poetry / film / performance festival created in, well, Tranås, Sweden, by collaborators and let’s say co-conspirators whom you’ve heard of before, since Tranås is also the place where Red Door is printed and so lovingly distributed, exhibited, promoted and supported. The base of operations is Kultivera / Litteraturcentrum KVU, who are also home of the Poetic Phonotheque, and of course, hosts of Tremella Radio. So you can imagine how happy I was to be back, now that restrictions are gone, since this year’s festival was hosted on-site and counted with over 100 acts. SO. MUCH. FUN!
Also, very exciting, apart from connecting with so many poets and performers from everywhere, was to travel along with poet Pablo Saborio, now Red Door’s poetry editor, who had his debut as a festival-performer and gave a wonderful workshop on multimedia poetry.
This year, I joined forces with my colleague Daniel Malpica, and we created a multimedia performance called X SPECIES. It was (is) a multimedia performance that involved a soundscape, mapping of visuals and live multilingual poetry in two voices, to create an entrancing space where the audience could relax and be immersed in a conversation on our role in the preservation of the planet, and the species in it including our own.
Daniel worked on the visuals creating hundreds of moving images which he intertwined to the sounds I created with vocal loops on my #somacosmos , dronning noise through my #lyra8 and a tape recorder, and all of this was threaded together with interventions of poetry by either or both of us.
I truly enjoyed watching people let go and allowing themselves to be moved by the experience, some laying down with eyes closed, some sitting down and observing, or walking around us to see the live show, or capturing moments in the room with their phones. The response afterwards was very positive and I am grateful to all of you who approached us afterwards to share what you experienced.
Performing arts are a wonderful way to express ourselves and deliver important messages. Thank you, Daniel, for this collaboration, and to Tranås at the Fringe team for creating a space where this is possible to engage with.
… but that’s not all!
Additionally, I had the opportunity of giving a workshop on one of my favorite subjects. Podcasting!
… more specifically, podcasting as a form of documentation for artists, activists and creators, to share their work and document the stories and relevant conversations of their communities.
We covered basic theory, purposes and practices, techniques and do’s and don’ts, as well as conversations on boundaries, something which is often forgotten due to social media’s need to shock and entertain. Afterwards we jumped straight into concept, and then on to recording the production base of each podcast.
It took place at the beautiful house of Piraten, Tranås’ poet and legend, which gave it all an even more wonderful environment where we could openly and safely discuss why we were all interested in the practice.
Thanks so much to Kultivera for the invitation and to Milica Denkovic for documenting these moments.
I have sooo many wonderful projects cooking, dreams coming true and exciting collaborations, but I wanted to take this moment to thank you, for your constant support and for your encouragement, which serves as inspiration, to keep going and going and going.
Love and poetry always,
Madam Neverstop.
Elizabeth Torres 